The Damascus Document
The Date
I believe the clue to the
dating of the document lies in the prophecy near the end of the
'Exhortation'.
"From the day of the
gathering of the Teacher of the Community until the end of all the men
of war who deserted to the Liar there shall pass 40 years and during
that age the wrath of God shall be kindled against Israel as He said
'there shall be no king, no prince, no judge, no man to rebuke with
justice.'"
The 'gathering in of the
Teacher' refers to the death of Onias (171 BCE), the last legitimate
High Priest of the Zadoc line.
The 'Liar' is Jason. In
the Commentary on Habbakkuk he is referred to as the 'Spouter of lies
who led many astray that he might build a city of vanity and blood...'
He was of the Zadoc line
although not a legitimate High Priest, according to the Essenes, and his
followers became known as Sadducees.
The men of war were
therefore the Sadducees.
During the 40 year period
after Onias' death, from the death of Aleimas, 159 BCE, to the election
of Jonathon, 152 BCE, the position of High Priest remained vacant. There
was 'no king, no prince, no judge, no man to rebuke with justice', for
those seven years.
The writer is prophesying
that by 131 BCE (171-40) there would be no more Sadducees left.
I would believe the
original Damascus document was written very soon after the election of
Jonathon as High Priest (152 BCE), probably about 150 BCE.
I would guess the author
thought that with the election of a Pharisee as High Priest, the
Sadducees, who both the Pharisees and Essenes hated, would quickly be
suppressed.
The First teacher of
Righteousness
The first paragraph of the
Damascus Document describes the events leading up to the first
appearance of the Teacher of Righteousness.
There
is a key phrase which sets these events in time. It reads, "390
years after He had given them into the hands of
Nebuchadnezzar".
In
their book "The Dead Sea Scroll, A New Translation"
(1996, Harper) Wise, Abegg Jr., and Cook, state "The ambiguous
statement about 390 years is interpreted so that the 390 years follow,
rather than precede (as is possible in the original Hebrew) the conquest
of Nebuchadnezzar."
If
it is assumed the conquest took place about 597 BCE the date referred to
could be either 207 BCE or 987 BCE.
Despite
50 years of effort no one has been able to find events that even
remotely resemble those described in the Scroll around the year 207 BCE.
Some have tried to get around the problem by suggesting the 390 years
"is only symbolic" and really means some other time span, but
that solution I do not find satisfactory.
In
this essay I will examine other possibilities and look for the events
anchored on the date 987 BCE.
1)
From the Scroll
"And
when they were unfaithful and forsook Him, He his 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."
From
the Old Testament
"And after Joshua's death there arose another generation who did not
know the Lord...and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel".
God turned His back on His people and refused to allow them "to drive
out any of the nations that Joshua left before he died." (Judges)
The same period is described in Psalm 106.
The Jews mingled with the nations and learned to do as they did and
"sacrificed to the idols of Canaan."
The anger of the Lord was kindled against
them and He game them into the hands of their enemies.
"Many times He delivered them" but they
kept returning to their sinful ways.
Eventually He relented and "remembered,
for their sake, His covenant with them".
2)
From the Scroll
"And
in the Age of Wrath, 390 years before He had given them into the
hands 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 the earth."
From
the Old Testament
The
Jewish nation almost disintegrated until, under David's leadership, the
people were united and firmly established on their lands. The date 987
BCE falls somewhere in David's reign.
3)
From the Scroll
"And
they perceived their iniquity and recognized they were guilty men, yet
for 20 years they were like blind men groping for the way".
From
the Old Testament
When
the Philistines sacked Shiloh (c 1080 BCE) they took with them the
Ark of the Covenant as part of their booty. After a number of stops it
came to rest "at Kiriathjearim, a long time passed, some 20
years" before David brought it to Jerusalem and the people once
again had God's Laws to guide them in their conduct.
4)
From the Scroll
"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."
From
the Old Testament
David
"left" Zadoc, the priest, before the tabernacle of the Lord to
offer burnt offerings..." That is David appointed Zadoc chief
priest in the Jerusalem sanctuary. As head of the priesthood which was
responsible for insuring the people behaved righteously, he was given
the title of "Teacher of Righteousness" within the Community
of God.
The Teacher
of Righteousness always refers to a chief, or high, priest of the Zadoc
line. After Onias III, the last of the line killed by Menelaus, there
are no further mentions of the Teacher of Righteousness.
Conclusion
The
similarities of the events leading up to Zadoc being appointed to offer
burnt offerings before the tabernacle as described in the Old Testament
and those leading up to the raising of the Teacher of Righteousness as
described in the Scroll are so strong and numerous they cannot be
ascribed to coincidence. The conclusion, I maintain, must be that Zadoc
was the first Teacher of Righteousness.
