JBL 97/2 (1978) 191-205

ONCE MORE THE WICKED PRIEST

B. E. THIERING UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY, SYDNEY 2006, AUSTRALIA

HERE is now a certain orthodoxy about the history of the Qumran sect. TSome facts have come to be accepted as established and are finding their way into textbooks and standard works. There is all the more reason, then, for ascertaining that they are well-based, and have not become accepted simply through repetition and lack of serious opposition. One of the most widely circulated is that the Wicked Priest, ΐηδΠΠ ]ΓΤΟΠ, of lQpHab and 4QpPssa was a reigning high priest, the official incumbent of the Jerusalem high priesthood. The identification was made early, on what seemed to be adequate grounds. The Wicked Priest "ruled over Israel" (lQpHab 8:9-10). The day of atonement episode (lQpHab 11:4-8), in which the Wicked Priest "pursued after the Teacher of Righteousness to swallow him up" and "caused to stumble" his followers, was easily explained as an attack on the Teacher, who was a Schismatic high priest,1 by his official counterpart in Jerusalem. The occasion was the sect's celebration of a different day of atonement according to an unofficial calendar. The deep hostility shown for the Wicked Priest is consistent with the feelings generated by the breach between the Hasidim and the Hasmonean house. The only difficulty was thought to be his exact identity: which of the usurping high priests of the period of Essene origins fits the data best? G. Jeremías, whose authoritative study of the Teacher of Righteousness2 is now an essential tool of research, carefully assembles all the known facts about the Wicked Priest, and selects the main fact useful for identification, that he met his death at the hands of Gentiles. For the period in question, this fits only Menelaus (172-162) and Jonathan (161-142). Menelaus is too early, and could never have been approved at first by the community ("was called by the name of truth when he first arose," lQpHab 8:9, understood by Jeremías to mean that he had a good reputation with the Essenes at first, but they later changed their minds). Jonathan fits the facts best, in Jeremías' view. He would have been approved by the sectarians until he officially adopted the

Ή. Stegemann, Die Entstehung der Qumrangemeinde (Dr. Theol. dissertation, Bonn, 1971) 102, nn. 328-29; G. W. Buchanan, "The Priestly Teacher of Righteousness," RevQ6 (1969) 553- 58. 2G. Jeremías, Der Lehrer der Gerechtigkeit (SUNT 2; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1963). 192 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE high priestly office, some years after he became ruler. His character is not known to correspond to the arrogance and greed of the Wicked Priest (8:2- 12), but we must allow for the polemical style. His association with violent men and his robbery of the people (8:11) could reflect an episode when he and his brother attacked members of a wedding to avenge their brother's death (Ant. 13.1.4 §§18-21). He probably also took temple treasures, like all his successors. His death at the hand of Gentiles is not known to have been painful (cf. lQpHab 9:1-2, 9-12), but the sources are simply silent on the subject. Stegemann and Murphy-O'Connor,3 the more recent writers on Qumran history, agree that the Wicked Priest is Jonathan. The latter follows Jeremías' view of "called by the name of truth": it refers to the "honeymoon" period before Jonathan adopted the high priestly office. His "temporizing character" led him to ally himself with the ruling classes who loved wealth and pleasure; he profited by their depradations. This fits lQpHab 8:11. In a book published in 1973, F. M. Cross4 has re-affirmed his view that 4QTestim 21-30 must be taken into account as evidence for the Wicked Priest. It speaks (he believes) of a "cursed man" and his two sons, who rebuilt Jericho. This and the other data fit Simon Maccabeus (142-135), who with his two sons was murdered by his Idumean son-in-law Ptolemy while on a tour of Jericho. Jeremías5 dismisses Cross' view, on the grounds that there is no evidence that the document refers to the Wicked Priest, even if it refers to Simon. It will be observed that the only exact correspondence that Jeremías and those who follow him can find with Jonathan is the fact that he was put to death at the hands of Gentiles. This is not sufficient to make the identification certain. There is no other exact correspondence. The main emphasis of the lines dealing with the Wicked Priest's death is on its painful nature (9:1-2,9- 12): nothing corresponding to this element has been found. If "called by the name of truth when he first arose" means that he was approved by the Essenes before he was proclaimed high priest, it must be demonstrated conclusively that Josephus is wrong when he says that Judas Maccabeus, Jonathan's predecessor, was popularly accepted as high priest (Ant. 12.10.6 §414,12.11.2 §434), although (as is implied in Ant. 20.10.3 §237) not officially appointed. It must also be established that "called by the name of truth" has the rather vague meaning that Jeremías gives it ("had a good reputation, was acceptable") in writings where both "name" and "truth" have exact and special connotations (see below, section II). And would the sect have called him "the Priest," a titular term, as Stegemann shows,6 if he was to them illegitimate?

