‘jewish doctrine takes three forms’ 157
with his venomous fury. And at the time appointed for rest, for the Day
of Atonement, he appeared before them to confuse them, and to cause
them to stumble on the Day of Fasting, their Sabbath of repose.’ Exactly
what happened on this (evidently memorable) occasion is now obscure.
It seems likely that the Wicked Priest was taking advantage of the dif-
ference between his own calendar and that of the sect, although whether
the calendar itself was the cause of disagreement is not stated. In any
case, the Yahad looked forward to the destruction of its enemies:
‘By cutting off many peoples you have forfeited your own soul’: inter-
preted this concerns the condemned House whose judgement God will
pronounce in the midst of many peoples. He will bring him hence for
judgement and will declare him guilty in the midst of them, and will chas-
tise him with fire of brimstone.In fact, their future hopes, as expressed in the War Scroll, encompassed
eschatological violence which would affect many more than their own
immediate enemies.^78
For themselves, the sectarians expected a re- enactment of their com-
munal meals in the presence of the Priestly Messiah and the Messiah of
Israel, when ‘the Messiah of Israel shall extend his hand over the bread,
and all the congregation of the Community shall utter a blessing, each
man of his dignity’, according to ‘the Rule for all the congregation of
Israel in the last days, when they shall join [the Community to wa]lk
according to the law of the sons of Zadok the priests and of the men of
their Covenant who have turned aside from the way of the people, the
men of his Council who keep his covenant in the midst of iniquity’.^79
The Dead Sea sectarians expressed high hopes for the lives they made
for themselves separate from the rest of Israel:
They shall separate from the congregation of the men of injustice and shall
unite, with respect to the Law and possessions, under the authority of the
sons of Zadok, the Priests who keep the Covenant, and of the multitude of
the men of the Community who hold fast to the Covenant. Every decision
concerning doctrine, property, and justice shall be determined by them.
They shall practise truth and humility in common, and justice and upright-
ness and charity and modesty in all their ways. No man shall walk in the
stubbornness of his heart so that he strays after his heart and eyes and evil
inclination, but he shall circumcise in the Community the foreskin of evil
inclination and of stiffness of neck that they may lay a foundation of truth
for Israel, for the Community of the everlasting Covenant.^80