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

92 MESSIANIC EXPECTATION AT QUMRAN
Early Christianity was heir to the same expectations as other Jews of
the time, but modified its expectations in light of the experience of Jesus.
The New Testament dispensed with the messiah of Aaron, at least insofar
as he was expected to preside over cultic worship in Jerusalem. Much
of the earthly career of Jesus suggests a prophet in manner of Elijah, but
ultimately the Gospels reject this role and insist that Jesus is the messiah
son of David. The role of the Davidic messiah, however, was radically
redefined. 59 Jesus did not drive the Gentiles out of Jerusalem or restore
the kingdom of Israel. To a great degree, however, the militant role of the
messiah was transferred in Christianity to the Second Coming. The portrayal
of Jesus in the New Testament that corresponds most closely with
Jewish expectations is found in the book of Revelation, where he comes
from heaven to strike down the nations with the sword of his mouth (Rev
19:11–16).
The Dead Sea Scrolls shed much light on the messianic expectations
of early Christianity by clarifying the expectations that were current at
the time. But the relationship of Christianity to its Jewish heritage is
ambiguous. On the one hand, the understanding of Jesus as Christ, or
Messiah, is incomprehensible apart from its Jewish context. On the other
hand, Christianity to a great extent defined itself over against Judaism as
the parent religion, and in the process redefined the categories of messianism.
Contrary to the argument of Johann Maier, our understanding
of the messianism of the Scrolls is very far from a retrojection of
Christian understandings. The contrasts with early Christianity are often
more illuminating than the continuities. But this is also true of the relationship
between the Scrolls and rabbinic Judaism. The importance of the
Scrolls is precisely that they illuminate a period of Jewish history before
Christianity and rabbinic Judaism went their separate ways. They should
not be assimilated to either tradition, but the continuities with both traditions
must be of equal importance to the historian of religion.
59. See John J. Collins, “Jesus and the Messiahs of Israel,” in Frühes Christentum (ed.
H. Cancik, H. Lichtenberger, and P. Schäfer; vol. 3 of Geschichte—Tradition—Reflexion:
Festschrift für Martin Hengel zum 70. Geburtstag; 3 vols.; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1996),
287–302.