3H. Stegemann, Die Entstehung; J. Murphy-O'Connor, "The Essenes and their History," RB 81 (1974) 215-44. 4F. M. Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic (Cambridge/ London: Harvard University, 1973) 337-40. Wer Lehrer, 72-73. bDie Entstehung, 102. THIERING: ONCE MORE THE WICKED PRIEST 193

Cross is not wrong in finding that 4QTestim 21-30 is evidence for the Wicked Priest. Both the "cursed man" and the Wicked Priest "shed blood" (4QTestim 29-30, lQpHab 9: 8-9), were associated with violence (DDn 4QTestim 25, lQpHab 9:8-9, 12:1-2), built a city/house (4QTestim 25-26, lQpHab 9:12-10:1), and committed wicked deeds in Jerusalem (4QTestim 29-30, lQpHab 12:7-8). The addition of this evidence, especially the reference to two sons,7 makes the identification with Jonathan more difficult. But it does not point to Simon, whose murderer was his Idumean son-in-law, not Gentiles. (The passage does not make Jericho part of the data for the Wicked Priest. Jericho is not mentioned in the quotation or what follows, and the fact that it was in the scriptural story behind the passage does not mean that it was taken literally: cf. Chaldeans = Kittim in lQpHab; Nineveh = Jerusalem in 4QpNah.) Other identifications with reigning high priests have also proved unsatisfactory.8 Is there any other reason, apart from the paucity of our data, why the Wicked Priest will not comfortably fit into the facts for any reigning high priest? It is the purpose of the present article to put again9 the case for the Wicked Priest being the same as the Man of a Lie, the sectarian rival of the Teacher. It will be argued, first, that the view that they are different does not fully take into account the Qumran principles of biblical exegesis; and secondly, that certain words used in connection with the Wicked Priest have a strictly sectarian meaning and give new facts about him. It will then be shown that the day of atonement episode may be interpreted satisfactorily in the light of the identity of the Wicked Priest and the Man of a Lie. (The Man of a Lie, in Jeremías' well-founded conclusion,10 was "the teacher of a larger group which split off from the Teacher's community and became a formidable danger to that community, because followers of the Teacher went over to it in considerable numbers. The split occurred in the lifetime of the Teacher.")

7Lls. 24-25 Γ\ΏΓΜ& nitrtt. . . ] losn. The subject of ID» may be the same as that of ΐΏ\ΰ in 1.24, the "cursed man." A father and two sons are required by the biblical text. 8J. Carmignac ("Interprétations de Prophètes et de Psaumes," in Les Textes de Qumran Traduits et Annotés (éd. J. Carmignac et al; 2 vols.; Paris: Letouzey et Ané, 1961, 1963) 2, 53; "Conjectures sur les écrits de Qumran," RevScRel 2 (1957) 140-68; "Notes sur les pesharim," RevQ 3 (1962) 533-38) argues for Alexander Jannaeus as the Wicked Priest. H. Burgmann ("Gerichtsherr und Generalankläger: Jonathan und Simon," RevQ 9 [1977] 3-72) gives points refuting Carmignac's case (pp. 34-57): e.g., the lapse of fifty years between the foundation of the community and the appearance of the Teacher; Alexander Jannaeus did not give sufficient reason for the break of the sect with the temple; he did not meet death at the hand of Gentiles. See also M. B. Dagut, "The Habakkuk Scroll and Pompey's Capture of Jerusalem," Bib 32 (1951), 542- 48. 9Held also by K. Elliger, Studien zum Habakuk-Kommentar vom Toten Meer (BHT 15; Tübingen: Mohr, 1953); A. Dupont-Sommer, Observations sur le Commentaire d'Habacuc découvert près de la Mer Morte (Paris: Payot, 1953); M. Delcor, "Le Midrash d'Habacuc," RB5% (1951) 521-48. 10Der Lehrer, 126. 194 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE

I. The Qumran Principles of Biblical Exegesis Some important questions must be asked about the way the pesharists understood the overall meaning and specific terms of the biblical passages in which they found the Wicked Priest. The pesharists have been characterized as "atomizing" in their approach. Jeremías11 finds an example of it in the fact that 1 QpHab 11:4-8 describes the day of atonement episode while the following passage (11:12-15) makes no further mention of this event. Almost every section of the pesharim introduces a new event or theme. The atomizing, however, is of the contemporary history, not of the biblical subject-matter. The present-day events are necessarily presented in a disjointed fashion because they are found in the text of scripture, whose unity cannot be broken. In order to avoid violating the sequence of topics in the biblical passage, the pesharist breaks up his own history. Respect for the biblical passage as it stands, its unity, integrity, and sequence of ideas, is a basic principle of exegesis. There is at times an initial appearance of arbitrariness in the treatment of the biblical text, but closer examination shows that it is a first impression only. E.g., in Hab 1:13 the subject of trnnn ("you (s.) are silent") is "God," consistently with the series of verbs in vv 12-13, whereas in thepesher it is "the house of Absalom" (5:9). But the previous verb ûOn ("you (s.) look upon") is a plural in the Qumran text of Hab (5:8), making the change quite consistent. At first sight also, lQpMic 8-10 appears to interfere with the unity of the biblical verse, Mie 1:5. Where the verse by its parallelistic form makes "Jerusalem" a counterpart to "Samaria," each being the sinful center of their respective territories, thepesher interprets Jerusalem favorably of the Teacher of Righteousness and his faithful followers, whereas "Samaria" is interpreted unfavorably of the Man of a Lie, the Teacher's opponent. But the interpretation is in fact consistent with the sense of the whole passage (Mie 1:2-9) and with the exact meaning of its terms. Mie 1:5 reads in MT: "All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem?" Jerusalem is not called a "transgression," but "high places" (mon) which does not have a pejorative sense in the passage, but simply means "heights": cf. ν 3: "the Lord will come down and tread upon the high places (mnû) of the earth." No punishment for Jerusalem is mentioned in the lines following ν 5: they deal with the punishment of Samaria only. In ν 9 Jerusalem is used in the sense of a place that is being contaminated by outside influences, but is itself pure. The pesharist found no reason to suppose that Jerusalem was condemned in the passage. The only indication that it was being treated negatively is in the parallelistic form of ν 5. But as J. Starcky remarks:12 "Les scribes de Qumran ne se croyaient pas liés, dans leur

