James the Brother of Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls II (92 page)

One should also remark the parallel of these materials with the end of the exhortative section of the Damascus Doc
u
ment, which is worth repeating: ‘
Your Judgements upon us
…
who have listened to the voice of the Righteous Teacher and did not abandon the Laws of Righteousness
.
They shall rejoice and their hearts shall be strengthened
,
and they shall be victor
i
ous over all the Sons of Earth
.
God will make atonement through them and they shall
see His Salvation
,
because they took re
f
uge in His Holy Name
.’
This is the kind of ‘
Name
’ and ‘
naming
’ symbolism which recurs generally throughout these and other like-minded documents as, for example, in the Book of Acts
–
itself, as already signaled, particularly interested in ‘
the Name
’ or ‘
the Great Name of Jesus
’ (3:6 and
pars.
).
67

One should also note the parallel between this and Jerome’s report of the vow James is reputed to have made in the Go
s
pel of the Hebrews not to ‘
eat or drink
’ (the Nazirite ‘
not eating or drinking
’ theme)
until he had
‘
seen Jesus
’.
68
For the medieval
Zohar
too, in discussing this same ‘
Star Prophecy
’ in Numbers, ‘
King David
(meaning
the Messiah
)
placed himself among the Poor
, ...
the Pious
, ...
and
...
those ready to sacrifice themselves
...
for the Sanctification of God
’
s Name’
(not only the ‘
Name
’ and ‘
naming
’ vocabulary once again, but now coupled with the language of ‘
Martyrdom
’ or ‘
Sanctification of the Name
’ a
l
ready underscored above).
69

‘
Joining the Heavenly Holy Ones
’ and ‘
Judgement
’
upon the Clouds
in the War Scroll

That the coming eschatological
Judgement
being pictured at this point in the War Scroll in terms of ‘
cloud
’ and ‘
rain
’ i
m
agery is something akin to what in normal parlance goes by the designation, ‘
the Last Judgement
’, is made particularly clear in the Habakkuk
Pesher
in its crucial
exposition of Habakkuk 2:4, ‘
the Righteous shall live by his Faith
’. As the Habakkuk
Pesher
pictures it, ‘
God will
save them
(‘the Righteous’) from the House of Judgement
’, a term which it will later apply to that ‘
House of Judgement which God would deliver in His Judgement in the midst of many Peoples
’.
70

At the end of the
Pesher
, it actually makes it clear that this ‘
Salvation
’ or ‘
Deliverance
’ which will be denied to ‘
Idolaters
’ among the Nations and backsliding Jews is none other than ‘
the Day of Judgement
’, a phraseology it repeats twice just so there should be no mistaking it.
71
Not only is this ‘
Day of Judgement
’ terminology widespread in Matthew, 2 Peter, and Jude,
72
but
it forms the backbone of the Koran which has a particular obsession with just such ‘
Idolaters
’ and ‘
Backsliders
’.
73
It is no diffe
r
ent, of course, from what we just referred to above as ‘
the Last Judgement
’.

With regard to this ‘
House of Judgement which God would make in the midst of many Peoples
’, the
Pesher
states even ea
r
lier that ‘
God would not destroy His People by the hand of the Nations
’, but rather ‘
God would execute Judgement on all the Nations by the hand of His Elect
’.
74
For anyone who takes seriously the widespread idea of ‘
peaceful Essenes
’, the extreme apocalyptic nationalism of this passage could not be clearer.

But in addition,
God
’
s
‘
Chosen
’ or ‘
Elect
’ is the definition of ‘
the Sons of Zadok
’ in the key exegesis of Ezekiel 44:15 in the Damascus Document. These, as the Damascus Document puts it in its own inimitable way, ‘
will
stand
at the End of Days
...
and justify the Righteous and condemn the Wicked
’. This is the opposite of what ‘
Liars
’ and ‘
Evil Ones
’ do earlier in the Document: ‘
justify the Wicked and condemn the Righteous
’.
75
In the Habakkuk
Pesher
therefore, as in the description of ‘
the Community Council
’ in the Community Rule, it is clear that these same ‘
Elect of God
’ participate in ‘
the Last Judgement
’ and ‘
will execute Judgement on all the Nations
’.
76

But this is not very different from many less well-formed ideas circulating about ‘
the Apostles
’ or even Jesus himself in early Christian thought. The same ‘
execution of Judgement
’ – presumably ‘
at the hand of
God
’
s Elect
’ as in the Habakkuk
Pesher
– is, however, expressed in the Letter of Jude 14–15 as well. Quoting ‘
Enoch the Seventh from Adam
’ and attributed, as we know, to ‘
the brother of James
’, this letter has the ideology down just about perfectly: ‘
Behold
,
the Lord is coming among the Myriads of His Holy Ones to execute Judgement against all and to sentence all the Ungodly with regard to all their ungodly works
.’
77

