Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered - The Preterist Archive

'archapostles' who call themselves 'apostles of Christ', but whom he rather calls 'lying workmen'.
These, like 'Satan disguising himself as an Angel of Light', disguise themselves as 'servants of
Righteousness'. He ends in a parody of the presumed 'works Righteousness' of 'those proclaiming
another Jesus' of the kind we have seen above with regard to 'cursing', namely their 'end shall be
according to their works' (11:16).
The second allusion, 'the Perfection of their works' recapitulates one of the most important doctrines at
Qumran, 'Perfection'. This term is used in the Damascus Document, viii. 28-30, as it is in 2 Cor. 7:11,
in conjunction with 'Holiness': 'Perfect Holiness' or 'the Perfection of Holiness'. It is also used, as in the
numerous allusions to 'Perfection of the Way' or 'the Perfect of the Way', as a term of self-designation.
As such, it resonates with similar allusions in Matthew's Sermon on the Mount. Here, it is combined
with the 'works' ideology in a new and different way (10).
Manuscript A Fragment 2 should perhaps be referred to as the Ecology Hymn. It is a veritable Hymn
to Nature, one of the most beautiful pieces of nature poetry found at Qumran. On the whole the
Qumran literature we have seen thus far has been interested either in Eternal Holy Things or worldly
problems related to approaching Eternal Holy Things. In this little fragment, we have one of the first
expressions of a sensitivity to nature hitherto missing from the literature. Here the 'hills', 'valleys' and
'streams', 'the land of beauty', 'the depths of forests', 'the wilderness of the desert', 'its wilds' and 'deep
wells', 'the highland woods and the cedars of Lebanon' are praised together with 'all their produce' - in
a manner one felt had to be present at Qumran, but up to now was not.
We have entitled Fragment 3.2 'The Community Council Curses Belial'. It is an almost perfect
excommunication text of the kind at the end of the Damascus Document encountered in Chapter 6.
Though that text was assigned, as we have seen, to 'the priest commanding over the Many'
(presumably the high priest designate of the Community) and possibly the Mebakker / Bishop, this text
is actually assigned to the Community Council. Once again the homogeneity of the literature at
Qumran is demonstrated, i.e. this must be the very same Community Council so lovingly detailed in
the Community Rule and other texts. It is to be recited by the Community Council in unison, but this
Council according to other work is commanded by the Mebakker. If the latter is to be equated with 'the
priest commanding the Many', then once again all our allusions have come full circle.
Like the last column of the Damascus Document, the vehemence and militancy of this text is quite
startling. These are no peaceful Essenes, nor do the practitioners of this kind of hatred love their
enemies; rather in the style of 1QS,ix.21-2 and CD,vi.l4-15, they hate 'the sons of the Pit'. There is the
usual vocabulary of 'Belial' and 'the sons of Belial', 'cursing', 'Darkness', 'the Pit', 'Evil', all punctuated,
as in 1QS,ii, by repetitions of 'Amen, Amen'. In addition one gets new formulations, like 'the Angel of
the Pit', 'the Spirit of Destruction', 'the abominations of Sheol'. An allusion to mastemato also occurs in
3.2.2, here descriptive of Belial, further confirming the basic circularity of these references to Satan,
Belial and Mastemoth. Nor is there any sense of forgiveness here, but rather 'the fury of God's wrath'
will last forever (3.2.10).
Throughout the document as we have reconstructed it, one encounters additional familiar vocabulary
like 'the Way' imagery, 'Glory', 'the Holy Names', 'the Glorious Names of God', 'mighty works',
'healing' and 'miraculous works'. These last are particularly interesting where the history of Christianity
is concerned. But in addition, one has the paraphernalia of Jewish mysticism: 'wondrous Palaces', 'their