THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS AND THE DAY OF THE LORD: LOOKING BACK ON THE END
Kurt Simmons
The nature and meaning of Christ’s coming and kingdom
has been understood in different ways at different times. The
prevailing modern view, which we deem erroneous, is that
Christ’s second coming will be visible, bodily, and physical;
and will be marked either by a millennial reign of Christ on
earth, a material new creation, or by the end of the cosmos
itself. The nature of these expectations is such that those who
hold them still look for their fulfillment, giving rise to the
notion of a ‘delayed Parousia.’ However, early Christians
rejected the notion of a delayed Parousia, and instead viewed
Christ’s coming as spiritual and providential, and believed it
was accomplished in the events surrounding the persecution under
Nero (A.D. 64-68), the Roman civil wars that followed Nero’s
death (the ‘year of four emperors’ – A.D. 69), and the
destruction of Jerusalem by Rome (A.D. 70).
There is a strong correlation in the eschatological views
of these early Christians with the authors of the Dead Sea
scrolls, who also believed they were living in the ‘end of
days,’ and looked for victory over Rome and wrath upon the
Jewish nation by the coming of Messiah. The Dead Sea Scrolls
thus serve to corroborate the ‘Preterist’ view of eschatology.
I. WHAT IS PRETERISM?
The term
‘Preterism’ is derived from the Latin praeteritus, meaning that
which has past;
it describes
a school of eschatology that views end-time prophecy
as being fulfilled within the lives of the first disciples.
Specifically, Preterists view the end-time language and
imagery of Daniel, Revelation, and related prophecies as
describing events culminating in the persecution under Nero,
the series of Roman civil wars that followed Nero’s death,
and the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome.[1]
Other interpretative schools include ‘Futurism,’
‘Historicism,’ and ‘Idealism,’ but are beyond the scope of
this study.
Preterism had
a very significant showing in the early church. The great
Alexandrian thinker and writer, Origen (A.D. 184-254), was a
Preterist:
We do not
deny, then, that the purificatory fire and the destruction
of the world took place in order that evil might be swept
away, and all things be renewed; for we assert that we have
learned these things from the sacred books of the
prophets…But according to Celsus, ‘the Christians, making
certain additional statements to those of the Jews, assert
that the Son of God has been already sent on account of the
sins of the Jews; and that the Jews having chastised Jesus,
and given him gall to drink, have brought upon themselves
the divine wrath.’ And anyone who likes may convict this
statement of falsehood, if it be not the case that the whole
Jewish nation was overthrown within one single generation
after Jesus had undergone these sufferings at their hands.
For forty and two years, I think, after the date of the
crucifixion of Jesus, did the destruction of Jerusalem take
place.[2]
Origen’s use of the phrase ‘all things renewed’ almost
certainly alludes to Rev. 21:5, where John describes a ‘new
heaven and a new earth’ in which Christ’s bride is the ‘new
Jerusalem.’ The implication is that Origen interpreted
Revelation’s imagery as being bound up in the destruction of
the old Jerusalem by the coming of Christ, such that the
church became the ‘new Jerusalem,’ taking its place. More
importantly, Origen was not alone in this opinion, nor did
it originate with him: Celsus cites
other Christians as taking the view that Christ returned in
vengeance upon the Jewish nation. Indeed, Origen’s quotation
of Celsus gives every indication that the view was then
normative and
widely held among
Christians, as indeed it would have to have been for it to
come to the attention of an unbeliever and outsider like
Celsus, and find its way into his works as representative of
the general view among Christians. Hence, it would appear
that at this point in history, Preterism was the
dominant view of
eschatology embraced within the church.
The famous church historian, Eusebius (A.D. 260-340),
also made numerous Preterist statements. Regarding Jacob’s
prophecy of the ‘last days’ (LXX ‘end of days,’ Gen. 49:1,
10) Eusebius states:
For we must understand by ‘the end of the days’ the end of
national existence of the Jews. What, then, did he say they
must look for? The cessation of the rule of Judah, the
destruction of their whole race, the failing and ceasing of
their governors, and the abolition of the dominant kingly
position of the tribe of Judah, and the rule and kingdom of
Christ, not over Israel but over all nations, according to
the word, ‘This is the expectation of the nations.’[3]
According to Eusebius, then, the ‘latter days’
describes the period
ending with the abolition of the Jewish state and
polity, which has been replaced by the universal dominion
and government of Christ. Concerning Christ’s second advent,
Eusebius writes:
So, then, the prophecy before us says that He comes forth
from His place, and will descend upon the high-places of the
earth. How are we to understand this? Shall we take it
literally of the hills and mountains of Israel, which are
the subjects of so many prophecies, Jerusalem itself and
Mount Sion, in which our Lord and Saviour spent so much
time? If so, their destruction and ruin at the descent of
Christ would be prophesied. And it is the fact that after
the Saviour's coming and the treatment He received all the
hills mentioned were besieged, and utterly desolated. But
the rulers of the Jewish people as well, and their kingdom
that existed previously, their sacrificial system and the
seats of their teachers, here called Mountains
metaphorically, are said to be shaken by the Descent of the
Lord from heaven. And who could deny that this was fulfilled
after the time of our Saviour Jesus Christ, when he sees all
these things not only shaken, but abolished?[4]
Eusebius’ reference to things ‘shaken’ is probably
derived from Heb. 12:26-29, which quotes the prophet Haggai
where the Lord says ‘Yet once more I shake not the earth
only, but also heaven’ (cf. Hag. 2:6). The shaking of heaven and earth is poetic and
figurative language common to the prophets, used to describe
the overthrow of earthly governments and powers as the
original passage in Haggai expressly states (Hag. 2:7, 21,
22; cf. Isa.2:19—Assyrio-Babylonian
invasions; Isa. 13:13—Mede-Persian
capture of Babylon; Joel 3:16—wrath
upon miscellaneous nations; Luke 21:25, 26—destruction of Jerusalem by Rome). It is cited in the epistle to the
Hebrews to urge believers not to succumb to persecution from
their fellow countrymen,[5] since God
would soon visit judgment upon the Jewish nation, taking it
away, that the church might assume its place as God’s
covenant people in the world. More to the point, however,
Eusebius saw Christ’s second coming as an
accomplished fact,
evidenced by the destruction of the Jewish state. Even
Jewish Christians took this view, as evidence by the
‘Moriad.’
The Moriad is a book-length epic poem written by a
third century Christian-Jew about the A.D. 70 destruction of
the Jewish state. The name is taken from Mount Moriah (Zion)
with ‘ad’ appended as a suffix similar to the ‘Iliad’ and
the ‘Aeneid.’ The poem was written by Ben Asaph and
translated into English from Syriac Hebrew by Anselm
Korlstoff in 1857. It tells the story of the Jewish war with
Rome based upon scripture and the history of Josephus, and
is Preterist in eschatology. Book two, entitled “The
Advent,” describes Christ’s coming to visit destruction upon
the Jewish state:
“And now, O Branch, (on earth called Christ), descend,
And bring the Second Institution to an end.
Sweep from the land the wretched Jewish State,
Their temple burn, and yield them to their fate.
To spirit-baptism they will not aspire,
So let Jerusalem be baptized with fire![6]
This is a clear reference to John the Baptist’s eschatological warning in
Matt. 3:10-12, and shows this third century Christian-Jew
understood Christ’s second coming as fulfilled in the A.D.
70 fall of Jerusalem.
II. TIME STATEMENTS BY BIBLICAL AUTHORS
Statements like these from early Christian writers
could be multiplied, including comments by Victorinus (died
303-304),[7]
Augustine (A.D. 354-430),[8]
and Jerome (A.D. 347-420),[9]
the latter two of whom, if they did not embrace Preterism
themselves, nevertheless testify that its basic assumptions
were still prevalent in the church well into the fourth and
fifth centuries. Indeed, it is widely recognized that the
source of Preterism in the early church was none other than
Jesus and the disciples—not, of course, in the sense that
the events of which they spoke and wrote were already
fulfilled, but that they looked for fulfillment in the
apostles’ lifetimes.
Jesus stated that he would come in his kingdom, in power,
while some of the disciples were still alive (Matt. 16:27,
28; Mark 8:38, 9:1); before they had opportunity to preach
in all the cities of Israel (Matt. 10:23); in judgment and
wrath upon the very generation that crucified him (Matt.
23:36-39; 24:29-34); the Sanhedrin that tried him would
‘see’ him seated on the right hand of power and coming in
the clouds of heaven (Matt. 26:64; Mark 14:61;
cf. Dan. 7:13, 22;
Acts 1:11; Rev. 1:7). The apostle John was specifically
named as one who would live to see Christ’s return (John
21:20-22; cf. Rev.
10:11).
Peter warned his audience on the first Pentecost after
Christ’s ascension that the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit
signified that they were in the ‘last days,’ and that Joel’s
prophecy of the ‘great and notable day of the Lord’ was upon
them (Acts 2:14-21). When uttered, Joel’s prophecy had an
immediate, historical application to a drought, famine, and
locust plague (Joel 1). However, it’s
plenior sensus
(fuller sense) looked to messianic times, which Peter
indicated was then being fulfilled, and makes explicit
reference to the overthrow of Jerusalem (Joel 2:1); its
possible range of fulfillment is limited to ancient times by
reference to chariots, swords, the temple, the priesthood,
meat and drink offerings, Jerusalem’s city walls, and
Peter’s warning to ‘save yourselves from this perverse
generation’—words that mirror the Lord’s statement that the
city would be overthrown before that generation passed away
(Joel 1:9, 14; 2:1-17; Matt. 24:34; Acts 2:40). Peter’s
application of Joel’s prophecy to the
contemporary-historical situation then playing out also
helps set the context for the book of Revelation: John uses
Joel’s imagery to describe the ‘abomination of
desolation’—the legions of Rome portrayed as a preternatural
army of locusts and scorpion-centaurs sent to denude
Galilee, Jerusalem, and Judea of men (Rev. 9;
cf. Dan. 9:24-27;
12:11; Matt. 24:15).[10]
A short time after Peter’s sermon on Pentecost, Stephen
was arraigned for saying Jesus would come and destroy the
city and temple and change the customs Moses delivered to
the people (Acts 6:14). During his defense, Stephen quoted
the prophet Isaiah who predicted the destruction of the city
and temple hundreds of years before (Acts 7:49; Isa 66:1-6,
15):
Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at his word; Your
brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name’s
sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified: but he shall appear
to your joy, and they shall be ashamed. A voice of noise
from the city, a voice from the temple,
a voice of the Lord that rendereth recompense to his
enemies…For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with
his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with
fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
Stephen quoted Isaiah’s prophecy in support of the
proposition that the temple was holy only insofar as it was
approved by God. But inasmuch as Isaiah had condemned the
city and temple to destruction, Stephen could hardly be
guilty of blasphemy for merely repeating what God himself
had said. In verse three, the prophet calls the continuing
temple service and sacrifices an
abomination chosen
in obstinate defiance of God.
