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

KITTIM IN THE WAR SCROLL AND IN THE PESHARIM 41
Jannaeus. When the army of Ptolemy Lathyrus defeated Jannaeus'
army and the way to Jerusalem was open to him, Ptolemy heard
that the army of his mother had reached Palestine, and he decided
to leave Judea and make his way to Philistia.
Amusin's suggestion for connecting the events of 103-2 BCE, as
recorded by Josephus and the pesher on Isaiah 10, is based mainly
on 4Q161 2 ii 27 of the pesher: . .
"when he goes up from the Valley of Acco to fight in Phil[istia." It
should be kept in mind that the two events are similar; according
to Isaiah's description the enemy will advance towards Jerusalem
from the northeast, while Ptolemy Lathyrus approached Jerusalem
from the city of Zafon, which is located near the Jordan, northeast
of Jerusalem. On both occasions the redemption of Jerusalem could
have been explained as a divine act.
Although the pesher on Isaiah is fragmentary, we can make connections
between the events of 103 BCE and the historical clues
found in the pesher on Isa. 10:28-34. Therefore, we can identify
the Kittim mentioned in Pesher Isaiah as one of the hellenistic kingdoms.
When the pesher was composed in the first quarter of the
first century BCE (between the years 100 and 75 BCE), people still
identified the Kittim as the hellenistic kingdoms, which would be
destroyed by Israel (4Q161 8-10 iii 7).
We may conclude that we have seen that the Kittim were identified
as the hellenistic kingdoms in 1 Maccabees, 4Q247, the War Scroll,
and Pesher Isaiah A. 32 On the other hand, in two other pesharim
found at Qumran they were identified as the Romans. 33 In Pesher
Habakkuk found in Cave 1, the Kittim are mentioned nine times,
and two additional times this name can be reconstructed. 34 In this
pesher the tide "the rulers of the Kittim" is found (4:5
and 10), rather than the king of the Kittim, mentioned in 4Q247
and in the War Scroll. The Kittim are clearly associated with the
32 Some scholars suggest reconstructing the name Kittim in 1QpPs (1Q16) 9 2,
4 as well, see Horgan, Pesharim, 1.14, 2.67.
33 See R. Goossens, "Les Kittim du Commentaire d'Habacuc," La Nouvelle Clio
4 (1952): 155-61; G. J. Brooke, "The Kittim in the Qumran Pesharim," in Images
of Empire, ed. L. Alexander, JSOTSup 122 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press,
1991), 135-59.
34 The Kittim are mentioned in 1QpHab 2:12, 14, [17]; 3:4, 9, [15]; 4:5, 10;
6:1, 10; 9:7.