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

408 THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS AND THE MEAL FORMULA
references in the work does not correspond to the calendar attested at
Qumran but only to a conjectural “adapted Essene calendar.” Beckwith’s
proposed link between the meal language in Joseph and Aseneth and the
Essene firstfruits festivals is also problematic. Even if one assumes the
highly conjectural calendrical scheme upon which this proposed connection
rests, only the marriage festivities in Joseph and Aseneth 21 are thereby
associated with the festival of the Firstfruits of Wine; nothing suggests that
the bread-cup-ointment formula should be related to the firstfruits festivals.
Many of our conclusions with regard to the alleged Essene character
of Joseph and Aseneth also apply, mutatis mutandis, to the supposed
Therapeutic affinities. Thus the conclusion that the meal formula and
Aseneth’s white garment fail to establish a link with the Essenes holds
good also for the Therapeutae. Joseph and Aseneth’s concern to place the
new convert on a par with the established members of the community of
Israel stands in contrast to the ranking of members among both Essenes
and Therapeutae (Philo Contempl. 3.30; 8.67). The absence of reference in
Joseph and Aseneth to any private communal existence and ordered life of
piety contrasts with the Therapeutae as well as with the Essenes.
Those points at which Delcor finds a Therapeutic connection to have
some advantage over the Essene hypothesis are likewise tenuous. While
it is true that the ritual washings regularly practiced at Qumran are lacking
in both Joseph and Aseneth and Philo’s description of the Therapeutae,
this fact hardly provides any positive reason to link the latter two. Neither
does the role of women among the Therapeutae parallel Aseneth’s experiences.
Therapeutic men and women worshiped in separate enclosures,
ate separately, and remained celibate (Contempl. 3.32–33; 9.68–69). Most
of the Therapeutrides, according to Philo, were “aged virgins, who have
kept their chastity…of their own free will in their yearning for wisdom”
(Contempl. 9.68). 43 In Joseph and Aseneth, on the other hand, marriage is
considered normal (4:11; 8:5–7). The couple marries and has children
(21:1–9). Their virginity prior to their marriage (1:4–6; 2:1; 4:7; 7:4–8;
8:1) is clearly not a lifelong disposition, but serves, in Joseph’s case, to
emphasize an ethic of abstinence before marriage and refusal of intimacy
with non-Jews, and in Aseneth’s case, as another of the many parallels
with Joseph that demonstrate her suitability to marry him and to be
received fully into the community of Israel. The Therapeutic premium
placed on virginity is quite different.
The Therapeutic ideal of poverty is also quite foreign to Joseph and
Aseneth. Philo reports that the Therapeutae relinquished all their worldly
43. Quotations of Philo are from LCL.