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A. Steudel Introduction and Methodological Qyestions

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A. Steudel Introduction and Methodological Qyestions THE DEVELOPMENT OF ESSENIC ESCHATOLOGY 1 A. Steudel Introduction and Methodological Qyestions The Dead Sea Scrolls have been called one of the most important archeological findings of this century. Indeed, the scrolls-discovered between 1947 and 1956 near Qirbet Qumran on the western shore of the Dead Sea-are of substantial value. These texts, some of the oldest biblical manuscripts ever found, including apocryphal works from the Second Temple period, provide us with insights into the life and beliefs of a religious Jewish group that lived in the last two centuries B.C.E. and the first century C.E. Over the last few years, research on the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Qumran texts, 2 has widened perspectives and raised many questions.3 An academic consensus does not exist in interpreting the scrolls.4 In light of this situation, an examination of the development of Essenic eschatlogy based on the Dead Sea Scrolls should take certain method­ ological problems into account. First, two important questions vis-a.-vis the title of this paper need to be addressed: Do the Dead Sea Scrolls speak about the Essenes, and can we speak about a development within Essenic eschatology? Do the Dead Sea Scrolls relate to the Essenes? Before the Qumran findings, ancient historigraphers, such as Pliny the Elder, described the Essenes as living near the Dead Sea. Early on, many characteristic 1 I would like to thank Albert I. Baumgarten for coordinating this inspiring con­ ference. 2 By using the tenn Dead Sea Scrolls, or Qumran texts in this article, I refer only to those texts which were composed by the Essenes. 3 See, e.g., the question of who was the author of the Dead Sea Scrolls, raised especially in the context of 4QMMT, published by Elisha Qjmron and John Strugnell in Discoveries in the Judaean Desert X, 1994. 4 It should be noted that only 9 out of about 900 manuscripts found in the caves are in fact still scrolls, more or less well preserved. All the other so-called scrolls are fragmentarily preserved manuscripts, remains of fonner scrolls often consisting only of small pieces; see Hartmut Stegemann, Die Essener, Qgmran, Johannes der Tarifer und Jesus (Freiburg: Herder, 5, 1996) pp. 16-17. This makes the exegesis of the Dead Sea Scrolls rather difficult. 80 A. STEUDEL similarities had been detected between the description of these his­ toriographers and the Qumran writings themselves, but differences exist as well. At present there is a debate whether the texts found in the caves near the settlement Qrbet Qumran in fact belonged to the people who had lived there. It is impossible to discuss all these questions here, therefore we will refer to two publications by researchers who uphold the traditional opinion, suggesting that the Dead Sea Scrolls are of Essenic origin. The first publication is by Roland Bergmeier who did a comparative study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Josephus' reports on the Essenes.5 Bergmeier convincingly explains the differences between these texts as due to the different perspectives and biases of the sources used by Josephus. Josephus' description of the Essenes is influenced by the literary sources that he used, and not by his own experiences with Essenes. The differences between J osephus' reports and the pic­ ture of the Essenes which we gain from the Dead Sea Scrolls is the difference between literary fiction/literary freedom and history. The link of the settlement with the scrolls in the caves is sup­ ported by the geographical neighborhood and the way of life, but also seems to be confirmed by eschatological evidence. Both the Qumran texts and the tombs at Qumran relate to a belief in res­ urrection, as shown by Emile Puech.6 The Qumran texts show that the Essenes expected a physical resurection. 7 The design of the tombs at the graveyards of Qrbet Qumran reflect this belief: each person was buried in a single grave and in a specific manner, guarantee­ ing that the person buried there remained physically uninjured by the earth above. Furthermore, the tombs face north-the place of paradise-according to Henochic traditions which were well known in Qumran at the time. Despite many scholarly attempts to identify the Dead Sea Scrolls with the Sadducees or another unknown Jewish group, the traditional view associating the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls with the Essenes remains valid.8 5 Roland Bergmeier, Die Essener-Berichte des FllJ1)ius ]osephus. Qyellenstudien zu den Essenertexten im Werk des jiidischen Historiographen (Kampen: Kok Pharos, 1993). 6 Emile Puech, La croyance des Esseniens en la vie .fUture: immortaliti, resurrection, vie eter­ nelle? Histoire d'une croyance dans le ]udaisme Ancien, vol. 11, EB 22 (Paris: J. Gabalda, 1993). 7 This was correcdy described by Hippolytus of Rome--and not by Josephus who depicts the Essenes' belief in the afterlife according to Hellenistic ideals. See E. Puech, La croyance, pp. 703-769. 8 C£, e.g., also James VanderKam, The Dead Sea Scrolls Today (Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1994). .
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