11 Der Uhrer, 57. !2J. Starcky, "Les quatre étapes du messianisme à Qumran, RB 70 (1963) 498. THIERING: ONCE MORE THE WICKED PRIEST 195 exégèse, par la règle du parallélisme."13 There was good reason for distinguishing the "sins of the house of Israel" from the "high places of Judah": "Israel" was understood as another name for the north, the same as "Jacob," while "Judah" was the south. There is no violation of the unity of the text in this pesher, on the contrary, there is a careful observation of its overall meaning and exactitude concerning its use of words. A second principle of the pesharim needs to be observed, following from their recognized habit of giving particular applications to biblical universals. Once the interpretation of a biblical term was fixed, it did not alter. Biblical words like "the righteous," "the wicked" were read as designations of personalities or elements in the sectarian history. They must, then, always refer to the same particular: the meaning of scripture did not vary. In Jeremías' words:14 "In the study of the Habakkuk commentary, it has often been overlooked how rigorously the commentator sticks to his biblical data (Vorlage). He never voluntarily departs from it. All pronouncements on the Chaldeans he refers uniformly to the Kittim."The "righteous" is always made to refer either to the Teacher or the sectarians. The biblical passages in which the Wicked Priest is found are Hab 2:5-17 and Ps 37:32. Thepesher of the Habakkuk passage also introduces the Man of a Lie, and he is found also in the pesher of nearby verses of Ps 37. Hab 2:6b-17 contains a series of four woes: (1) 6b-8; (2) 9-11; (3) 12-14; (4) 15-17. V 6a shows that they are all woes on the Arrogant Man of ν 5: "Shall not all these take up a proverb against him, and riddling sayings against him, saying . . .," followed by the woes, with no indication of a change of application until ν 18 changes the form. Each woe has a thematic link with either the description of the Arrogant Man (2:5) or with another woe: (1) extortion, cf. 5b; (2) greed, exploitation, cf. 5b; (3) building on bloodshed, cf. 8b, the blood of men, 10-11, building a house; (4) insatiability, cf. 5b, and ν 17b repeats 8b. Each of the four woes should, then, be interpreted of the Arrogant Man, whom the pesharist understands to be the Wicked Priest (lQpHab 8:8). The first, second and fourth are interpreted of the Wicked Priest (8:7-9:12a; 9:12b-10:5; 11:2-12:10a). But the third woe is interpreted of the Man of a Lie (10:5-11:1). The Qumran pesharist would not have disregarded the clear indications that all the woes are on the Arrogant Man. Does this not mean that the Man of a Lie is the same as the Wicked Priest?

,3The second phrase could be taken as giving additional data. An example of this is in the famous case in the NT, where both an "ass" and a "colt" were read into Zech 9:9 (Matt 21:2-7). It is illustrated at Qumran in their own use of parallelism; as the present writer has shown in an analysis of the poetic forms of the Hodayot ("The Poetic forms of the Hodayot," JSS 8 [1963] 189-209), there is a marked tendency for the parallelistic form to develop into an accretive list of items. E.g. 1QH 9:32-34a, where each of seven successive phrases contains the name of an attribute of God, and 1QH 8:31a-36b, where each successive line of a large number contains the name of a part of the body, giving an anatomical list. l4Der Lehrer ... 77. 196 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE

In the same commentary, the word Wi ("wicked") is applied to the Wicked Priest frequently and to the Man of a Lie in 5:9,11. As "righteous" has a consistent application to the Teacher and the sectarians, so "the wicked" should refer to the same enemy and his party. 4QpPssa, a commentary on Ps 37, finds the Man of a Lie in "him who prospers in his way, the man who carries out evil devices" of Ps 37:7 ( 1:17-18), and the same figure in the "ruthless (pnr) wicked (swi) person" of ν 35 (4:13 14). It finds the Wicked Priest in the wicked (iflfin) person who "watches for the righteous and seeks to slay him" of ν 32 (4:7-8). This verse (32) reads: "The wicked man (wi) watches for the righteous (ρΉ¥) and seeks to slay him: Yahweh will not abandon him in his hand and will not condemn him when he is judged." It is very similar to ν 12: "The wicked (wi) plots against the righteous (ρΉΧ) and gnashes his teeth at him. Yahweh laughs at him for he sees that his day is coming. "The meaning of ν 12 is found by the pesharist to be "the ruthless ones (D^mi?) of the Covenant in the House of Judah who will plot to destroy those who do the Law in the Council of the Community" (2:12-14). The "House of Judah" is a name for the sect itself inCD4:ll and lQpHab8:l.15 lQpHab8:l reads "('the righteous shall live by his faith9) refers to all who do the Law (ΠΎΙΠΠ nFtr cf. pPssa 2:14 •»ffDl? mmn) in the House of Judah." The meaning of "the ruthless ones of the Covenant in the House of Judah" is, then, "those members of the House of Judah (the sect) who broke the Covenant (i.e. the sectarian version of the Covenant) and began to attack those in the Council of the Community who continued to fulfill the sectarian role, "doing the Law." They were apostates from the sect itself, who now turned against their former associates. "Ruthless" links them with the Man of a Lie, the leader of the apostates, also described as "ruthless" (4:13). If ν 12 refers to the apostate followers of the Man of a Lie, ν 32, very similar to it in meaning and structure (the wicked against the righteous, Yahweh will defend), might have been taken as referring to the same kind of wickedness, apostasy from the sect. The Wicked Priest, found in ν 32, would then be one of this group, and as an individual leader most likely the same as the Man of a Lie. The unitary application of Ps 37, however, is not so certain as that of the woes in Habakkuk, which refer to one man only. The Teacher no doubt had various enemies, all of whom could be included in the body of wicked men whose existence sets a theological problem for the writer of Ps 37. It needs to be shown that in every other place where the wicked are mentioned, they are

