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

HÅKAN BENGTSSON 197
Here 11.4 takes up the second chain of interpretation concerning the
Wicked Priest. In the next two passages, the Priest and his abominable
acts and qualities are in focus. The thematic features are much the same
as above. The last passage (col. 12) where the Wicked Priest is mentioned
is very peculiar. It seems to be an allegorical elaboration of Hab 2:17,
mixed with the ordinary “pesheristic” way of interpreting.
In the section of 11.4–8, we for the first time meet a description of a
confrontation between the Wicked Priest and the Righteous Teacher. The
Wicked Priest is said to have persecuted the Righteous Teacher at the latter’s
abode. Moreover, the Wicked Priest confronted the Righteous
Teacher and his followers on the very day of Yom ha-Kippurim, the most
solemn day in the Jewish calendar. These actions are all in the perfect
tense. 44 Moreover, the purpose behind the persecution and the confrontation
is to cause harm and disorder; w(lbl “in order to swallow him up,”
Mly#$klw 45 M(lbl: “in order to swallow them up and to make them
stumble.” There is no mention of whether this terror was successful.
Further, there is at least one difficult reading that requires comment:
wtwlg tyb). The reading of an ) before tyb is uncommon, if the
expression is supposed to be a noun with a preposition “to the house.” If
not regarded as a scribal error, there is an analogy of using ) as a preposition
in popular rabbinic Hebrew. This use was even supported by the
Beth Mashko document found in Wadi Murabba(at (Beit-Mashiko; Mur
42). 46 Subsequently, the translation “to the house” is possible.
How, then, is the word wtwlg to be understood? If understood as a
verb, two meanings are possible: “go into exile” (qal inf.) or “to uncover”
(pi(e 4l inf.). Another possibility is to understand it as a noun, “his exile,”
and this is the translation commonly preferred. 47
Undoubtedly, this passage is one of the most crucial ones concerning
the reconstruction of the history of the Qumran community. Here the
assumption is that the Habakkuk Pesher records an episode where two
opponents met and the Righteous Teacher was humiliated. Considering
the presupposition that the Teacher himself was a priest, this is a meeting
of two men of rank. In the pesher to Psalm 37 (4Q171) 3.15, the
Righteous Teacher stands in apposition to the title Nhwkh, and both titles
obviously refer to the same person:
[qdc]h hrwm Nhwkh l( wr#$p. 48
44. Pdr, “he followed him” … (pwh (hiph(il), “and appeared.”
45. In the reading Mly#$klw, the h is missing for Mly#$khlw.
46. Brownlee, The Midrash Pesher, 182.
47. Ibid., 182.
48. Another reference to the Righteous Teacher, designated Nhwkh, is probably
found in 4QpPs a (4Q171) 2.18–19 on Ps 37:14–15.