THE TWO HISTORICAL LAYERS OF HABAKKUK

Hanan Eshel

In memory of Professor Pesher Habakkuk (1QpHab) is the longest and most complete of the so-called Continuous Pesharim (commentaries) recovered from Qum- ran.1 The 13 columns of this scroll contain a commentary on Habakkuk 1–2,2 but not on Habakkuk 3.3 Upon an examination of its pesharim, I would like to propose that two historical layers are apparent in the scroll. The first layer includes commentaries from the lifetime of the , who joined the sect in the middle of the sec- ond century BCE,4 and apparently died before the end of that century.5

1 The “Continuous Pesharim” are commentaries in which a whole biblical text is interpreted as a unit, as opposed to the “Thematic Pesharim”, where individual verses were gathered to shed light on a particular point. The eighteen Continuous Pesharim that were revealed at were reedited in M.P. Horgan’s important study (1979). 2 1QpHab is one of the three scrolls that Mohammed edh-Dhib claimed were con- tained within the cylindrical jar in Cave 1 at Qumran in 1947. For its editio princeps, see Brownlee in Burrows et al. 1950. It was reedited by Horgan (1979, 10–55; see also The Texts, pp. 1–9). 3 Since its last column includes only three and half written lines, which offer an interpretation of the final words of Hab 2, it is obvious that 1QpHab did not contain commentaries on Habakkuk 3; see Horgan 2002, 157. Most of the scholarly works on 1QpHab are listed in Horgan’s study (pp. 157–59). Many of these works record historical aspects of the manuscript. As far as I know, the proposal brought here that 1QpHab reflects two historical layers has never been put forward; see, however, the important observation made by Flusser (1954, 92, n. 12; 2007, 5, n. 13). 4 For evidence showing that the Teacher of Righteousness joined and began leading the Yahad circa 150 BCE, see Collins 1989; Eshel 2008, 29–61. 5 H. Stegemann concluded that the Teacher of Righteousness died circa 110 BCE (1998, 123). He based this on the notion that the author of the placed the end of days—according to Dan 9:24–27—at 490 years after the destruction of the First Temple. That author divided this 490-year period into four sub-phases: 390 years until the sect was established (CD I 5–8); 20 years in which members of the sect were without purpose and direction, until the Teacher of Righteousness began leading them (CD I 9–11); the period in which the Teacher of Righteousness led the sect; and 40 years from the death of the Teacher of Righteousness until the messiahs from Aaron and Israel were to come (CD XIX 33–XX 1, XX 13–15). On the manner in which the author of the Damascus Document asserted, by way of interpretation, that redemption would come 40 years after the death of the Teacher of Righteousness, see Eshel 1999. The Damascus Document does not note the length of the third of the 108

The second involves the Kittim,6 identifiable in 1QpHab as the Romans, who took over Judaea in 63 BCE7 This leaves a gap of some 50 years between this event and the death of the Teacher of Righteousness.8 With this in mind, I present here a proposal having to do with the literary evolution of 1QpHab, premised on the notion that the core of the work was composed in the second half of the second century BCE, but that it was modified and new segments were added to it in the middle of the first century BCE.

A. 1QpHab is a Copy of an Earlier Scroll

Hartmut Stegemann made note of the somewhat slipshod scribal copy- ing of cols. I–XXI of 1QpHab.9 He drew attention to the fact that most of the columns of 1QpHab end in two x-shaped marks. These characters were apparently extant on an older manuscript copied by the scribe, above mentioned periods. If we assume that its author reasoned that the end of days would begin 490 years after the destruction of the First Temple, then it must follow that the Teacher of Righteousness led the Yahad for 40 years, i.e., in order to arrive at a sum total of 490 years. There are evidences that the Teacher of Righteousness joined the sect circa 150 BCE, and if we accept the above chronological framework, he must have died circa 110 BCE. One should not take the 390 year figure as historical truth, as it is based on Ezek 4:5, and Judeans of the Second Temple period were not aware that the Persian period had lasted over 200 years; see Collins 1989, 169–70. 6 The term Kittim, recorded in the scrolls, is based on appellations from Gen 10:4, Num 24:24, Jer 2:10, and Dan 11:30. 7 On the term Kittim in the Qumran scrolls, and on the identification of Kittim as Romans in 1QpHab and 4QpNah, see Stegemann 1998, 131; Eshel 2001. On allu- sions within the Qumran scrolls to events that occurred in Judaea during the period of the Roman conquest, see Eshel 2008, 133–50. 8 The chief argument of scholars who identify Alexander Jannaeus as the , implying that the Teacher of Righteousness must have been active in the first century BCE, is based on the fact that 1QpHab includes pesharim related to the Teacher of Righteousness alongside those portraying the Roman takeover of Judaea. For arguments of this sort, see van der Ploeg 1958, 59–62; Yadin 1971, 12; Flusser 1981; 2007, 214–257; Wise 2003. Yet no particular significance should be attributed to this fact if my estimation is correct that the pesharim brought in 1QpHab indeed record two historical periods. 9 I am grateful to the late Prof. Stegemann for sharing this observation with me. In his popular volume, he notes that Pesher Habakkuk is “at least a third-hand copy” but does not bring the supporting evidence for this claim (1998, 131). For other observa- tions suggesting that 1QpHab was shoddily copied, see Horgan 1979, 3. The last nine lines of 1QpHab were written by another scribe (referred to as “the second scribe”), who began writing from col. XII 13, and concluded the manuscript on col. XIII 4. This section brings two pesharim (see n. 34 below). Given this, it is appropriate to see the first scribe as he who copied 1QpHab. Both scribes had a Herodian hand, typical of the end of the first century BCE; see Horgan 2002, 157.