DSS.950207 Minutes, Dead Sea Scrolls Class #7, 7 February 1995
University of Pennsylvania, Religious Studies 225, Robert Kraft
Allison Stewart, ultimately responsible; Adam Schaffer, shadow

I.  Preliminary Rhetoric (Miscellaneous):

A. The DSS Revealed CD-ROM 

- The CD-ROM on the Dead Sea Scrolls is now up and working in room 413 
of the Duhring Wing.  This room can be accessed by request only.  Send 
all money to Dr. Robert Kraft, room 409, Duhring Wing, please, no IOUs.

- The CD includes a large glossary of terms and names, and there are a
few typos and such.  This is probably due to the fact that the CD was put
together quite hastily so as to get on the market as soon as possible. 
The CD was put together in Great Britain and was sanctioned by the Israel
Antiquities Authority. 

- This CD is also at MMETS (DRL basement), but the sound track on the
video clips is not working there yet; otherwise, for the main bodies of 
material the MMETS setup is fine.  There is also a copy at Van Pelt
(but no adequate computer).  The idea of circulating the CDs was brought
up so that those who possess computers capable of running the CDs (having
double speed CD-ROM drives and sound cards) could outshine the rest of us. 
 
B. Etc.

- Dr. Kraft (the almighty) circulated a new catalogue from Dove 
Booksellers which conveniently lists recent books and resources on the 
Dead Sea Scrolls.

- The Garcia-Martinez book is still not in the bookstore, but the 
bookstore hasn't given up yet.

- There is a possibility of our class having another guest lecturer.  
Dr. Kraft would very much like Dr. Ross Kraemer to come to lecture us on 
the Therapeutae, a subject that she dealt with in her doctoral thesis and 
has continued to pursue in more recent publications. [16 February]


II.  Relevant Rhetoric:

- In our last class, we began the discussion of sects of Judaism
pertinent to our discussion of the Dead Sea Scrolls.  This included
tangents covering the group at Elephantine and at Heliopolis
(Leontopolis).  In today's class, we again turned our attention to groups
relevant to our discussion of the scrolls, specifically to groups with
some sort of eschatological bent or high eschatological expectations, in
contrast to "common knowledge" about the Sadducees. 

A.  Eschatology

-  The term eschatology refers to "a branch of theology concerned with 
the final events in the history of the world or mankind" (Webster's Ninth 
New Collegiate Dictionary, Massachusetts, 1986).   Eschatology implies a 
type of time-line in which the involved participants are positioned 
somewhere in close relation to the last-days (or end-times).

-  Eschatology is not applied only to religions of the past, but lives on
today, especially in the "Abrahamic" traditions (Judaism, Christianity,
Islam).  For example, current Christian "fundamentalism" includes
eschatological perspectives and expectations (as our own Dr. Kraft will
attest from his backrgound).  Eschatological views like the interpretation
of Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia prior to WW II, or WW II itself, as
evidence of the nearness of the last days, are echoed in the pesharim
found among the DSS. There is a constant updating involved in eschatology,
and persons with such an outlook always feel themselves to be living in
"the last days."

-  Some of the earliest instances of developed eschatological thought in 
Judaism occur in the Greco-Roman period (approximately 330 BCE onwards) 
with works such as Daniel, Enoch/Watchers, and Jubilees.

-  Apocalyptic eschatology is a subset of eschatology, the key to which is
revelation, or more explicity, the belief that God reveals certain
detailed things about the end-time.  It includes a strong focus on
symbolism. Apocalyptic eschatology was a very graphic subset of
eschatology and we will see some very interesting examples of it in the
Dead Sea Scrolls. 

-  The people who left the DSS and other such groups at that time were
preparing for the final crisis in the world, and were waiting for God to
correct all the problems.  They used value laden terms such as "Teacher of
Righteousness" and "wicked people," and intervention expectations such as 
"Messiah" (anointed agent) in their eschatological vocabulary.

-  In the scrolls, there is not much attention paid to the idea of
"resurrection," though it may be simply that resurrection was a concept
taken for granted and therefore not explicitly noted.  The absence of any
resurrection references would be especially significant insofar as
resurrection is usually a concept associated with eschatology (compare,
e.g. Daniel 12.2).  However, the failure to find clear resurrection
references does not in itself confirm or deny anything. 

-  Eschatological texts found among the DSS fall into two broad
categories:  "sectarian" -- those that seem to have been written by the
scroll people for their own use (for example, the War Scroll); and adopted
or appropriated -- documents that were written by others but which the
scroll people copied and used for their own purposes (for example, the
presumably scriptural works such as the Enoch materials, Jubilees,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel).  Even if you look at sectarian texts in the
strictest sense of the word, meaning that there seems to be no way that
the particular text could have been imported from outside the group (the
Manual of Discipline, for example), you still find evidence of
eschatology.  Eschatology was definitely an important aspect of life for
the DSS people. 

B. Circumcision (tangent)

-  Another curious omission in the Dead Sea Scrolls concerns circumcision. 
There seems to be no mention of circumcision in the Scrolls.  This again
does not confirm anything since this concept may have been so obvious to
the scroll people that they thought it went without saying. 

