James the Brother of Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls I (88 page)

It is interesting that this striking and revealint exhortation in the first three columns of the Damascus Document includes allusion to ‘knowing Righteousness and understanding the works of God’, ‘breaking the Covenant’, ‘walking in Perfection’, ‘the Last Generation’, and the Evil Ones who ‘justify the Wicked and condemn the Righteous’. This last is the direct opposite of the paradigmatic activity of ‘
the Sons of Zadok’
who, two columns later, are rather described as ‘
justifying the Righteous and condemning the Wicked
’.
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This, of course, is the parallel to New Testament notions of ‘
Justification
’ though more in line with the ‘Jamesian’ (not the Pauline) exposition of Habakkuk 2:4: ‘
the Righteous shall live by his Faith
’ – the Pauline riposte to which occupies a good part of Romans and Galatians as well.

These early lines of the Damascus Document also contain allusion to ‘
men called by Name
’ as duly-designated instruments of Salvation. This is repeated in Column iv as part of the definition of ‘
the Sons of Zadok
’ as ‘
the Elect of Israel…
destined for life Eternal
’, in the course of which it is announced that ‘
all the Glory of Adam would be theirs
’(again a seeming allusion to the Ebionite ‘
Primal Adam
’ ideology). Parallel language is repeated in the Community Rule in the midst of baptismal imagery and evocation of
the ‘pouring out’ the Holy Spirit
.
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This idea of eternal life coupled with a curious sort of allusion to ‘Adam’ is the glorified state of Heavenly or Eternal being, to which Paul himself even makes reference in 1 Corinthians 15:22 and 47).

The phrase ‘
called by Name’
, too, is often transformed into ‘
called by this Name
’ or ‘by
the Name of the Lord Jesus
’ in Acts and Paul (1 Cor. 5:4 and 6:11). As opposed to this, however, one should note the more Qumran-style way in which James 2:7 evokes ‘
the Good Name
by which you were called
’ in conjunction, significantly, with allusion to ‘
not blaspheming
’, that is to say, ‘
the Good Name
’, and evocation – as in these passages in the Damascus Document, James, and Paul – of ‘
the Royal Law according to the Scripture
’.

It is interesting, that in the course of this allusion to ‘
being justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God
’ in 1 Cor. 6:11, Paul also goes on to speak about ‘
being washed’ and ‘made Holy’
(the ‘
consecration’ or ‘sanctification
’ in descriptions of James’ ‘Naziritism’), ‘
all things for me being Lawful’, ‘the body not being for fornication’
, and the members of Christ’s body (i.e., Paul’s Communities)
not ‘being joined’ to the flesh of a prostitute
. The latter is contrasted, Qumran-style, with the more proper ‘
being joined to the Lord
’ (1 Cor. 6:11–20).

Regardless of the way ‘prostitutes’ are referred to in the Gospels (who generally are portrayed as being acceptable to ‘Jesus’ – even ‘
keeping table-fellowship’
with him) and parallel plays on the language of ‘
fornication
’ at Qumran, this also evokes the Qumran language of ‘join’ and ‘Joiners’. This language cluster most particularly occurs in Column iv of the Damascus Document in exposition of Ezekiel 44:15’s crucial ‘
Zadokite Covenant
’ following the allusions in Columns ii-iii to ‘
God’s Wrath
’ against those ‘
walking in the stubbornness of their own hearts
’, ‘
Law-breakers
’, and how these would be ‘
cut off in the wilderness
’ and/or ‘
delivered up to the sword
’.

Playing off the word ‘Levites’, based on a Hebrew root meaning ‘
to be joined to
’ and the appositive of ‘
the Sons of Zadok
’ in the underlying text; the exegesis that is developed has to do with ‘
and the Joiners with them
’ – meaning, of course, in ‘
the Land of Damascus’ or ‘the wilderness camps’.
It should be appreciated that in both Esther and Isaiah, this expression literally applies to ‘Gentiles joining themselves to the Jewish Community’ (therefore, the use of the terminology ‘
joining
’/‘
Joiners
’ found at this point in the Damascus Document). It is for this reason we have postulated a cadre of Gentile ‘
Joiners
’ (‘
Nilvim
’) attached to the Community at Qumran – in the closing columns of the Document referred to by the typical expression ‘
fearing God
’ or ‘
God-Fearers
’

It is also important to appreciate that in the course of the first allusion to ‘
Justification
’ in Column One, that is, the ‘
justifying the Wicked
(also possibly ‘
Sinners
’)
and condemning the Righteous’
; an attack on ‘
the Righteous One
’ (
ha
-
Zaddik
–  probably alluding to ‘
the Righteous Teacher’
already alluded to earlier in the Column) is evoked – literally on ‘
the soul of the Righteous One
’ usually meaning one’s mortal quick (in this case, therefore, probably implying
a mortal attack
) – to wit: ‘
They (the Law-Breakers) banded together against the soul of the Righteous (One) and against all the walkers in Perfection,
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execrating their soul (or ‘being’), and
they
pursued them with the sword, attempting to divide the People
.’

