Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered - The Preterist Archive

particular, is important, when it comes to considering the last column of the Damascus Document at
the end of the next Chapter. This column ends, as we shall see, with a variation of this usage, well
known in Jewish religious activity: midrash (seeking/ pursuing or homiletical interpretation).
It contains the usual allusions to 'the storehouse of Knowledge', 'the Glorious abode', 'Meekness',
'humility', 'seeking judgements', and 'the men of Truth', which are also part of the vocabulary of the
next two texts in this Chapter and of Chapter 7. Line 3.7 counsels 'the men of Truth' to 'pursue
Righteousness and love Piety'. Once again, if the reconstruction is correct, we have an allusion to the
Righteousness/ Piety dichotomy so much a part of the consciousness of this group. The 'Faith'
allusion, too, resonates, however tenuously, with well-known evocations of this notion in Paul/James
in early Christianity.
The first and introductory line of this text, however, is not cryptic. It is written in normal Hebrew, and
evokes an interesting character known from both the Community Rule and the Damascus Document,
'the Maskil' - a synonym probably for 'the Teacher' or the Righteous Teacher. The allusion is also
widespread, albeit somewhat mysteriously, in Psalms.
The references in the Community Rule and the Damascus Document are interesting in themselves. In
1QS, iii.13, the Maskil teaches 'the sons of Light' about 'their works' and ultimate Heavenly or infernal
rewards. In ix. 12 he is commanded to be 'zealous for the Law and the Day of Vengeance'. The
context of these two texts is one that will relate to our discussion of baptismal procedures and the
'Way in the wilderness' with regard to the Sons of Righteousness (Proverbs) text below. In CD, xii.20
and xiii.22, the Maskil is to 'walk in the Laws' until the 'standing up of the Messiah of Aaron and
Israel in the last days' and the 'visitation of the land'. The eschatological implications of all these
allusions coupled with the activities of the Maskil are quite explosive.
We have already discussed the terminology 'standing up' as implying possibly either 'being
resurrected' or a 'return', as well as the more straightforward 'arising'/'coming'. In CD, xiv.18, this
'Messiah of Aaron and Israel . . . will (or 'did') atone for their sins' (italics ours). As we have
suggested, contrary to the well-known 'two-Messiah' theory of early Qumran scholarship, these
references to 'the Messiah of Aaron and Israel' in the Damascus Document are singular not plural. The
verbs and verbal nouns connected with them are singular too. This is important, and one possible
explanation for it is that it is evoking a Messiah with both priestly and kingly implications, like the
somewhat similar recitations of Hebrews.
The doctrines that follow, however fragmented or innocuous, have to be seen as the special
provenance of this Maskil. The Demons of Death (Beatitudes) at the end of this Chapter begins with
the related predicate lehaskil ('to teach') and reads as follows: 'For He gave me the Knowledge of
Wisdom and instruction to teach all the sons of Truth.' It is quite likely, as we shall see, that in this we
have a synonym for the sons of Dawn. On the other hand, the kind of activity hinted at in Line 10
Column 3 -'to understand the era of Eternity and inquire into the past so as to know . . .' (presumably
'the hidden things' of Line 8) - is precisely the kind of activity that the Talmud decries, i.e. those who
look into the past and the future will have no share in the world to come (b. Hag 11b). This single
reference probably provides a better explanation for the text's cryptology than anything else.