-  The DSS community had specified purity rituals, such as the 
required pre-meal bath, which make the omission of mention of circumcision 
even more curious.

-  In the class discussion, it was suggested that if the theory that the
DSS community was celibate were true, that could account for the lack
of mention of circumcision (if there were no children and only Jewish
converts, everyone was already circumcised before they joined the group). 

-  At this point, Dr. Kraft (blessed be he) pointed out the existence of
an article in the latest BA (Biblical Archaeologist) which presents the
evidence for the presence of women at Qumran by providing statistics from 
the excavated graveyards as well as looking at some texts. 

C.  Eschatological Groups

-  From the time period in which we are interested, several groups with
significantly "eschatological" interests are known, in contrast to the
Sadducees: e.g. the Pharisees, Essenes (and/or DSS people, according to
one's view of their relationship), Zealots (and/or Sicarii?), and
Nazarenes (an early designation for "Christian" Jews). 

-  Eschatology was associated with the Pharisees as the major way of 
differentiating them from the Sadducees.  This differentiation was mainly 
attested by early Christian authors while Jewish authors tended to 
emphasize halakhic issues.

-  In the New Testament, several texts point out the differing opinions 
held by the Pharisees and the Sadducees on resurrection.  The Pharisees 
were said to believe in life after death and resurrection, while the 
Sadducees were said not to believe in resurrection (though not
necessarily throwing away all hope of a belief in the hereafter).

-  Josephus provides us with some of the earliest information on these
groups.  In his "Antiquities" (13.288ff; see also 13.171ff), Josephus
refers to the Pharisees and Sadducees during his account of the Maccabean
rule of John Hyrcanus (135-104 BCE).  This was during the height of the
Maccabean (Hasmonean) power, and it was during this time that the
Sadducees and Pharisees are depicted as disputing for power.  Thus we are
introduced to the names of these two groups, as well as to what they
disputed. [For further detailed discussion of these matters, see Steve
Mason, Flavius Josephus on the Pharisees (Brill 1991).] Whether and to
what extent one can assume that the same characteristics found generations
later among the groups that bear these same names, such as at the time of
the first revolt against Rome (66-73 CE), were present in the earlier
period (and vice versa), is problematic.  Continuity of name does not
guarantee continuity of outlook. 

-  Josephus gives us further information on these groups, including the 
Essenes (see War 2.119ff, Antiquities 13.171ff, 18.1ff).  He says the 
Pharisees focus on the explication of laws (halakha) and allow much power 
to fate and God, with some small amount of free will.  He talks about 
transmigration of souls (only good ones) which may also imply that the 
Pharisees believed in resurrection.  Josephus says the Pharisees are 
friendly to one another and have a regard for the public.

-  The Sadducees, according to Josephus, believed in free will entirely, 
without mediation by God.  They also disregarded immortality of the 
soul.  The Sadducees were also described by Josephus as bizarre in their 
relationships with each other.

-  Josephus aligns himself with the Pharisees later in his life when he 
pictures them as relatively more flexible and popular, and the Sadducees as 
"aloof" and presumably interested in preserving the "status quo."

-  The "Zealots" (whose name paradoxically comes from the Greek
"enthusiasts" or "fanatics") were militaristic about their Judaism.  This
is one reason they are often believed to be identical to the radical
"Sicarii" (which means people who carry daggers) described by Josephus --
Josephus associates these groups without calling them identical in War
7.252-274.  Josephus traces the lineage of the Sicarii to Judas the
Galilean (e.g. War 7.253), whom he also identifies with the unnamed Jewish
"Fourth Philosophy" (Antiq 18.9, 23).  At the very least, these two
movements are related in terms of conduct, for Josephus. 

-  Josephus, after his relocation to Rome following his surrender to the
Romans in the Jewish revolt (approximately 66-73 CE), wanted a scapegoat
for the war.  Josephus knew where his bread was buttered and wanted to
make the Romans feel better and Judaism in general not look so bad, so he
blamed the Sicarii-Zealots for the wars with the Romans in the literature
that provides us with all the information on these presumably
eschatological groups (see his "Jewish War," book 7, chapter 9 and 10 for
more information). 

-  Josephus also says that the "Fourth Philosophy" has similar views to 
those of the Pharisees, which perhaps justifies their inclusion in a 
grouping of eschatological sects (Antiq 18.23).

-  The Essenes are a major focus in Josephus' description of the Jewish
groups in War 2, and they "live with a severer discipline." We will
discuss this group more extensively later.  Josephus also mentions these
groups in Antiquities 18.9ff (written around 100 CE).  When speaking of
the Pharisees in this later text, the reference to resurrection is much
stronger. 

-  Josephus generally avoids talk of eschatology in his works, perhaps
because (among other things) the eschatological views of his time depicted
the those nasty Romans (= the "Kittim"), Josephus' benefactors, as the
ungodly endtime adversary. Note how he avoids the subject in his treatment
of the book of Daniel. 

//end DSS.950207//