The priesthood and sacrifices were shadows prefiguring
the cross of Christ (Col. 2:16, 17; Heb. 10:1). The shadow
ends where the
body begins; the
body (substance) of the ceremonial law was Christ. The
continuing temple service therefore stood as an
implicit denial of
the substitutionary death and atoning sacrifice of Jesus,
marking the temple’s adherents as enemies of the gospel,
destined for destruction in Jerusalem’s fall. Added to their
crimes was the persecution of believers, casting them out
for Jesus’ name sake—something the Gospel of John thrice
gives in testimony (John 9:22; 12:42; 16:2;
cf. Matt. 23:34).
Isaiah’s prophecy is particularly important inasmuch as it
twice mentions the Lord’s coming in connection with the destruction
of Jerusalem, and concludes with the promised new heavens
and earth mentioned by Peter and John—the latter at the
close of the book of Revelation where the metaphor is
employed to describe the world under the providential
government of Christ, ruling the nations with a rod of iron
from the right hand of the throne of God, ‘angels and
authorities and powers being made subject unto him’ (1 Pet.
3:22; cf. Isa.
65:17, 66:22; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21, 22).[11]
Language describing the imminence of Christ’s return
intensified as the generation of first disciples grew to a
close: Paul said the time is ‘short’ (1 Cor. 7:29); the
night was ‘far spent;’ the day was ‘at hand’ (Rom. 13:12);
God would ‘shortly’ bruise the adversary beneath the
church’s feet (Rom. 16:20). Peter said the ‘end of all
things is at hand’ (1 Pet 4:7), and the ‘time had come’ for
judgment to begin (1 Pet 4:17). James said the ‘coming of
the Lord draweth nigh;’ the ‘judge standeth before the door’
(James 5:8, 9). The epistle to the Hebrews said it was a
‘very little while’ (Gk.
micron, hoson, hoson)
and ‘he that shall come will come and will not tarry’ (Heb
10:37). John said ‘it is the last hour’ (1 John 2:18); the
book of Revelation opens and closes with warnings that it
describes things that ‘must shortly come to pass’ for the
‘time is at hand’ (Rev 1:1, 3; 22:6, 10); Jesus repeatedly
states ‘behold, I come quickly’ (Rev 22:11, 20); and warns
the seven churches of Asia Minor to be vigilant, lest at his
coming he find them unprepared (Rev 2:5; 16, 25; 3:3, 11;
cf. Matt
24:42-51).[12]
III. LIBERALS, CONSERVATIVES, AND THE INERRANCY OF
SCRIPTURE
It is difficult to side step the time statements of New
Testament writers, or to dismiss them by saying ‘one day is
with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as
one day’ (2 Pet 3:8;
cf. Ps 90:4). Without entering into debate concerning
the nature and quality of Biblical inspiration, suffice it
to say that time statements regarding Christ’s coming and
kingdom serve as a point of contention between liberals and
conservatives. Liberal theologians and skeptics have long
chided conservatives who champion plenary inspiration and
the inerrancy of scripture by pointing to such time
statements, charging that Jesus and the apostles did not
know what they were saying for they were obviously wrong.
Bart Ehrman, Professor of Religious Studies at the
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, takes the view
that scripture is of purely human origination as evidenced
(among other things) by Christ’s delayed
Parousia. Ehrman
states:
The earliest sources that we have consistently ascribed an
apocalyptic message to Jesus. This message begins to be
muted by the end of the first century (e.g., in Luke), until
it virtually disappears (e.g., in John), and begins, then,
to be explicitly rejected and spurned (e.g., in Thomas). It
appears that when the end never did arrive, Christians had
to take stock of the fact that Jesus said it would and
changed his message accordingly. You can hardly blame them.[13]
Erhman was preceded in his views by Albert Schweitzer:
The whole history of ‘Christianity’
down to the present day, that is to say, the real inner
history of it, is based on the delay of the Parousia, the
non-occurrence of the Parousia, the abandonment of
eschatology, the progress and completion of the
‘de-eschatologising’ of religion which has been connected
therewith.[14]
Unfortunately, there is a good deal of truth in what
Schweitzer and Ehrman state: For those still looking for
‘the end,’ Christ’s message
has been changed;
Christianity has been ‘de-eschatologized’ by various devices
to allow for the indefinite postponement of the
Parousia, now
amounting to two thousand years and counting. Conservatives
are thus caught on the horns of a dilemma: If the Old and
New Testaments are scripture and scripture is inerrant, how
do they account for the delayed
Parousia? Doesn’t a delayed
Parousia imperil the doctrines of plenary inspiration
and inerrancy of scripture?[15]
For Preterists, the solution is simple: The ‘end’ and
all that it entailed came precisely when and as Jesus and
the apostles said it would, albeit in a
manner different
than popularly supposed. The
usus loquendi of
the prophets was highly figurative and poetic; not literal.
It was not the end and regeneration of the
physical cosmos
that they announced and foretold, but the
spiritual regeneration of the world by the gospel and reign of
Christ.
There are many ‘days of the Lord’ recorded in the pages
of the Old Testament—many instances of national and world
judgment in which the Lord ‘came’ in wrath and vengeance
upon the world of sinful men. These comings were always
spiritual and providential, not bodily and visible. Thus,
the Lord would ride a ‘swift cloud’ and ‘come’ in judgment
upon Egypt (Isa. 19:1;
cf. Rev. 1:7); the Lord of hosts would ‘come’ against
Babylon in the armies of the Medes and Persians (Isa.
13:5-13, 17; cf.
Matt. 24:29); the day of the Lord’s vengeance would be upon
Edom and all nations by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar in
language appropriated by John in Revelation (Isa. 34:1-10;
Rev. 6:13, 14); Ezekiel saw the Lord coming in his
throne-chariot by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar against
Jerusalem and Judea (Ezek. 1:4-28). Jeremiah described this
same time of judgment, saying, the Lord ‘shall come up as
clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind’ leaving
the earth ‘without form, and void’ at the ‘presence of the
Lord, and by his fierce anger’ (Jer. 4:13-29). In a list of
nations stretching over nine chapters (Isa. 15-23) that
would be visited with judgment in the Assyrio-Babylonian
invasions, Isaiah sums the devastation up, saying,
Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it
waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the
inhabitants thereof…the earth is utterly broken down, the
earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
Isa. 24:1, 19; cf.
Jer. 25:8-38
The Minor Prophets wrote about the Assyrio-Babylonian
invasions using similar language. Micah describes the Lord’s
coming against Samaria and Jerusalem, saying:
For, behold, the Lord cometh forth out of his place, and
will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth.
And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys
shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters
that are poured down a steep place. Micah 1:1-5
Zephaniah wrote of the Babylonian invasion and God’s
wrath upon Palestine, including Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod,
Ekron, Moab, Ammon, the Ethiopians, Assyria, and Judea,
saying:
The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth
greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord: the mighty
man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a
day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and
desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of
clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm
against the fenced cities, and against the high towers.
Zeph. 1:1-16
All these were ‘comings;’ all were ‘days of the Lord;’
all involved highly-charged language bespeaking the end of
the cosmos, but in reality merely times of national and
world judgment by God’s providential activity in the world
of men. Since identical language is used in the New
Testament, it must be interpreted the same way—or good reason provided why it should not. Preterists would urge
that it is the failure to interpret identical language in
identical ways that creates the appearance of a delayed
Parousia: Men have
been looking for something that never materializes because
it was never intended to be understood that way! Jesus came
when and as he said he would, albeit not the ‘personal,
physical, and visible’ coming so often assumed by readers of
the New Testament, but in the manner we repeatedly see in
the Old Testament. In the words of Bishop Lightfoot (A.D.
1602-1675), a prominent member of the Westminster Assembly:
Whereas the Jews would
not own Christ before for the Son of man, or for the
Messias, then, by the vengeance that he should execute upon
them, they and all the world should see an evident sign,
that he was so. This, therefore, is called ‘his coming,’ and
‘his coming in his kingdom;’ because this did first declare
his power, glory, and victory, on that nation that had
despised him...not only in the horrid civil wars among the
Jews, but also in the great concussions in the Roman empire,
in the wars betwixt Otho and Vitellius, and betwixt
Vitellius and Vespasian (of which the Roman historians,
especially Tacitus, are very large); the like to which,
there had not been before, even to the sacking of Rome
itself, and the burning of the Capitol.[16]
We’ll look more at this as we progress. For the
present, we want to survey the Dead Sea scrolls, for we
believe they will show that their original owners and
authors embraced similar views of eschatology, believing
they, too, were living in the ‘last times’ as marked by the
Roman conquest of Judea and the impending destruction of
Jerusalem.
IV. WHAT ARE THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS?
The ‘Dead Sea Scrolls’ describes a collection of texts
found in eleven caves near Qumran in the northwest area of
the Dead Sea.[17]
This group of texts represents approximately 800 original
documents, dating from about 200 B.C. to A.D. 70. A small
portion of the texts may possibly date back to the third
century B.C. However, the bulk of the texts date to the
first century B.C.,
i.e., the late Hasmonean or early Herodian era.[18]
‘Dead Sea Scrolls’ is also sometimes used to describe a
larger body of texts, which are of a separate provenance
than the Qumran caves, including texts found at Masada and
in fifteen caves used by refugees of the Bar Kokhba Revolt
(A.D. 132-135).[19]
Texts from the Bar Kokhba refuge caves, which were excavated
in 1960-61, include letters to and from Simon Bar Kokhba,
the leader of the revolt, and various military, legal,
administrative, and personal and financial records, as well
as religious and Biblical texts, including a scroll of the
Twelve Minor Prophets. Excavations at Masada (1963-65)
produced fragments of seven Biblical texts, including
Genesis, two copies of Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Ezekiel, and
two copies of the Psalms. Biblical texts from Masada and the
Bar Kokhba refuge caves match the traditional Masoretic
text, which serves as the basis of the modern Hebrew Bible,
or Old Testament. Prior to their discovery, the oldest
Hebrew manuscripts in our possession were the Cairo Codex
(circa A.D. 895), the Aleppo Codex (circa A.D. 920), and the
Leningrad Codex (circa A.D. 1008), all traditional Masoretic texts.[20]
The discoveries at Masada and the Bar Kokhba caves therefore
authenticate the text of modern, Hebrew Bibles, pushing back
the date of manuscript witness one thousand years to New
Testament times. This is by far the most important
contribution the Scrolls have made. But there are other
things we can learn from the Scrolls.
