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

PAOLO SACCHI 391
when the Qumranites accentuated their predeterminism. The later stratum
of the Epistle of Enoch, in fact, insists on the freedom of choice and the
full responsibility of the humans for sin (1 En. 98:4). From this point on,
far from being a similar movement the Enochians became a markedly different
and opposing movement with regard to the Qumranic one. The
clearly deterministic passages from the Community Rule, in fact, belong
to its latest stratum. 45
Another motive explaining the rift between Enochism and Qumran
Essenism can be added. While the Enochians found a reason for distancing
themselves from the Qumranites in following their own tradition,
which had never denied human freedom of choice, the Qumranites too
had a reason for distinguishing themselves from the Enochians, because
the latter were losing the concept of impurity, and especially the concept
of the impurity of sin. It is not a random event that after the Book of
Watchers, impurity lost more and more of its importance in the Enochic
movement. Impurity is a fundamental concept in the Book of Watchers, the
oldest known Enochic work, and it is always linked to sin—in some way
it is the root of sin. The impure is not equal to sin, but, inasmuch as it
weakens the humans, in accordance with an archaic conception of impurity,
it opens them up to sin.
In the Enochic Book of Dream Visions (of sure date, around 160 B.C.E.)
the only mention made of impurity refers to its negative influence on the
humans, in the sense that it keeps them from receiving great revelations.
At the beginning of the book (1 En. 83:2 and 85:3) the author emphasizes
that Enoch had his visions before marrying. In this case impurity would
45. See, for example, the so-called doctrine of the Two Spirits as it is exposed in the
Rule of the Community 3.15 and the following verses: “From the God of knowledge comes
all that is occurring and shall occur. Before men come into being, He has established
all their designs; when they come into existence in their fixed times they carry through
their task according to His glorious design. Nothing can be changed. In His hand is
the rule of all things. And He is one who sustains them in all their affairs. He created
the humans for the dominion of the world, and designed for them two spirits in which
to walk until the appointed time for His visitation, namely the spirits of truth and
deceit (i.e., of good and evil). In a spring of light emanates the nature of truth and from
a well of darkness emerges the nature of deceit. In the hands of the Prince of Light is
the dominion of all the sons of Righteousness; in the ways of Light they walk; but in
the hands of the angel of Darkness is the dominion of the sons of deceit; and in the
ways of Darkness they walk.…He created the spirits of Light and Darkness, and He
founded every work upon them.” Regarding the stratification of the Rule of the
Community, see Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, “La genèse littéraire de la Règle de la
Communauté,” RB 76 (1969): 528–49; Jean Pouilly, La Règle de la Communauté de
Qumrân; Son évolution littéraire (Paris: Gabalda, 1976); Piera Arata Mantovani, “La stratificazione
letteraria della Regola della Comunità di Qumran: a proposito di uno studio
recente,” Henoch 5 (1983): 69–91.