,5J. Murphy-O'Connor ("An Essene Missionary Document: CD II 14-VI 1," RB17 [1970] 201 -29) on p. 217 defends the "house of Judah" as a name for the sect in CD 4:11 and 1 QpHab 8:1 but in "The Essenes and their History" (see note 4 above), p. 220, note 34, says that "the house of Judah" in 1 QpHab 8:1 and 4QpPssa 2:13 means all Judeans, some of whom are Essenes (1 QpHab 8:1) and some are not (4QpPssa 2:13). He is forced to make this distinction, weakening his own case for CD 4:11, by failing to realize that "violent ones of the covenant in the house of Judah" in 4QpPssa 2:13 means apostates from within the sect itself. Jeremías (Der Lehrer, 111) agrees that "house of Judah" means the sect in CD 4:11 and 20:27. THIERING: ONCE MORE THE WICKED PRIEST 197 interpreted of the apostate followers of the Man of a Lie, who is found in w 7 and 35. It would then be strongly indicated that the pesharist has taken all the wicked of the psalm in a particular sense, as the group of apostates whose activities are shown by CD to have been a major threat to the sect. The sole remaining case, the Wicked Priest of ν 32, would then have to be included in this class, in view of the parallels between w 12 and 32. In the present state of research the identity with the apostates of the other examples of wickedness in the pesher is not established. Most of them are insufficiently defined to be useful indications (2:3, 22-23; 3:3-4,7 [but cf. CD 6:6]), 11-12 [but cf. CD 3:13; 4:2; 6:2 and the discussion below on "Israel"]; 4:1-2, 11, 21). One certainly refers to the apostates: 4:17-19 "the posterity of the wicked shall be cut off (Ps 37:38) means "be cut off from the midst of the mr "ΠΤΠ, the congregation of the community." The remaining two may be linked with them through CD, the major source of information about the apostates. V 14 of the psalm, "the wicked (D Wi) draw the sword ... to slay the upright of way" is interpreted of "the wicked (D^tfin) of Ephraim and Manasseh who will seek to put forth a hand against the Priest and the men of his Council in the time of suffering that is coming upon them." Who are "Ephraim and Manasseh" and what was their reason for making an attack on the Teacher and his Council?16 CD 4:19 states that "the builders of the wall have followed Saw (TC)."The "builders of the wall" is another name for the apostates, as Jeremías shows.17 The name "Saw" is from Hos 5:11: "Ephraim was determined to go after Ή." 1¥, whose meaning was unknown, was taken to be a name (it is probably a scribal error for Kit?). The verse must have been chosen as a source for the pseudonym of the leader of the apostates because it fitted the sectarian events. Those who followed the rival leader must have already been known as "Ephraim," a name used for a particular branch or sub-section of the community (its northern sector?). They also were called "the builders of the wall" (possibly because of their particular task, missionary work: cf. CD 4: ΙΟ­ Ι 2 "at the completion of the age ... no one shall any longer enter the House of Judah (the sect) . . . 'the wall is built, the boundary placed far'." Was