1. The Qumran
Scrolls & Community. The scrolls at Qumran were
discovered in 1947 by a young Bedouin shepherd. By 1949
officials of the Jordanian government had identified the
cave where the scrolls were found. Hundreds of fragments and
seven more scrolls were recovered. Between 1951 and 1956,
ten more caves were discovered, which yielded thousands of
fragments and several additional scrolls. The texts
recovered represented three types of material: 1) books from
the Old Testament canon; 2) various Apocryphal and
Pseudepigraphical works; and 3) sectarian texts reflecting
the traditions and dogma of the sectaries of Qumran. Ruins
of the settlement known as Khirbet Qumran in the vicinity of
the caves were also excavated, and the view quickly came to
prevail that the caves and site at Qumran were
interconnected.
Preliminary studies concluded that the scrolls were
produced or belonged to the ascetic sect known as the
Essenes, mentioned by Josephus, Philo, and Pliny the Elder.
In the years following, this thesis was developed at length
and now represents the generally accepted view of scholars
and archaeologists. Three points of contact support this
conclusion: 1) the scroll known as the ‘Community Rule,’
which regulated the religious life of the community in
conjunction with the Old Testament, describes a monastic
community where men lived in celibacy and all property was
held in common. This and various additional doctrinal
indicia culled from the scrolls accord with descriptions of
the Essenes left by Josephus, Philo, and Pliny. 2) The
location of Qumran conforms to Pliny’s description of the
Essene community, which he placed between Jericho and
Engaddi:[21]
Lying on the west of Asphaltites [viz., the Dead Sea], and
sufficiently distant to escape its noxious exhalations, are
the Esseni, a people that live apart from the world, and
marvellous beyond all others throughout the whole earth, for
they have no women among them; to sexual desire they are
strangers; money they have none; the palm-trees are their
only companions. Day after day, however, their numbers are
fully recruited by multitudes of strangers that resort to
them, driven thither to adopt their usages by the tempests
of fortune, and wearied with the miseries of life. Thus it
is, that through thousands of ages, incredible to relate,
this people eternally prolongs its existence, without a
single birth taking place there; so fruitful a source of
population to it is that weariness of life which is felt by
others. Below this people was formerly the town of Engadda,
second only to Hierosolyma [Jerusalem] in the fertility of
its soil and its groves of palm-trees; now, like it, it is
another heap of ashes. Next to it we come to Masada, a
fortress on a rock, not far from Lake Asphaltites. Thus much
concerning Judæa.[22]
3) Finally, chronological events alluded to in the
Qumran writings correspond with Jewish history and the first
mention of the Essenes by Josephus.
2. Probable
Origin of the Essenes: Judas Maccabeus and the Hassidim.
The Essenes are first mentioned by Josephus during the
inter-testamental period, in the time of the kingdom of the
Greeks. Alexander the Great conquered Palestine in 332 B.C.
Following Alexander’s death in 323 B.C., his kingdom was
divided among his generals, and Judea came under the
dominion of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, seated in Egypt. Although
required to pay taxes, the Jews enjoyed considerable
autonomy and continued to be ruled by the High Priest and
Sanhedrin. A large population of Jews also lived in
Alexandria, Egypt, where they enjoyed equal rights as
citizens and were allowed to observe their religion without
fear or molestation. It was during Ptolemaic control of
Palestine that the Greek translation of the Bible known as
the Septuagint was completed under Ptolemy II Philadelphus
(285-246 B.C.). Even so, Greek domination of Palestine
brought significant demographic changes; the Greek cities of
Gaza, Askelon, Joppa, Sycothopolis, and Ptolemais, were
founded or grew up; Samaria was given the Hellenized name
Sabaste; and the Transjordan city of Rabath-Ammon was
re-founded as Philadelphia. Judea was therefore surrounded
by Greek culture and civilization.
In 200 B.C., the Seleucid Dynasty, seated in Syria,
was able to wrest control of the Holy Land from the
Ptolemies. As part of a program to solidify control of his
kingdom, Antiochus IV Epiphanes (171-164 B.C.) undertook a
formal Hellenizing program; local peoples were required to
abandon their ancestral gods and to worship Olympian Zeus.
Antiochus’ Hellenization campaign was met with enthusiasm by
the Jews’ ruling elite, including the High Priest, Jason,
and two of his successors, who abandoned the law, and
adopted various facets of Greek culture; some going even so
far as to surgically reverse the circumcision of their
genitals so they could exercise naked in the gymnasium in
the manner of the Greeks. To eradicate all vestiges of
Judaism, Antiochus caused the temple in Jerusalem to be
polluted with swine’s blood and a statue of Olympian Zeus
erected. Keeping the law of Moses was made a capital
offense; women who circumcised their sons were crucified
with their children hung about their necks. At length, armed
resistance broke out; a revolt was instigated by a priest
named Matthias, whose son, Judas Maccabeus, defeated
Antiochus, gained autonomy for Judea, and purified and
rededicated the temple.
[23]
Judas was helped in his revolt by a group known as the
Assideans or Hassidim:
‘Then came there unto him a company of Assideans, who were
mighty men of Israel,
even all such as were voluntarily devoted to the law’
(I Macc. 2:42). Most scholars believe
that the Hassidim were the immediate forerunners of the
Essenes.
3. Essene Resistance to Usurpation of the Zadokite Priesthood. Writings
from Qumran indicate the sect was eventually forced to
sojourn in Damascus and withdraw into the desert due to a
conflict with the politico-religious leadership of
mainstream Judaism.[24]
Scholars interpret this, at least in part, to opposition by
Essenes and traditionalist Jews to the usurpation of the
High Priesthood by non-Zadokite priests.
The High Priesthood had been held exclusively by
descendants of Zadok from the time of Solomon who thrust
Abiathar from the priesthood (1 Kgs 2:26, 27;
cf. 1:1-40) in
fulfillment of a prophecy by God against the house of Eli (1
Sam 2:31-35). The High Priesthood passed from the sons of
Zadok during the Hellenizing campaign of Antiochus IV
Epiphanes. However, after Judas Maccabaeus had defeated
Antiochus and restored the temple, the priesthood was not
returned to the sons of Zadok. Rather, following the death
of Judas Maccabaeus, the High Priesthood was assumed by his
brother, Jonathan Maccabaeus. Jonathan received the High
Priesthood from Alexander Balas, a usurper of the Seleucid
throne, who offered it to Jonathan to secure his support and
alliance.[25]
It is during the time of Jonathan Maccabaeus that Josephus
first mentions the existence of the Essenes by name.[26] The
Essenes saw the priesthood and temple services as corrupted,
and therefore did not sacrifice there, but looked for the
restoration of the priesthood to the sons of Zadok by the
coming of the Messiah:
The Master shall bless the sons of Zadok the Priests, whom
God has chosen to confirm his Covenant for ever, and to
inquire into all His precepts in the midst of His people,
and to instruct them as He commanded; who have established
His Covenant on truth and watched over all His laws with
righteousness and walked according to the way of His choice.
May the Lord bless you from His holy Abode; may He set you
as a splendid jewel in the midst of the congregation of the
saints! May he renew for you the Covenant of the everlasting
priesthood; may He sanctify you for the House of Holiness![27]
Other theories regarding the identity of the community
at Qumran have been floated but have not gained serious
attention.[28]
Before looking at the beliefs and eschatology of the
Essenes, we’ll take a few moments to survey the scrolls and
manuscripts found at Qumran, beginning with the Hebrew
canon. As we shall see, the content of the scrolls and the
Essenes’ attitude toward the Hebrew canon and prophetic
utterance bear directly upon their belief they were living
in the latter days.
V. QUMRAN AND THE OLD
TESTAMENT CANON
Josephus states concerning the Hebrew canon:
For we have not an innumerable multitude of books among us,
disagreeing from and contradicting one another [as the Greek
texts have,] but only twenty-two books, which contain the
records of all the past times; which are justly believed to
be divine; and of them, five belong to Moses, which contain
his laws, and the traditions of the origin of mankind till
his death. This interval of time was little short of three
thousand years; but as to the time from the death of Moses
till the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, who reigned
after Xerxes, the prophets, who were after Moses, wrote down
what was done in their times in thirteen books. The
remaining four books contain hymns to God, and precepts for
the conduct of human life.[29]
The twenty-two books of the Hebrew canon mentioned by
Josephus are the same as our thirty-nine; however, the Jews
arranged and divided the books differently to match the
number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. The typical
arrangement of the Hebrew canon was a three-fold division of
the ‘law,’ the ‘prophets,’ and the ‘writings.’ However, the
exact arrangement and division was not settled. Some lists
join Ruth to Judges and Lamentations to Jeremiah; some
separate these books, but combine 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2
Kings as a single book of ‘the kingdoms;’ some include Job
and Esther among the ‘writings,’
etc. Given this
fluidity, the arrangement and division as conceived by
Josephus cannot be known for certain, but the following
seems reasonably likely:
Twe
Books of Moses (five books)
Former & Latter Prophets
(thirteen
books)
Hymns & Wisdom
(four books)
1. Genesis
2. Exodus
3. Leviticus
4. Numbers
5. Deuteronomy
6. Joshua
7. Judges
8. Ruth
9. I & II Samuel / I & II Kings
10. I & II Chronicles
11. Ezra
12. Nehemiah
13. Esther
14. Isaiah
15.Jeremiah/ Lamentations
16. Ezekiel
17. Daniel
18. The Twelve
a)
Hosea
b)
Joel
c)
Amos
d)
Obadiah
e)
Jonah
f)
Micah
g)
Nahum
h)
Habakkuk
i)
Zephaniah
j)
Haggai
k)
Zechariah
l)
Malachi
19. Job
20. Psalms
21.Proverbs/ Ecclesiastes
22. Song of Songs
nty-two Books of the Hebrew Canon
1. Qumran and the Apocrypha. Two Apocrypha were found at Qumran: Tobit
and Ecclesiasticus (The Wisdom of Ben Sira), though some add
the Epistle of Jeremiah.[32] The
Apocrypha refer to a collection of books that are part of
the Septuagint. The books of the Apocrypha are: 1 Esdras,
Tobit, Judith, additions to Esther, Wisdom of Solomon,
Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, Epistle of Jeremiah, additions to
Daniel—Song of the Three Children, Susanna (Daniel 13), Bel
and the Dragon (Daniel 14)—1-4 Maccabees, and the Prayer of
Manasseh.
