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

GABRIELE BOCCACCINI 49
stirred up a dangerous mixture of pride and expectation that could easily
turn into frustration and hatred, with the negative reaction of those
they wished to convert. The history of the Qumran community would
be the history of a lost illusion.
THE PARTING OF THE WAYS BETWEEN
QUMRAN AND ENOCHIC JUDAISM
In the turmoil of those years, a group of Essenes led by a charismatic figure,
the Righteous Teacher, preached that the Essenes had to separate
from the entire Jewish society in even more radical terms. 27 The
Damascus Document claims that Israel at large is living in sin and error and
is caught in the “three nets of Belial:…fornication…wealth…defilement
of the Temple” (CD 4.15–17). Now, “the wall is built” (4.11–12) and the
members of the group have “to separate themselves from the sons of the
pit… to separate unclean from clean and differentiate between the holy
and the common; to keep the Sabbath day according to the exact interpretation,
and the festivals and the day of fasting, according to what they
had discovered, those who entered the new covenant in the land of
Damascus” (6.15–19).
To a large extent the theology and sociological background of the
Damascus Document are still presectarian. 28 The theology of the document
lacks the deterministic language of the sectarian scrolls and gives a certain
role to human free will (2.14–16). Dualism is not yet preeminent.
Belial is God’s opponent, and CD 5.18 already pairs him with an angelic
counterpart, the “Prince of lights.” Yet, Belial was not created evil. In line
with the previous Enochic-Essene tradition, which describes a conscious
plot of rebellious angels, the Damascus Document believes in the angels’
freedom of will. “For having walked in the stubbornness of their hearts
the Watchers of the heavens fell; on account of it they were caught, for
they did not follow the precepts of God” (2.17–18). The reference to the
Enochic myth of the fallen angels is particularly significant because it is
conspicuously absent in the major sectarian texts that explicitly deny the
angels’ freedom of will. 29
From a sociological perspective, the Damascus Document reflects the existence
of people having a different way of life from the rest of the Jewish
27. Philip R. Davies, Behind the Essenes, 30.
28. Idem, The Damascus Covenant (JSOTSup 25; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1983).
29. John J. Collins, Apocalypticism in the DSS, 48–50.