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

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
THE MOSES AT QUMRAN:
THE qdch hrwm AS THE NURSING-FATHER OF THE dxy
Jacob Cherian
1. INTRODUCTION
This note will focus on a revealing and parallel use of parental imagery
in the Hodayot a and in the book of Numbers, thus providing another reason
for seeing the Righteous Teacher (qdch hrwm) 1 as “the Moses at
Qumran.” 2 The Qumran hymns are full of colorful metaphors and
imagery, where the hymnist pictures himself in relation to God, self, his
enemies, and his community (dxy). The parental imagery employed by
the Righteous Teacher in 1QH 15.19–22a 3 is very pertinent and personal,
especially in the context of the close-knit, yet hierarchical, Qumran
community. This imagery of the “nursing-father” 4 captures the Teacher’s
authoritative role in the community. It holds heuristic potential for
insight into the nature of the Teacher’s leadership and the ethos of the
community. Along with an examination of the parental imagery invoked
1. For a succinct introduction, see Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, “Teacher of
Righteousness,” ABD 6:340–41. I use the terminus technicus “Righteous Teacher” to
highlight the fact that, from the standpoint of the Community, this personage was the
“Right” and “Righteous” Teacher and Priest, the one who rightly interpreted the mysteries
of God, as opposed to other teachers and priests (esp. “the Wicked Priest”;
1QpHab 1.13; 9.9–10; 11.4–17).
2. For one such argument, where the Righteous Teacher is seen as a “typological” or
“new” Moses, see Michael O. Wise, “The Temple Scroll and 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), 121–47.
3. Column 7, according to Sukenik numbers.
4. I was introduced to this term through Aaron Wildavsky’s book, The Nursing
Father: Moses as a Political Leader (Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 1984).
The term excellently expresses the reality of the paternal as well as maternal characteristics
that are depicted in the texts studied here.
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