historical perspectives: from the hasmoneans to bar kokhba in light ...

THE CONCEPT OF THE COVENANT 93
covenant with the ancestors of Israel became a mutual covenant for
succeeding generations, rather than a promissory type. By this strategy,
the laws of the Torah, as interpreted to Moses by the Angel
of the Presence, could have been considered the continuation of the
covenant made by God with the ancestors. 23
Ill
The continuity of the covenant in the context of the history of the Qumran
community
The eschatological 'new covenant,' adopted by the Qumran community
as the definition of its covenant with God, is considered, in
the historical survey of the Damascus Document (CD 2:14-4:12), a continuation
of the historical covenant between God and Israel for
observing God's commandments. According to Jubilees, only Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, who "were written up as friends of God and as
members of the covenant for ever" (CD 3:2-4), kept the covenant
throughout all the generations of Israel. 24 Thus, the only ones worthy
to be considered the faithful heirs of the ancestors and with
whom God has continued "to establish His covenant for ever" are
those who are "steadfast in God's precepts," namely, the members
of the Qumran community. In this context, God's precepts are defined
as the revelations of "the hidden matters in which all Israel had
those who observe the laws from generation to generation is apparent in Jubilees
20 (Abraham to Isaac and Ishmael); 21 (Abraham to Isaac); 22 (Abraham to Jacob);
and 36 (Isaac to his sons). The strategy of inheritance is mentioned explicitly in
Jub. 19:17-29 (see esp. vv. 24 and 27), but there only the blessings of the covenant
are mentioned, and not the pledge of observing the laws.
23 The concept of continuity is adopted by the Temple Scroll (11QT 29:7—10),
regarding the connection between the observance of the cultic laws by Israel, the
eternity of the covenant between God and Israel, and the eternity of the Temple
(cf. Jub. 1:17, 26-28). See Y. Yadin, The Temple Scroll (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration
Society, 1973), 1.140-44, 2.91-92 (Hebrew).
24 Cf. the idea of the connection between the covenant made with Noah and
the ancestors, as mentioned in Jubilees (see above, n. 17). In the Apocalypse of
Weeks (1 Enoch 93:1-10 + 91:11—17), this idea is expressed metaphorically by the
term 'plant of truth' referring to "a man that will be chosen as the plant of righteous
forever" in the third week (93:5), that is Abraham (cf. Jub. 16:26), and to the
'chosen righteous' of the seventh week (93:10), the Second Temple period, perhaps
those of the Enochic apocalyptic circle. See G. Boccachini, Beyond the Essene Hypothesis:
The Parting of the Ways between Qumran and Enochic Judaism (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
1998). J. J. Collins notes that "the election of this group thus become a focal point
of the whole scheme" of the Apocalypse of Weeks; Collins, Apocalyptic Imagination,