Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered - The Preterist Archive

imaginary or allegorical; or about the Copper Scroll for similar reasons, that it was not a real list of the
hiding places of Temple treasure. These are preposterous and completely miss the true ethos of the
group we have before us.
This group is 'Sadducee', or perhaps even better (to get the nuance of the Hebrew) 'Zadokites'. These
are not Sadducees like those portrayed in the New Testament or Josephus. They are of a different
stripe altogether. This is also borne out by texts like the two Letters on Works Righteousness in
Chapter 6, as well now as the disciplinary text preceding this Paean above. This group was actually
living out in the wilderness camps.
It is possible to call this group 'Essenes', but to do so one must redefine what one means by 'Essenes'
to take into account its militant, nationalist, and resistance-minded ethos, which some would call
'Zealot'. As we have been emphasizing, this group cannot have been anti-Maccabean; if anything it
was pro-Maccabean. The movement behind the literature at Qumran most likely commemorated the
Maccabean 'camp' tradition (the 'booths' of the new Feast of Tabernacles in the wilderness).
Alexander Jannaeus or other wilderness-fighting characters in the Maccabean tradition cannot have
been 'the Wicked Priest'. This is a contradiction in terms, and shows a complete failure to grasp the
import of the materials before us. Only an individual with Phariseeizing tendencies, like his more
accommodating son Hyrcanus lI, discussed in some detail above, could have been referred to in such a
manner. The few lines of this splendid little poem prove this proposition as nothing else can.
The poem has some interesting characteristics. First it is a poem. We have called it a 'Paean' to take
into account its laudatory praise of a great figure, as well as the 'Holiness' of the address, signalled in
the first dedicatory line. Secondly, it is very old. There is an apocryphal psalm on the top left of Plate
25 above it, which is in different handwriting and distinct from it. At the top of the Plate, too, to the
right of this psalm is the scrawled term, again in different handwriting, 'Hallelujah' (praise the Lord).
This phrase is found in later portions of the traditional Psalms, and its presence here further increases
the sense of religious awe of the document.
The apocryphal psalm at the top of the document is usually referred to as Psalm 154. It is known in
Syriac tradition and interestingly enough was attached to the psalms from Qumran found in Cave 11.
However it is not found in the Bible. It is a panegyric, glorifying 'the Many', thoroughly in keeping
with the Paean to King Jonathan attached on this parchment below it, and repelete with Qumranisms
like 'Hassidim', 'Zaddikim', 'the Upright', 'the Meek', 'his soul', 'a pleasing fragrance' and anew
formulation, 'the Simple', just encountered in the disciplinary text above. A parallel to 'the Poor', it is
found in similarly important contexts in the Habakkuk and Nahum Peshers. It is also probably
paralleled in the Gospels': 'these little ones' (Matt. 10:42, Mark 9:52, etc.). Whatever the role this
psalm was to have played in this document, its familiar apocalyptic nationalism is completely in
harmony with the ethos of Qumran and it may even have been composed there.
But it is upon the material at the bottom that our attention must focus. There the handwriting is
informal and cursive, and the sense laudatory. The dedication comes in an actual nine-line poem in the
margin at the right of the main body of material, set forth as Column 1 of our transcription. Each line
contains two phrases, though a few contain three, and one evoking 'Israel', contains one. It appears to