James the Brother of Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls II (138 page)

This is also the approach of all early Church accounts of the death of James at the hands of ‘
the Wicked Priest
’ of his ge
n
eration
Ananus ben Ananus
. This too, in our view, is ‘
the Last Generation
’ as in the I.11
Pesher
on Habakkuk 1:2 as well as when ‘
the Last Priests of Jerusalem gathered Riches and profiteered from the spoils of the Peoples
’ in IX.4–7. There can be little doubt of the relationship of these kinds of allusions to text applied in these sources to the death of James.

Once again, the ‘
eating
’ in this allusion, as in the received Hebrew and Latin versions, basically parallels the sense of ‘swa
l
lowing’ or ‘
being swallowed
’ as it is expressed here in the Habakkuk
Pesher
. As in the characterization of ‘
the
Kittim
’ or the R
o
mans in 1QpHab VI.7–8 as ‘
eating all the Peoples
…
with the sword
’ too, the sense of all these allusions in Isaiah is of ‘
violent destruction
’. One should also keep the double entendre implicit in usages such as this in mind when evaluating related all
u
sions such as ‘
glutton
’ in the Gospels which, in Hebrew, literally translates out as ‘
bela
‘
’ – but also Paul’s fixation upon ‘
eating
’, by which he means (as do the Gospels)
being free of Jewish dietary regulations and Mosaic Law
.

As we have seen, Isaiah 2–3 also includes references to ‘
Jerusalem being fallen
’, ‘
Judea in collapse
’, ‘
Lebanon
’, ‘
robbing the Meek
’, ‘
grinding the face of the Poor
’, and ‘
Judgement
’. This is not to mention allusion to ‘
abolishing the idols
’ and ‘
casting down his idols of silver and his idols of gold
,
which they made for each other to worship
,
to the moles and the bats
’ (2:20). This, too, will be directly reprised from XII.12–XIII.4, the end of the Habakkuk
Pesher
, with the phraseology: ‘
The interpret
a
tion of this passage concerns all the idols of the Gentiles
,
which they create in order to serve them and bow down before them
.
These will not save them on the Day of Judgement
.’
It repeats this in the next column in the following manner: ‘
This concerns all the Gentiles
,
who serve stone and wood
.
But on the Day of Judgement
,
God will destroy all idolaters and Wicked Ones from the Earth
.’
In the
Pesher
, this is given in interpretation of Habakkuk 2:19–20: ‘
Behold, it is covered with gold and silver and there is no spirit at all within it
.
But the Lord is in His Holy Temple
.
Be silent before Him
,
all the world
.’
55
The p
a
thos and hopeful constancy of this Faith, even in the face of the disastrous circumstances overwhelming everyone at this m
o
ment in the
Pesher
, is poignant.

This point-of-view is also evident at the end of the Letter of James in the condemnations one finds there and the note of coming eschatological ‘
Judgement
’ (4:11–5:12). In Isaiah 2:21, this is expressed in terms of ‘
the Lord arising to terribly shake the Earth
’. James 5:3, like Isaiah 2:20 and Habakkuk 2:19, at this point is also using the imagery of ‘
gold and silver
’
to co
n
demn the ‘Rich
’. These it blames for ‘
condemning and putting the Righteous One to death
’. For James 5:1–3, this reads as fo
l
lows: ‘
As for you Rich
,
weep
,
howl over the miseries that are coming upon you
.
Your Riches have rotted and your clothes have become moth-eaten
.
Your gold and silver has been eaten away
,
and their decomposition shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh like fire
.’
This is all described in terms of ‘
the Judge standing before the Door
’ (5:9), ‘
the coming of the Lord
’ (5:8), and
the cries of the Downtrodden reaching
‘
the Lord God of Hosts
’ (5:4).

In contrasting ‘
the Wicked
’ (
Rasha
‘
) with ‘
the Righteous
’ (
Zaddik
), the Greek version of this passage reverses the underl
y
ing sense of the Hebrew – and, as it would seem, the Latin – making it appear as if the negative things are being done to ‘
the Righteous One
’ not ‘
the Wicked
’, though the succeeding reference to ‘
he shall be paid the reward of his hands
’ is the same. Moreover, we have already seen how these kinds of recasting or inversions of Scripture in favor of a preferred exegesis were fairly common, not only at Qumran, but also in early Church usage.

In the Septuagint version given by Hegesippus, this was actually seen to reflect the death of James. Its contrast of ‘
the Wicked
’ and ‘
the Righteous
’ parallels that at the beginning of the Habakkuk
Pesher
of ‘
the Wicked encompasses the Righteous
’ (I.10–11) which was specifically interpreted to apply to ‘
the Righteous Teacher
’ and ‘
the Wicked Priest
’. It, too, is immediately followed in Habakkuk 1:4 by a reference to ‘
Judgement
’ though, in this case, delivering ‘
perverted Judgement
’.

