Early Essene Eschatology: Judgment and Salvation according to Sapiential Wark A

TORLEIF ELGVIN

Norwegian Lutheran School of

Sapiential Work A presents us with previously unknown material that enriches our knowledge of the sapiential and apocalyptic traditions of the second century B. c. I This paper concentrates on the eschatology of this composition and dis• cusses in detail two eschatological discourses that appear in the book.

I am indebted to the Research Council of Norway for financial support, and to cando theo!. Anders Aschim for valuable feedback. This article is par• tially paralleled by two other papers: "Wisdom, Revelation, and Eschatol• ogy in an Early Essene Writing" in SBLSP (1995), 440-63, and "The Mystery to Come: Early Essene Theology of Revelation" in between the Old and the , ed. Th. L. Thompson and N. P. Lemche (Sheffield University Press, forthcoming). 1 For an introduction to Sap. Work A, see my paper "Wisdom, Revelation, and Eschatology in an Early Essene Writing," which deals with the book's genre and community of origin as well as its relation to 1 Enoch. See further Torleif Elgvin, "Admonition Texts from Qumran Cave 4," in Methods of Investigation of the and the Khir• bet Qumran Site: Present Realities and Future Prospects, ed. Michael O. Wise et a!. (New York: New York Academy of Sciences, 1994), 179-96; Daniel J. Harrington, "Wisdom at Qumran," in The Community of the Renewed Covenant: The Notre Dame Symposium on the Dead Sea Scrolls, ed. and James C. VanderKam (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1994), 137-52. Early Essene Eschatology 127

Sap. Work A is preserved in seven fragmentary copies, one from Cave 1 (1 Q26) and six from Cave 4 (4Q415, 416, 417, 418a, 418b, 423).2 Six copies display early Herodian script (30-1 B.C.), while one (4Q423) represents a late Herodian hand (A.D. 1-50). The large number of copies and the fact that this book was being copied even until a late stage in the history of the Qumran settlement show that it was highly regarded within the Essene Community. 3 Two of the copies (4Q415 and 4Q416) were rolled in a less common way with the beginning on the inside of the scroll when they were deposited the last time, a fact that probably indicates that these scrolls were still in active reading use by A.D 68. 4 I have elsewhere calculated the length of the book to be between 26,000 and 31,000 letter spaces and have located most of the major fragments within the original scrolls. 5 Sap. Work A is a didactic book that provides instruction for man's relation to his fellowman and to God. Most of the book is an address to the wise and understanding individual in second person singular. Large parts of the book consist of wisdom say• ings, often in proverbial form, that provide practical admoni• tions for life in family and society in areas of relations with par• ents, wife, and children; financial matters (loans and surety); working ethics (relations to superiors and subordinates); agri-

2 The Hebrew text of the various fragments is available in Ben Zion Wacholder and Martin G. Abegg, A Preliminary Edition of the Unpublished Dead Sea Scrolls: The Hebrew and Texts from Cave Four: Fascicle Two (Washington: Biblical Archaeological Society, 1992). The DJD edition of Sap. Work A (by John Strugnell and Daniel Harrington; the present writer is responsible for one of the copies) is in preparation. 3 Further, probably only copies of the most important books were hidden in Cave 1. , Die Essener. Qumran. Johannes tier Tiiufer und Jesus. 4th ed. (Freiburg: Herder, 1994),89-90. 4 Torleif Elgvin, "The Reconstruction of Sapiential Work A," forth• coming in RQ 16/4 (1995). 5 Ibid. The original 4Q4 J 7 scroll contained between 17 and 20 col- umns, each of ca. 28 lines of 50-60 letter spaces. The length of this scroll was ca. 260 cm (± 30 cm).