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JAMES in the QUMRAN SCROLLS Philip R. Davies

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JAMES in the QUMRAN SCROLLS Philip R. Davies JAMES IN THE QUMRAN SCROLLS Philip R. Davies JAMES IN THE QUMRAN SCROLLS? As far as I know, the theory that James the brother of Jesus is alluded to in the Qumran texts is exclusively associated with the name of Robert Eisenman, who first advocated it in two slim volumes published in 1983 and 1986. 1 Eisenman identifies James with the "Teacher of Righteousness," Paul with the "Liar" (alias "Man of Lies" and "Spouter of Lies"), and the High Priest Ananus with the "Wicked Priest"-the three main protagonists of a text, the pesher on Habakkuk, still thought by many to carry the secrets of Qumran origins. But as the tide of Eisenman's first volume suggests, these identifications have been achieved in the context of a wider thesis about the existence of a Jewish movement that bore many names throughout its history and combined fervent nationalism with rigid adherence to the law of Moses in a cult of "righteousness" (Heb: J' '7 ~). By recognizing this movement under the guise of "Maccabees," "Zadokites," and "Nazoreans," as weIl as attributing to them the authorship of the Qumran scroIls, Eisenman presents an alternative to the increasingly accepted view both that the Judaism of the late Second Temple Period was characterized by a number of different versions of "Judaism"-even, indeed, a number of "Judaisms." On the contrary, he simplifies the picture of Palestinian Judean religion considerably by effectively proposing a duality between the "righteous," nationalistic, and popular Judaism of his "Zadokites" and the religiously corrupt Judaism of the political and religious authorities who were also politically compliant with the occupying power, Rome: Sadducees, Herodians, Pharisees, and high priests. Maeeabees, Zadokites, Christians and Qurnran: A New Hypothesis of Qurnran Origins eS PB 34; Leiden: Brill, 1983); larnes the lust in the Habakkuk Pesher eSPB 35; Leiden: BrilI, 1986). These have now been republished in a single volume, together with later studies, in The Dead Sea Serolls and the First Christians eShaftesbury, Dorset: Element Books, 1996). 18 JAMES THE JUST AND CHRISTIAN ORIGINS The most eontroversial aspeets of Eisenman' s theory propose that the production of the Qumran serolls and the origins of Christianity both lie within this popular Judaism of "righteousness" and that some of the Qumran serolls aetually emanate from the earliest Christian eommunity, the earliest followers of Jesus led by James the Just (1'~l:;?0). Debate about the relationship between the Qumran serolls and Christianity (or the New Testament) has a long and faseinating history, of course, ranging from the view of both Dupont-Sommer and Allegro in the 1950s that Christianity was essentially antieipated by Essenism (and the more extreme expression of this by Wilson)2 to the now more eommonly aeeepted opinion that while there are several points of resemblanee between the Serolls and the New Testament, there is no organie or systematie connection between the two. There is a further dimension to this relationship, namely that many of the Serolls originate from a messianie seet and thus offer an interesting soeial parallel to the messianie seet of Jesus's early followers. From this perspeetive, several parallels (eommunity of goods, eouneil of twelve, belief in imminent vindieation) but also differenees (attitude to purity laws, espeeially) ean be aeeommo­ dated. Unfortunately, the publie is eager for rather more positive evaluations of the connection and is being to some extent pandered to by a good deal of print and television journalism. At any rate, the relations hip between the "Jewish" and "Christian" eontexts of the Serolls has been pondered again reeently, as the course of Qumran scholarship has undergone a strong shift in reeent years away from a Christian near-monopoly towards a strong Jewish partieipation. This has been in part the reason for an inereased reeognition of the importanee of legal issues in the Serolls.3 Eisenman's intervention in the debate about the "Jewishness" of the 2 lohn Allegro, The Dead Sea Scrolls: a Reappraisal (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1956 [21964]); E. Wi1son, The Scrollsfrom the Dead Sea (New York: Oxford University Press, 1955); A. Dupont-Sommer, Les ecrits esseniens decouverts pres de la Mer Morte (Bibliotheque historique; Paris: Payot, 1959); ET: The Essene Writings from Qumran (Oxford: BlaekweIl, 1961); cf. T. Gaster, The Dead Sea Scriptures (Garden City: Doub1eday, 1956). 3 I say "in part" beeause the contents of the Temple SeroIl, the Halakhie Letter, and the Cave 4 manuseripts of the Damaseus Doeument would, under any publieation regime, have drawn attention to the importanee of halakhie matters to the writers of the Serolls. That all of these were published exclusively or largely by lewish seholars does not obseure this fact. .
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