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

KITTIM IN THE WAR SCROLL AND IN THE PESHARIM 43
1. [The interpretation of it concerns Jerusalem, which has become] a
dwelling for the wicked ones of the nations. "Where the lion went to
enter, the lion's cub
2. and no one to disturb." The interpretation of it concerns Demetrius,
King of Greece, who sought to enter Jerusalem on the advice of the
Seeker after Smooth Things,
3. [but God did not give Jerusalem] into the power of the kings of
Greece from Antiochus until the rise of the rulers of the Kittim; but
afterwards [the city] will be trampled
4. [and will be given into the hands of. . .
The author of Pesher Nahum emphasized that although various invasions
of Ptolomean and Seleucid kings were launched to conquer
Jerusalem, Jerusalem was not conquered by hellenistic kings from
the time of Antiochus (probably IV, who died in 163 BCE) until
Pompey's conquest. 38
As opposed to other compositions that we have dealt with above,
in both Pesher Habakkuk and Pesher Nahum no reference to the fall of
the Kittim is mentioned. We may, therefore, assume that a change
in the historical concept of the Qumran community had taken place.
While in the early compositions they identified the Kittim as the
hellenistic kingdoms in general, and the Seleucids in particular, at
the beginning of the second third of the first century BCE, perhaps
a little before the conquest of Palestine by Pompey, and definitely
after this event, they associated the Kittim with the Romans. This
does not refer to a new invasion of the first century BCE, since it
is already attested in Daniel 11.
I would like to suggest that the shift in the identification of the
Kittim was not a simple change, because the Qumran community
believed that they learned the true way to interpret the words of
the prophets from the Teacher of Righteousness, who learned it from
God himself. In 1QpHab 2 we read: 39
38 The three most significant campaigns by hellenistic kings against Jerusalem
were Antiochus VII in 135 BCE, Ptolemy Lathyrus in 103 BCE, and Demetrius
III in 88 BCE.
39 Horgan, Pesharim, 1.2, 2.13.