James the Brother of Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls II (132 page)

Not only does Revelation 14:8–12, following an allusion to ‘
the Fountains of Water
’ – right out of another Qumran text, ‘T
he Chariots of Glory
’, we first named in 1992
13
– apply this imagery to ‘
Babylon
’, but also to ‘
anyone worshipping the Beast
’. As this was expressed in Revelation 14:10, ‘
he would be made to drink the wine of the Wrath of God
,
which is poured out undiluted in the Cup of His Anger
’; this is almost word-for-word the imagery applied to ‘
the Wicked Priest
’ in the Habakkuk
Pesher
, even including that of ‘
the Cup of the Wrath of God
’, varied slightly, and in the allusion ‘
undiluted
’, Habakkuk 2:15’s ‘
drinking to the dregs
’. This is immediately followed up with the words, also in Revelation 14:10, ‘
he shall be tortured by fire and brimstone before the Holy Angels
’. But this is precisely the scenario followed in the admonishment of the Wicked Priest in Column Ten of the Habakkuk
Pesher
above, in exposition of Habakkuk 2:10 about ‘
the profiteer
’
s profiteering
’ and ‘
cutting off many Peoples
’.
14
This last, too, is again interpreted in terms of ‘
the House of Judgement
’ which God would pronounce ‘
in the midst of many Peoples
’. There, to repeat, ‘
He
(God)
would lead him
(the Wicked Priest)
for Punishment
and condemn him among them
,
judging him with fire and brimstone
’ – the same ‘
fire and brimstone
’ just referred to in Revelation 2:10.

But these repeated allusions to ‘
being made to drink the wine of the Wrath of God
’ in Revelation even recapitulate the words of CD VIII.6–10/XIX.23–24, following allusions to ‘
wallowing in the ways of fornication and
Evil Riches
’, ‘
incest
’, ‘
profiteering
’, and ‘
not keeping apart
(
nazru
)
from the People
(
s
)’. In that context, ‘
their wine is the Venom of Vipers
’ of De
u
teronomy 32:33 – ‘
Venom
’, ‘
Anger
’, ‘
dregs
’, and ‘
Fury
’ being, it will be recalled, homonyms in Hebrew – was not applied, as here in Revelation to ‘
Babylon the Great
’, but to ‘
the Kings of the Peoples
’ – in our view
Herodians
. In this material, not only was ‘
the Head
’ of the petty Greco-Roman Kings the Roman Emperor, who was going to ‘
come to execute Vengeance upon them
’ (basically the eschatological point-of-view of the Gospels and early Church literature as well though with, of course, slightly differing signification), but in the material directly following this, ‘
the Spouter of Lying
’ was characterized as ‘
pouring out wind
’ or ‘
pouring out
’/‘
walking in the Spirit
’ or ‘
Lying
’, thus ‘
kindling the Wrath of God on all his Assembly
’.
15

In Revelation, these allusions to ‘
drinking the Cup of the Lord
’
s Fury
’ – themselves based on imagery, as previously u
n
derscored, found in Isaiah 51:17 associating ‘
the Cup of His Fury
’ (
Chos Hamato
) with ‘
drinking the dregs of the Cup of Tre
m
bling
’(
Chos Ha-Tar
‘
elah
) and in Jeremiah 25:15–30 on drinking ‘
the Cup of the wine of the Fury
’
of God
– are often accomp
a
nied by a quotation from Psalm 2:8–9 about ‘
ruling the Nations with a Sceptre of iron and shattering them like pots of clay
’. This is repeated at several key junctures in Revelation 2:27, 12:5, and 19:15, the last time in conjunction with ‘
treading the press of the wine of the Fury and Wrath of God
’ and ‘
striking the Nations with the sharp sword of his mouth
’ from Isaiah 11:4 and 49:2.

This allusion from Isaiah 11:4, as well as the phrases leading up to it from 11:1–3, about ‘
a Shoot from the stem of Jesse and a Branch that would grow from his roots
’ who would ‘
judge the Downcast
with Righteousness
’ and ‘
treat the Meek of the Earth with equity
’, are also to be found in the
Pesher
at Qumran on Isaiah 10:20–11:5 about ‘
the Branch of David standing at the End of Days
’. Not only does it seem to be connected with 4Q285, which also quotes Isaiah 10:33–11:3, but it also employs the ‘
Sceptre
’ imagery from above and refers both to his ‘
Throne of Gory
’ and ‘
Holy Crown
’ (
Nezer
)/‘
Crown of Holiness
’, all apparently interpreted in terms of ‘
the Branch of David who shall stand
’/‘
arise at the End of Days
’.

