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

150 JUSTIN TAYLOR
so that it now implies that the believers were morally "at one" in
believing or in having all things common, therefore close to the "one
in heart and mind" of 4:32.
At the end of v. 45 there is a further notable difference between
the WT and the AT. The former tells us that the goods were divided
"to those having need," whereas the AT reads "to all accordingly
as any had need." This reading represents a harmonization with
4:35 ("to each accordingly . . .").
c) Although our passage is brief and does not go into many details,
it seems, especially when read according to the WT, to describe a
radical form of common life and property, which resembles that
reported of the Essenes by Josephus (War 2.8.3 §122): "Riches they
despise, and their community of goods is truly admirable;
you will not find one among them with greater property
than others. They have a law that new members on admission to
the sect shall hand over their substance to the order, with
the result that you will nowhere see either abject poverty or inordinate
wealth; the individual's possessions join the single
substance which belongs to all as brothers." 8 The Qumran
Community Rule (1QS 6:13-22) specifies that at the end of one year
of a candidate's probation, "his property and his earnings
(DK^Q)" are to be handed over to the one in charge but not amalgamated
with the goods of the community until the successful completion
of a second year of probation. Here we notice the use of two
words for property, as in Acts 2:45, no doubt with a similar intention
of indicating that every kind was to be brought into the community.
2. The second summary, 4:32—35
The second summary on community of life and goods presents itself
as a companion to and even as a repetition of 2:44—45, an impression
reinforced, as we have seen, by the harmonization of the conclusion
of 2:45 (AT) with that of 4:35. In fact, although the second
8 Comparison with the Essene way of life is even more striking if one refers to
the corresponding passage in the "Slavonic" Josephus: "Of riches, they want none,
and there is among them no property of any sort, but all with them is common,
even clothing and food"; this last item is found also in Philo's description of the
Essenes quoted by Eusebius, Praep. evang. 8.11.12. For the "Slavonic" Josephus, see
H. St. J. Thackeray, Flavins Josephe: L'homme et I'historien, translated and annotated
by Etienne Nodet, with an appendix on the Slavonic version of the War (Paris:
Editions du Cerf, 2000).