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Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered - The Preterist Archive

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Way], and also to mix the . . . (7) they repr[oved] [be]cause he . . . and also because he was not . . . (8)<br />

Furthermore, he loved his bodily emissions . . . (9) Hananiah ben Shim[. . . they reproved because . . .]<br />

(10) Furthermore, he loved . . .<br />

50. Paean Forking Jonathan (Alexander Jannaeus - 4Q448) (Plate 25)<br />

This text completely disproves the Essene theory of Qumran origins at least as classically conceived.<br />

It was known for some 30 years, but once again mistranslated and misinterpreted. What is more<br />

incomprehensible, the dedication 'to King Jonathan' was missed completely. Once again, it<br />

demonstrates the need for open access to all texts and the deleterious effects of opening archives only<br />

to a small circle of people.<br />

<strong>The</strong>re were really only two King Jonathan's in the history we have before us. <strong>The</strong>se were Jonathan the<br />

brother of Judas Maccabee (c. 15 5 BC), and Alexander Jannaeus (d. 76 BC), whom we have referred<br />

to in various contexts above. Since the first probably never even was 'king' in the true sense and was<br />

never addressed in this manner, we are probably in the realm of the second. We have had occasion to<br />

speak of him throughout these texts, but particularly with regard to the Priestly Courses III/Aemilius<br />

Kills text in Chapter 4.<br />

To have a text like this Paean, introduced by a dedicatory invocation or panegyric to him - in the<br />

words of the Paean itself, a Shir Kodesh or 'Holy Song'/'Poem' - is an historical treasure of high<br />

magnitude for the study of the <strong>Scrolls</strong>. <strong>The</strong>refore we close our work with it and its interpretation. <strong>The</strong><br />

fact that it was buried for so long, with the consequence that much of the debate concerning the state<br />

of affairs it addresses was misguided and misinformed, cannot be considered anything but<br />

reprehensible.<br />

Ten years ago, one of the editors of this volume observed that Qumran had to be considered pro-<br />

Maccabean, i.e. pro Alexander Jannaeus or Jonathan and not anti. He concluded from 2 Macc 5:27's<br />

picture of Judas and his nine companions out 'in the hills' eating nothing but plants 'to avoid<br />

contracting defilement', that the settlement might have been founded by the Maccabees to honour this<br />

'wilderness' experience, not (as in normative Qumran scholarship, which in his view exhibited a<br />

definite anti-Maccabean bias) in opposition to them.<br />

It should be noted that both Maccabee Books present the celebration they seem written to<br />

commemorate, Hanukkah, as a new Feast of Booths or Tabernacles in the wilderness when the Law<br />

was either first revealed or rededicated. This editor also noted Alexander Jannaeus' second wilderness<br />

sojourn thereafter, when the latter and about 6,000 of his partisans fled to 'the hills' surrounding<br />

Jerusalem to resist Demetrius. This Graeco-Seleucid King had been invited into the country by the<br />

presumable party opposing Alexander, the Pharisees (War 1.92-5).<br />

This invitation by the Pharisaic opponents of Alexander Jannaeus has to be considered a prototypical<br />

one for this party and the establishment Sadducees they eventually control. Later it is the Pharisee<br />

supporters of Hyrcanus II, presumably referred to disapprovingly in the text on Priestly Courses<br />

above, who sided with Pompey and the Scaurus mentioned in that text. <strong>The</strong>y are also presumably<br />

involved with Herod's father Antipas, who aided the Roman troops in overwhelming Aristobulus'

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