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

166 IMPACT OF QUMRAN TEXTS ON PAULINE THEOLOGY
is doubtful, 39 fragment 3 2.6 (partly in 4QFestival Prayers c [=
4Q pap509] 40 frags. 97–98 1.8): “And you renewed your covenant for
them” (Mhl KtyXrb #dxtw) (it refers to ancient Israel, because the context
speaks of the election “from all nations”). 41
Explanations
The tradition of the Lord’s supper in 1 Cor 11:25 states that through
the covenant sacrifice of Christ’s death, God made a “new covenant”
(apparently according to Jer 31:31 [38:31 LXX] as in CD; quoted later
than Paul in Heb 8:8). Paul himself employs the term only once in 2
Cor 3:6; it is rather un-Jewish to put the “new covenant” in sharp opposition
to the “old” one (3:14) at Sinai (but see Jer 31:32 [38:32 LXX]).
This difference (a real new covenant or only a renewed covenant)
makes the parallel theologically interesting and aids a better understanding
of Paul and Qumran. 42 Several times the Damascus Document
speaks of a “new covenant” that God made in “the land of Damascus”
(whatever “Damascus” means); it seems that this group of the “new
covenant” existed already before the Qumran community proper was
founded. 43 The same group is apparently meant in 1QpHab 2.3. 44 All
this could mean that the Qumran community did not use the phrase to
denote itself. 45
39. Cf. James R. Davila, Liturgical Works (ECDSS 6; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
2000), 17.
40. The same composition as 1Q34 + 1Q34 bis ?
41. My statement on p. 332 in “The Impact of the Qumran Scrolls,” 327–39, has
to be corrected, since it is not a covenant for the Qumran Community.
42. This was overlooked by Timothy H. Lim, “Studying the Qumran Scrolls and
Paul in Their Historical Context,” in The Dead Sea Scrolls as Background to Postbiblical
Judaism and Early Christianity (ed. J. R. Davila; STDJ 46; Leiden: Brill, 2003), 135–56,
esp. 138–42.
43. See Hartmut Stegemann, “Das Gesetzeskorpus der ‘Damaskusschrift’ (CD
IX–XVI), RevQ 14, no. 55 (1990): 409–34, esp. 427–29; Hermann Lichtenberger and
Ekkehard Stegemann, “Zur Theologie des Bundes in Qumran und im Neuen
Testament,” Kirche und Israel 6 (1991): 134–46, esp. 134–35.
44. See Stegemann, “Gesetzeskorpus,” 427–28n79.
45. For the problem of a “new covenant” in the Qumran texts and in Paul, see also
Manuel Vogel, Das Heil des Bundes: Bundestheologie im Frühjudentum und im frühen
Christentum (TANZ 18; Tübingen: Francke, 1996); cf. also Hoegen-Rohls, “Neuheit
bei Paulus.”