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

DONALD H. JUEL 65
They have provided parallels to features of the New Testament that were
previously regarded as distinctive. Perhaps most obvious is attitude
toward the future. The Palestinian Jesus Movement was characterized by
a lively eschatology, whether expressed in terms of a conviction that the
end was not far off (Mark 9:1; 13:30; 1 Cor 7:29–31; Rev 22:20) or that
the “new has come” (2 Corinthians; Gospel of John). The DSS add richness
and texture to this “apocalyptic” perspective. There is in the scrolls,
as in the New Testament, a tension between expectation of the future and
the conviction that the present is already the beginning of the future.
Traces of an angelic liturgy (as in Angelic Liturgy [4Q400-407]) may be
reminiscent of Colossians and Ephesians as well as later Jewish
mysticism. For both groups, fulfillment of prophecy is one of the dominant
features of a religious imagination. Eschatologically, the Palestinian
Jesus Movement is far closer to the sectarians on the shores of the Dead
Sea than to the later rabbis.
The roles assigned end-time deliverers in the New Testament and the
DSS are mutually illuminating. While quite different, both communities
deal explicitly with expectations of a prophet like Moses, an anointed
priestly figure, and a royal messiah from the line of David. For the first
time in Jewish literature prior to the New Testament we encounter a messianic
reading of Nathan’s Oracle in 2 Samuel 7 (in Florilegium [4Q174]),
a passage quoted in the New Testament (Heb 1:5) that was of considerable
importance in providing language with which to speak of Jesus as
God’s “Son.” 4 In each community, scriptural texts about coming deliverers
are understood in light of the particular histories of each group. A
comparison yields both a sense of a common heritage and creative interweaving
of biblical passages. Impressive is both the common stock of
messianic texts, like 2 Samuel 7; Isaiah 11; Genesis 49; Num 24:17;
Jeremiah 33; and Zechariah 6, and the enormous differences in the way
the texts are read and deployed.
The Habakkuk Pesher takes the passage so important to Paul, “The righteous
shall live by (his) faith” (Hab 2:4), and applies it to the founder of the
community and his supporters, with different meaning and implications:
Its interpretation concerns all those who observe the Torah in the House of
Judah, whom God will save from the house of judgment on account of their
tribulation and their fidelity to the Righteous Teacher. (1QpHab 8.1–2) 5
4. Donald H. Juel, Messianic Exegesis (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1990), chapter 3.
5. The translation is by Maurya P. Horgan, “Habakkuk Pesher,” in The Dead Sea Scrolls:
Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek Texts with English Translations, Vol. 6B, Pesharim, Other Commentaries,
and Related Documents (ed. J. H. Charlesworth et al.; PTSDSSP 6B; Tübingen: Mohr
Siebeck; Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2002), 175 (for the Hebrew, see 174).