Regardless of translation, it is the use of common imagery of this kind and these emphases that make it absolutely certain that Qumran Documents of this genre, which are homogeneous in this regard, were written in the First Century CE. It is i
n
teresting that in the
Pesher
on Isaiah 11:1, the ‘
Netzer
’ or ‘
Branch
’ in the underlying text becomes the ‘
Nezer
’ (‘
Crown
’ or ‘
Di
a
dem
’) of the High Priest – or, in more colloquial Hebrew, even possibly, ‘
the Holy Crown
’
of the Nazirite
’
s hair
(in 4Q285, it will be recalled, this ‘
Branch
(
of David
)’ was ‘
the
Nasi ha
-‘
Edah
’– ‘
chol ha
-
‘
Edah
’ in CD VII.20’s exegesis of Numbers 24:17).
16
Again we have the shift from ‘
Netzer
’ to ‘
Nezer
’ we have been discussing with regard to the terminology
Nazoraean
/‘
Keeper
’ and
Nazirite
/‘
Consecrated One
’ or that between ‘
Nazareth
’ and ‘
Nazrene
’ in Christianity generally – but this time in an actual text from Qumran further adding to the impression of the interchangeability of these language clusters.

Following the allusion to ‘
pouring out the bowls of God
’
s Wrath onto the Earth
’ in Revelation 16:1, which becomes ‘
pouring out the Blood of the Holy Ones and Prophets
’ and, in return, God ‘
giving them Blood to drink because they deserve it
’ in 16:6, Revelation 16:20–21 continues its ongoing mystification and conflation of all these imageries: ‘
And every island fled and no mountains were found
,
and great hail
,
like the weight of a talent came down out of the Heaven upon men
. A
nd men blasphemed God
,
because of the plague of the hail
,
for its plague was exceedingly great
.’
Though all this is, of course, total nonsense, it does evoke both the imagery of James’ final proclamation in the Temple of ‘
the Son of Man coming on the clouds of Heaven
’ and the War Scroll’s
Heavenly Host
‘
like clouds
,
clouds covering the Land
’, raining final eschatological ‘
Judgement
’ on all the Sons of Men. This is to say nothing of the imagery of the whirlwind in both Jeremiah 25:32, probably evoked in the previously unpublished First Column of the Nahum
Pesher
,
17
and Ezekiel 13:11–13 on the Damascus Document’s ‘
Daubers upon the wall
’, evoking
God
’
s
‘
Anger
’ (
Hemah
) and ‘
hailstones
’ as well and recapitulated in 38:22, including reference to ‘
fire and brimstone
’.

This excursus in Revelation ends in the next chapter with allusion to being ‘
carried away in Spirit into
(
the
)
wilderness
’ – again playing on similar allusions in the Gospels and, possibly, the Scrolls – and ‘
seeing a woman sitting upon a scarlet beast
full
of
Names of blasphemy
’ (17:3) – the same ‘
seven headed
,
ten-horned beast
’, based upon Daniel 7–8, we saw earlier in 13:1. The woman, too, ‘
was dressed in purple and scarlet
’ and on her head was written ‘
MYSTERY
:
Babylon the Great
,
the mother of whores and of the Abominations of the Earth
’ (17:4–5). In her hand is ‘
a golden Cup full of Abominations and the uncleanness of her fornication
’ and she is ‘
drunk with the Blood of the Saints and with the Blood of the Witnesses of Jesus
’ (17:6 – a new kind of nomenclature). Here, of course, is the imagery
’
of ‘
Abominations
’ connected to the person of ‘
the Wic
k
ed Priest
’ in both Columns Eight and Twelve of the Habakkuk
Pesher
, but the imagery of this last (Column XII.1–10), which does include these various allusions to ‘
beast
(
s
)’ and ‘
Blood
’, is much simpler.
18

The reason for the startling introduction of the allusion in Greek, ‘
scarlet
’ or ‘
kokkinon
’,
i
.
e
., ‘
the scarlet beast
’ on which she rode or her ‘
scarlet clothing
’, is also perhaps explained by inspection of the underlying text from Habakkuk 2:16 relating to both ‘
drinking
’ and ‘
staggering
’/‘
trembling
’ and ‘
the Cup of the Lord
’
s right hand and shame
(
kikalon
)
upon your Glory
’. The
Pesher
now applies this allusion to ‘
kikalon
’/‘
shameful spewing
’, adding another allusion related to it, ‘
kalono
’ (also ‘
shame
’), as part of Column Eleven’s accusation that the Wicked Priest’s ‘
shame was greater than his Glory because he did not circumcise the foreskin of his heart
’, which precedes the fact that he would, therefore, ‘
walk in the Way of satiety
’.
19

Not only is this the passage which is interpreted in terms of ‘
the Cup of the Wrath of God swallowing him
’, but also it is said that it is of this he would ‘
drink his fill
’ or ‘
drink to the dregs
’. This is the same language applied to ‘
the whore of Babylon
’ or ‘
Great Babylon
’ in Revelation 14:8 and 16:19, as well as the Worshippers ‘
of the Beast
’ in 14:10. Once again, we possibly have one of these startling overlaps and esoteric transmutations – like ‘
balla
‘
’ into ‘
ballo
’ above – moving from Hebrew into Greek, in this case, now ‘
kalon
and
kikalon
’/‘
shame and disgrace
’ into ‘
kokkinon
’ – the esoteric and completely unnecessary allusion to ‘
scarlet
’.