Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered - The Preterist Archive

son, on the day of the festival of We[eks, I had] (11) a fine banquet. I reclined to [ea]t, and they set the
ta[b]le before me. I saw the many delicacies that they brought, (12) and [I sa]id [to To]biah my son,
'My son, go and bring anyone [whom you] may find among [our] brothers (13) . . . my son, go and get
(such), that he may come and eat [together with me . . .]
21. Stories From The Persian Court (4Q550)
Apparently these stories concerned the adventures of Jews at the court of the Persian kings. The use of
the word 'Jew' (Yehudi) in 6.3 is, therefore, probably one of the oldest usages of this term - it is not
commonly found in other genres of Qumran literature, which tend either to speak in terms of classical
archetypes or to archaize (cf. the allusion to Beit-Yehudahl 'House of Judah' in the Habakkuk Pesher,
viii). We will find it in other interesting texts below, and apparently the usage was already becoming
common even in Palestine. One also begins to encounter it on the coins of the Maccabeans also
discussed below.
The genre of 'the Jew at the foreign court' was very popular during the period of the Scrolls. Such
stories encouraged the Jews in the years when they were under foreign domination, for they told of
great successes accomplished by their people. Further, they encouraged the Jews to remain loyal to
their God in the face of very enticing new cultural alternatives; these stories typically climaxed with
the foreign potentate forced to acknowledge the greatness of the Jewish God. Thus these adventures
were simultaneously great fun and an argument against idolatry.
As far as can be determined, the structure of the stories presented here was something like the
following: a young man raised at the court of the Persian king is at the age when he is about to embark
on his career at court. He is instructed as to the adventures of his predecessors, including his father
Fratervana, an earlier man named Bagasri and an intermediate figure known as Bagose. Bagasri
served in the time of Darius - perhaps the Darius of Dan. 6, who is usually identified as Darius 1 (522-
486 BC) or perhaps one of the later figures by that name: Darius 11 (423-405 BC) or Dairus 111 (335-
330 BC).
Bagasri had some problem at court, and was in danger of losing his life (Column 6). He triumphed
through the greatness of his God, and Darius was forced to acknowledge both his own sins (Column
4) and the power of the God of Israel (Column 8). The king also wrote a scroll telling the whole story
much like Nebuchadnezzar in Dan. 4. Bagose served at the court after Bagasri and somehow forfeited
all his possessions. Through a series of events now lost, he was vindicated, and like job his wealth
was returned to him in a double measure. Fratervana's tale connects in some way to the servants of the
royal wardrobe; perhaps he discovered a conspiracy against the king among those high officials.
The most obvious connections of these stories are with the so-called 'Court Stories of Daniel' (Dan. 1-
6). Other didactic tales to which the Qumran texts bears a resemblance are the Books of Tobit and
Judith. It should also be remarked that the Book of Esther, which so far has not been found in the
Qumran corpus, must also be understood as part of the genre of 'the Jew at the foreign court'. The text
before us is not dissimilar to Esther and could even have been a rival to it for inclusion in the canon.
Like Esther, there is a king who uses his own memoirs to recall the good services of Jewish courtiers
and an evil opponent whom the king ultimately punishes, while at the same time restoring the good