16Jeremias (Der Lehrer, 111) shows, against A. Jaubert ("Le pays de Damas," RB65 [1958] 228) and A. S. van der Woude (Die messianische Vorstellungen der Gemeinde von Qumran, Studia semitica neerlandica 3; Assen: van Gorcum, 1957,23 n. 12 and 45) that Ephraim is a name for enemies of the sect, not for the sect itself. Starcky ("Quatre étapes," 495) agrees that "Ephraim" is part of its recent history. Murphy-O'Connor ("A Literary Analysis of Damascus Document VI 2-VIII 3," RB 78 [1971] 210-32, and "The Essenes and their History," 240-41), holds that Ephraim designates all Jews opposed to the Teacher. Stegemann (Die Entstehung, 178) holds that Ephraim = the followers of the Man of a Lie, the view held here. Murphy-O'Connor's ("Essenes and their History," 241) main objection to Stegemann's view is that it is an "implausible assumption" that "the Qumran community concerned themselves only with the political power and the followers of the Man of Lies and totally ignored the religious influences that shaped the lives of the majority of the population of Judea." The present study helps to show that the scrolls were in fact concerned with internal sectarian history rather than with outside religious influences. l7Der Lehrer, 89. 198 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE missionary work thought of as "building the wall around the New Jerusalem," the community?) The whole section had gone over to the teachings of the rival leader. CD 7:13 is then understood in the light of these events. It points to the past split between Judah and Ephraim (reading "ID for "it?) as a parallel to the present split between the House of Judah, the sect, and its "Ephraim," in order to warn the apostate group of their coming punishment. There is reason, then, for believing that "Ephraim (and Manasseh)" of the present passage means the apostates, and that their attack on the Council is the same as that in the previous passage, by the "ruthless ones of the covenant in the House of Judah." 2:6-8 interprets the wicked (inn) who will "in a little while" "be no more" and not be "in his place (DlpD)"(Ps 37:10) as "all the wickedness (nirann ^Ό) at the end of forty years, when they will be destroyed (ΊΏΓΡ) and there will not be found in the land any wicked man (ti"K rt&n)." This sounds at first like a general statement about all kinds of wickedness. Their destruction after forty years is clearly part of an accepted scheme, and is not derived from the psalm itself, which says only "in a little while." The destruction of all wickedness after a war of forty years is the subject of 1QM. But 1QM does not mention the apostates. CD 20:14-15, however, speaks of the destruction (on) of all the men of war who apostatized (ut?) with the Man of a Lie, and dates the event forty years from the gathering in of the Teacher of Righteousness. The writer of 4QpPssa holds either the particular view of CD of the wicked-to-be- destroyed-in-forty-years as the apostates, or the general view of 1QM. If DlpD "place" in the biblical text ("I will look in his place and he will not be there") has been understood as a technical term ( 1QS 2:23 opo = allotted office in the community), the former is the case. But this is not certain. It can only be said that as 4QpPssa belongs to the same group of writings as CD, dealing with the Teacher and his associates, and 1QM knows nothing of them, its version of the forty-years scheme is likely to be the same as that of CD. V 10 is likely, though not certain, to be another place in the psalm where the apostates have been found. The pesharist has, therefore, found the Man of a Lie and his followers the apostates in w 7,12, 14, 35 and 38 of the psalm. It is likely that he found them in ν 10. The subjects of a number of other verses are not clearly defined, but some (v 20 (3:7), ν 21 (3:11-12) may be the apostates, as was suggested above. There are no places where a different person or group is clearly intended. In view of the similarities noted between vv 12 and 32, is not the weight of evidence in favor of the Wicked Priest, the subject found in ν 32, also being one of the apostates? The same characteristics are linked with both names in the respective documents. In 1 QpHab, both the Wicked Priest and the Man of a Lie "shed blood"(9:8-9,10:6-9) and were builders (of a house, 9:16-10:1, or a city, 10:6- 9). In 4QpPssa, the Wicked Priest "watched and sought to slay" (rVDH) the Teacher (4:8), and the apostates (Ephraim) set out to slay (nstû) the Teacher and the men of his Council (2:16-18). THIERING: ONCE MORE THE WICKED PRIEST 199

Jeremías18 trie& to defend the distinction between the two, the Wicked Priest and the Man of a Lie, by saying that in 1 QpHab, when the biblical text is dealing with a singular wicked man, it is interpreted of the Wicked Priest, but when a group of wicked persons are in the same context, it is interpreted of the Man of a Lie. There is a plural in each of the three places where the Man of a Lie is found: Hab 1:5 "the traitors" (no singular is present); Hab 1:13b, "traitors" are present with the "wicked man"; Hab 2:12-13, "peoples labor for fire and nations weary themselves." But, apart from the fact that there are only three cases, of which only two contain both a singular and a plural, Jeremías quite overlooks the fact that in 2:5 the Arrogant Man, who is said to be the Wicked Priest, is associated with "all nations" and "all peoples," who are "gathered" to him. Moreover, the argument is inapplicable to 4QpPssa, which finds the Man of a Lie in Ps 37:7 and 35-36, where no other persons appear. There is no reason why a further pseudonym should not be used for the rival leader. Jeremías19 has shown that four other names are used for him: "the Man of a Lie," "He who drips lies," "Saw" and "the Man of Scoffing." The reason for the variation of names within the same commentary is to be sought either in the biblical text or the immediate context. In 1 QpHab 10:9-10, the biblical text uses ρη, "empty," a synonym for ητη, lie (Ps 4:3). In4QpPssa4:8, the Teacher has been called the "Priest" in the immediately preceding context (see below on the meaning of "Wicked Priest").

II. The Sectarian Terms Although it is widely recognized that the scrolls use words of general application in a particular, sectarian sense (e.g., "righteous" means the Teacher and the sectarians; "traitors" means the apostates,20 it has not yet become an established methodological principle to look for particular sectarian meanings wherever such words appear. Yet vital questions hang on it. For instance, Murphy-O'Connor21 partly builds his argument that CD 2:14-6:1 is a missionary document and separate from the rest of the work on the use of D^n "sons" in 2:14 ("And now, sons, listen to me . . . "). Whereas the previous sections were certainly addressed to members ("all you who entered the covenant . . . who practice righteousness"), he believes that "children" is "a banal term . . . which must be judged entirely neutral in an environment where the communication of knowledge was considered to establish a father-son relationship." He refers to the wisdom literature, regularly using the formula "my son." But, apart from the fact that the word is used absolutely in CD 2:14, it is surely relevant that "sons" forms part of a whole range of designations for the sectarians (sons of light, sons of God, sons of heaven, sons of man), and also that the Hodayot frequently speak of a