The Septuagint is a Greek translation of the Old
Testament scriptures commissioned or completed by Ptolemy
Philadelphus about 250 B.C. The books of the Apocrypha are
considered non-canonical by Jews and Protestants; prophetic
utterance terminated under the dominion of the Persians and
did not resume until the time of the Romans. The books of
the Apocrypha were written in the time of the Greeks. Philo
Judaeus, an Alexandrian Jew who lived in the first century
A.D., never cites them, nor does any New Testament writer.
Josephus consulted I Esdras and I Maccabees in composing his
histories, but did not consider them canonical. The test of
canonicity for Josephus was
prophetic unction,
presumably the same as Paul’s ‘theopneustos,’ ‘God-breathed’
(2 Tim 3:16). Concerning the Apocrypha, Josephus states:
It is true, our history hath been written since Artaxerxes,
very particularly, but hath not been esteemed of the like
authority with the former by our forefathers, because there
hath not been an exact succession of prophets since that
time.[33]
Artaxerxes Longimanus reigned 465-424 B.C. The book of
Malachi was written
circa 444-430 B.C. Following Malachi, there were
approximately 430 years of prophetic silence, broken only by
the birth of Christ and John the Baptist whose coming
Malachi said would precede the nation’s destruction in the
‘great and dreadful day of the Lord’ (Mal 3:1-3; 4:1-5).[34]
The day of the Lord would be both a time of salvation and a
time of wrath and judgment. The Lord would save his people
from their oppressors and persecutors, and destroy his
adversaries, including especially the Jews. This is nowhere
more explicitly foretold than the prophet Zechariah:
Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be
divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations
against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken,
and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of
the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of
the people shall not be cut off from the city. Zech. 14:1-2
The 430 years of prophetic silence following Malachi
was not unfelt by the Jews, and many spurious compositions
of feigned visions and revelations were produced and have
come down to us in the form of Pseudepigrapha.
2. Qumran and
Pseudepigrapha. The term ‘pseudepigrapha’ means ‘falsely
ascribed;’ it is used to describe the body of writings
produced during the inter-testamental period between Malachi
and the Gospels, which are falsely attributed to a prophet
or other Biblical figure. With the exception of historical
books like Maccabees, the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha are
essentially identical, distinguished only by the former’s
inclusion in the Septuagint. Pseudepigrapha imitate the tone
and imagery of the prophets, particularly Daniel and
Ezekiel, and often contain revelations of the future
salvation of Israel and the judgment of the wicked by the
Messiah. A large percentage of the material discovered at
Qumran may be characterized as apocryphal and
pseudepigraphic. These include:
-
Apocalypse Chronology
-
Conquest of Egypt and Jerusalem or Acts of a Greek King
-
The Triumph of the Righteous or Mysteries
-
A Messianic Apocalypse
-
Jubilees
-
The Prayer of Enosh or Enoch
-
The Book of Enoch
-
An Admonition Associated with the Flood
-
The Ages of Creation
-
The Book of Noah
-
Words of the Archangel Michael
-
The Testament of Levi
-
Testaments of the Patriarchs
-
The Testament of Qahat
-
The Testament of Amram
-
The Words of Moses
-
Sermon on the Exodus and Conquest of Canaan
-
A Moses Apocryphon
-
Pseudo-Moses
-
A Moses (or David) Apocryphon
-
Divine Plan for the Conquest of the Holy Land
-
A Joshua Apocryphon
-
The Samuel Apocryphon
-
A Paraphrase on Kings
-
An Elisha Apocryphon
-
A Zedekiah Apocryphon
-
A Historico-theological narrative based on Genesis and Exodus
-
Tobit
-
A Jeremiah Apocryphon
-
The New Jerusalem
-
Second Ezekiel
-
The Prayer of Nabonidus
-
Para-Daniel Writings
-
The Four Kingdoms
-
An Aramaic Apocalypse
-
Proto-Esther
-
Apocryphal Psalms
In addition to these are works not strictly of an
apocryphal or pseudepigraphic nature, but which nevertheless
purport to be immediate, divine revelations. These include:
-
The War Scroll
-
The Rule of War
-
The Temple Scroll
3. Visions of the End: Essenes Authors of Pseudepigrapha? Most of the
texts above are fragmentary, but the sheer amount of
prophetical-apocryphal-pseudepigraphical material convinces
scholars that the Essenes took these documents very seriously,
and probably received many of them as canonical or divinely
authoritative and inspired.[35]
Indeed, it seems possible that the Qumran sectaries were
responsible for generating many of the Pseudepigrapha
themselves. Almost all apocryphal and pseudepigraphic texts date
to the time the Essenes began about 200 B.C.[36] Some
of the apocryphal and pseudepigraphic texts espouse doctrines
indicative of the Essenes: Mainstream Judaism used a lunar
calendar of 354 days to the year; the Essenes used a solar
calendar of 364 days. The Book of Enoch, Jubilees, an Apocryphal
Psalm, the Temple Scroll, and various other works recovered at
Qumran, including the Genesis Commentaries, assume a solar
calendar. Apocryphal and pseudepigraphic works hold themselves
out as prophetic visions and revelations. It was expressly
foretold that the prophetic silence that followed Malachi would
terminate in preparation for the Messiah. God would send ‘Elijah
the prophet’ (John the Baptist—Matt 17:10-13) before the great
and dreadful day of the Lord (Mal 4:5). Joel prophesied that in
the latter days the nation’s ‘sons and daughters shall prophesy,
and your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see
visions’ (Joel 2:28). Messiah himself would be a Prophet, a
second Moses (Deut 18:15-18) upon whom God would place his
Spirit (Isa 42:1). Belief that they were living in the end times
therefore required that the Essenes possess the prophetic
Spirit. It is a matter of record that the Essenes were
interested in prophecy and claimed the power to prophesy. Three
of the four Essenes mentioned by name by Josephus were
associated with prophecy.[37] The
situation with the Essenes therefore was roughly analogous to
the era of the Crusades, Joachim of Fiore, and the Franciscans,
when men’s eschatological expectations connected with the
approach of the year A.D. 1260 (cf.
Rev. 12:6) whipped them into ecstatic states, producing a
variety of new visions and revelations about the end.[38]
4. Completion of
the canon and close of the pre-Messianic age. As we have
seen, the book of Joel indicates that the latter days and time
of the end would be marked by the gifts of the Holy Spirit,
preceding the great and notable day of the Lord. Similarly,
Daniel said that ‘vision and prophecy’ would be ‘sealed up’
before the destruction of Jerusalem at the end of 490 prophetic
years (Dan 9:24), while Paul indicated that that the
charismata would
terminate when the New Testament revelation was complete and
Christ had come (I Cor. 10:4-8; 13:8-13). Recognizing that they
were living in the end-time, the Essenes wrongly believed they
possessed the Spirit of inspiration and appear to have thus
produced numerous pseudepigrapha. On the other hand, the
apostles and first believers
were verily inspired
and thus left us the New Testament—the full and final revelation
of God’s salvific purpose in Jesus Christ. But if the canon is
closed, then the
charismata and inspiration have ceased; and if inspiration
has ceased, then the time of the end and latter days have also
passed away, for these are indicia one of another. Hence, the
very fact that Christendom universally acknowledges that the
canon of sacred scripture is full and complete is a tacit
affirmation that we are no longer living in the latter days. But
if we are no longer living in the latter days,[39]
then the age marked by the dominion and reign of Christ has
come, and the Parousia
and day of the Lord were not delayed.
VI. THE NEW COVENANT AND THE ESSENES
God’s relationship with his people has largely been
defined by covenants. God had covenants with Adam, Noah,
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Through Moses, God instituted the Old Covenant at Sinai;
God pledged to bless and to protect the children of Israel and
to give them the land in Canaan if they would obey his law. This
covenant was renewed by circumcision under Joshua after entering
the land (Josh. 5:2-9), then again by oath shortly before
Joshua’s death (Josh. 24:25). However, after the death of
Joshua, Israel’s history was one of continuous unfaithfulness
and apostasy. God answered the Jews faithlessness by delivering
the Israelites into the hands of their enemies, redeeming and
receiving them again when they turned to him in repentance.
Under the kings, the situation differed little, and the nation
continued to rebel against God and his law. God thus carried the
northern kingdom into captivity by the Assyrians and the
southern kingdom into Chaldea by the Babylonians. However, for
the sake of his remnant and his promise to redeem the world, God
revived the nation and restored the captivity to Palestine so
Christ could come into the world and die upon Roman cross. Then,
the nation would be destroyed as God’s covenant people forever.
The weakness of the Old Testament lay in its
nationalism: men were inducted into the covenant community by
birth and circumcision at eight days of age, not by the mature
choice and conversion of individuals indicative of the New
Testament. Thus, on the eve of carrying away the Jewish nation
into captivity in Babylon, God foretold the time when he would
institute a new covenant, based upon inward conversion of the
individual members:
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of
Judah…this shall be the covenant I will make with the house of
Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in
their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be
their God, and they shall be my people…for I will forgive their
iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Jer. 31:31-34
The Essenes saw the realization of Jeremiah’s new
covenant in themselves. Jeremiah’s promised new covenant was
eschatological: ‘After those days’ equals ‘the latter days’ (cf.
Jer. 48:47; 49:6, 39; Joel 2:28). According to the book of
Daniel, the ‘end of days’ appears to have begun or been
foreshadowed by the persecution of Antiochus IV Epiphanes.
Daniel said the persecution under Antiochus Epiphanes would be
at the ‘time of the end’ (Dan. 8:17), ‘in the last end of the
indignation’ (Dan. 8:19), ‘in the latter time’ of the Jew’s
kingdom ‘when the transgressors are come to the full’ (Dan.
8:23). From the persecution of Antiochus IV Epiphanes until the
destruction of Jerusalem by Titus was about 240 years. Thus,
when Daniel refers to the persecution under Antiochus Epiphanes
as the ‘time of the end,’ it is clear that this merely marks the
beginning of the end when the shadows of the Jewish nation began
to lengthen in anticipation of its sun-set and perpetual night.
