The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (72 page)

I... and he will pass on [to them (his sons) his w]isdom. He will atone for all the sons of his generation and will be sent to all the sons of his [peo]ple. His word is like a word of heaven, and his teaching is according to the will of God. His eternal sun will shine, and his fire will spring forth to all the ends of the earth, and will shine over darkness. The darkness will pass away [fr]om the earth, and deep darkness from the dry land. They will utter many words against him and many [ ... ]s. They will invent stories about him, and will utter everything dishonourable against him. Evil will overturn his generation [because... ] will be, and because lies and violence will (fill) his existence, and the people will go astray in his days and will become perplexed.

... Do [n]ot mourn in sackcloth... and do not... redeemed whether they are hid[den] fault[s] or revealed faults and... Search and seek and know what is sought by the dove and do not smite one who is exhausted with consumption and troubles ... And you will make a joyous name for your father and a tried foundation for your brothers. And you will see and rejoice in the everlasting light and you will not be from among the enemies.
vacat

Four small fragments of an Aramaic work (4Q538) were first recognized as belonging to the Testament of Judah by J. T. Milik (‘Ecrits préesséniens de Qumrân: d'Hénoch à Amram', in
Qumrân. Sa piété, sa théologie et son milieu,
ed. M. Delcor (1976), 91-106). The script belongs to mid-first century BCE. The five fragments of the Testament of Joseph (4Q539) are too small for translation. However, the allusion to ‘my uncle Ishmael' (fr. 3) whose children acquired Joseph as a slave, and to the minister of Pharaoh, Pentephres, the Greek form of Potiphar (fr. 4), who bought Joseph from the Ishmaelites, seem to confirm Milik's identification of the document.

For the
editio princeps,
see E. Puech,
DJD,
XXXI, 191-2 11.

... if there is in their heart [an evil spirit] towards me (Joseph).
vacat
When I... and they came [to me,] they all [brou]ght to me the bags... and [they fell to the ground] before Joseph and revered [him]. He then knew that there was no evil [sp]irit [in their heart] and he could no longer... (suspect them) ... and he could no longer... And he presented his brothers [with] a big [mea]l ... on my (Judah's) shoulder (literally: neck) and embraced me ...

Two reasonably intact fragments, dating to the turn of the era, represent the Hebrew text of the Testament of Naphtali, with occasional similarities to the version which survives in Greek. Fr. 1 partly overlaps with TNaphtali 1, 9, 11-12, without being identical with it. Fr. 2 depicts the blessedness of the end of time and may belong to a separate sectarian document.

For the
editio princeps,
see M. E. Stone,
DJD,
XXII, 73-82.

... with the sisters(?) of (or: with Ahiyot,) the father of Bilhah, ... Deborah, who suckled Reb[eccah] ... And he went into captivity and Laban sent out and rescued him and gave him Hannah, one of [his] maidservants. [And she conceived and bore] a first [daughter], Zilphah, and gave her the name Zilphah after the name of the town whe[re] he was taken into captivity. She conceived and bore Bilhah, my mother, and Hannah called her name Bilhah, for when she was born, [she was in] a hurry to suck. And she said, ‘What? Is my daughter in a hurry?' And she called her again Bilhah.
vacat
When my father Jacob came to Laban, fleeing from Esau, his brother, and after... the father of Bilhah my mother. And Laban led Hannah, the mother of my mother and her two daughters, [and he gave one to Lea]h and one to Rachel. And when it came to pass that Rachel did not bear sons, ... [Jaco]b my father, and he gave him Bilhah my mother and she bore Dan [my] brother...

4Q371-3 form a very fragmentary Hebrew narrative relating to the period of the Patriarchs and Moses. Palaeographically they are dated to the second half of the first century BCE. 4Q372 appears to be the relic of an anti-Samaritan polemical work, antedating the destruction of the Temple on Mount Gerizim under John Hyrcanus I (134-104 BCE). No sectarian features are apparent in this writing. It should be noted that the joint reference to the tribes of Levi, Judah and Benjamin (line 14) is paralleled in 1QM 1, 2. 4Q373, parallel to 2Q22, describes the battle between a Jewish hero, possibly Moses, and the giant Og, king of Bashan (cf. Num. xxi, 21—35). The model of the story is the duel between David and Goliath.

For the
editio princeps,
see Eileen Schuller and M. Bernstein, DJD, XXVIII, 155-204.

... and the pagan priests and the worshippers of [idols] ... the Most High and He handed them over to the nations ... [and He dispersed] them in all the lands and among all [the nations] and He disseminated them ... and they did not come ... Israel. And He destroyed them from the land ... and the nations did not leave for them a tent-peg standing in the Valley of Vision ... [and they turned] Jerusalem into ruins and the Mountain of my God into high places of fore[st] ... the precepts of God. Judah was also with him and he stood at the crossroads to ... to be together with his two brothers. And for all this, Joseph was thrown to un[known] lands, to a strange nation and they (the northern Israelites) were dispersed in the whole world. All their mountains were deserted without them ... and fools resided in their land. They made for themselves a high place on an elevated mountain to excite the jealousy of Israel. They spoke wor[ds of ... ] of the sons of Jacob and caused disgust with the words of their mouth, blaspheming against the Tent of Zion. They spoke [words of falsehood and all the] words of lies to enrage Levi, Judah and Benjamin by their words. And for all this, Joseph [was put] into the hands of strangers to consume his strength and break all his bones until the time of his end. And he cried ... and called on the mighty God that He should save him from their hands. He said, ‘My Father and my God, do not abandon me to the hands of the nations. Execute judgement for me so that the humble and the poor may not perish. Thou hast no need of any nation or people to help Thee. [Thy] fing[er] is greater and more powerful than anything in the world. For Thou optest for the truth, and in Thy hand there is no violence whatever. Also Thy mercies are many and Thy loving-kindness is great for all those who seek Thee. [They took] my land from me and from all my brothers who have joined me. A nation of enemies resides on it ... and they opened their mouth with anger against all the sons of Jacob, Thy friend, ... at the time when Thou wilt destroy them from the whole world and they will give ... I will rise to enact judgement and righ[teousness] ... [to do] the will of my Creator and to offer sacrifices ... my God. I will proclaim [Thy] merci[es] ... I will praise Thee, O Lord, my God, and I will bl[e]ss Thee ... the first things and to teach Thy precepts to the sinners, and to all who have forsaken [Thy] Law.... and evil so that Thy testimonies will not rebuke me and to proclaim [Thy] righteousness ... For Thou art a great, holy, mighty, powerful, awe-inspiring and wonderful God ... [the heaven] and the earth and even in the depth of the ocean majesty and ... I know and I have understood and ...'

