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

34 JOHN THE BAPTIZER AND THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS
“for purity’s sake.” Perhaps these descriptions suggest that Bannus also
had taken vows at Qumran.
The noun “Bannus” is not a name; 100 it is a description. It signifies
that this man, like the Baptizer, was defined by his preoccupation.
Bannus, which probably derives from bnn)h (h)nb), “bather,” 101 means
that this desert ascetic was defined by cleansing. In fact, “Bannus” may
mean “baptizer.” 102 Bannus’s occupation and lifestyle remind us of what
was allowed to prospective members after the Qumran vows had been
uttered; they are also reminiscent of the Qumranites’ devotion to ritual
purification by immersion. If Bannus had been an Essene, then it is clear
how and in what ways Josephus knew so much about the Essenes; he
had been with Bannus, a former Essene.
CONCLUSION
The present thesis explains the striking similarities between the
Qumranites and John the Baptizer and also the paradigmatic differences
between them. Many key aspects of the Baptizer’s teaching are appreciably
different from Qumran theology. He “preached a baptism of
repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Mark 1:4; Luke 3:3; cf. Matt 3:2).
He refused to reject the vast majority of Jews; they were not “Sons of
Darkness.” They were not predestined to eternal damnation (cf. 1QS 3–4;
4Q186; 4Q534). The Baptizer did not develop or belong to a social group
with strict laws and high social boundaries. He did not espouse a rigid
determinism nor predestinarianism. All these ideas, and his less-rigid
social barriers, make him decidedly non-Qumranite. Unlike the
Qumranites, John the Baptizer was an eschatological preacher of doom
to whom large crowds flocked. Unlike the Qumranites, he was defined
by a mission to the lost of Israel. He urged them to repent and to prepare
for the final act in God’s drama of salvation (Mark 1:5; Matt 3:5, 7–10;
Luke 3:7–9).
There seems no reason to doubt that the Baptizer adopted at least
some of the teachings of the Qumranites. He probably inherited from the
100. It should not be equated with the latter rabbinic name “Bannai.” Cf. b. Ketub.
50b and b. Ber. 38b.
101. See Marcus Jastro, Dictionary of the Targumim (New York: Pardes Pub. House,
1950), 1:176; Tg. Esth. 2.6.12; also see bny in Michael Sokoloff, Dictionary of Judean
Aramaic (Ramat-Gan: Bar Ilan University Press, 2003), 105; and Syriac banâ), “bath.”
102. This suggestion was published long ago by Robert I. Eisler in The Messiah Jesus
and John the Baptist (London: Methuen, 1931), 23n2.