The latter days would not fully arrive until the appearance of
John the Baptist whose message was decidedly eschatological:
Now also the axe is laid to the root of the trees: therefore
every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and
cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto
repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I,
whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with
the Holy Ghost and with fire: whose fan is in his hand, and he
will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the
garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
Matt. 3:10-12
The saints were gathered to their reward by martyrdom
under Nero; the Jewish nation was consumed by the fire of divine
judgment and wrath. However, we have the benefit of hindsight,
which the Essenes did not. The sect of the Essenes began during
the revolt of Judas Maccabeus against Antiochus Epiphanes when
the term ‘latter days’ first applied. It understandable that the
Essenes should have seen themselves as living in the ‘last days’
and therefore putative heirs of the new covenant.
Unlike the New Testament where there is a complete
break with the rituals of the Mosaic law and an end of the
temple, priesthood, feasts, and sacrifices, which were types and
shadows pointing to the cross of Christ (Col. 2:16, 17; Heb.
10:1), the Essenes conceived of the New Testament as a
continuation of the
law of Moses, purified of error and supplemented with various
additions and improvements. In the new age, all the errors of
mainstream Judaism would be set right and acceptable service in
the temple would resume under the sons of Zadok. The
Essenes, therefore, did not look for the end of the cosmos, but
for a new age marked
by a time of religious reformation under Messiah. Christians
also anticipated a new age, which would be marked by the
destruction of the city and temple at Christ’s coming, as
witnessed by the disciples’ question to Jesus on the Mount of
Olives ‘tell us, when shall these things be, and what shall be
the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the age’ (Matt.
24:1-3).
VII. THE ESSENES AS THE LAST REMNANT
The Essenes believed that the history of God’s people
and covenant was marked by stubbornness, rebellion, and
apostasy. The ‘Heavenly Watchers’ sinned by marrying women;
their sons, the giants, sinned, bringing on the flood. The
children of Noah sinned, as did the children of Jacob in Egypt.
The first generation of those that came out of Egypt sinned in
refusing to enter the land and so perished in the wilderness.
After the children of Israel entered the land, from the death of
Eleazar and Joshua, until Zadok, knowledge of the law was
sealed. Because they
did not know the law, even David committed fornication by taking
more than one wife:
Concerning the prince it is written, He shall not multiply wives
to himself (Deut. 17:17); but David had not read the sealed book
of the Law which was in the ark (of the Covenant), for it was
not opened in Israel from the death of Eleazar and Joshua, and
the elders who worshipped Ashtoreth. It was hidden and was not
revealed until the coming of Zadok.[40]
Because of Israel’s wilfulness and rebellion, the
nation went into captivity in Babylon; however God preserved a
remnant:
For when they were unfaithful and forsook Him, He hid His face
from Israel and His Sanctuary and delivered them up to the
sword. But remembering the Covenant of the forefathers, He left
a remnant to Israel and did not deliver it up to be destroyed.
And in the age of wrath, three hundred and ninety years [circa
196 B.C.] after He had given them into the hand of King
Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, He visited them, and He caused a
plant root to spring from Israel and Aaron to inherit His Land
and to prosper on the good things of His earth.[41]
For the first twenty years of its existence, the
remnant groped about; then God raised a leader, the Teacher of
Righteousness, to direct them:
And they perceived their iniquity and recognized that they were
guilty men, yet for twenty years they were like blind men
groping for the way. And God observed their deeds, that they
sought Him with a whole heart, and He raised for them a Teacher
of Righteousness to guide them in the way of His heart.[42]
God made a ‘New Covenant’ with this remnant. The
Essenes believed their rules of community life and
interpretation of the law, which they believed were divinely
revealed through the Teacher of Righteousness, constituted
Jeremiah’s ‘new covenant’:
None of those brought into the Covenant shall enter the Temple
to light His altar in vain...They shall take care to act
according to the exact interpretation of the Law during the age
of wickedness. They shall separate from the sons of the Pit, and
shall keep away from the unclean riches of wickedness acquired
by vow or anathema or from the Temple treasure; they shall not
rob the poor of His people, to make of widows their prey and of
the fatherless their victim. They shall distinguish between
clean and unclean, and shall proclaim the difference between
holy and profane. They shall keep the Sabbath day according to
its exact interpretation, and the feasts and day of Fasting
according to the finding of the members of the New Covenant in
the land of Damascus.[43]
The ‘age of wickedness’ refers to the time remaining
until the great eschatological crisis when God would defeat the
‘sons of the Pit,’ viz.,
mainstream Jews who rejected the new covenant according to
Essenism. During this time, men would be converted from ‘Israel’
(the apostate mainstream Jews, allegorically equated with the
northern kingdom) to the ‘house of Judah’ (the Essenes, the
faithful southern kingdom), and their sins forgiven them (Jer.
31:34). But when the age was completed, there would be no more
joining the ‘house of Judah.’ The eschatological crisis would
ensue, overtaking the wicked:
Until the age is completed, according to the number of those
years, all who enter after them shall do according to that
interpretation of the Law in which the first men were
instructed. According to the Covenant which God made with the
forefathers, forgiving their sins, so shall he forgive their
sins also. But when the age is completed, according to the
number of those years, there shall be no more joining the house
of Judah.[44]
There is much in this language that echoes Jesus’
warning:
When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut the door,
and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying,
Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you,
I know you not whence ye are: Then shall ye begin to say, We
have eaten in and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in
our streets. But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence
ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall
be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and
Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God,
and you yourselves thrust out. Luke 13:25-28
The object of Jesus’ warning was the Jewish nation,
which ate and drank in Christ’s presence and in whose streets he
taught. The point we want to come away with here is that there
was a transitional period of grace in which to accept the New Testament
that would conclude with the nation’s rejection, and that this
corresponded with the eschatological ‘end’ the Essenes (and
early Christians) looked for. Although obviously the Essenes did
not see the New Testament as centered in Jesus, they did clearly
understand that biblical eschatology was bound up in the
nation’s refusal to accept the New Testament and that they were
living in the ‘end of days’ when their fellow Jews would be
forced to make their choice and be saved or perish accordingly.
This same basic message is repeated by Peter:
For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God
raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye
hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it
shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that
prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people. Acts 3:22, 23
VIII. THE ESCHATOLOGY OF
THE ESSENES
The Essenes have been called an ‘apocalyptic sect.’ The very essence of Essenism entailed an imminent expectation of the end. Their writings reveal a people who understood they were living in the last times, and earnestly sought to piece together a picture of things to come based upon the writings of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms. For us on this side of the first century, who possess the complete New Testament, the picture is infinitely clearer, like a ‘face to face’ reflection in a glass. But to those living between the second century B.C. and the Jewish war with Rome in A.D. 66-70, the image provided by the Old Testament was veiled and reflected the purpose of God but darkly (1 Cor. 13:9-13; 2 Cor. 3:13-16). Thus, while the Essenes were wrong in many of their expectations, we must recall that most Jews, including even the disciples, were mistaken in their conceptions of what the kingdom of the God would be and how it would come about.
1. Kingly &
Priestly Messiahs. Some texts of the Dead Sea scrolls
indicate belief in a single Messiah, though other documents
indicate an expectation of two: a priestly Messiah and a kingly,
Davidic Messiah. ‘He is
the Branch of David who shall arise with the Interpreter of the
Law to rule in Zion at the end of time.’[45]
The source of this error may be Zech. 4:1-14, where the prophet
depicts two olive trees (‘sons of oil’ v. 14), which refer to
Zerubbabel and Joshua the High Priest suggesting a priestly and
Davidic Messiah; and Zech. 3:8 and 6:11-13, in which Joshua the
High Priest is described as ‘THE BRANCH.’ ‘The Branch’ is a
Messianic term elsewhere used to describe the Davidic Messiah
(Jer. 33:15; Isa. 11:1), but here pointing to a priestly
Messiah. Additionally, Psalm 110:1-4 refers to the Messiah as
priest after the order of Melchizedek. Hence, the mistaken
notion of kingly and priestly Messiahs is not without
attestation in scripture (even if wrongly understood). Of
course, two Messiahs were not predicted; rather, these two
offices would merge in Christ, who would be both king and
priest. Zechariah’s prophecies may also indicate that Christ
would possess both Davidic and Aaronic blood. Elizabeth, Mary’s
kinsman, was of the daughters of Aaron (Luke 1:5), indicating an
affinity between the Davidic and Aaronic lines and that these
two families had somewhere touched, making probable that Jesus
had both kingly and priestly blood by his mother.[46]
2. Messiah would
appear in the ‘end of days.’ The idea of a ‘second coming’
is noticeably missing in the Old Testament. The events
associated with Christ’s first and second comings are so closely
connected in history that the prophets treat them as a single,
historical event. Indeed, several of the prophets and
prophetical texts (e.g. Moses, Psalm 110, Joel, Haggai, and
Malachi) omit reference to Christ’s earthly ministry altogether,
and focus instead upon his coming in wrath against his enemies,
to avenge the quarrel of his covenant and the blood of his
servants. Messiah would appear in the latter days, set up his
kingdom, redeem his people from their enemies, and inaugurate a
new age marked by his reign. The eschatology of the Essenes
conforms almost completely with this pattern. For the Essenes,
the period remaining until the Messiah was the ‘age of
wickedness.’ Messiah would appear at the ‘end of days’:
‘This is the Rule for the
assembly of the camps during all the age of wickedness, and
whoever does not hold fast to these statues shall not be fit to
dwell in the land when the Messiah of Aaron and Israel shall
come at the end of days.’[47]
3. Resurrection of the flesh.
There were diverse opinions among the Jews about the afterlife,
just as there are among Christians. The Sadducees were
materialists who confined man’s existence to his time beneath
the sun and denied any future existence after physical death.
