Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered - The Preterist Archive

In the process our text perhaps lays to rest the controversy over the meaning of the phrase 'putting to
death', in the Messianic Leader (Nasi) text in Chapter 1. In Column 5 Fragment 2, the phrase 'they put
to death' once more appears to occur. If our reconstruction is correct, it may be read as referring to 'the
putting to death of the Righteous', that is, hemitu ha-Zaddikim, in exactly the manner of the allusion to
'they put to death' in the Messianic Leader fragment. Here, too, the accusative participle is missing, as
it is in so many such constructions in texts from the Second Temple period, and one possible reading
is certainly 'they put the Righteous Ones to death.' If this reading is correct, then the reading of the
earlier fragment (depending on where the other references to 'the Leader of the Community' are placed
in the reconstruction) can be: 'they put the Leader of the Community to death', just as easily as vice
versa.
This, too, now turns out to have intriguing repercussions where the Letter of James is concerned. Jas.
5:6, presumably talking about the death of the Messianic Leader, states: 'It was you who condemned
the Righteous (One) and put him to death, though he offered you no resistance' (italics ours). The
language is exactly the same as we are encountering here. Per contra, see Paul in I Thess. 2:15 about
the Jews having 'put the Lord Jesus to death . . . making themselves the Enemies of the whole human
race' (italics ours). The clear reversal exemplified in this last should by now be familiar; but the usage
'Enemies' (now reversed and applied to the Jews not Paul), relating to the interesting language of
Mastemah/Mastemoth we have been encountering in these texts, also has interesting implications. In
fact, the order of these allusions in both texts - James and the Beatitudes - where in both cases (if our
reconstruction is correct), the use of the startling 'Tongue' imagery is followed by an accusation of an
illicit execution of some kind, further reinforces the impression of their parallelism.
One other interesting usage is that of 'hamat', translated as 'venom' here, i.e. 'venom of vipers' (5:4). In
the Habakkuk Pesher, x1.4-5, this word has important reverberations relative to the Wicked Priest's
destruction of the Righteous Teacher, 'be-cha'as hamato / 'in his hot anger' or 'the heat of his anger', he
(the Wicked Priest) 'pursued him' in order to destroy him. The reader should appreciate that the
Hebrew 'hamat' can mean either 'venom' or 'anger' which is the sense of the various plays and
interchanges taking place.
This language is reversed in sections of the pesher relating to the final eschatological judgement of
God on activities such as these, i.e. 'He (the Wicked Priest) would drink the cup of the Lord's divine
wrath', also expressed as 'hamat' (xi. 14). This has been further refined in the Book of Revelation,
which speaks of Jesus in its epilogue as being 'the root and Branch of David and the bright star of the
morning' (22:16), to read in 14:10: 'He will also drink the wine of the wrath of God, which is ready,
undiluted in the cup of His anger.' The root of this imagery is to be found in Isa. 51:17 and jet. 25:15f.