Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered - The Preterist Archive

Another important point it makes, before moving on to even more serious concerns and the second of
the two Genesis 'salvation of the Righteous' stories, is that Abraham was the 'friend of God'. The
actual terminology used in 2.8 is 'beloved of God'. This is precisely the language the Damascus
Document uses to describe Abraham. Interestingly, CD,ii.18ff. does so following an allusion to the
'Heavenly Watchers' and the Noah story just as here. For it, the former fell 'because they walked in the
stubbornness of their heart' and 'did not keep the Commandments of God' (italics ours).
Interestingly too, this is precisely the language James. 3:2 3 and 4:4 uses to discuss how his adversary
turned himself into 'the Enemy of God' 4:4. We noted this language above when discussing the
meaning of Mastema - 'Enemy' or 'Adversary'. For the Damascus Document, Abraham was designated
'beloved of God', language very familiar to Islam, because 'he kept the Commandments' (language
also familiar to the Letter of James), and it proceeds to designate Isaac and Jacob as 'friends of God' as
well, just as later Muhammad designates them along with Abraham as 'those who have surrendered to
God' i.e. Muslims (Koran 2:133ff.).
The first of these 'escape and salvation' stories in Genesis is, of course, the Noah story. Gen. 6:9
describes Noah as 'Righteous and perfect in his generation', important terminologies in Qumran
literature. The second is the story of Lot. This is picked up in Column 3, which follows in the
document before us. This interest, in a compendium as short as the Florilegium which simply skims
Genesis for interesting issues, in the two first escape and rescue stories involving 'Zaddikim' in the
bible is probably not accidental. It reflects the preeminent position 'the Righteous' play in Qumran
ideology generally, as they do in Jewish Christianity to follow, and Kabbalah thereafter.
This interest is also apparent in the Gospel of Thomas 12, as is, of course, the parallel interest in
James: In the place where you are to go, go to James the Righteous One for whose sake Heaven and
Earth came into existence'. Curiously the best place to look for an explanation of the allusions here is
in the medieval Jewish work of mysticism, the Zohar. Discussing this Noah episode in 59b, it
describes 'the Zaddik' in Prov. 10:25's words as the 'Foundation of the world, and ... the Pillar that
upholds it'. In the Zohar's view, and in much of Jewish mysticism thereafter, the very existence of the
universe is predicated on the existence of the Righteous/ Righteous One.
In the Genesis Florilegium, there is a collateral interest in sexual matters reflecting the condemnation
of 'fornication' which one finds in other Qumran documents like that in the 'three nets of Belial'
section of the Damascus Document. This is a main concern of James' instructions to overseas
communities in Acts, as it is in the letter attributed to his name. This concern is not only prominent in
both the Ham/ Canaan and Sodom/Gomorrah episodes before us, but also the stories which follow
these about blotting out Amalek's name 'from under Heaven' and Reuben's disqualification from his
rightful legacy owing to his sexual relations with his father's concubine Bilha. This latter was
seemingly as jarring to ancient ears as it is to modern. Referred to in the Blessings of Jacob at the end
of Gen. 49:3-4, Reuben's disqualification sets the stage for the blessings on Judah that follow, which
are themselves, as we shall see, of very great interest and the climax of the present text as well.
The problem of Reuben's supposed transgression also seems to have disturbed the author of Jub.
33:lOff., who wrestled with the question of why Reuben was not treated according to the Law and
stoned as per Lev. 18 and 20. He explains - again somewhat facilely - that the laws of incest had not