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

56 THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS AND THE HISTORICAL JESUS
Jesus might have been elected. Yet when popular movements emerged
from time to time, they did take distinctive forms informed by the
Israelite traditions that presumably were cultivated in the villages. Thus,
it would seem to be an obvious step to compare Jesus-and-movement, as
represented in the Gospel traditions, with the other popular leaders-andmovements
at the time in order to discern the traditional role(s) he was
playing.
The Jewish historian Josephus and other sources provide brief yet sufficiently
suggestive accounts that enable us to discern two distinctive
types of popular leaders-and-movements at the time. We can compare
Jesus to them: movements headed by a prophetic figure appearing as a
new Moses or Joshua leading a new exodus and wilderness preparation
for return to the land, and movements led by a messianic figure appearing
as a new Saul or David leading battles for independence of exploitative
foreign rulers. 36 Thus, even though Judean texts around the time of
Jesus offer little evidence for any expectation of a messiah or an
eschatological prophet among literate circles, Judean and Galilean peasants
generated a number of messianic and prophetic movements.
Although there is little evidence of a script for a messiah or prophet in
scribal circles, such movements indicate that scripts for both messianic
movements and prophetic movements were actively performed among
the people.
Looking for evidence of such scripts of leaders and movements in the
DSS requires us to use the scrolls in a way different from before, when
our focus was on “Jewish expectations” of “the Messiah” or “the
eschatological prophet” and how Jesus supposedly fulfilled (or differed
from) those expectations. In the latter connection, the discovery of the
scrolls fifty years ago was a lifesaving, as well as a foundations-shaking,
event. This is nowhere truer than with regard to Christology in theologically
oriented biblical studies. Just when biblical scholars were being
36. See the analysis in Horsley, “Popular Messianic Movements around the Time
of Jesus,” and “Two Types of Popular Prophets at the Time of Jesus.” So far as we
know from our minimal sources, expectations/traditions of a messiah or of a new
Moses or prophet like Moses were dormant in the early Second Temple period. John
J. Collins, The Scepter and the Star: The Messiahs of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Other Ancient
Literature (New York: Doubleday, 1995), 40, 94, confirms my conclusions in the above
studies. Significantly, such images did not spring to life even in connection with the
turmoil of Hellenizing reform and the Maccabean revolt—so solidly did the tradition/image
of the high priesthood dominate even among the Judeans who actively
resisted the imperial encroachments on their traditional way of life. As the
Hasmoneans consolidated their power, they were careful to make clear that no
prophet was even remotely discernible on the horizon (as indicated in 1 Macc 14:41:
“…until a trustworthy prophet should arise” [NRSV].