Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered - The Preterist Archive

the word 'Satan' and further adumbration of the 'Devil' / 'Belial' / 'Watcher' language. There is also in
Column 2 (Fragment 4.3) a very interesting note of xenophobic antagonism to foreigners not
unsimilar to that encountered in the first column of the Testament of Kohath.
However, it is in Columns 4-6 that really interesting things appear in this text. In the 'blessings' or
'beatitudes' section in Column 2.1, 'holding fast to her Laws' was contrasted with 'the Ways of Evil';
and having 'a pure heart'- by now a fairly familiar allusion - with 'slandering with his Tongue'. This
'Tongue' imagery is widespread at Qumran, particularly in the Community Rule, but also in texts like
the Nahum Pesher, the Damascus Document, Hymns, and the two Letters on Works Righteousness
below. It is generically parallel to the 'Lying', 'spouting' and 'boasting' allusions connected to the
'Lying' Adversary of the Righteous Teacher. Nor is it unrelated to the 'lips' above and the
'uncircumcized heart' - harking back to Ezekiel's strictures about entering the Temple - so widespread
at Qumran.
Starting with the very interesting reference to 'atonement for sin' at the beginning of Column 4.2,
Lines 4.18-25 generally counsel patience and restraint, clearly identifiable themes in the Letter of
James, particularly in 1:3-4 and 5:7-20. The style of James, in fact, recapitulates throughout the tone
and substance of these admonitions at Qumran. In this text and against this backdrop, lines 4.25-28
pick up this 'Tongue' imagery again and repeat it several times. In the process they also evoke its
variation the 'lips' imagery just encountered and associated with both 'Lying' and the 'Tongue' in
1QS,x.23-25 and Hymns, vii.l1-12 (sometimes 'uncircumcized lips').
They do so in such a way that there can be no mistaking the parallel with the famous imagery in
Chapter 3 of James, attacking the Lying adversary in terms of this same 'Tongue' imagery. This last
follows James. 2:20-24, castigating the 'Man of Emptiness' as not knowing 'that a man was justified
by works' and 'faith without works is dead'. The actual language in James. 3:5-9 is extensive and
substantial, but its gist is: 'The Tongue is a wicked world all to itself.' No one can 'control the Tongue';
that is, it spouts, and both texts use the very same image to describe the Tongue, 'the stumbling block'
(24). There can be no mistaking these language parallels. This is, in fact, very strong imagery at
Qumran and found in extremely telling contexts (for instance, in 1QS,iv.11, CD,v.ll, etc.).
In the Letter of James, too, this 'Lying' adversary overturns the normal thrust of 'the friend' imagery
which all these texts apply to Abraham, that is, by making himself a 'friend of man' he turns himself
into an 'Enemy of God' (4:5). In misunderstanding the 'keeping' as opposed to the 'breaking'
terminology, he misunderstands that Abraham - the original 'friend of God'- was not saved by faith
alone, but also by 'works' (2:23-24).
Column 5 of our text now picks up the language of 'burning' and 'vipers' again (familiar, as we have
seen, in both New Testament and Damascus Document recitations). 5.4 again alludes to Mastemah, a
variation of Mastemoth, that is, 'the Enemy'. Again this should be compared with 'the Enemy of God'
allusion in James. 4:5. In 4:8 the letter actually refers to 'the Devil' as well, thereby further extending
the parallels. In discussing the 'Pit' and counselling patience again (5.7), the text before us moves on in
6.4 to an evocation of the Temple. Amid vivid imagery of 'burning', it closes with the inspiring
allusion to 'drinking' and the 'Well of deep waters'. This imagery will reappear in texts like the
Chariots of Glory and the Mystery of Existence in Chapter 7 as the 'Fountain of Living Waters'.