™Der Lehrer, 77. l9Der Lehrer, 89. 20Jeremías, Der Lehrer, 89. 21"An Essene Missionary Document," 204. 200 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE spiritual father-son relationship between the Teacher22 and the members (e.g., 7:20-21 : "thou hast made me a father to the sons of grace, and a nurse for the men of wonder; they have opened their mouth like sucklings ..."). In the light of the very frequent sectarian use of the word, it is necessary to establish that it does not have a special sense in the passage in question. The Wicked Priest is said to have been "called by the name of truth when he first arose" (ηοκπ um Λ κηρα noir η^πηη 1 QpHab 8:9). Jeremías,23 followed by Murphy-O'Connor,24 argues that the stress lies not on the word "name" but on the word "truth," and that the phrase simply means that the Wicked Priest had a good reputation when he began his career, but later lost it. He cites Rev 3:1 and Josephus /. W. 2.1.5§28 as parallels for "name" used simply in the sense of "reputation." Jeremías thus prefers outside sources to the usage of the scrolls themselves. "Truth" (nati) is a frequently occurring word in the scrolls, appearing more than 120 times in published texts. It is very often used with "righteousness," which appears about the same number of times. Both "righteousness" and "truth" are the special property of community members. They are the "sons of truth" (1QS 4:5), are born of truth (1QS 3:19), are the "men of truth" (lQpHab 7:10), "in the service of truth" (1 QpHab 7:12), they have been given the spirit of truth in baptism (1QS 4:21). 4QSe (the oldest form of the Manual of Discipline) suggests in 8:13 that "the Way of Truth" had been a name for the community. It reads ΓΙΌΝΠ γπ mastf ("prepare the way of truth") for lQS's κπκιπ ηττ r\\ïïfi (prepare the way of Him").25 (For "Way" used absolutely, see 1QS 9:17-18, CD 1:13.) Those who have "truth" are contrasted with everyone outside the community, who are under the dominion of the spirit of falsehood (1QS 3:18-22). In the light of their total appropriation of "truth" to themselves, it is extremely unlikely that they would speak of an outsider as "called by the name of truth," even temporarily. Anyone who was "called by the name of truth" must be a member of the community. Similarly, "name" has special sectarian associations. It is part of a regular designation of members. They are "men called by a name" (urn Wlp, CD 2:11, 4:4), "men of a name" (Ottn nP(l)JK, 1 QSa 2:2, 8:11,13). The exact meaning of the term is uncertain, but it should not be considered without reference to the list of names (CD 4:5) and the register of names (CD 19:22). It is sufficient for our case that "name" is part of a designation of members. "To be called by the name of truth," in the light of the special sense of both "truth" and "name," must mean "to be a full member of the community." The Wicked Priest had

22Jeremias' division of the Hodayot on the grounds of vocabulary and ideas, and the assignation of certain hymns to the Teacher himself, has received wide acceptance (Der Lehrer, chap. 6). The hymns of the Teacher are: 2:1-19; 2:31-39; 3:1-18; 4:5-5:4; 5:5-19; 5-20-7-5· 76- 25; 8:4-40. 2Wer Lehrer... 38. 24"Essenes and their History," 230 n. 73. 25E. Lohse, Die Texte aus Qumran: Hebräisch und Deutsch, mit masoretischer Punktation, Übersetzung, Einführung und Anmerkungen (Munich: Kösel, 1964) 30. THIERING: ONCE MORE THE WICKED PRIEST 201 been a full member of the community "when he first arose," but had fallen away from membership. The Man of the Lie, as we have seen, was a member of the community who defected from its teachings, taking large numbers of members with him. The phrase "called by the name of truth" is strong additional support for the Wicked Priest being the same as the Man of a Lie. "Priest" also is a sectarian term: when used of the Teacher, it means high priest of the community. The rival leader's name "he who preaches/ drips lies" has the same play on "teaching/giving water" as that of the Teacher ("he who teaches/rains down righteousness").26 This suggests that when a large number of the Teacher's followers turned after the rival and formed their own mi) ("congregation," 1 QpHab 10:10), they had accepted him as a counterpart to the Teacher, having the same title and role. Their congregation was a "city" (1 QpHab 10:10), a symbolic term,27 as was that of the Teacher, a new Jerusalem (4QpIsad); it also needed a high priest. If the Teacher were the legitimately appointed Zadokite high priest at the time of the Hasmonean usurpation of the high priesthood, his rival could not have taken over his office. But the existence of this high priest has never been proved.28 Against it stands

