James the Brother of Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls II (70 page)

‘
Lebanon shall Fall by a Mighty One
’,
the Branch of David
, and
the Messiah of Righteousness

Notwithstanding, the passage R. Yohanan is pictured as using here, ‘
And Lebanon shall fall by a Mighty One
’ from Isaiah 10:34, has since turned up among Qumran proof-texts known as ‘
Pesharim
’ (
Commentaries)
. There, while baffling to so many Qumran scholars, the exegesis is similar to what we have in Tractate
Gittin
, in which Rabbi Yohanan specifically asserts that ‘
Lebanon’
– no doubt implying not only the white linen worn by the Priests in the Temple, but also its woodwork made of cedar from Lebanon –
refers to the Temple
’!

Interesting, too, the same proof-text turns up in the parallel version of these events, the
ARN
– as, in fact, it does in Lamentations
Rabbah
.
20
There, in
ARN
, a whole series of such ‘
Lebanon
’ and ‘
cedar-wood
’ prooftexts, for the most part from Zechariah 11:1–3, are specifically denoted as referring to the Temple and, in particular, its fall in 70
CE
. Passages such as ‘
wail O cypress tree
,
for the cedar tree is fallen
’ and ‘
the strong forest has come down
’ from Zechariah 11:2 in this list are expressly characterized as ‘
referring to the Temple
’. Likewise, Zechariah 11:1, ‘
Open your doors
,
O Lebanon
,
that the fire may consume your cedars
’, is graphically interpreted as ‘
the High Priests in the Temple taking their keys
’ as ‘
unworthy custodians
’ and ‘
throwing them into the sky to the Holy One
,
the Master of the Universe
’.

Here the ‘
white
’ implicit in the Hebrew of the designation ‘
Lebanon
’ clearly refers to the ‘
white garments
’ of the Temple
Priests
– just as, for instance, it does in the Habakkuk
Pesher
of ‘
Lebanon
’ as ‘
the Community Council
’, presumably because of
their
‘
white linen garments
’.
21
Not only is this identity made explicit in the latter, but it should also not be forgotten that in the Community Rule – as to some extent in Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:12–27 – ‘
the Community Council
’ functions as or is esoter
i
cally identical with
the Temple
. Furthermore, it is seen as ‘
atoning for sin
’ that ‘
they may obtain Lovingkindness for the Land without the flesh of holocausts and the fat of sacrifices
’.
22

Not only shall we encounter this same ‘
Lovingkindness
’ or ‘
Hesed
’ below in the material about R. Joshua’s ‘
woes
’ that pr
e
cedes the citation of these ‘
Lebanon
’ passages in the
ARN
where R. Joshua, following R. Yohanan out of the city and on ‘
se
e
ing it in ruins
’, cries out ‘
woe
’ (here, of course, Jesus’ ‘
woes
’ in Matthew 23:12–24:19, both in the Temple and upon leaving it, when looking back at Jerusalem and predicting its destruction – as well those in ‘
the Little Apocalypse
’) and R. Yohanan co
n
soles
his Disciple
by quoting Hosea 6:6 on ‘
desiring Lovingkindness and not sacrifice
’, upon which the above passage from the Community Rule is based; but elsewhere it is rather stated that the reason ‘
Lebanon
’ stands for the Temple was that ‘
there I
s
rael
’
s sins were made white
’.
23

While this last explanation is perhaps typical of Rabbinic passivity, it does throw light on the curious allusion to being ‘
made white
’ we encountered in the matter of ‘
the tombs of the two brothers
’ in the Pseudoclementine
Recognitions
that ‘
mira
c
ulously whitened of themselves every year
’, presumably meaning on
Yom Kippur
or perhaps in some more recondite manner. That this passage from Zechariah 11:1, ‘
Open your doors
,
O Lebanon
,
that the fire may devour you
’, refers to the coming d
e
struction of the Temple is also made clear in
Yoma
which also cites three other ‘
Lebanon
’ passages as referring in some manner to
the Temple
as well,
viz
., Psalm 72:16, Nahum 1:4 (also extant and expounded at Qumran where ‘
Lebanon
’ again gives every indication of being either ‘
the Temple
’ or ‘
the Community Council
’), and Isaiah 35:2.
24

While the presentation in the
ARN
– like the one in
Gittin
and Lamentations
Rabbah
– knows the names of Rabbi Yohanan’s
two Disciples
(R. Eliezer and R. Joshua), unlike either of those accounts, it makes no mention of his nephew ‘
Abba Sikkra
’ or ‘
Ben Battiah
’, nor of ‘
the
Biryonim
’ he leads, nor even the matter of Rabbi Yohanan’s body ‘
not being pierced
’. For Lamentations
Rabbah
, which basically reproduces the same story (though it divides ‘
Nakdimon ben Gurion
’ into two separate ‘
Councillors
’, ‘
Ben Nakdimon
’ and ‘
Ben Gurion
’ –
thus
! – and for it, the ‘
woe
’ will rather be the one R. Yohanan exclaims, not his acolyte R. Joshua), these events all occur ‘
three days
’ after ‘
Ben Battiah
(‘
Abba Sikkra
’ in
Gittin
)
burned all the stores
’. For it too, it is R. Yohanan, not Vespasian, who sees the people virtually reduced to starvation when he witnesses them ‘
seething straw
’, presumably to distill its substance into juice and, at this point, it is he that pronounces the ‘
woe
’ (which, however, b
e
cause of his nephew’s objections, he claims was rather ‘
wah
’ – again more Rabbinic tragic comedy or, should we say, even slapstick?). In its version of events, it is Ben Battiah then, who leads R. Yohanan’s coffin out of the city while R. Eliezer and R. Joshua, carrying the head and the feet, bring up the rear. Furthermore, it is
he who prevents the Jewish Guards
, not
the R
o
mans
, from ‘
piercing the body of
(
their
)
Master
’ in order to determine if he was really dead!
25