The Pharisees affirmed angels, spirit, and resurrection (Matt
22:23; Acts 23:8). However, the Pharisaic view of resurrection
appears to have contemplated immortality in
physical bodies on a regenerated earth. This follows from the
Sadducees’ exchange with Jesus about the resurrection, in which
they put to him the question about whose wife the widow of seven
brothers would be in the resurrection (Matt 22:23-33). This
hypothetical is often assumed to represent the Sadducee’s
conception of things, but as they did not believe in the
resurrection, this was probably the view of their opponents, the
Pharisees, and that the hypothetical is calculated to show the
absurdity of the Pharisees’ view that in the resurrection men
receive their physical bodies again, will marry, beget children,
etc. If it was not the
Pharisees’ view, then it would have served no purpose to put
this question to Jesus. What could be accomplished by showing
the absurdity of a view no one actually held? On the other hand,
Josephus presents the Essenes as occupying a middle ground,
believing that the body is temporal, and a prison, but that the
soul is immortal, and will enjoy eternal life in an ethereal
realm somewhere beyond the sea when freed by death:
For their doctrine is this: That bodies are
corruptible, and that the matter they are made of is not
permanent; but that the souls are immortal, and continue
forever; and they come out of the most subtle air, and are
united to their bodies as in prisons, into which they are drawn
by a certain natural enticement; but that when they are set free
from the bonds of the flesh, they then, as released from a long
bondage, rejoice and mount upward. And this is like the opinion
of the Greeks, that good souls have their habitations beyond the
ocean.[48]
Vermes believes Josephus’ representation is
essentially correct and that Essene belief in immortality is
better attested than belief in bodily resurrection.[49] However,
VanderKam points out that, according to Hippolytus, the Essenes
believed in the resurrection of the flesh impressed with the
same immortality already enjoyed by the soul:
Now the doctrine of the resurrection has
also derived support among these; for they acknowledge both that
the flesh will rise again, and that it will be immortal in the
same manner as the soul is already perishable.[50]
Thus, VanderKam believes Josephus
misinterpreted Essene beliefs and that they more than likely
believed in a resurrection of the body. We tend to agree with
VanderKam. The Thanksgiving Hymns, for example, state:
For the sake of Thy glory
Thou hast purified man of
sin
That he may be made holy for
Thee…
That bodies gnawed by worms
may be raised from the dust
To the counsel [of Thy
truth].[51]
Raising from dust bodies gnawed by worms
clearly affirms belief in bodily resurrection. And while there
are other equivocal texts, the overall thrust of Essene
eschatological expectations seems ‘this-worldly,’ caught up in
such things as a restored temple service and Zadokite
priesthood, and a national kingdom and earthly Messianic monarch
in which Israel holds dominion over the nations and the Romans
are destroyed. Thus, in contrast to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
who confessed that they were ‘strangers and pilgrims on the
earth’ and desired a ‘heavenly country’ (Heb. 11:13-16), the
Essenes (and perhaps Pharisees) had eschatological hopes that
appear to have been largely if not totally ‘earth bound.’
Significantly, such nationalistic hopes and expectations played
a large role in the Jews’ rejection of Christ, and ultimately
led to the destruction of the nation itself. Looking for a
national liberator, rather than a Savior from sin, they
completely misconstrued the person and office of the Messiah,
and fell prey to the delusion that Rome would be defeated with
heaven’s help.
4. Forty-year Eschatological War. The Essenes looked for a final, eschatological crisis in which the ‘sons of light’ under the command of the ‘Prince of the Congregation’ would defeat the ‘company of darkness,’ consisting of the ‘ungodly of the covenant’ (apostate mainstream Jews) allied with Edom, Moab, Ammon, the Philistines, and the Kittim. The Prince of the Congregation is identified elsewhere with the ‘Branch,’ or Messiah: ‘The Prince of the Congregation, the Branch of David, will kill him [the king of the Kittim] by strokes and by wounds.’[52] According to the War Scroll, the ‘exiled sons of light’ would return from the ‘desert of the peoples’ and encamp in the desert of Jerusalem. After battling the army of Belial embodied in the ‘ungodly of the Covenant’ and their foreign allies, including the Kittim occupying Judea, the ‘Sons of Light’ would move to Jerusalem and rededicate the temple. The conflict would climax with the complete defeat of the ‘King of the Kittim’ by the assistance of heaven and the angels of God, led by the Prince of Light, who elsewhere is equated with Michael.[53]
On the day when the Kittim fall, there shall be battle and terrible carnage before the God of Israel, for that shall be the day appointed from ancient times for the battle of destruction of the sons of darkness.[54]
Scripture teaches, and the Jews understood, that the Messiah
would continue forever (Ps 89:4; Isa 9:7; John 12:34). The
forty-year war seems thus to be the period during which Messiah
would defeat his enemies, inaugurating his reign, and may be
derived from the probable time Joshua spent conquering the land
of Canaan and the reign of David who ruled in Hebron seven
years, and thirty-three in Jerusalem (I Kgs 2:11).
IX. KITTIM IDENTIFIED AS THE ROMANS
The Kittim are identified in scripture as the end-time enemy of God’s people. This identification is implicit in their rise to dominion as the fourth world empire following the decline of the dominion of the Greeks. The Kittim are first named by Balaam, who said a Star and Sceptre would come out of Jacob who would visit wrath upon his enemies, and destroy ‘Heber’ by the hands of the Chittim (Kittim):
There shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Seth…And ships shall come from the coasts of Chittim, and shall afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber, and he also shall perish for ever. Num 24:15-25
‘Asshur’ refers to the land of the Assyrians bordering the Euphrates, which was the eastern-most border of the Roman Empire in the time of Christ. ‘Eber’ is the root word of Hebrew; Eber was the ancestor of Abraham, the Hebrew (Gen 11:17, 26; 14:13). Thus, Balaam’s oracle is the first explicit, end-time prophecy of the destruction of the Jewish nation by Rome. The Kittim occur in yet another telling passage:
For the ships of Chittim shall come against him: therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant: so shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant. Dan 11:30
It is almost universally agreed that this refers to Antiochus IV Epiphanes and his war against Ptolemy Physcon. When Antiochus had advanced to attack Ptolemy in order to possess Pelusium, he was met by the Roman legate Gaius Popilius Laenus. Popilius handed Antiochus tablets containing the decree of the Senate, ordering him to cease his war with Ptolemy. Upon reading these, Antiochus expressed a desire to confer with his friends. Popilius drew a circle about Antiochus in the sand and bade him give his answer before he stepped from the circle. After a moment of silence, Antiochus replied that he would do whatever the Romans demanded. Accordingly, a stated number of days were allowed him within which he withdrew his army into Syria where he attacked Jerusalem, slew forty-thousand, sold an equal number as slaves, and robbed the temple of eighteen hundred talents of gold.
Since it is the Kittim (Romans) who succeeded to world dominion following the Greeks, it is they who are depicted as the fourth beast of Daniel chapter seven. Such is the process by which the Essenes almost certainly would have identified the Romans as the eschatological enemy who would be destroyed by the ‘Prince of the Covenant.’ Several passages from the scrolls serve to confirm this identification. For example, the Commentary on Nahum, which takes the prophet’s words against Nineveh as a type of God’s eschatological judgment against Jerusalem, states at verse 2:11:
Interpreted, this concerns Demetrius king of Greece who sought, on the counsel of those who seek smooth things, to enter Jerusalem. But God did not permit the city to be delivered into the hands of the kings of Greece, from the time of Antiochus until the coming of the rulers of the Kittim. But then she shall be trampled under their feet.[55]
After Antiochus IV Epiphanes, none of the kings of Greece entered Jerusalem until the city was captured by Pompey the Great in 63 B.C. It continued under the power of the Romans until it was destroyed in A.D. 70 by Titus. The prediction that the city would be ‘trampled under the feet’ of the Kittim finds surprizing correlation in the New Testament: Jesus’ Olivet Discourse and Revelation use identical language to the same purpose (Luke 21:24; Rev. 11:2).
Among the Dead Sea scrolls, the Commentary on Habakkuk is especially insightful. The commentary repeatedly states that it concerns the ‘final generation’ and ‘end of days,’ and treats the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans as a prophetic type of God’s end-time judgment against Jerusalem by the Kittim. That the Essenes were correct in interpreting Habakkuk this way is confirmed by Hab. 2:3, which states that the vision is for the time of ‘the end.’ It is also confirmed by the epistle to the Hebrews, which quotes Habakkuk to encourage Jewish believers to remain faithful in the face of persecution, because Christ would shortly come to save them and visit unquenchable wrath upon the Jews (Heb 10:37, 38; cf. 9:28). Essene comments upon Hab. 2:7-8 state:
Interpreted this concerns the last Priests of Jerusalem, who shall amass money and wealth by plundering the peoples. But in the last days, their riches and booty shall be delivered into the hands of the army of the Kittim.
At verses 1:14-16, the identity of the Kittim is made unmistakable when it states that they ‘sacrifice to their standards and worship their weapons of war.’[56] This can only refer to the Romans whom Josephus describes as sacrificing to their standards when they captured Jerusalem:
And now the Romans, upon the flight of the seditious into the city, and upon the burning of the holy house itself, and of all the buildings lying round about it, brought their ensigns to the temple, and set them over against its eastern gate; and there did they offer sacrifices to them, and there did they make Titus imperator, with the greatest acclamations of joy.[57]
Identification of the Kittim with the Romans, together with their belief that the Romans would trample Jerusalem in the ‘end of days’ and ‘final generation’ preceding the dawn of the Messianic age, fixes the time of the Essenes’ eschatological expectation, and shows that it is Preterist in nature and essence.
1. National Kingdom and Earthly Throne. The Essenes equated the Kittim with Gog and Magog, the pagan hoard Ezekiel foretold would descend upon restored Israel at the end of days (Ezek 38, 39). There are various interpretations of this prophecy. Not a few commentators see it in reference to Antiochus IV Epiphanes. However, the mention of ‘David their Prince’ (the Messiah) (Ezek. 37:24, 25) prior to the battle makes the persecution of Antiochus too early. During the Middle Ages, Gog and Magog were variously thought to be the Goths and Moors, the Huns, Saracens, Tartars, and Mongols;[58] in modern times Russia and more recently China have been proposed,[59] but these are obviously too late. The better view, therefore, is that Gog and Magog symbolizes the end-time persecution of the church by Nero Caesar and the Jews, which figures prominently in Revelation and Daniel where the coming of the ‘Ancient of days’ (Christ, Dan. 7:22) defeats the Roman power (Nero, the ‘little horn,’ Dan. 7:8)[60] and saves the beleaguered saints, who then receive earth’s dominion by the reigning Christ (Dan. 7:26, 27). The Essenes, however, understood Gog and Magog in terms of the Roman occupation of Judea; the Essenes viewed the battle in terms of an armed conflict typical of a national kingdom and an earthly monarch, followed by the world dominion of Jerusalem over the nations:
‘O Zion, rejoice greatly!
O Jerusalem, show thyself amidst jubilation!
Rejoice, all you cities of Judah;
Keep your gates ever open that the nations may be brought in!
Their kings shall serve you and
All your oppressors shall bow down before you;
They shall lick the dust of your feet.
Shout for joy, O daughters of my people!
Deck yourselves with glorious jewels
And rule over the kingdoms of the nations!
