the-bible-and-the-dead-sea-scrolls

142 A STUDY IN SHARED SYMBOLISM AND LANGUAGE
The Fourth Gospel is the only document in the New Testament that
contains the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew and Aramaic word for
“Messiah.” Only in the Fourth Gospel do we find the Greek transliteration
for the Hebrew term mas îah[ ] (xy#m); that is [Messi/an] in John 1:41
and [Messi/aj] in 4:25. Clearly, in a way unparalleled by the other
Evangelists, the Fourth Evangelist and his community claimed that Jesus
was to be identified as the Messiah promised to Jews. Only in the Fourth
Gospel does Jesus admit that he is the Messiah. A Samaritan woman tells
Jesus, “I know that Messiah is coming—he who is called Christ” (4:25).
Jesus says to this anonymous Samaritan woman: “I, the one speaking to
you, am he” (4:26). 145 Were discussions with Samaritans and Essenes, living
within the Johannine School, responsible for this aspect of Johannine
Christology? This possibility cannot be proved, but it remains a conceivable,
and perhaps a likely, scenario.
11. A barrier for love. At Qumran the exhortation to love one’s neighbor
in Lev 19:18 (cf. 19:34), which elicited deep discussions on defining
“neighbor” among Jews prior to 70 C.E., was restricted to the elect ones,
“the Sons of Light.” Only members of the community were “Sons of
Light.” All others were “Sons of Darkness.” Concomitant with Essene
predestination, a Qumranite was exhorted to love only those in the community
and to hate all others (1QS 1–4). 146 Surprising in light of Jesus’
exhortation to love “one another” as he had loved his disciples (John
13:34), and especially in light of his instruction to love even enemies
(Matt 5:44 and parallels), is the Johannine tendency to restrict love to
one’s brother in the community. This tendency comes virtually to full
bloom in the Johannine Epistles. It seems wise to consider Qumran influence
in the shaping of this Johannine tendency. As Marie-émile Boismard
contends, it is rather obvious that 1 John “is addressed to a Christian
community whose members to a large extent had been Essenes.” 147
12. Anonymity. In a frustratingly disconcerting manner the Qumranites
habitually avoided writing proper names. The key figures in their history
are all anonymous; thus, the Righteous Teacher, the Wicked Priest, and
the Man of Lies remain anonymous in all the hundreds of Qumran
Scrolls. 148
While a unique phenomenon in early Jewish literature, this
anonymity is amazingly present in the Fourth Gospel. The Fourth
145. The Greek of John 4:26 is carefully constructed, making a play on the ineffable
tetragrammaton, Yahweh: “I am [he], the one who is speaking to you.”
146. See Flusser, The Spiritual History of the Dead Sea Sect, 76–82.
147. Boismard, “The First Epistle of John,” 165.
148. See Charlesworth, The Pesharim and Qumran History.