CHAPTER TWO

INTEGRATING ESCHATOLOGY INTO LATE SECOND TEMPLE JUDAISM

In order to integrate the understanding of Qumran eschatology into our picture of late Second Temple Judaism, this chapter subsequently discusses literary-historical and reception-historical connections of eschatology with Scripture (section 1), eschatology in non-sectarian and pre-sectarian Qumran texts (section 2), eschatology in sectarian Qum- ran texts (section 3), and comparative texts and traditions (section 4), before turning to evaluation and conclusions.

1. Eschatology and Scripture

The existence of eschatology per se in the Hebrew Scriptures is a dis- puted issue.1 The Hebrew expression , usually translated as ’ (//) µ in the Septuagint, occurs in various biblical books.2 D.L. Petersen discerned three main sources for ‘Old Testament eschatology’: patriarchal promise traditions, David-Zion tradition, and Sinai covenant traditions.3 Annette Steudel has observed that “a de-eschatologized understanding of ” in the Old Testament is “still predominant today”.4 Nevertheless, has eschatological connotations in many Qumran texts. The evidence of biblical Qumran scrolls, dated between the mid- third century bce and the early first century ce, has led to a crucial insight that the late Second Temple period was “characterised by textual plurality”.5 The dividing lines between textual variety and exegetical

1 Lindblom, “Gibt es eine Eschatologie bei den alttestamentlichen Propheten?,” 79–114; Reventlow, “The Eschatologization of the Prophetic Books,” 169–188; Becking, “Expectations about the End of Time in the Hebrew Bible,” 44–59. 2 MT Gen 49:1; Num 24:14; Deut 4:30, 31:29; Isa 2:2; Jer 23:20, 30:24, 48:47, 49:39; Ezek 38:16; Dan 2:28 ( ), 10:14; Hos 3:5; Mi 4:1. 3 Petersen, “Eschatology (OT),” 576–577. 4 Steudel, “ in the Texts from Qumran,” 225–6. 5 Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, 187–197 at 191. Cf. Ulrich, “The and the Biblical Text,” 79–100 at 98, who proposes a “successive literary 20 chapter two creativity have become less self-evident,6 so that the following questions emerge. Do the biblical scrolls reflect strands of developing eschato- logical thought? What is the significance of common strands as well as differences between eschatological readings of Scripture in sectarian and non-sectarian Qumran texts? In what follows, I discuss aspects of transmission and reception of the biblical text that may be relevant for the subject of eschatology.

1.1. The Transmission of the Biblical Text and Eschatology

It has been pointed out by that the Qumran biblical manuscripts do not contain evidence of the alteration of Scripture in the interest of sectarian ideology.7 He observes that theological variants which do occur in the Qumran biblical texts were “not sectarian but in line with general Jewish views or impulses”.8 Ulrich shows that there is a compicated burden of proof for establishing a variant reading as a ‘sectarian’ variant.9 In addition to the major evidence of Hebrew,10 Aramaic,11 and Greek12 biblical texts from Qumran, other sites of the have further yielded witnesses to the text of biblical books and biblical apocrypha. Biblical texts and fragments of texts have been found at Wadi Murabbaʿat (Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, and the Minor Prophets; dated between 42–43 and 132–135 ce);13 at editions” theory, which “does not judge ancient evidence from the Second Temple period by the standard of the later MT”. 6 Cf. Lim, Holy Scripture in the Qumran Commentaries and Pauline Letters, 19–27. 7 Ulrich, “The Absence of ‘Sectarian Variants’,” 179–95. 8 Ulrich, “The Absence of ‘Sectarian Variants’,” 191. 9 Ibidem, 192 lists four criteria: secondariness, intentionality, group- or sect- specifness, and repetition. Cf. Josephus, Ag.Ap. 42 and Matt 5:18 on the authoritative, unalterable status of Scripture, the Law in particular. 10 Tov, The Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, 103–5 at 103 refers to “fragments of more than 200 biblical scrolls” found in the 11 Qumran caves between 1947 and 1956. 11 4QPr-Esthera–e ar (4Q550, 550a–e); the Aramaic sections in 4QEzra (4Q117); the apocryphal Tobit in Aramaic (4Q196–199 = 4QpapToba ar, 4QTobitb–d ar). Cf. e.g. the Aramaic ‘para-biblical’ texts, like 4Q243–245 (4QpsDana–c ar), and the targums from Qumran 4Q156 (4QtgLev), 4Q157 (4QtgJob), and 11Q10 (11QtgJob). 12 4Q119 (4QLXXLeva), (4QpapLXXLevb), 4Q121 (4QLXXNum), 4Q122 (4QLXXDeut), 7Q1 (7QLXXExod); cf. 7Q2 (7QLXXEpJer). 13 Mur 1 frags. 1–7, Mur 2, Mur 3, and Mur 88, published by Benoit, Milik, and De Vaux, DJD 2 (1961), plates XIX–XXII, LVI–LXXII. Cf. the fragment of Genesis 33:18–34:3 from Murabbʿat published by É. Puech in RevQ 10 (1979–81) 163–166.