RelSt 225 DSS Class Minutes #13 (22 Oct 1996)
by Brian Stern

1. Finding a Historical Setting for the DSS: In the new translation by
Wise-Abegg-Cook, the focuses is on the 40 year period from around 100 bce
to 63 bce, as reported by Josephus (who wrote nearly 150 years later).
  Jannaeus (Jonathan) was the Hasmonian/Maccabean leader who favored the
Sadducees and oppressed the Pharisees, even crucifying some of them.
  So the Pharisees sought the aid of Demetrius to overthrow Jannaeus. 
  But some of the Pharisees were against the idea of invoking "gentile"
aid, which resulted in a split among the Pharisees.
  The Nahum Pesher (4Q169 [4QPNah]) supposedly reflects this situation.

2. Reading the Nahum Pesher    
   Frgs 3-4, col 1 -- reference to Kittim = western powers: Rome, Greece
or others;  reference to a king likely to be Demetrius, King of "Yavan" 
(= Greece); Demetrius wanted to enter Jerusalem, but could not for "God
did not deliver Jerusalem into the the hand of the kings of Yavan from
Antiochus up to the appearance of the chiefs of the Kittim" (195) -- i.e. 
subsequent to the Hasmonian/Maccabean revolt which began in opposition to
Antiochus IV.

  Next there is allusion to the Angry Lion who acts out the persecution
upon the "seekers of smooth things" by hanging people alive -- there are
two different translation-interpretations at this point (the text is
fragmentary): Martinez has "which had not been done in Israel since
ancient times" while Cook (in the new translation) has "as it was done in
Israel in former times."

  This shows us how filling in the blanks can be very troublesome: 
Martinez's interpretation takes the writing as reflecting the first
occurrence of such an event (Jewish crucifixion of Jews, under Jannaeus
according to Josephus), while Cook's interpretration suggests that such an
event had taken place also in the remote past -- thus permitting the text
to be dated significantly after Jannaeus. The interpretative use of blanks
can significantly shift the direction and the time period of a text.


  Col 2: "Ephraim" (the name of one of the sons of Joseph, and thence a
tribal designation in ancient Israel) is used to designate the misled
Israelites in this current crisis period when terrible things begin to
happen, but (col 3) when people begin to recognize the sin of the "smooth
seeking" leaders, "the glory of Judah is revealed" and "the simple people
of Ephraim" desert the evil rulers and join the remnant(?) of Israel.

A question posed at the end of class concerned the extent to which all of
this information could be placed into other historical contexts from the
Maccabean/Hasmonean revolt of 165 bce to the Roman takeover in 63 bce?

//end//