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

JÖRG FREY 449
Completely different is the reference to Isa 40:3 in the Rule of the
Community (1QS 8.14–16): “In the wilderness prepare the way of the
Lord, make level in the desert a highway for our God. This (alludes to)
the study of the Torah wh[ic]h he commanded through Moses to do,
according to everything that has been revealed (from) time to time, and
according to that which the prophets have revealed by his holy spirit.” 156
Here, the preparation of the way of the Lord is linked with the communal
study of the Torah (hrwth #rdm; cf. Ezra 7:10). The communal
attention to sacred Scriptures, so decisive for the Essene community in its
formative period, is seen as the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. 157 If we
take into consideration that this part of the Rule of the Community was composed
certainly before the Essene settlement at Qumran, we can assume
that the idea that the Isaianic prophecy was being fulfilled within communal
study of the Torah was an additional reason for the foundation of
the settlement “in the desert.” There the Essenes could study the Torah
in complete segregation from the world outside, and they saw this as fulfillment
of Isa 40:3 (cf. 1QS 8.13–14).
Form the comparison, we can see that the Essenes (and later the
Qumran Essenes) and John used the same scriptural tradition, but they
interpreted and fulfilled it quite differently. For the Baptizer, the fulfillment
is linked with the Elijah tradition, which is of no relevance for the
Essene understanding of the prophecy. For him, it is linked with the call
for repentance from Mal 3:7 and 3:24 (4:6) and with the purifying rite of
baptism, whereas the Essene interpretation of Isa 40:3 is not linked with
the Essene purification rites.
We can see even more striking differences in comparing the different
purification rites, even though there are some similarities 158 : The Essenes
were strongly interested in purity, as we can see from a number of texts
and also from the water supply arranged for the Qumran settlement.
156. Translation from Elisha Qimron and James H. Charlesworth, “Rule of the
Community,” in The Rule of the Community and Related Documents (PTSDSSP 1), 37. The
text is also preserved in 4QSe (4Q259) 3.5–6. The quotation is omitted (but with
shortened allusion to the same biblical passage) in 4QSd (4Q258) frag. 2 1.6–7; cf.
most recently the edition in DJD: Philip S. Alexander and Geza Vermes, eds., Qumran
Cave 4.XIX: 4QSerekh Ha-Yah[ad (DJD 26; Oxford: Clarendon, 1998).
157. Cf. Timothy H. Lim, “Midrash Pesher in the Pauline Letters,” in The Scrolls and
the Scriptures: Qumran Fifty Years After (ed. S. E. Porter and C. A. Evans; JSPSup 26;
Roehampton Institute London Papers 3; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997),
280–92, esp. 286.
158. These differences should not be diminished by the fact that there are also some
general similarities between John’s baptism and the initiation (not the daily purity
rites) of the Essenes. These similarities are described by Pfann, “The Essene Yearly
Renewal Ceremony,” 337–52, esp. 347–48.