Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered - The Preterist Archive
Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered - The Preterist Archive
Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered - The Preterist Archive
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30. Testament Of Amram (4Q543, 545-548)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Testament of Amram, if indeed we can call it this - Amram per se is mentioned only in<br />
Manuscript C - is one of the most splendid apocalyptic and visionary works in the corpus. In it, many<br />
of the themes we have encountered in the works discussed above come together in a fairly rationalized<br />
eschatological whole. <strong>The</strong>se include the usual 'Light', 'Darkness', 'Belial', 'Righteousness', 'Truth',<br />
'Lying' and 'Watcher' vocabulary, including the very nice allusions to 'sons of Righteousness' - which<br />
we have already identified as a variant of the 'sons of Zadok' terminology - 'sons of Light', 'sons of<br />
Darkness' and 'sons of Truth', again widely disseminated through the whole corpus. Added to these we<br />
have the very interesting allusion in Manuscript B to ‘serpents' and 'vipers' encountered in many texts<br />
from Qumran (e.g. CD,v.14), not to mention a well-known parallel imagery in the Gospels (Matt. 3:7,<br />
23:33, etc.).<br />
Though we cannot be sure that the several fragments and manuscripts represented in this<br />
reconstruction in fact belong to the same composition, nor that they can be sequentially arranged in<br />
the manner shown; there are, in fact, overlaps which seem to indicate multiple copies of a single work<br />
and, in any event, they can be grouped typologically together. In addition, because of internal and<br />
external similarities, they are probably part of a cycle of literature associated with Moses' father<br />
Amram. This, in turn, is related to the Testament of Kohath material and the Levi cycle in general.<br />
Manuscript C most fully preserves the beginning of the work, but has little in common with<br />
Manuscript B and Manuscript ?, which on the basis of content alone obviously belong together.<br />
Manuscript ? is referred to in this way in the literature, no more complete designation having yet been<br />
made. Manuscript C, which includes the names of the principal dramatis personae like Amram,<br />
Kohath, Levi, Miriam and Aaron, pretends to be more historical. It and Manuscript E even give some<br />
of the ages of these characters, which are widely out of line with any real chronological understanding<br />
of the Exodus sojourn. <strong>The</strong> surviving fragments do not, however, show any knowledge of a<br />
relationship between Miriam and Hur, as suggested in Chapter 3, unless Uzziel and Hur can be<br />
equated. One should also note the anachronistic reference to Philistines in 2:19, reflected perhaps too<br />
in the Era of Light text in Chapter 8.<br />
It is in Manuscript B, however, and the undesignated one succeeding it, that truly splendid material,<br />
which can hardly be referred to as testamentary, emerges. This consists again of a visionary recital of<br />
the most intense kind, similar to that in Chapters 1 and 2, the Firm Foundation materials above and in<br />
Chapter 7. Here, too, several identifications are made. First, in Line 13 of Manuscript B, the Enochic<br />
'Watchers' are identified with 'the serpent' with 'the visage of a viper'- evidently the same serpent that<br />
is connected to the downfall of man in the Adam and Eve story. We have probably already<br />
encountered him, as well, in the Tree of Evil text above.<br />
Three more names are accorded him: 'Belial', 'Prince of Darkness' and 'King of Evil'. This latter name,<br />
Melchi Jeshua, is to be contrasted with the well-known terminology integrally involved with Jesus'<br />
Messianic and eschatological priesthood, Melchi Zedek / 'King of Righteousness', (Heb. 5-7), a<br />
subject that has interested scholars heretofore. <strong>The</strong> latter has two other synonyms, the Archangel<br />
Michael, the guardian Angel of Israel, and the Prince of Light (E.3.2).