The War Scroll now goes on to describe this eschatological
Judgement
in a far more detailed, but completely parallel ma
n
ner, using imagery and allusions clearly based on Daniel 7:13’s ‘
one like a Son of Man coming on the clouds of Heaven
’. Grouping these ‘
Holy Ones
’ (‘
Kedoshim
’) from Daniel with ‘
the Angels
...
mighty in battle
’ and, referring seemingly to either
Messianic
or
Divine intervention from Heaven
, it reads in perhaps the most complete exposition of final apocalyptic warfare and eschatological ‘
Judgement
’ ever recorded:

“
‘
You will fight against them from Heaven
...
and the Elect of your Holy People
...
are with You in Your Holy abode
....
You have recorded for them
...
Your Covenant of Peace
,
that You may reign forever throughout all the Eternal Ages
.
And You commanded the Hosts of Your Elect in their thousands and their Myriads
,
together with Your Saints and Your Angelic Army with the authority in war to strike the Rebellious of Earth with Your awe-inspiring Judgements
... A
nd the Assembly of Your Holy Ones is in our midst together with the Elect of Heaven for Eternal help
.
And we shall despise kings
and we will mock and scorn the Mighty
,
because our Lord is Holy
and the King of Glory together with the Saints are with us
.
The Mighty of the Angelic Host have visited us
and the Hero in War is in our Assembly
and the Host of His Spirits are with our foot soldiers and our cavalry
.
”
78

Here we have some of the most triumphant, apocalyptic language in any literary document from this period. Not only are ‘
the Elect of Your Holy People
’ the same as ‘
the Sons of Zadok
’ and the references to both ‘
commanded
’ and ‘
visited
’ the same in Hebrew, but ‘
the Covenant of Peace
’ is the same as that accorded Phineas in Numbers and, by implication, Noah in Genesis as well. Also the reference here literally is to ‘
Lord
’ not ‘
God
’ and, as with ‘
the Hero in War
’ and in another Qumran text just noted above, specifically evoking the ‘
Messiah
’ as ‘
commanding both Heaven and Earth
’ and making precisely such a ‘
visit
’,
79
it is unclear whether we are speaking about
God
or ‘
His Messiah
’. However, in the parallel represented by ‘
the Lord coming with the Myriads of His Holy Ones to execute Judgement
’ in
Jude
above, there can be no doubt that we are speaking about
the Messiah
.

At this point in the War Scroll, the imagery shifts to ‘
cloud
’ imagery, because now it is combining the imagery of Daniel’s ‘
one like a Son of Man coming on the clouds
’
of Heaven
with the exegesis of
the Star Prophecy
, both interpreted in terms of an eschatological War against all Evil on the Earth and final Judgement on all mankind. Furthermore, the whole passage, as with the passage from the
Zohar
representing David as the Messiah already alluded to above, begins with the evocation of ‘
D
a
vid Your Servant
,
who
...
put his trust in Your Great Name
’. It is at this point the Star Prophecy from Numbers 24:17 is quo
t
ed in its entirety and allusion is made to ‘
Your Messiah
’ – the ‘
hand
’ of whom is once again referred to.
80

In this context, the text now adds eschatological ‘
rain
’ imagery, in the sense of implying
Final Apocalyptic Judgement
, not just warfare, and a logical extension of its Messianic ‘
cloud
’ imagery. That the context is again that of Daniel 7:13 is made clear by the words: ‘
They are as clouds
,
as moisture-laden clouds over the Earth and torrents of rain shedding Judgement on all that grows on it.’
81
Even though it is using
figurative language, the meaning could not be clearer. It is followed by what virtually amounts to yet another ‘
Paean of Praise
’:

“
‘
Arise Mighty One
,
lead off your captives
,
Man of Glory
.
Gather your spoil
,
Doer of War
.
Put your hand upon the neck of your Enemies and your foot on the piles of dead
.
Smite the nations
,
your Adversaries
,
and let your sword devour guilty flesh
...
Fill Your land with Glory and may your inheritance be blessed
...
Zion rejoice greatly
!
Show yourself with jubilation Jerusalem
!
Sing for joy all you cities of Judah and may your gates be ever open
...
Sovereignty is
(
to the Lord
)
and Eternal Dominion to Israel
.’
”
82