The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls: The ... - josephprestonkirk

CHARLESWORTH AND MCSPADDEN 327
However, when we read the sobriquets in context, the figures behind
the titles gain resolution. This sharpening is evident in the several references
to the Righteous Teacher (qdch hrwm). 34 Elsewhere in the
Qumran library we find the Righteous Teacher characterized as the guide
of the way of Truth (1QS 1.11), and—most importantly—the person to
whom God finally elected to reveal “all the mysteries of the words of his
servants the prophets” (1QpHab 7.4–5).
In Psalm Pesher 1, three different references help fill out the identity of
the Righteous Teacher. (1) He is described as “the Priest” (Nhwkh) and the
one whom God established “to build for him a congregation (td()”
(frags. 1–10, 3.15–16). This reference suggests that the Righteous Teacher
played a seminal role in the organization and structuring of the community,
a man of priestly lineage, presumably from the line of Zadok. 35 (2)
The Righteous Teacher, as almost always elsewhere, is presented in dualistic
opposition to the Wicked Priest ((#rh Nh[wkh] frags. 1–10, 4.8). (3)
The Righteous Teacher is the consummate mediator, since he (“the skilled
scribe” [ryhm rpws]) approaches God “with purposeful speech” (frags.
1–10, 4.27). Combined, these references fill in some of the ambiguity
behind the figure of the Righteous Teacher. Thus, fact (priest and leader)
mixes with interpretation (interlocutor with God and warrior against the
Wicked Priest) to create a unique profile and, ultimately, to reveal the
function and purpose, if not the identity of the Righteous Teacher. As
Frederick Schweitzer noted, the Righteous Teacher is “the indispensable
main spring, the great initiator and driving force, everything stemming
from him, everyone acting or reacting in response to him.” 36 From the
Hodayot we also learn that the Righteous Teacher is the “Irrigator of the
Garden” that God has planted; the One who waters “the Trees of Life,”
the Qumranites, who “shall become the Eternal Fountain,” which is also
“the Planting of Truth.” 37 Psalm Pesher 1 preserves the legacy of the
34. The sobriquet is only partly visible in 4QPsa frags. 1–10, col. 3, lines 15 and 19;
col. 4 line 8.
35. The first wave of Zadokite priests, which may not have included the Righteous
Teacher, most likely separated themselves from the Temple in the second century
B.C.E. When this separation occurred is not clear; it certainly was demanded when
the Hasmoneans, against tradition and linage, became high priests forever until a trustworthy
prophet would arise (cf. 1 Maccabees 14). For more on the priestly character
of the Righteous Teacher see Charlesworth, The Pesharim and Qumran History, 30–36.
36. Frederick W. Schweitzer, “The Teacher of Righteousness,” in Mogilany 1989:
Papers on the Dead Sea Scrolls Offered in Memory of Jean Carmignac. Part II: The Teacher of
Righteousness. Literary Studies (ed. Z. J. Kapera; Proceedings of the Second International
Colloquium on the Dead Sea Scrolls [Mogilany, Poland, 1989]; Qumranica
Mogilanensia 3; Kraków: Enigma, 1991), 84.
37. See James H. Charlesworth, “An Allegorical and Autobiographical Poem by the
Moreh has-Sedeq (1QH 8:4–11),” in “Sha(arei Talmon”: Studies in the Bible, Qumran, and the