Early Judaism- A Comprehensive Overview

Sapiential Work(4Q185) andBeatitudes.The connection of practical and

religious instruction with eschatology may have a parenetic function, but

it seems to reflect the status of specific scribes or teachers as knowledge-

able of everything.

Such scribal sapiential interest also explains the presence of various

scientific texts in the corpus, such as 4QHoroscope (4Q186), 4QPhysiog-

nomy (4Q561), 4QZodiology and Brontology (4Q318), and perhaps also

the various astronomical texts, such asAstronomical Enochand 4QLuni-

solar Calendar (4Q317).

The major contribution of the Dead Sea Scrolls sapiential texts is that

they illustrate the merging of many different kinds of knowledge, includ-

ing the appropriation of non-Jewish concepts, and the fusion of diverse lit-

erary genres. This is turn suggests the rise of a new kind of Jewish scholar-

ship that tried to integrate all available disciplines and fields of knowledge.

Envisioning the End: Apocalypses and Other Eschatological Texts

The corpus contains a variety of texts that are in some way focused on the

future. Those include many Aramaic apocalyptic and visionary texts, such

as the texts assigned toEnochand theNew Jerusalemtext, which may be a

vision of Jacob, as well as texts related to the figure or the book of Daniel,

such asApocryphal Daniel(4Q246), the pseudo-Danielic compositions

(4Q243-245), and perhaps theFour Kingdoms(4Q552, 4Q553, and 4Q553a).

One may add theWords of Michael(4Q529, 4Q571, and 6Q23) and other

small fragmentary visionary or prophetic Aramaic manuscripts. It is re-

markable that most apocalyptic and visionary works are written in Ara-

maic, which may reflect a literary preference or a special provenance for

those texts.

With the possible exception ofVision and Interpretation(4Q410) and

Narrative A(4Q458), eschatological texts written in Hebrew rarely have a

visionary form. Instead, there arepoetic descriptionsof the eschatological

period, such asTime of Righteousness(4Q215a),Renewed Earth(4Q475),

andMessianic Apocalypse(4Q521), a composition on the messianic period

and resurrection, as well as rules for the congregation and blessings for the

“last days” (1QSa, 1QSb). The corpus includes a series of related but differ-

ent manuscripts on the eschatological war. They describe the final war be-

tween the children of light and the children of darkness, assisted by the an-

gels and the troops of Belial, respectively, and prescribe the prayers to be

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The Dead Sea Scrolls

EERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
Tuesday, October 09, 2012 12:04:04 PM