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

GABRIELE BOCCACCINI 55
love for God and the neighbor. Thus, there is no more room for desire
and duplicity. “The Lord I loved with all my strength; and I love every
human being. You do these as well, my children, and every spirit of Beliar
will flee from you…so long as you have the God of Heaven with you,
and walk with all humankind in simplicity of heart” (T. Iss. 7:6–7; cf.
3:6–5:3; T. Reu. 4:1; T. Benj. 3:4). In particular, in contrast to Qumran,
the Testaments insist on the possibility of repentance and even banish any
feeling of hatred toward the sinners. The twelve patriarchs provide formidable
examples (cf. T. Reu. 1:9–10; T. Sim. 2:13; T. Jud. 15:4) and
plenty of good advice. “Love one another from the heart, and if anyone
sins against you, speak to him in peace. Expel the venom of hatred.…If
anyone confesses and repents, forgive him.…Even if he is devoid of
shame and persists in his wickedness, forgive him from the heart and
leave vengeance to God” (T. Gad 6:3–7).
David Flusser is the scholar who has emphasized most strongly the
anti-Qumranic nature of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. “These people
rebelled against the [Qumranic] doctrine of hatred, and abandoned its
sharp dualism and its characteristically strict doctrine of predestination,
and in their place developed a very humane and humanistic doctrine of
love.” 36 While remaining faithful to the same common foundations, the
Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs gave to the Enochic-Essene movement a
completely different trajectory from that imparted by the community
of Qumran.
The path opened by the Epistle of Enoch and by the Testaments of the
Twelve Patriarchs was followed by another first-century-B.C.E. Enochic
document, the Similitudes of Enoch (1 Enoch 37–71). The mystery of its
absence from the Qumran library now has a perfectly reasonable explanation:
the document was written after the parting of the ways between
Qumran and Enochic Judaism.
Central to the Similitudes is what James C. VanderKam calls the
“notion of reversal.” 37 While this world is under the dominion of rebellious
angels, in the world to come “the Elect One…would sit in the throne
of Glory and judge (Azaz)el and all his company, and his army, in the
name of the Lord of the Spirits” (1 En. 55:4). While in this world the wellto-do
rule over and oppress the poor, “in those days, the kings of the
earth and the mighty landowners shall be humiliated of account on the
deeds of their hands” (48:8; cf. 46:4, 6). While light and darkness coexist
in this world, in the world to come “there shall be light that has no
end…for already darkness has been destroyed” (58:6).
36. David Flusser, The Spiritual History of the Dead Sea Sect (Tel-Aviv: MOD, 1989), 79.
37. James C. VanderKam, Enoch: A Man for All Generations, 134.