Sovereignty shall be to the Lord
And everlasting dominion to Israel.’[61]
It appears from history that the Essenes joined the revolt of
A.D. 66-70, probably thinking that events would so unfold as to
realize their eschatological expectations.[62] The
disastrous beginning of the war in which Cestius’ army was
almost completely destroyed probably served as a signal to the
Essenes and many other Jews that the moment of deliverance had
arrived. Josephus mentions ‘John the Essene,’ who was made a
general in the war[63]
but who perished in the battle of Ascalon.[64]
Josephus also relates that many of the Essenes were cruelly
tortured by the Romans during the war, so that we must conclude
many from the sect joined the revolt, notwithstanding their
normal separation from mainstream Judaism.[65]
Unfortunately for the Essenes, their nationalistic expectations
regarding the end of days and the triumph of the sons of light
betrayed the sect: The site at Qumran shows signs of military
destruction. The sect disappeared from history after the war,
but not before bequeathing to posterity the legacy of their
scrolls, hidden carefully in the caves adjacent to Qumran.
X. VALIDITY OF THE TIME-FACTORS NOTWITHSTANDING
MISTAKEN INTERPRETATION
Although the Essenes were mistaken about many things
relative to the time of the end, there can be small dispute that
they understood the time aright. The various time-lines provided
by the prophecies of the book of Daniel made unmistakable that
they were living in the last days and time of the end: The
Roman-sequence of world empires (Dan. 2, 7),[66]
Daniel’s 490 prophetic years until the destruction of the city
and temple (Dan. 9:24-27), his final vision about ‘the end’ and
what would befall the Jewish nation (Dan. 10:14; 11:27, 35, 40;
12:4); the identity of the Kittim with Rome, together with the
apostate nature of mainstream Judaism and the priesthood all
signaled that God’s purpose was reaching its appointed
consummation—a fact admitted even by Josephus, who acknowledged
that Daniel had foretold the nation’s destruction by Rome:
In the very same manner Daniel also wrote concerning the Roman
government, and that our country should be made desolate by
them. All these things did this man leave in writing, as God had
shewed him, insomuch that such as read his prophecies, and see
how they have been fulfilled, would wonder at the honour
wherewith God honoured Daniel.[67]
The Essenes clearly foresaw that the end would entail
wrath upon Jerusalem and the Jews by the hands of Rome, but the
deliverance they thought belonged to them, belonged instead to
the church, the bride of Christ. The saints’ deliverance from
their enemies did not entail military victory in the revolt of
A.D. 66-70 as the Essenes wrongly supposed. Rather, it came
about in the Jews’ war with Rome and the year-of-four-emperors,
which ended the first imperial persecution of the church. The
Essenes disappeared from history; the Jewish nation was
destroyed; but the church went on to conquer Rome and the world.
XI. CONCLUSION
According to James C. VanderKam who served on the
international committee charged with editing and translating the
Dead Sea Scrolls for publication:
Both the Qumranites and the first Christians can be called
eschatological communities in the sense that both were convinced
that the end was near and ordered their beliefs and communal
practices accordingly.[68]
The Essenes were guided in their belief that they were
living at the time of the end and the threshold of the new age
by the Old Testament; the early church was guided in the same
opinion by the Old Testament, and, more importantly,
by numerous direct statements of Christ and the apostles.
Based on comments by Origen, Celsus, and others, it was widely
understood by the early church that the destruction of Jerusalem
marked the end of the age and the coming of Christ. In time,
this understanding became lost or obscured, giving rise to the
appearance of a delayed
Parousia, which has used to impugn the inspiration and
authority of scripture ever since. Where other schools of
eschatology stutter and stammer searching for a response,
Preterism has a ready reply: The Lord is come; let earth receive
her King!
[1]
A
form of the term ‘preterist’ appropriately occurs in the
Latin Vulgate at Matt. 24:34 in connection with the
destruction of Jerusalem: ‘Verily I say unto you, this
generation shall not pass till all these things be
fulfilled’ (‘non praeteribit haec generatio donec
omnia haec fiant’).
[2]
Origen, Contra
Celsus 4.21-22
[3]
Eusebius,
Demonstratio Evangelica, 8.5.375
[4]
Eusebius,
Demonstratio Evangelica, 6.13.271;
Farrar edition.
[5]
It should be stated that at this juncture the Jews were
virulent ‘enemies of the gospel’ (Rom. 11:28), and
actively persecuted the church and apostles as we see in
the book of Acts that everywhere Paul carried the
gospel, he suffered persecution by the Jews until at
last they succeeded in his martyrdom and that of Peter
(Acts 12:2; 13:45-50; 14:2-5; 19; 17:5-13; 18:5-6;
12-17; 21:11-12). Roman policy guaranteed local peoples
the right to worship their ancestral gods, which
Claudius extended also to the church (Acts 18:12-17).
Claudius thus banished the Jews from Rome and Italy
because of their incessant riots against Jewish
Christians (Acts 18:2; Suetonius,
Claudius
25.4). But when Claudius was poisoned by Agrippina,
Nero’s mother, Nero came to the throne and the political
situation soon changed—‘he who restrained’ the murderous
Jewish hatred for the church was taken out of the way,
and the ‘man of sin’ and ‘son of perdition’ was
revealed, giving rise to the first imperial persecution
(2 Thess. 2:1-12). According to Phillip Schaff, it was
the Jews who probably suggested blaming the burning of
Rome upon the Christians, providing Nero with a needed
scapegoat: ‘It is not unlikely
that in this (as in all previous persecutions, and often
afterwards) the fanatical Jews, enraged by the rapid
progress of Christianity, and anxious to avert suspicion
from themselves, stirred up the people against the hated
Galilaeans, and that the heathen Romans fell with double
fury on these supposed half Jews, disowned by their own
strange brethren’ (Phillip Schaff,
History of the
Christian Church (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1882, 3rd
ed. 1910) 1.383).
[6]
Ben
Asaph, The
Moriad (Nashville, 1857), 2:170-75; p. 51
[7]
‘And after many plagues completed in the world, in the
end he says that a beast ascended from the abyss…that
is, of the Romans.
Moreover that he was in the kingdom of the
Romans, and that he was among the Caesars.
The Apostle Paul also bears witness, for he says
to the Thessalonians: ‘Let him who now restraineth
restrain, until he be taken out of the way; and then
shall appear the Wicked One, even he whose coming is
after the working of Satan, with signs and lying
wonders.’
And that they might know that he should come who then
was the prince, he adds: ‘He already endeavours after
the secret of mischief’—that is, the mischief which he
is about to do he strives to do secretly; but he is not
raised up by his own power, nor by that of his father,
but by command of God ‘ (Victorinus, Commentary on
the Apocalypse, 11:7). Victorinus here connects the
‘beast’ from the abyss with the Roman Empire and the
‘Wicked One’ with the one who was prince when Paul wrote
(Nero), and would follow his father (Claudius) to the
throne.
[8]
‘Some think that these words refer to the Roman Empire,
and that the apostle Paul did not wish to write more
explicitly, lest he should incur a charge of calumny
against the Roman Empire, in wishing ill when men hoped
that it was to be everlasting.
So in the words: ‘For the secret power of
lawlessness is already at work’ he referred to Nero,
whose deeds already seemed to be as those of Antichrist’
(Augustine,
City of
God,
20.19).
[9]
‘But these events were typically prefigured under
Antiochus Epiphanes, so that this abominable king who
persecuted God’s people foreshadows the Antichrist, who
is to persecute the people of Christ. And so there are
many of our viewpoint who think that Domitius Nero was
the Antichrist because of his outstanding savagery and
depravity’ (Jerome,
Commentary on Daniel, 11:27-30).
[10]
Matthew uses the term ‘abomination of desolation’ (Matt.
24:15); Luke interprets this phrase for his Gentile
readers, saying, ‘when you shall see Jerusalem compassed
with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is
nigh’ (Luke 21:20). Origen indicates this was fulfilled
in the Jews’ war with Rome (Contra
Celsus, 2.13).
[11]
Isaiah’s promised new heavens and earth serve as
bookends to the destruction of Jerusalem. The first
reference occurs in Isa. 65:17; the second in Isa.
66:22. The fall of Jerusalem comes in between at Isa.
66:6, so that it becomes nearly impossible to attach the
promised new heavens and earth to any other time or
event.
[12]
That Revelation was written before A.D. 70, and not
during the reign of Domitian in A.D. 96 as popularly
assumed, see Kenneth L. Gentry Jr.,
Before Jerusalem
Fell
(American Vision, 1998); John A. T. Robinson,
Redating the New
Testament, (SCM Press, 1976; republished Wipf and
Stock Publishers, Eugene, 2000).
[13]
Bart D. Ehrman,
Jesus, Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium
(Oxford University Press, 1999), 134.
[14]
Albert Schweitzer,
The Quest for the Historical Jesus (London, 1910),
358.
[15]
The intellectual prowess necessary to extricate oneself
from the horns of this dilemma is not a little
disconcerting. Stein argues that the disciples asked
only two
questions in Mark 13:4, both confined to the destruction
of the temple in A.D. 70. Yet, Stein argues that the
coming of the Son of man in vv. 24-27 lies outside the
disciples’ question, was gratuitously and inexplicably
inserted by Jesus in his answer, and pertains to a yet
future coming of the Lord. This requires we be willing
to believe that Jesus answered a question the disciples
did not ask, misleadingly interwove it into his answer
about events separated by thousands of years, and yet
concluded his discourse, saying, ‘This generation shall
not pass, till all these things be done’ (Mark 13:30).
Stein’s argument would be more convincing if the
material in verses 24-27 came after v. 30; but as it
precedes v. 30, the only reasonable conclusion is that
‘all these things’ in v. 30 includes the coming of the
Son of man, and that the whole of Christ’s Olivet
Discourse was confined to events fulfilled before the
death of the last apostle. Robert H. Stein,
Jesus, the Temple,
and the Coming of the Son of Man (Intervarsity Press
Academic, 2014), 67-69.
[16]
John Lightfoot, ‘The
Harmony,
Chronicle, and Order of the New Testament; with a
Parergon, Concerning the Fall of Jerusalem’ in The
Whole Works of the Rev. John Lightfoot D.D.,
(London, 1684; republished 1822 by J. F. Dove)
3.141, 142.
[17]
Although
the Dead Sea Scrolls are not new and virtually all
readers have heard of them, since many will not have
made a personal investigation of the scrolls, this
article will proceed upon the assumption the reader has
no personal knowledge of the origin and content of the
scrolls.
