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

88 THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS AND THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS
with Matthew’s use of this language. 19 This is supported in an important
way by the observation that in both Matthew and in the Damascus
Document the communities’ respective teachers (“the Righteous Teacher”
in the former, Jesus of Nazareth in the latter) define what is righteous for
their communities. 20 In a Jewish context, to define righteousness is in
effect to define orthodoxy. 21 Kampen concludes that the Matthean evangelist
“is advocating a particular way of life within the Jewish community
which is not accepted by the majority, but which is considered by its
adherents to be true ‘righteousness.’…They were the ‘righteous’ Jews
who practiced a way of life based on their understanding of
‘righteousness.’” 22
Emphasis on righteousness is inevitably linked to the understanding
of Scripture and its fulfillment (legally and prophetically). More than
forty years ago Krister Stendahl compared Matthew’s understanding of
the fulfillment of Scripture to that of the scrolls. 23 Although many have
questioned his hypothesis of a Matthean school, the recommendation
that Matthew’s eschatological and typological interpretation of Scripture
be compared to Qumran’s pesher interpretation has served as a point of
departure for Matthean scholarship since. 24
19. John Kampen has compared Matthew to the Dead Sea Scrolls at other points;
cf. John Kampen, “A Reexamination of the Relationship between Matthew 5:21–48
and the Dead Sea Scrolls,” in SBL Seminar Papers, 1990 (ed. D. J. Lull; SBLSP 29;
Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990), 34–59; idem, “The Matthean Divorce Texts
Reexamined,” in New Qumran Texts and Studies: Proceedings of the First Meeting of the
International Organization for Qumran Studies, Paris 1992 (ed. G. J. Brooke and F. García
Martínez; STDJ 15; Leiden: Brill, 1994), 149–67; idem, “The Sectarian Form of the
Antitheses within the Social World of the Matthean Community,” DSD 1 (1994):
338–63.
20. Przybylski, Righteousness in Matthew, 17–23. Kampen (“‘Righteousness’ in
Matthew,” 471) concurs. Kampen comments that the “conflict over the correct definition
of righteousness characterizes the entire work [CD].”
21. John C. Reeves in “The Meaning of Moreh Sedeq in the Light of 11QTorah,”
RevQ 13 (1988): 287–98, accordingly has recommended translating qdc hrwm as
“true lawgiver,” a suggestion that meets with Kampen’s (“‘Righteousness’ in Matthew,”
472) qualified approval. Kampen (479) ends his survey of the usage and meaning of
qdc and hqdc at Qumran by concluding that, for the community of the renewed,
covenant righteousness had more to do with their special identity as chosen people
than it did with stricter legal interpretations. At this point Kampen disagrees with the
conclusion of E. P. Sanders, Paul and Palestinian Judaism: A Comparison of Patterns of
Religion (London: SCM, 1977), 312. For his extensive survey of righteous and righteousness
in Qumran, see Sanders, Paul and Palestinian Judaism, 239–328.
22. Kampen, “‘Righteousness’ in Matthew,” 484, 487.
23. Krister Stendahl, The School of St. Matthew and Its Use of the Old Testament (ASNU
20; Lund: Gleerup, 1954; rev. ed., Philadelphia: Fortress, 1968), 183–202.
24. See also Robert H. Gundry, The Use of the Old Testament in St. Matthew’s Gospel with
Special Reference to the Messianic Hope (NovTSup 18; Leiden: Brill, 1967).