26pi*n mio from Hos 10:12, Joel 2:23. Cf. 1QH 8:16, where the Teacher plays on his name: "(God) has put early rain in my mouth." 2Τ3Π rptûû from Mie 2:6 (epa to drip, Hiph. to prophesy). Jeremías (Der Lehrer, 313): the title "is certainly formed in conscious contrast to p"TXn mio." 27Jeremías, Der Lehrer, 87-88. 28In a recent article ("Demetrius I and the Teacher of Righteousness," RB 83 [1976] 400-20), Murphy-O'Connor accepts the view of J. G. Bunge ("Zur Geschichte und Chronologie des Untergangs der Oniaden und des Aufstiegs der Hasmonäer,'VS/6 [1975] 27-43) that the letter of Demetrius I in 1 Mace 10:25-45 antedates the appointment of Jonathan as high priest, so that its two references to a high priest (w 32, 38) must refer to a holder of the office in the so-called intersacerdotium between Alcimus and Jonathan. This high priest, in Murphy-O'Connor's view, is the Teacher ("Essenes and their History," 230). Murphy-O'Connor strengthens Bunge's case for a non-Hasmonean reference for the high priest of the letter by showing that ν 32, which is best accounted for as legitimating the Hasmonean claim to the citadel, is redactional. V 38 is in the genuine part of the letter; it promises three new districts to the high priest. Murphy-O'Connor then argues (411-12), against Bunge, that this high priest must have been a legitimate Zadokite claimant of the office: only then would he have been accepted by Jonathan, whom Demetrius was trying to conciliate. This argument removes one element in Bunge's case, which supposes that Demetrius did not first offer the post to Jonathan himself, but gave it to a member of the pro-Greek, anti-Jonathan faction. Bunge's other grounds for making the letter antedate Jonathan must, then, stand alone. They are that there is a "host of internal contradictions." This "host" is reducible to three misreadings on the part of Bunge: (a) he believes that 10:23 προφθανω means "precede." It means "succeed first." For φθάνω "succeed" cf. Rom 9:31, Phil 3:16. (b) Jonathan began to rebuild Jerusalem before the letter, which—says Bunge—directs him to do so (v 45). But ν 45 refers to the cost of the work, not the work itself: Demetrius is offering to finance what has already been started, (c) If Demetrius were writing to Jonathan, he would have tried to outbid Alexander Balas with further dignities and functions. But Demetrius could offer no further dignity, and the letter does contain numerous offers of increased power (e.g., ν 38). Murphy-O'Connor's analysis of the letter into genuine and redactional elements is well-based, but Bunge does not disprove that it was first directed to Jonathan. 202 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE

Josephus' testimony that Judas Maccabeus (and therefore his successor) was unofficially accepted as high priest. Although Josephus is inaccurate about the duration of the term, such an event fits the popular veneration for the priestly Maccabean family and would pave the way for the official appointment. The evidence of the scrolls themselves concerning the nature of the Teacher's high priesthood must be taken into account. CD 3:19 presents the sect as the "sure house" of 1 Sam 2:35, of which Samuel was the "faithful priest." Samuel was an extra-dynastic priestly leader (cf. 1 Chron 6:22-28 for his [alleged] Kohathite descent), replacing the corrupt high priest of the legitimate line, having been raised up by divine intervention. As a Samuelic priestly leader, the Teacher need only have some Kohathite lineage. In the emergency created by the collapse of the Zadokite line and the Hasmonean usurpation, he would have claimed to be appointed by divine intervention. His rival needed only to claim similar lineage to be accepted by his followers in the same role. "When he ruled over Israel" (*7«"ΐ^η ïmu 1 QpHab 8:9-10) is consistent with his being a sectarian high priest of a new Israel. Although this phrase is used as the main textual evidence for the Wicked Priest's being a reigning high priest, Jeremías29 points out that ïmu does not necessarily mean political rule, but is found in the scrolls of the priests' rule over members (1QS 9:7). It is regularly used of the rule of a moral power in the lives of individuals (e.g. 1QH 13:15-16; CD 12:2; 1QS 3:20, 22). It is also used of the rule of the Gentiles (lQpHab 4:5,10). It means, then, any kind of dominion, both political and spiritual, in the world or within the community.30 "Israel" is used (a) of the Israel of the OT (CD 1:5; 5:3); (b) of the community (CD 14:4, 5; 4:2; 6:2); (c) of contemporary Judaism (CD 3:14; 4:13; 6:1). It can be used of the community as opposed to other Jews, without any distinguishing addition such as "new." "He ruled over Israel" can easily mean "he was (sectarian) high priest of the new Israel." Although the term "Ephraim" is used for the apostates after their defection, "Israel" is not likely to have been used of the rival "new Israel" in distinction from that of the Teacher. "When he ruled over Israel" must mean that the rival was, for a time, ruler of the Teacher's "new Israel." How is this to be explained? The answer is in the Day of Atonement episode, re-interpreted in the light of the view that the Wicked Priest and the Man of a Lie were one and the same.

29Der Lehrer, 40. 30In a recent article ("Gerichtsherr und Generalankläger," see note 8), Η. Burgmann puts forward a further argument for Jonathan as the Wicked Priest: that a distinction is made in 1 QpHab 8:9-11 between the office ("TDIi;) that he legitimately held, and the rule (ïvti) that he had usurped. "Usurpator war allein Jonathan, alle andern traten nur in seine Fussstapfen" (8). The distinction also fits the holder of a legitimate office in the community, who usurped a "high priestly" role that was not his. THIERING: ONCE MORE THE WICKED PRIEST 203

