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

JAMES H. CHARLESWORTH 119
termini technici. And in the Fourth Gospel this paradigm is assumed and
not created. Thus, the paradigm must antedate the Fourth Gospel.
As in the Qumran Rule so also in the Fourth Gospel we hear about a
cosmic and soteriological dualism. Moreover, it is subsumed under the
belief in one and only one God, and it is joined with a conviction that evil
and the demons will cease to exist. As Raymond E. Brown observed, “It
will be noted that not only the dualism but also its terminology is shared
by John and Qumran.” 66 I would add, “and also the unique paradigm.”
In addition to those already mentioned, several terms and phrases are
significantly shared by the Qumranites and the Johannine Jews. Most significant
among them are the following: “doing the truth” (1QS 1.5; 5.3;
8.2; John 3:21; 1 John 1:6), “water of life” (1QH 8.7, 16; 1QpHab 11.1;
CD 19.34; John 4:10–14), “works of God” (1QS 4.4; John 9:3), “light of
life” (1QS 3.7; John 8:12), and “knowing the truth” (1QH 6.12; 9.35;
10.20, 29; John 8:32). In Qumran’s Thanksgiving Hymns God is described
“as perfect light” (1QH 4.23). The author of 1 John, who is close to and
perhaps one of the editors of the Fourth Gospel, writes, “God is light and
in him is no darkness at all” (1:5). Surely, there is some relationship
exposed by these shared technical terms. As Jürgen Becker points out in
his Das Evangelium nach Johannes, the dualism in the Fourth Gospel is closest,
in the ancient world, to that found in 1QS 3–4. This widespread
recognition leads to the thesis that “the Johannine community must, after
some undualistic phase, have come under the influence of a type of
Qumran dualism.” 67 That insight does not demand that the Essene influences
come into the Fourth Gospel only at the final level of editing. 68
It is important to stress that the Fourth Evangelist (and likely others
in his community) probably has been influenced by Qumran’s paradigm
and terminology. In some passages he reveals that his thought and perception
have been shaped by the concepts, phrases, and technical terms
of Qumran. There is, however, insufficient evidence to warrant the logically
possible conclusion that he was a former Qumranite or Essene, or
that he was influenced by their premessianic eschatology and peculiar
theology. 69 He was a follower of Jesus; that is, he took some earlier terms
66. Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel according to John (I–XII) (AB 29; Garden City,
NY: Doubleday, 1966) lxii.
67. Jürgen Becker, Das Evangelium nach Johannes (3d ed.; Gütersloh: Gerd Mohn,
1991), 1:176.
68. Boismard and Lamouille (see note 12) conclude that the Essene influences
come in at stage three of editing. I have judged that they are there in the “first edition.”
There is much research still to be prosecuted on this issue.
69. Brown concluded (The Gospel according to John (I–XII), lxiii): “In our judgment
the parallels are not close enough to suggest a direct literary dependence of John upon