A Farewell to the Hodayot of the Community

Since the 1960s, most scholars have distinguished between two types of compositions in the Hodayot, those that represent the persona of the Teacher of Righteousness and those that represent the spiritual experience of the Community in general. This theory, however, was developed before scholars had access to a reliable reconstruction of 1QHa or to the fragmentary manuscripts of the Hodayot from Cave 4. While that evidence largely confirms the distinctiveness of the group of compositions associated with the Teacher, which are clustered in cols. 10–17, the evidence undermines the cogency of a category of “Community” hodayot. The presence of lmśkyl headings in several compositions, claims to leadership by the speaker, the appearance of an expression that implicitly compares the speaker to Moses, and other factors make it more likely that the non-Teacher hodayot should be associated with the Maśkîl rather than with ordinary sectarians.

Two Figures in the Dead Sea Scrolls — Melchizedek in 11QMelchizedek (11Q13) and “Son of God” in the “Apocryphon of Daniel” (4Q246) — as Two Eschatological Soteriological Concepts

The article analyses and juxtaposes the images of the eschatological soteriological figures of Melchizedek in 11QMelchizedek (11Q13) and the “Son of God” in 4QApocryphon of Daniel (4Q246). Identifying the differences in the soteriological concepts reflected in 11Q13 and 4Q246, the author reaches the following main conclusions. God the Creator is transcendent to creation; Melchizedek is predominantly the spiritual head of the entire universe (cf. also 4Q521, frag. 2, 2:1 of the “Messiah” of the Lord), who during the Eschaton will put an end to all the dark forces of creation led by Belial, atone for the sins of the worthy and retaliate against the sinful. As for the “Son of God” in 4Q246, his mission is mainly directed to earthly affairs, albeit on a global scale; he appears as a lay and military leader who comes at a critical moment to the aid of God’s people and is called to establish a just and righteous world order and in fact to become the sovereign of the united earthly kingdom. To a certain extent the image of “Son of God” in 4Q246 may be compared with the personality of the eschatological “messenger who announces peace (שלום)” (Isa. 52:7), i.e. establishes socio-political welfare on earth (cf., e.g., 4Q246, frag. 2, 2:5–6), and who is identified in 11Q13 2:16, 18 with the figure of the “anointed”/”prince” mentioned in Dan. 9:25 (the lay Messiah). Melchizedek, on the other hand, appears in 11Q13 as a divine figure on a universal, not just global, scale— one could even say like a second “God” within the created universe. As for the “messenger of good who announces salvation, saying to Zion: your God reigns” (Isa. 52:7), referred to in 11Q13 2:18–24, this is probably the Teacher of Righteousness of the Qumran community (the priestly Messiah).

The Earliest Commentary on the Prophecy of Habakkuk

This is the first major commentary in English on Pesher Habakkuk for forty years. It elucidates the nature of 1QpHab as the earliest commentary on the prophecy of Habakkuk by a detailed study of the biblical quotation and sectarian interpretation. This commentary provides a new edition of the scroll, including new readings, and detailed palaeographical, philological, exegetical, and historical notes and discussion. It shows that the pesherist imitates the allusive style of the oracles of Habakkuk and also draws on lexemes, phrases, and themes from other biblical texts and Jewish sources. It shows that the pesherist identified the Kittim with the Romans who conquered Judaea in 63 BCE, and suggests that the scroll refers to several righteous and wicked figures, including the last Hasmonean high priests, Aristobulus II, John Hyrcanus II, and Mattathias Antigonus. The righteous figures include those who remain faithful to the Teacher of Righteousness. It is shown that the Teacher of Righteousness was not a deposed Hasmonean high priest, but a sectarian teacher of biblical interpretation, whose hermeneutical function is vested in his divinely appointed role as the expositor par excellence of the community that saw its fulfilment in the prophecy of Habakkuk. The sectarians believe that faithfulness in the teachings of the Teacher of Righteousness will save them in the day of judgment.