HI. The Day of Atonement Episode 1 QpHab 11:4-8 on Hab 2:15 reads: "Woe to him who gives to his neighbor to drink, who pours out his wrath to make him/ them drunk in order that he may gaze on their feasts." "This refers to the Wicked Priest, who pursued after the Teacher of Righteousness to swallow him up in his venomous wrath in/to his house of exile.31 And at the time appointed for rest, on the day of atonement, he shone forth (ΓδΊΠ) before them to swallow them up and to cause them to stumble, on the day of fasting, their sabbath of rest." The pesher is in two distinct parts, each a complete sentence. In the first, the Teacher is the object of the Wicked Priest's wrath; in the second, it is "them," the Teacher's followers. The notes of time are given only in the second part. What is the meaning of the Teacher's being "in his house of exile"? In 1QH 4:8-9 the Teacher himself complains "all my companions and familiars have been banished from me" and "they drive me from my land like a bird from its nest." The cause is the "interpreters of deceit" (7), "interpreters of a lie" (10) (no, ΓΡΟΊ nrt»D), i.e., the apostates from the sect (cf. 4QpPssa 1:19 "[the followers of the Man of a Lie] did not listen to the interpreter of knowledge [nin p'to]")· He goes on to say of them: "They have withheld the drink of knowledge from the thirsty, and for their thirst they have made them drink vinegar, in order to gaze on (ΜΠ) their error and to rave at their feasts (DiTHiriD) (11-12). As in the present passage, the enemy gives a false drink, causes "drunkenness" (disorderly behavior) ^nd "gazes" (tûin in Hab 2:15) while present at their feasts. Once it is recognized that the subject of the 1 QpHab parallel, the Wicked Priest, is also in the party of the apostates, then it becomes highly probable that the exile of which the Teacher complains is the same as that in which he was pursued by thé^Wicked Priest. As on this occasion he was banished from his companions (above), he was not with his community. This fact accounts for the two distinct parts of the pesher. There was not one attack by the Wicked Priest, but two. He had launched a two- stage campaign, first against the Teacher in exile, on a date not stated, then against his followers, separated from him, on the day of atonement. In each part of the pesher "to swallow up" is used: the two uses may be read as successive, and the copula joining the two sentences as "then." The Wicked Priest was taking advantage of the Teacher's absence to attack his followers and "cause them to stumble" (ymi), a term regularly used for defection from loyalty to the communal teachings (1QS 2:12,17,35; 1QH 4:15-16; 8:36; 9:25). The Wicked Priest, as a rival teacher, was aiming to make the members apostatize from the teachings to which they had committed themselves, by adopting his new point of view. He chose the day of atonement to make them commit doctrinal error. He "shone forth" (rsin) before them. V& in the Hiphil is always used in OT of

31ΓΡ2Κ = rvan (Mur 42:4). 204 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE splendid manifestations: of God (Deut 33:2, Pss 50:2; 80:2; 94:1); of the sun (Job 3:4; 10:22); of lightning (Job 37:15). The noun is used of the splendor of a king (Ezek 28:7, 17). In the scrolls, the verb is used with the subject God (1QH 4:6, 23; 1QM 1:16;CD20:26);thestars(lQS 10:2);theday(lQM 18:10),truth (1QH 11:26-27); Jerusalem (1QM 12:13); the Teacher shining forth in sevenfold light (1QH 7:24); the speaker's "light" in 1QH 9:26. These uses confirm the meaning "make a splendid appearance." In 1QH 5:32 the verb is used for "revealed after being hidden," with subject "their (evil) heart and inclinations," and in CD 20:3, 6 it has the same meaning, with subject "(evil) deeds." These uses are consistent with the meaning of a sudden manifestation of what has previously been hidden. The use in 1QH 7:24 associates it with the Teacher's high priestly role: the "sevenfold light" refers to the menorah, the temple light. The name "priest" means that the Wicked Priest was a high priestly rival to the Teacher. If he "shone forth" before the Teacher's followers on the day of atonement when the Teacher was in exile, it means that he was offering himself as sectarian high priest in place of the Teacher, in order to fill the vacancy created by the Teacher's absence. It was absolutely essential that the high priest shou be present on the day of atonement.32 He "shone forth before them ... to cause them to stumble," i.e. to commit doctrinal error (above) by accepting him as high priest and consequently accepting his erroneous teachings. This passage does not make clear whether his leadership bid succeeded; it only says that there was a conflict, leading to the breaking of sabbath regulations (that this was not the main issue is shown by the addition of the last two phrases to an already complete sentence). But he was subsequently called "priest," even by those who hated him: he must have been made high priest by sectarian law. He was appointed the new leader in the emergency created by the Teacher's exile, and for a time "ruled over Israel." 1 QpHab 5:9-12 is now seen to be another account of this event. A group of sectarians, the "house of Absalom,"33 went over to the Man of a Lie, and did not support the Teacher. But he "flouted the Law in the midst of the whole congregation" (1 QpHab 5:11-12). The minority who held out against him on the day of atonement, causing the disturbance, finally succeeded in rejecting him altogether on account of his views on the law. There was a schism in the movement. Those who remained loyal to the Teacher's viewpoint wrote the relevant pesharim and CD, condemning the apostate party and its leader. They continued to call him "priest" because he had been appointed by sectarian law, but cancelled his power by prefixing "wicked" to his name. The final statement about him in 1 QpHab is in 12:2-10. He had done violence to the Council of the Community and the ordinary members. He had taken the property of the Poor—community members.34 This is consistent

32E. Lohse, The New Testament Environment (Nashville: Abingdon, 1976) 153. 33Jeremías, Der Lehrer, 84-85. 34Jeremías, Der Lehrer, 59. THIERING: ONCE MORE THE WICKED PRIEST 205 with a change in leadership policy, from the sharing of property, which was vested in the Council, to appropriation by the leader for himself. That he "committed abominable deeds and defiled the sanctuary of God" (8-9) need only mean that he had a differing view of the moral and ritual law. The foregoing interpretation of the data concerning the Wicked Priest does, it is believed, take more fully into account the Qumran methods of biblical exegesis and the Qumran sectarian terms than does the prevailing one. It settles finally the question why a satisfactory identification with a reigning high priest has not been made: no such person was in the mind of the writers. The bitterness and hostility of the relevant scrolls are entirely directed towards a rival party newly separated from their own community. Much new light is cast on the internal history of the movement; but none on its relations with external religious authorities. A Hasmonean high priest does not appear in the Dead Sea Scrolls. ^s

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