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

JOSEPH L. TRAFTON 441
not “rely on” horse and rider and bow, “collect” gold and silver for war,
or “build up hope” in a multitude for a day of war; rather, he hopes in
God (17:33–34, 38–39). 29
While this is not the place for a thorough analysis of Pss. Sol. 17, it is
worth noting that the most “violent” section of the psalm is 17:23b–24,
which is simply a rehashing of Isa 11:4cd, together with Isa 49:2a. Once
it is recognized that the “violent” section derives from these OT texts,
two possibilities arise. One, of course, is that the writer selected these
texts precisely because he was hoping for a “violent” Messiah, who
would literally drive out and destroy the Jews’ enemies (i.e., the
Romans). But it is also possible that the writer selected these texts simply
because they had become “traditional” messianic texts. Could not writer
of Pss. Sol. 17 have reinterpreted them in a more “spiritual” sense, as
17:33–34 might indicate? Certainly a “spiritual” reinterpretation seems to
be taking place in Rev 19 and in 4 Ezra 13, where the language of Isa
11:4cd is now being understood in terms of final judgment. 30 These two
writings come, of course, a century later than the Pss. Sol. But even
though the Scrolls, which are more contemporary with the Pss. Sol.,
claim: “This concept of the Davidic messiah as the warrior king who would destroy
the enemies of Israel and institute an era of unending peace constitutes the common
core of Jewish messianism around the turn of the era” (Scepter and the Star, 68).
29. See, e.g., James H. Charlesworth, “The Concept of the Messiah in the Pseudepigrapha,”
ANRW 19.1: 188–218, and “From Jewish Messianology to Christian
Christology: Some Caveats and Perspectives” in Judaisms and Their Messiahs at the Turn
of the Christian Era (ed. J. Neusner, W. S. Green, and E. S. Frerichs; Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1987), 225–64.
30. Note how the rider on the white horse is introduced in Rev 19:11 as one who
“judges and makes war” (my emphasis). See further my Reading Revelation: A Literary
and Theological Commentary (Reading the New Testament Commentary Series; Macon,
GA: Smyth & Helwys, 2005), 177–85. 4 Ezra contains an allusion to Isa 11:4cd in its
presentation of the Messiah in 13:9–11 9: “And behold, when he saw the onrush of the
approaching multitude, he neither lifted his hand nor held a spear or any weapon of
war 10 ; but I saw only how he sent forth from his mouth as it were a stream of fire,
and from his lips a flaming breath, and from his tongue he shot forth a storm of
sparks 11 . All these were mingled together, the stream of fire and the flaming breath
and the great storm, and fell on the onrushing multitude which was prepared to fight,
and burned them all up, so that suddenly nothing was seen of the innumerable multitude
but only the dust of ashes and the smell of smoke”(NRSV). This “violent”
action on the part of the Messiah is then reinterpreted in terms of final judgment in
vv. 37–38 37 : “And he, my Son, will reprove the assembled nations for their ungodliness
(this was symbolized by the storm) 38 , and will reproach them to their face with
their evil thoughts and the torments with which they are to be tortured (which were
symbolized by the flames), and will destroy them without effort by the law (which
was symbolized by the fire)”(NRSV). On this forensic understanding of the
Messiah’s role in 4 Ezra, see further Michael E. Stone, Fourth Ezra (Hermeneia;
Minneapolis: Fortress, 1990), 209–12, 386–87, 403–4.