All three, however, then go on to picture R. Yohanan as evoking and applying, ‘
He shall cut down the thickets of the fo
r
est with iron and Lebanon shall fall by a Mighty One
’ of Isaiah 10:34 to Vespasian, either hailing him obsequiously as a kind of reverse
Messiah
and foreseeing his imminent appointment as
King
or
Emperor
.
26
At Qumran, as already remarked, while the extant
Pesher
on Isaiah 10:34 is unfortunately fragmentary at this point, it does seem to be just the reverse of these Rabbinic texts and Josephus, and the ‘
Mighty One
’ appears to refer to a
Jewish Messiah
– ‘
the cutting down of the thickets of the forest
’ and ‘
the tallest of the lofty ones
’ to ‘
the Army of the Kittim
’. Nevertheless, in the writer’s view, what cannot be denied is that all are referring in this period to
the fall of the Temple
in 70
CE
– Josephus and the Rabbinic from a more pessimistic point-of-view; the one at Qumran, just the opposite.

Josephus, in fact, does testify to precisely this state of affairs at the end of the
Jewish War
when he provides what he co
n
siders to be the authentic exegesis of ‘
the World Ruler Prophecy
’ (seemingly this prophecy from Isaiah 10:34 combined with Numbers 24:17), applying it – as already underscored as well and like the Rabbinic – to Vespasian as opposed to those more misguided persons of his own race who considered it applied to ‘
one of their own
’ (
sic
!).
27
For its part, Lamentations
Rabbah
even portrays R. Yohanan as crying out – as Josephus himself earlier seems to have done – presumptuously and obsequiously, ‘
Vive Domine Imperator
’ – ‘
Long live the Lord Emperor
’! Note here, in particular, how this flies in the face of Josephus’ own picture of either ‘
the Zealots
’ or ‘
the Essenes
’ as ‘
refusing to
call
any man
,
Lord
’.
28
Of course, this is wildly inaccurate or, at least anachronistic, since by this time in 70
CE
, Vespasian had already departed for Rome.
29
He did so the year before – ‘
the Year of the Three Emperors
’ – in 68–69
CE
– leaving the siege of Jerusalem in the hands of his son Titus, ably assisted by his second-in-command, Philo’s nephew, the ever-present ideal Roman bureaucrat, Tiberius Alexander and other nefarious types, such as Josephus himself, Agrippa II, and his sister Bernice, who make their appearance at the climax of Acts 25:13–26:32. Of course, Josephus, probably more accurately,
actually did by his own testimony apply
‘
the World Ruler Prophecy
’
to Vespasian in Galilee
in 67
CE
after his own ignominious surrender there and it is upon this that these Rabbinic stories are probably based.
30

The same prophecy is extant, as we just saw as well, along with others involving ‘
Lebanon
’ from Isaiah 14:8 and 29:17 but, because of the poor state of its (their) preservation, the interpretation is obscure. Nevertheless, the one from Isaiah 10:34 (the ones from Isaiah 14:8 and 29:17 are too damaged to tell – but, as in the Rabbinical to say nothing of the Gospels above, they are combined with material from Zechariah, evidently 3:9 and 11:1) clearly refers to ‘
the
Kittim
’ as ‘
Conquerors
’ and its inte
r
pretation either parallels or, with more justice, anticipates the Talmudic though, seemingly, from the opposite point-of-view as just described.

Notwithstanding, just as in
ARN
, it is immediately followed by the celebrated passage from Isaiah 11:1–5 about ‘
a Shoot coming forth from the Stem of Jesse and a Branch growing out of his Roots
’ which makes the whole
Pesher
even more
Mess
i
anic
.
Furthermore, the exegesis is also aggressively
Messianic
, that is, it is interpreted in terms of the ‘
standing up
’ or ‘
arising in the Last Days
’ of ‘
the Branch of David
’ – meaning, in the traditional sense,
a singular Davidic Messiah
– to whom God was going to grant ‘
a Throne of Glory and a Crown of Holiness
’.
31
As
per
Isaiah 11:4 – and, as it were, Numbers 24:17 (‘
the Star Prophecy
’) – he was going to ‘
smite his enemies
’ with ‘
the Sceptre
’ or ‘
Rod of his mouth
’/‘
the Spirit of his lips
’ and ‘
rule over all the Nations
’, ‘
judging all the Peoples
’ (
‘
A
mim
)
with
‘
his sword
’.