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

112 A STUDY IN SHARED SYMBOLISM AND LANGUAGE
the Sons of Righteousness; and all their sins, their iniquities, their guilt, and
their iniquitous works [are caused] by his dominion, according to God’s
mysteries, until his end. And all their afflictions and the appointed times of
their suffering [are caused] by the dominion of his hostility. And all the
spirits of his lot cause to stumble the Sons of Light; but the God of Israel
and his Angel of Truth help all the Sons of Light. He created the spirits of
light and darkness, and upon them he founded every work. (1QS 3.20–25) 51
While expressions familiar to a Christian seem “Johannine,” this passage
is certainly not a Christian composition (pace those journalistic authors
who confuse the distinguishing borders of the Essenes and Jesus’ group).
The kerygma does not appear in this passage. Jesus is neither mentioned
nor adumbrated in it. The Rule is a pre-Christian, Jewish work that
emphasizes cosmic dualism, expressed in terms of the light-versusdarkness
paradigm, subsumed under the absolute sovereignty of “the
God of Israel.”
In John 3:16–21 we find the following famous passage:
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that all who believe in
him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the
world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through
him. He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned
already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son
of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and
men loved darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. For all
who do evil hate the light, and do not come to the light, lest their deeds should be
exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that
his deeds have been accomplished through God [lit.: have been worked in God].
This passage reflects the Johannine christological proclamation that Jesus
is God’s only Son (3:16; 20:31). No Qumranite could agree—unless, of
course, he accepted Jesus as the Messiah and believed in him. A member
of the Qumran sect would have needed instruction in this belief, by
someone other than the Master. This claim is a proclamation typical of
the kerygma in the Palestinian Jesus Movement; as such, it distinguishes
Jesus’ sect from the Essene sect.
The Christology here belongs to the Evangelist, but he did not create
the symbolism and the terminology. The spirit is definitively Christian
and Johannine, but the mentality was inherited. The source, or at least one
51. Translation by James H. Charlesworth, “The Rule of the Community,” in The
Dead Sea Scroll: Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek Texts with English Translations, Vol. 1, The Rule
of the Community and Related Documents (ed. J. H. Charlesworth et al.; PTSDSSP 1;
Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck; Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1994).