... all his servants. Og ...

His height was ... cubits and a half and two [cubits was his width ...] the spear like a cedar tree ... the shield like a tower ... Sweet footed ... seven stadia distant. He did not stand ... And I did not repeat for the Lord, our God, smashed him and with [the sword] ... and I made slings to wound ... for war to take strongholds and to shock ...

The Testament of Qahat is an Aramaic work of which two columns, one complete and one damaged, have survived. It is a typical example of moralizing death-bed literature, similar to the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, but characterized, like the Testaments of Levi and Amram, by its priestly perspective. The script has been palaeographically dated to the end of the second century BCE, but the carbon 14 test, performed in 1990, places it considerably earlier, possibly to 388—353 BCE, or more probably to 303—235 BCE. It is not a sectarian composition. Only the undamaged part of the text is translated here.

Two further small fragments have survived without providing anything continuous and meaningful. Fr. 2 alludes to darkness and light, and fr. 3 mentions precious stones extant in large numbers apparently on account of
zenuta
(fornication, whoredom).

For the
editio princeps,
see E. Puech, DJD, XXXI, 257—82.

 

... I and the God of gods for all eternity. And He will shine light on you and will let you know His great Name. And you will know Him, that He is the God of eternity, and the Lord of all the deeds, and the Ruler of all, dealing with them according to His good pleasure. And He will make for you rejoicing and for your sons joy for the generations of truth, for ever. Now, my sons, be careful with the heritage that is handed over to you, which your fathers have given you. Do not give your heritage to strangers, and your inheritance to knaves so that you become humiliated and foolish in their eyes and they despise you, for, although sojourners among you, they will be your chiefs. So hold to the word of Jacob, your father, and seize the laws of Abraham and the righteousness of Levi and mine. And be holy and pure of all fornication in the community. And hold the truth and walk straight, and not with a double heart, but with a pure heart and a true and good spirit. And you will give me a good name among you, and a rejoicing to Levi, and joy to Jacob, delight to Isaac, and glory to Abraham, because you will keep and walk (in) the herit[age] which your fathers will have left you: truth and righteousness and uprightness and perfection and pur[ity and ho]liness and the priesthood according to all that you have been commanded (?), and according to all that II I will have taught you in truth from now until all [the age] ... every word of truth will come upon yo[u ...] eternal blessing will reside on you and will be [come for you] ... stay for all the eternal generations and will no more ... from your correction and you will establish yourselves to pronounce judgement ov[er ... ] and to see the faults of all the sinners of the ages ... [to be cast] into the fire and the oceans and into all the cavities for ... in the generations of truth. And all the sons of wickedne[ss ... ] And now Amram, my son, [I] instruct you ... and your sons to their sons. I instruct [you ... ] and they have given to Levi my father, and Levi my father g[ave (it/them)] to me ... all my books in testimony that through them you should beware ... [and that there should be] for you through them much merit when you walk in conformity with them.
vacat

An Aramaic document surviving in five or six (?) fragmentary copies from Cave 4 contains an admonition by Amram, the father of Moses, to his children. The context is that of the Book of Exodus, but the visions and teachings are the author's free compositions. Amram's age at his death (137 years) is borrowed from Exod. vi, 20, but its dating to the 152nd year of the captivity reflects the tradition according to which the Israelites remained in Egypt, not for 430 years (Exod. xii, 40), nor 400 years (Gen. xv, 13), but 210 years. Cf. J. Heinemann,

‘210 Years of Egyptian Exile',
JJS
22 (1971), 19—30. The dating of the script varies between the second half of the second century BCE (4Q543, 544, 547), the first half of the first century BCE (4Q545,
546
) and the second half of the first century BCE (4Q548, 549).

In the gravely damaged text of a vision, Amram sees the chief Angel of Darkness, Melkiresha‘, already mentioned (pp. 394—5). He also addresses the leader of the Army of Light, whose name has disappeared in one of the many lacunae. But is is highly probable that one of his 'three names' is Melchizedek (see pp. 532—4).

For the
editio princeps,
see E. Puech,
DJD,
XXXI, 283—405.

I Copy of the book of the words of the vision of Amram, son of Kehat, son of Levi, al[1 that] he explained to his sons and enjoined on them on the day of [his] death, in his one-hundred-and-thirty-seventh year, which was the year of his death, [in] the one-hundred-and-fifty-second year of Israel's exile in Egypt ... to call Uzziel, his youngest brother, and he ma[rried] to him Miriam, [his] daughter, and said (to her), ‘You are thirty years old.' And he gave a banquet lasting seven days. And he ate and drank and made merry during the banquet. Then, when the days of the banquet were completed, he sent to call Aaron, his son, and he was about twenty years old and said to him, ‘Call, my son, the messengers, your brothers from the house of ...'