In Isaiah 3:11, all versions immediately follow with some rendition of ‘
the reward of his hands will be done to him
’ mea
n
ing, as this seems to have been interpreted, ‘
the Wicked Priest
’ as well. This is echoed almost precisely in 1QpHab XII.2–3’s ‘
he
(‘
the Wicked Priest
’)
would be paid the reward he rewarded the Poor
’. In the Septuagint Greek, following the allusion to ‘
they shall eat the fruits of their works
’ in 3:10, 3:11 is translated as, ‘
Evils shall happen to him according to the works of his hands
’. In all versions too, this is immediately succeeded in the next line by allusion to ‘
leading the People astray
’ in 3:12. This, in turn, was followed by allusion to ‘
the Lord standing up to Judge the Peoples
’ and ‘
the Lord entering into Judgement with the Elders and Rulers of the People
’ in 3:13–3:14.

The Introduction of ‘
the Liar
’ in the Habakkuk
Pesher
from Qumran

In the Habakkuk
Pesher
too, the next reference to what ‘
the Wicked
’ does to ‘
the Righteous
’ occurs in Column V.8–9 and actually refers to ‘
the Wicked swallowing one more Righteous than he
’ (Habakkuk 1:13), following a reference to ‘
Judgement
’ in the underlying text of Habakkuk 1:12 which is interpreted in terms of a vivid picture of ‘
the Judgement on the Gentiles by the hand of His Elect
’ – ‘
the Sons of Zadok
’ in CD III.21–IV.9.

This is the single instance in any Qumran
Pesher
of an allusion to ‘
the Wicked
’ and ‘
the Righteous
’ not being applied to ‘
the Wicked Priest
’
per se
. The same is true of the word ‘
swallowing
’ in this passage. Rather it appears to be applied to an inner se
s
sion of ‘
the Assembly
’ or Community where, exploiting a reference to ‘
Traitors
’ (
Bogdim
) in the underlying text from Habakkuk 1:13, one group within the Community is admonished for ‘
keeping silent at the time when the Righteous Teacher was r
e
proved
’. This admonishment seems to have been by the tongue of ‘
the Man of Lying
’, though this is not clear. What is clear is that he is described revealingly as ‘
rejecting the
Torah
in the midst of their whole Assembly
’.
56

The evocation of ‘
the Judgement
’ participated in by ‘
the Elect
’ at the beginning of Column Five (IV.14–V.5) comes after a long excursus on the might and ferocity of ‘
the
Kittim
’/Romans – including ‘
their Council Chamber
’ (presumably their Senate) as ‘
their Guilty Council House
’ – in Columns
III
–
IV
follows a stubborn insistence ‘
that God would not destroy His People by the hand of the Gentiles
,
but rather God would render Judgement on the Gentiles by the hand of His Elect
’. This would also be in line with the eschatology of Revelation – such as it is. This ‘
Elect
’ is described as ‘
not lusting after
their eyes during the Era of Evil
’.

Again, this ‘
rejection of the
Torah
in the midst of their whole Assembly
’ must be seen as characteristic of ‘
the Lying Spou
t
er
’’s behavior and his rebuke of the Righteous Teacher. The confrontation between them, which this time would appear to be internal and verbal not mortal – this is the import of the verb, ‘
ma
’
as
’ or ‘
reject
’ as opposed to ‘
eating
’ or ‘
destroy
’ – in that sense, resembles nothing so much as ‘
the Jerusalem Council
’ or, at least a ‘
Council
’ of some sort. The word ‘
swallowing
’ in the underlying text from Habakkuk 1:13, however, is not applied in any real sense in the exegesis as it stands. Rather it is put on hold, as it were, and employed later in the
Pesher
to describe what the Wicked Priest did to
the Righteous Teacher
and his fo
l
lowers among ‘
the Poor
’, as we have seen, and what in turn the Lord would do to him,
i.e.
, ‘
swallow him
’.
57

That this was seen in some manner also to refer to ‘
the Man of Lying
’’s activities – if it was – can only be understood if in some way the latter was seen either to represent or be part and parcel of
the Herodian Establishment
. As we have seen, this is the case where Paul is concerned and adds to the conclusion that Paul was, indeed,
an Herodian
. If we take the ‘
Saulos
’ in J
o
sephus to be another, alternate presentation of this Paul, then this is certainly the case. That ‘
Saul
’ or ‘
Paul
’ in all versions of the data was able to get letters from the Chief Priest in Jerusalem to arrest ‘
any he found of the Way
’ and ‘
confound
the Jews dwelling in Damascus
’ (Acts 9:2 and 22) further reinforces this perception or, at least, that he would have been perceived of as a member of this Establishment. The
Pesher
then moves on at the end of V.12–VI.5 to present the picture of ‘
the
Kittim
’ or Romans ‘
sacrificing to their standards and worshipping their weapons of war
’, also delivered in exegesis of an underlying text having to do with ‘
casting down nets
’ and ‘
fishing
’ from Habakkuk 1:16, which we have already discussed above.
58