One should note the use here of the verb ‘
pursuing
’, also used in the Habakkuk
Pesher
in the matter of
the attack on the Righteous Teacher by the Wicked Priest ‘in the House of his Exile’
. Where such ‘
pursuits
’ were concerned, a death penalty was usually pronounced or involved. This, no doubt, ‘
the Wicked Priest
’ had done; but, in the literature known to us ‘
the Zealots
’, for their part, could and, no doubt, did turn this around as justification
for treating those, who had
‘
pursued’ either their Leader
or
some of their fellows
, or both,
with
intent to kill,
in the same manner.
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The use of the word ‘
soul
’ here is widespread at Qumran, particularly when evoking
the suffering of ‘the Meek’
or
‘the Poor
’ (always ‘
Ebionim
’) in texts like
The Qumran Hymns
or the so-called ‘
Hymns of the Poor
’.
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One also finds such an allusion to ‘
soul
’ in Paul – as, for instance, ‘
every soul of man
’ in Romans 2:9 used, there, in the context of
evocation of God’s ‘Wrath’
and the ‘
revelation of Righteous Judgement’
echoing the language of these introductory exhortations in the Damascus Document. Here, hoever, Paul is at his most circumspect. Notwithstanding, in these passages he again even alludes to the James-like
God
‘
not being a respecter of persons
’ but rather ‘
paying each according to his works
’ (Rom. 2:5–2:11).

He also refers to ‘
soul
’ in 1 Corinthians 15:45 in relation to ‘
the First Man Adam became a living soul’
above – an aspect of how the ‘
Primal Adam
’-ideology was understood. One also finds it in the last line of James, this time having to do with ‘
saving a soul from death
’ (5:20).

This attack on ‘
the soul of the Righteous One
’ and his followers by ‘
the Liar
’ and his confederates in CD probably best parallels the one in the
Recognitions
by Paul on James – also called ‘
the
Zaddik
’ – above. It is important to appreciate that, following the allusion to this attack at the end of Column One in CD, the first allusion to ‘
raising up men called by Name
’ occurs. It is in this context that God in Column ii is referred to as ‘
revealing His Holy Spirit to them by the hand of His Messiah
’.

One should realize that the allusion to ‘
Messiah
’ here is singular not plural. One can see this by the singular verb and adjectival usages attached to and surrounding it despite some scholarly attempts – purposeful or otherwise – to obscure it. One well-known English translator even leaves out the next phrase: ‘
and in the explanation of His Name, their Names are (to be found
)’ – presumably because of this conundrum.

These allusions, which are always
singular
– however obscure their meaning may be – are extremely important. In the first place, because they reinforce the impression of the
expectation of a singular Messiah at Qumran
and, in the second, reference to him – as in Christianity – is accompanied by the tell-tale allusion to the all-important ‘
Holy Spirit
’.
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Wounding Weak Consciences in Paul and More Damascus Document Parallels

‘
Conscience
’, too, is the catchword Paul uses to express his contempt for those who, under the twin rubrics of ‘
loving God
’ and ‘
being weak
’, make problems over ‘
meat
’ or ‘
eating things sacrificed to idols
’ (or, in other words, ‘
reclining at an idol-Temple
’). Here too, Paul vowed – disingenuously – ‘
never to eat flesh or meat again forever, so as not to cause the weak brother to stumble
’ or ‘
wound his weak conscience
’ (1 Cor. 8:3–13). Not only is Paul opposed to the ‘Jerusalem Church’ perspective, but he knows it so well that he can draw out and deride its every minute point. James and the rest of ‘
the Elders
’ in Jerusalem must have been at a complete loss as to how to deal with him.

In Romans 13:5, not only does he reverse the normal Palestinian thrust of ‘lo
ving your neighbour as yourself
’, but also another allusion to ‘
conscience
’, that is, ‘fear’ the Authorities (this, of course, his counterpart to the normal ‘fearing God’) and subject yourself to them, ‘not only because of wrath (the Authorities’ ‘wrath’ that is), but also for the sake of
conscience
’. Instead of being a euphemism for meticulous observation of the Law, ‘
conscience
’ now becomes something that should impel the ordinary citizen to pay all the ‘taxes’ and ‘tributes due’ the State (13:6–10). The implied allusion here to ‘Wrath of God’ now becomes, rather, the vengeance the State will take upon Evil-doers, for ‘he’ or ‘it’ – there is a
double entendre
here – ‘does not wear the sword in vain’ (13:4). Again, not only do we have here much of the vocabulary of Qumran reversed, but a more anti-‘Zealot’ and, in particular, anti-‘
Sicarii
’ point of view could not be imagined.

Not only is this contradicted by the picture of ‘Jesus’
instructing his Apostles
to ‘purchase a sword’ (and their showing that they already have two! – Lk 22:36–38), but we encountered a version of this vocabulary in the First Column of the Damascus Document in the picture of those ‘seeking to divide the People (‘the Liar’, ‘Covenant-Breakers’, and ‘Traitors to the New Covenant’)
pursuing the Zaddik and all the ‘Walkers in Perfection with the sword
’. Following allusion to the Children of Israel ‘being cut off in the wilderness’ because ‘they ate blood’, ‘the sword’ to which they ‘are delivered up’ becomes ‘the avenging sword of the Covenant’!
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The Damascus Document now goes on in Column Six to evoke what the Letter of James calls ‘the Royal Law according to the Scripture’, so disingenuously invoked by Paul in support of paying taxes to the Roman Authorities and submitting to foreign rule above: ‘they shall each man love his brother as himself’.
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The allusions that follow this include: ‘not to uncover the nakedness of near kin, but keeping away from fornication according to Law’. ‘Keeping away’ here is expressed in terms of the Hebrew verb ‘
lehinnazer
’ – the root of the word ‘Nazirite’ in English. Two columns earlier this was the rationale for the ban on niece marriage, also part of the ‘Three Nets of Belial’ prohibition of ‘fornication’. In fact, one begins to see that this usage, ‘
lehinnazer
’ in Hebrew, is the root of the expression ‘keep away’ or ‘abstain from’
in James’ directives to overseas communities in Acts
.
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