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

58 TAL ILAN
Hasmonean rulers and had something to say about them. 2 It further
confirms, beyond a doubt, Clermont-Gannau's hypothesis about
the Hebrew spelling of Queen Alexandra's Hebrew name, 3 but this
is not the subject of this paper.
Taking 4QCalendrical Doc C as a cue, I would like to explore the
possibility that Queen Shelamzion is also alluded to in other Qumran
documents, specifically in two (or perhaps three) pesharim. Furthermore,
these allusions may shed light on some of the exegetical techniques
employed by the Dead Sea sect and on their overall relationship
with the regime of the queen, and they may perhaps illuminate some
interesting aspects of intertextuality.
The most acclaimed 'historical' document in the Qumran corpus
is Pesher Nahum (4Q169). It has attained this privileged position because
it actually mentions two Greek rulers by name and because it describes
events that seem familiar to us from Josephus' description of the
Hasmonean kingdom. 4 It is important, however, to note that despite
this seemingly historian-friendly document, the only reason we understand
what it is talking about is because we have the information
mentioned in Josephus. Without Josephus' consciously historical narrative,
Pesher Nahum would be just as meaningless to us as the other
pesharim. It is, therefore, hardly surprising that my use of this pesher
for the reign of Shelamzion will also be highly dependent on Josephus'
writings.
Pesher Nahum code-names King Yannai, the Lion of Wrath (TED
. After describing his wicked rule in column 1 (based on Nahum
2), in column 2 the exegesis turns to Nahum 3 and uses it to describe
the 'government of the Seekers of Smooth Things' (
; 4Q169 3-4 ii 4). Column 1 already made clear to us that
the Seekers of Smooth Things had been persecuted and executed in
the time of the Lion of Wrath (4Q169 3-4 i 6-7). It makes sense,
therefore, to assume that if the text now talks of the 'government
of the Seekers of Smooth Things,' a change of administration has
taken place. Once again, from Josephus (War 1.107; Ant. 13.407) we
learn that this is indeed so: after King Yannai had persecuted the
2 See now M. Broshi, "Ptolas and the Archelaus Massacre (4Q468g = 4QHistorical
Text B)," JJS 49 (1998): 341-45.
3 See my "The Greek Names of the Hasmoneans," JQR 78 (1987-88): 7 n. 28.
4 See particularly D. Flusser, "Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes in Pesher Nahum,"
in Essays in Jewish History and Philology in Memory of Gedaliahu Alon, ed. M. Dorman,
S. Safrai, and M. Stern (Tel Aviv: ha-Kibbutz ha-Meuhad, 1970), 133-68.