This
conclusion is strengthened by the interpretations of Psalm 37:23 in the
"Commentary on the Psalms" scroll "the Priest, the
Teacher of Righteousness whom God has chosen to stand before Him to
build for Himself the congregation of..."
Also
the Damascus Document states that "the sealed book of the Law which
was in the Ark was not opened in Israel from the death of Eleazar to
Joshua. It was hidden and was not revealed until the coming of
Zadoc."
The
New Covenant In The Land Of Damascus
CA693 BCE Manasseh began to rule in Judah and "he did what was evil in
the sight of the Lord. He erected altars for Baal even in the
House of the Lord and seduced the people to do evil". This so
angered the Lord that He declared The House of Judah had broken His
covenant and punishment would follow.
Later, when Jeremiah visited the exiles in Babylon, God
spoke to him "Behold the days are coming when I will make a new covenant
with the House of Israel and the House of Judah, not like the covenant I
made with your fathers when I took them out of the land of Egypt, my
covenant which they broke. But this is the covenant which I will
make with the House of Israel of those days. I will put my law
within them and I will write it upon their hearts and I will be their
God and they shall be my people".
No longer did the people need the tablets containing His laws, that He
had given to Moses, and which had, presumably, been destroyed along with
the temple.
In the Damascus Scroll
this is referred to as "The New Covenant in the Land of Damascus".
The Exhortation
The title is misleading. It should be
entitled a "Commentary on the Exhortation", like the Commentary on
Habakkuk, Psalms, Nahum, etc, because the writer interprets the biblical
passages in the original document so they relate to people, places or
events in Israeli history.
This commentary, like the others was only meant for the
eyes of the men of Qumran, the Council of Holiness members, and not by
the general public. The original 'exhortation' must have been a very old
document and would have been known to everyone.
What follows is, what I believe to be, the
original Exhortation. In arriving at it I have not changed the Scroll
document in any way, except to delete those parts added by the Scroll
writer. The start of the deleted sections I have marked by an *.
- Delete 1:
...this was the time of which it is written 'Like a stubborn heifer thus was Israel stubborn' * He cased them to wander...
-
Delete 2:
...Prophet Isaiah saying 'the priests, the Levites and the sons of Zadoc who kept charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel strayed from me shall offer me fat and blood * They were the first men of holiness whom God forgave...
-
Delete 3:
...as He spoke by the hand of Isaiah, son of Amoz, saying 'Terror and the pit and the snare are upon you, O, inhabitants of the land * For in ancient times Moses and Aaron arose by the hand of the Prince of Lights...
-
Delete 4:
...and they dug the well 'the well which the princes dug, which the nobles of the poeple delved with the stave' * None of those brought into the Covenant shall enter the temple in vain...
-
Delete 5:
...those who walk in perfect holiness the Covenant of God shall be an assurance that they shall live for a thousand generations * and all those who despise the commandments...
-
Delete 6:
...who held fast escaped to the land of the north as God said 'I will exile the tabernacle of your kings and the bases of your statutes from my tent to Damascus' * At the time of the former visitation they were saved whereas the apostates were given up to the sword...
-
Delete 7:
...whom God said 'their wine is the venom of serpents, the cruel poison of asps.' * But all these things the builders of the wall have not understood...
-
Delete 8:
...who walk in stubbornness of their heats they shall have no share in the law. * For they have spoken wrongly...
-
Delete 9:
...neither they nor their kin shall have any part in the house of the law * and during that age the anger of the Lord will be kindled...
In the above revamped
document there is a continuity of text from before to after the *s which
is a good indication that the sections I have deleted were not included
in the original Exhortation.
It also reads like a true Exhortation.
The Interpreter and the Prince
"The star is the Interpreter of the Law
who shall come to Damascus as it is written, "A star shall come out of
Jacob and a scepter shall rise out of Israel.' The scepter is the Prince
of the whole congregation and when he comes he shall smite the children
of Seth."
The Interpreter
This is Ezra who interpreted Gods words to be transcribed into the 104 Holy Books. He was warned that 70 of these books (I believe they were the books of the Prophets) should only be delivered to such as are wise among the people (The Sophorem).The Prince
This is Cyrus. 'Thus says the Lord to His annointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue the nations before him'. (Isa 45:1)The Children of Seth
These are the Chaldeans. (Isa 47)
The writer of this
Commentary sees the return from exile being foretold in the Book of
Numbers.
| Introduction | Community Rule | Habakkuk I | Habakkuk II | Damascus Document | Ecclesiastes | Essenes |
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