Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered - The Preterist Archive

Column 4 (1) '[. . . and] Timna was the concubine of Eliphaz the son of Esau, and she bore him
Amalek.' It was he whom Saul exterminat[ed] (2) as He said to Moses, 'In the future you will erase the
memory of Amalek (3) from under Heaven.' < > The blessings of Jacob: 'Reuben, you are my first
born, (4) the first portion of my strength, preeminent in stature and preeminent in power, unstable as
water-(but) you shall not be preeminent. You mounted (5) your father's marriage couch, thereby
defiling it because he lay on it.' < > Interpreted, this means that he reproved him, because (6) he
(Reuben) slept with Bilhah his (father's) concubine. When it says 'You are my first born,' it means . . .
Reuben was (7) the first in theory . . .
Column 5 (1) '(the) Government shall [not] pass from the tribe of Judah.' During Israel's dominion, (2)
a Davidic descendant on the throne shall [not c]ease. For 'the Staff' is the Covenant of the Kingdom.
(3) [The leaders of Israel, they are 'the Feet' (referred to in Genesis 49:11), until the Messiah of
Righteousness, the Branch of (4) David comes, because to him and his seed was given the Covenant
of the Kingdom of His people in perpetuity, because (5) he kept . . . the Torah with the men of the
Community, because (6) . . . refers to the Congregation of the men of (7) . . . He gave
Column 6 (1) 'he shall yield royal dignities. Naphtali is a doe let loose, who gives (2) beautiful words.'
. . .
15. Joshua Apocryphon (4Q522)
This text contains an assortment of geographical locales and place names that may go back to the
period of Joshua or reflect some display or schema connected to the Davidic period. Because of the
reference to Eleazar, the high priest often associated with Joshua's activities, we have called it a
Joshua Apocryphon, though the text, as it has been preserved in the second column, clearly focuses on
the figure of David, his activities, his conquests, his kingship and, in particular, his building of the
Temple. Were it not for the fact that much of this seems to be phrased in terms of a prophecy from the
earlier conquest period, one might even call it a Samuel Apocryphon.
However, as with the Genesis Florilegium just considered, any idea that there is anything resembling
anti=Temple feeling in texts such as these - a notion widespread in the early days of Qumran research
based on the incompleteness of the data then available - is simply misguided and fails to come to grips
with the ethos of Qumran as it reveals itself in these texts. Nor is there anything remotely suggesting a
lack of interest in a Davidic kingship - quite the opposite; the Messianic implications in this text are
only a little less overt than the interpretation of the Shiloh Prophecy previously. Note for example in
this vein Lines 7-8 of Column 2: 'And the Lord will establish David securely . . . Heaven will dwell
with him forever.'
The very reconstruction 'Heaven', if accurate, is interesting when one considers similar constructions
in phrases like the Gospel of Matthew's 'Kingdom of Heaven'. It is also interesting that in Line 3 the
word 'rock' (sela') - a word not without its own interesting implications in Christianity - is evoked to
describe the Mountain of Zion.
David's conquest of Jerusalem, his building the Temple and rich decoration of it is lavishly praised.
For those who would refer to this literature as sectarian, the nationalist implications of texts such as