Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered - The Preterist Archive

we have seen, in i.6-7 of the Damascus Document. There it relates to the evocation of the 'root of
Planting out of Aaron and Israel', which God appears to have caused to grow 'to inherit His land'. In
the context of CD, the notion of 'visiting' can be taken to imply this first Messianic figure with roots in
both the Davidic and the priestly traditions or backgrounds, who would then be the similar figure who
'stands up', 'arises', or 'returns' at the end of the document. It could also be taken to mean the
Community itself. However this may be, the occurrence of this 'visiting' terminology in this Paean to
Alexander is striking.
Finally there is the important reference in 2.7 to the 'Joiners in the war' or 'joining the war'. Again the
terminology is striking. It is used in a most important context in the exegesis of the Zadokite Covenant
from Ezek. 44:15 in Column iv of the Cairo Damascus Document. It is possible to read the allusion in
that prophecy to 'the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok' as a construct phrase with the sense of 'the
priests who were the Bnei-Zadok Levites'. But the Damascus Document deliberately breaks this open
in favour of its preferred exegesis. 'Ands' are added, so the prophecy now reads: 'the priests and the
Levites and the sons of Zadok', all distinct categories, not descriptive of each other. This prepares the
way for the exegesis to follow, which then identifies 'the priests' as 'the penitents of Israel who went
out in the wilderness' and the 'sons of Zadok' in the well-known manner.
But the category 'the Levites' is not mentioned in the exegesis. Rather another word, our 'Joiners'
(Nilvim) here evidently playing on the word 'Levites', is inserted. The interpretation then reads: 'and
the joiners with them' - 'them', it will be remembered, being 'the penitents of Israel . . . in the desert'.
This is the term that reappears in this Paean to King Jonathan, but it is now tied to an additional
phrase, missing in the Damascus Document, namely 'the joiners in the war of or 'those joining in the
war of'. 'In the war of is a significant addition, evoking at once the war-like ethos of this group and
that war Jonathan seems to have been involved in against Demetrius, mentioned in the Nahum Pesher.
As it turns out, a variation of this terminology also appears in the Nahum Pesher, i.e. the verbal usage
'join'. There it is attached to the 'Simple' notation just encountered, and linguistically linked to the
expression ger-nilveh ('resident alien') - another variation of this usage - in the underlying text. The
word 'Nilvim' actually appears in Esther 9:27, where it is used to refer to 'Gentiles' connecting
themselves in some manner to the Jewish Community - therefore the sense of 'join'/ 'joining', which
plays on the word 'Levites' in the Damascus Document. In this, it may even refer to some 'associated',
albeit lesser, status, i.e. a cadre of God-fearing Gentiles associated with the Community. However this
may be, the presence of this allusion in this Paean to King Jonathan, the nationalist sentiments of
which are patent, with the additional evocation of being connected to war, is of no mean import.