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

THE CONCEPT OF THE COVENANT 99
"who volunteer to return within the community to His covenant"
(1QS 5:21—22), may be the solution to this dilemma, because it points
toward the willing acceptance of a predestined fate by each of its
members. 40 The conscious solution to this dilemma is apparent in
the phrase "and (in) all that befalls him
he shall delight willingly" 41 (1QS 9:24), 42 in which both concepts, predestination
and free will, are expressed simultaneously.
Another solution for this dilemma may be based on the theology
of the 'election of Israel,' which is characteristic of covenantal theology
in both biblical and post-biblical literature, as mentioned above,
and which reflects a deterministic outlook per se. However, whereas
belonging to Israel is a fact of genealogy, membership in the Qumran
community is dependent on personal decision. Nevertheless, the idea
of retribution is common to both concepts, the 'election of Israel'
and the deterministic sectarian outlook. Hence, according to these
theological opinions, observance of the Law is the main stipulation
for the eternal existence of the covenant. The concept of retribution
is formulated in the Decalogue, alongside the biblical history of Israel;
this is likewise the case in surveys of Israel's history in the writings
from Qumran. Retribution plays a central role, for example, in such
liturgical works as the weekly prayer of the Words of the Luminaries
(4Q504-6) and the Prayers for the Festivals (lQ34bis 3 ii 5-8 = 4Q509
97—98 i 6b—10), along with the concept of the 'election of Israel.' 43
40 Licht, Rule Scroll, 192-93; J. Licht, "The Concept of Nedavah in the Dead
Sea Scrolls," in Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Lectures Delivered at the Third Annual
Conference (1957) in Memory of E. L. Sukenik, ed. J. Liver (Jerusalem: Kiryat Sepher,
1957), 77-84 (Hebrew).
41 The English translation follows Qimron and Charlesworth in The Dead Sea
Scrolls: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek Texts with English Translations, vol. 1, Rule of the Community
and Related Documents, ed. J. H. Charlesworth (Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr [Paul
Siebeck], 1994), 43.
42 See also the following phrases of 1QS 9:24-25, 10:12-13a; lQH a 16:10; and
see lQH a 2:20-29 about the explanation held by the author of the Thanksgiving
Scroll for the dilemma of the suffering of the righteous despite their being chosen
by God to hold His covenant.
43 Because of the mid-second-century BCE date of the earlier manuscript of the
Words of the Luminaries (4Q504) and the absence of explicit sectarian terminology
and ideas in this weekly liturgy, E. G. Chazon considers this work a pre-sectarian
prayer ("A Liturgical Document from Qumran and Its Implications: 'Words of the
Luminaries' [4QdibHam]," Ph.D. diss., Hebrew University, 1991, 85-90). I, however,
claim that the absence of specific sectarian ideas characterizes most of the
public prayers from Qumran, especially the fixed prayers that replaced the public
sacrificial works (Qumran Prayer, 92-111, Hebrew version, 63-77). D. K. Falk, who