[18]
Geza Vermes, The
Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (Complete
edition., Allen Lane The Penguin Press, 1997), 12-14
[19]
Wadi Murabba’at (Nahal Darga), five caves; Nahal Hever ,
ten caves.
[20]
James C. VanderKam,
The Dead Sea
Scrolls Today (2nd ed., William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1994, 2010), 16
[21]Engaddi
was pillaged and burned by the
Sicarii in
excursions from Masada during the war with Rome.
Josephus, J.W.
4.398-403
[22]
Pliny,
Nat. Hist.
5.17
[23]
Geza Vermes, The
Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English, 50-53; Will
Durant, ‘The Life of Greece’ in
The Story of
Civilization (Simon & Schuster, 1939; renewed
1966 by Will Durant) 2.579-584
[24]
Some scholars interpret reference to Damascus
allegorically in reference to the captivity in Babylon
‘beyond Damascus’ as per Amos 5:26, 27 (‘Essene
Origins—Palestine or Babylonia’ in
Understanding the
Dead Sea Scrolls Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls
(Hershell Shanks editor, Vintage Books, 1993),
82.
[25]
Josephus, Ant.
13.35-57
[26]
Josephus, Ant.
13.171-173
[27]
Blessings
(IQSb=IQ28b), III.20-30; Geza Vermes,
The Complete Dead
Sea Scrolls in English, 375
[28]
For a fuller discussion of the identity of the Qumran
community see James C. VanderKam,
The Dead Sea
Scrolls Today, (2nd ed., William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1994, 2010), 97-126; James C.
VanderKam, ‘The People of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Essenes
or Sadducees?’ in
Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls, 50-62.
[29] Josephus,
Ap. 1.37-41;
Whiston ed.
[30]
For an account of the variant readings discovered at Qumran and possible
emendations vis-à-vis the Masoretic-text, see F.F.
Bruce,
Qumran and the Old Testament,
Faith and Thought 91.1 (Summer, 1959), 9-27.
[31]
According
to Schiffman, the proto-Masoretic text was already in
the ascendency in the Hasmonean period and was probably
the most common precisely because it was known to be the
most ancient. The process of standardization was one of
eliminating variant texts. Lawrence H. Schiffman, ‘The
Sadducean Origins of the Dead Sea Scroll Sect’ in
Understanding the
Dead Sea Scrolls (Vintage Books, 1993, Hershel
Shanks, editor), 48.
[32]
Cf. Geza
Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English, 17; Craig Evans, Peter W.
Flint Eschatology,
Messianism, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, (Eerdmans,
1997), 5
[33]
Josephus, Ap.
1.41; Whiston ed.
[34]
The 430
years of prophetic silence shows that the nation was
effectively already rejected by God, and that it was
only heaven’s forbearance that postponed its destruction
until A.D. 70. According to Paul, God ‘endured with much
longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to
destruction’ (Rom 9:22).
[35]
Vermes and VanderKam both believe that the Essenes’
notion of the Hebrew canon was hazy and open-ended. Geza
Vermes, The
Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English, 16; James C.
VanderKam, The
Dead Sea Scrolls Today, 194, 195
[36]
Geza Vermes, The
Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English, 13
[37]
Josephus, Ant.
13.311-312; 15.373-8; 17.345-8;
J.W. 2.159
[38]
Bernard McGinn,
Visions of the End: Apocalyptic Traditions of the Middle
Ages, 126-41; 203-221.
[39]
‘That second block of history carries down to the work
of Jesus Christ and to the destruction of Jerusalem in
AD 70. These two periods are the former days and the
latter days of Israel, not of the entire world. For that
reason, as we shall see, Daniel’s prophecies of the
latter days concern the future history of Israel down to
AD 70, and do not directly deal with the gospel era
(except as general principles). The same is true of
Zechariah 9-14. Arguably, every instance of ‘last days’
and ‘last hour’ in the New Testament also refers to the
end of Israel’s history down to AD 70’ (James B. Jordon,
The Handwriting on the Wall: A Commentary on the Book of Daniel
(American Vision, 2007), 20).
[40]
Damascus Document
(CD 4Q265-73, 5Q12, 6Q15), V.5; Geza Vermes,
The Complete Dead
Sea Scrolls in English, 130
[41]
Damascus Document
(CD 4Q265-73, 5Q12, 6Q15), I.5; Geza Vermes,
The Complete Dead
Sea Scrolls in English, 127
[42]
Damascus Document
(CD 4Q265-73, 5Q12, 6Q15), I.10, Geza Vermes,
The Complete Dead
Sea Scrolls in English, 127
[43]
Damascus Document
(CD 4Q265-73, 5Q12, 6Q15) VI.10-20, Geza Vermes,
The Complete Dead
Sea Scrolls in English, 132
[44]
Damascus Document (CD 4Q265-73, 5Q12, 6Q15)
IV.5-15, Geza Vermes,
The Complete Dead
Sea Scrolls in English,130
[45]
Florilegium or
Midrash on the Last Days (4Q174) I.10, Geza Vermes,
The Complete Dead
Sea Scrolls in English, 494.
[46]
The lines of Judah and Aaron merged early on in Aaron’s
marriage of the daughter of Amminadab, a descendant of
Judah by Phares (Exod 6:23; Matt 1:4).
[47]
Damascus Document
(CD 4Q265-73, 5Q12, 6Q15) XIII.20; Geza Vermes,
The Complete Dead
Sea Scrolls in English, 142
[48]
Josephus,
J. W. 2.154-155; Whiston ed.
[49]
Geza Vermes, The
Complete Dead Sea Scrolls, 87-89
[50]
Hippolytus,
Against all Heresies 9:22
[51]
Hymn 21 (1QH, 1Q36, 4Q427-32); Geza Vermes,
The Complete Dead
Sea Scrolls, 288
[52]
Rule of War
(4Q285, 11Q14), fr. 5, Geza Vermes,
The Complete Dead
Sea Scrolls in English, 189
[53]
Michael is the name used for the divinity when acting as
the captain of the Lord’s host to save God’s people (cf.
Josh 5:14; Dan 10:13, 20, 21; 12:1). Michael is almost
certainly Christ. The incarnation thus escaped the
Essenes, who saw the Prince of the Congregation and
Michael as two several actors.
[54]
War Scroll (1QM1,
1Q33, 4Q491-7, 4Q471) I.10, Geza Vermes,
The Complete Dead
Sea Scrolls in English, 164
[55]
Commentary on
Nahum (4Q169) II:11, Geza Vermes,
The Complete Dead
Sea Scrolls in English, 474
[56]
Commentary on
Habakkuk (1QpHab) I:14-16,
Geza Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English, 481; ‘The Kittim in this
document are clearly the Romans, who ‘sacrifice to their
standards’ (1QpHab 6:3-4)’ (John J. Collins ‘The
Expectation of the End in the Dead Sea Scrolls’ in
Eschatology,
Messianism, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, Craig A. Evans
and Peter W. Flint editors (Grand Rapids, Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997), 83).
[57]
Josephus, J.W.
6.316; Whiston edition
[58]
Barnard McGinn,
Visions of the End: Apocalyptic Traditions in the Middle
Ages (Columbia University Press, 1979, 1998), 54,
71, 72, 150, 151, 156, 157.
[59]
Paul Boyer, When
time shall be no More: Prophecy Belief in Modern
American Culture (Harvard University Press, 1992),
134, 154-162; 167-168; 176-180.
[60]
The ten horns of the fourth beast/world empire probably
refer to the ten senatorial provinces created by
Augustus in 27 B.C., which became a permanent
identifying feature of the empire thereafter (Dio
Cassius 53:12; Thomas Marris Taylor,
A Constitutional
and Political History of Rome (Metheun & Co.,
London, 1889), 464). There were never only ten provinces
(there were thirty-nine in the time of Nero), but there
were always
ten senatorial provinces from 27 B.C. onward. The
identity of Nero and the Roman principate as the ‘little
horn’ is confirmed in part by Dan 7:8, 20, 24, which
state that there were three horns (kingdoms/provinces)
‘plucked up’ before the little horn, which were
subsequently subdued. This almost certainly refers to
the revolt of the Britain, Armenia, and Judea which were
forcibly returned to Roman rule during Nero’s reign.
Suetonius summarizes these wars, saying, Nero’s reign
was marked by ‘a disaster in Britain, where two
important towns were sacked and great numbers of
citizens and allies were butchered; a shameful defeat in
the Orient, in consequence of which the legions of
Armenia were sent under the yoke, and Syria was all but
lost’ (Suetonius,
Nero, 39; Loeb ed).
[61]
War Scroll
XII.10-15; Geza Vermes,
The Complete Dead
Sea Scrolls in English, 176
[62]
‘But it is quite possible that the members of the
community decided that the day of vengeance had come
when the revolt against Rome broke out. If so, they
would have presumably expected the heavenly host to come
to their aid as envisioned in the War Rule. Needless to
say, no such help materialized’ (John J. Collins ‘The
Expectation of the End in the Dead Sea Scrolls’ in
Eschatology,
Messianism, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, Craig A. Evans
and Peter W. Flint editors (Grand Rapids, Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997), 89).
[63]
Josephus, J.W.
2.566-568
[64]
Josephus, J.W.
3.9-21
[65]
Josephus, J.W.
2.152-153
[66]
That the end was predicted to come about in the time of
the Roman Empire is widely recognized, prompting various
attempts to extend its duration. The Continuous
Historical method thus interpreted the ten horns of the
fourth world-empire in Daniel seven as the division of
nations into which the Roman Empire devolved at its
demise, and the Roman Catholic Church and papacy as the
‘little horn’ that rose therefrom (Isaac Newton,
Observations on the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John
(London, 1733), chapters 2-6). Premillennialism argues
that there will be a ‘revived’ Roman Empire. And because
the temple figures prominently in end-time prophecy,
they argue a ‘third’ temple will also be built and even
that another ‘Elijah the prophet’ will appear (John F.
Walvoord, The Revelation of Jesus Christ (Moody Bible Institute, 1966,) 176,
178, 197-199). The likelihood of a revived Roman Empire
in any form we leave the reader to judge; Socrates
Scholasticus reports that the Jews’ attempt to rebuild
the temple under Julian the Apostate (A.D. 361-363), who
commanded the work and ordered its expense be defrayed
out of the public treasury, ended abruptly by a divine
earthquake and fire, causing even the Jews to confess
that Christ was God (Ecclesiastical
History, 3.20).
[67]
Josephus, Ant.
10.276-279; Whiston ed.
[68]
James C. VanderKam,
The Dead Sea
Scrolls Today, (2nd ed., William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1994, 2010), 215
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