Apocalypticism in the Dead Sea Scrolls

John J. Collins

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2002
• Print ISBN: 9780415146371
• eBook ISBN: 9781134757503
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

Since the photographs of the Dead Sea Scrolls were released in 1992, there has been an explosion of interest in them. This volume explores the issue of apocalypticism in the Scrolls; how the notions of the 'end', Messianic expectation and eternal life affected the Dead Sea sect, influenced Judaism and filtered into Christianity. Collins' volume provides a valuable and accessible introduction to the interpretation of the Scrolls, which is an informative addition to the series examining the major themes of the Scroll texts.

1
WHAT IS APOCALYPTICISM?

In modern English, the noun “apocalypse” and the related adjective “apocalyptic” have come to connote a catastrophe of cosmic proportions. So one speaks of the possibility of a nuclear apocalypse, or of the apocalyptic landscape of some futuristic films. It may come as something of a surprise, then, to learn that the underlying Greek word, apokalypsis, means simply “revelation” or “uncovering.” The catastrophic connotations of the word come from its use in the last book of the New Testament, the Apocalypse, or Revelation of St John. The Apocalypse is indeed a revelation. It reports the visions of St John, when he was in the spirit on the island called Patmos. But his revelation has a particular character. Much of it concerns visions of cosmic destruction. It culminates in a grisly banquet in which the birds of heaven are called “to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains . . . the flesh of all both free and slave, both small and great” (Rev 19:18). This is followed by the resurrection and judgment of the dead, and then the revelation of “a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more” (21:1). Because of the content of this particular revelation, the word “apocalypse” came to refer broadly to the end of this world, or to any catastrophe of such a scale that it seems to put this world in jeopardy.

THE LITERARY GENRE APOCALYPSE IN ANTIQUITY

The Revelation of John, however, was not an isolated literary phenomenon in the ancient world. We have a spate of Christian apocalypses from the second and third centuries CE, in the names of Peter and Paul, Mary and John (Yarbro Collins 1979). According to the Mani Codex, which dates from around 400 CE, each of the forefathers, from Adam to Enoch, showed his own apokalypsis to the elect (Cameron and Dewey 1979). The use of the term apokalypsis as a genre label in the Christian era derives from its use in the canonical Apocalypse of John. But the Apocalypse also stood in a tradition of older Jewish literature, typified especially by the book of Daniel. The Jewish works were not generally labeled as “apocalypses” in antiquity, and have only been gradually identified as such in modern times because of their similarity to the Christian apocalypses. Most of the Jewish works in question were not handed down in Jewish tradition or preserved in their original languages. Instead they were preserved in Christian churches, in Ethiopic, Slavonic, Latin and Syriac translations. Only a few, such as 4 Ezra or 2 Esdras which was preserved in Latin, were known continuously in the West. The others, preserved in the Eastern Churches, only became known in the West in the nineteenth century.

The catalyst for the modern rediscovery of the Jewish apocalypses was the publication of the Ethiopic text of 1 Enoch in 1821 by Richard Laurence. This text had been brought back from Ethiopia to England by a traveler in the late eighteenth century. As early as 1832 the German scholar Friedrich Lücke recognized the importance of 1 Enoch and the related Jewish tradition for understanding the book of Revelation (Lücke 1832). The corpus available to Lücke included only the books of Daniel, Enoch, 4 Ezra and the Sibylline Oracles, but it was increased by subsequent discoveries. Laurence also published the Ascension of Isaiah in Ethiopic. Several other apocalypses came to light before the end of the nineteenth century: 2 Baruch in Syriac, 3 Baruch in Greek, 2 Enoch, and the Apocalypse of Abraham in Slavonic (see Koch 1972:19). With the exception of the book of Daniel, however, none of this literature was extant in the Semitic language in which it had originally been composed, and so the suspicion lingered in some quarters that it was not really representative of Judaism in the centuries before and after the turn of the era. This suspicion has been definitively dispelled by the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls.

Before we turn to discuss the impact of the scrolls on the study of Jewish apocalyptic literature, it is necessary to get a better impression of the character of this literature. We have noted that the apocalyptic genre was identified by modern (nineteenth-century) scholars primarily by analogy with the Apocalypse of John, and that great importance was attached to the motif of the end of this world and related concepts. These features, however, do not begin to exhaust the character of the apocalyptic literature. In brief, this literature may be divided into two types, one of which is distinguished by its interest in the unfolding of history over several epochs while the other has its primary focus on the mysteries of the heavenly world (Collins 1979, 1984). Both types, however, share some basic features. They are presented as supernatural revelations, mediated by an angel or some heavenly being, and they invariably focus on the final end of life and history. This final end usually entails the transformation of this world (the new creation of the book of Revelation) but it also involves the judgment of the individual dead and their assignment to eternal bliss or damnation.

As the name “apocalypse” suggests, the notion of revelation is fundamental to this literary genre. Sometimes the revelation is visual. Daniel has a dream in which he sees four beasts rising out of the sea (Daniel 7). John sees a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that has seven heads (Rev 17). Often these visions are allegories: Daniel’s four beasts represent four kingdoms. The woman in Revelation 17 is Rome. At other times, however, the revelation takes the form of a discourse. In Daniel 10–12, an angel tells Daniel “what is written in the book of truth,” which turns out to be a prediction of Hellenistic history, culminating in the resurrection of the dead. Enoch imparts to his children what he has read in the heavenly tablets: an overview of the periods of history from antediluvian times to the new creation (1 Enoch 93). Other revelations record the experiences of visionaries who were escorted through the heavens by angelic tour guides (2 Enoch, 3 Baruch). In all cases, the supernatural character of the revelation is emphasized. The information imparted is not such that anyone could have figured it out by human knowledge out by human knowledge.

All of these revelations are presented in the name of visionaries who lived many centuries before the books were actually written. Enoch supposedly lived before the Flood, but the books attributed to him are not attested before the second century BCE. Daniel’s career is set in the Babylonian exile, although his revelations are primarily concerned with the Hellenistic period, and were to a great degree written after the fact. The revelations, in short, are pseudonymous. Even if the real authors saw visions or had revelatory experiences, they present their revelations in the name of others, who were presumed to speak with greater authority. The Revelation of John in the New Testament is exceptional in this regard, since John is apparently the actual name of the visionary. (Another Christian exception is found in the Shepherd of Hermas. ) But all the Jewish apocalypses are pseudonymous, and this convention was also taken up in Christianity (in the Apocalypses of Peter, Paul, etc.). Moreover, we have several examples of pseudonymous prophecy from the surrounding pagan cultures, notably a string of Akkadian prophecies from Babylon which are sometimes thought to have influenced the Jewish apocalypses (Grayson 1975; Lambert 1978). Clearly, pseudepigraphy was a well-established convention. We can only guess at the underlying mentality. Attribution to a figure of great antiquity, such as Enoch, lent status and authority to the work. The common people presumably accepted the attribution at face value, but the literary fiction must have been transparent to the inner circle of those who produced these writings. Nonetheless, it may be too simple to regard the device of pseudonymity as a calculated act of deception. A person who reported a revelation in the name of Enoch may have felt that the attribution was appropriate, that this was the kind of thing that Enoch would have written, or may have identified with Enoch in his imagination. We have no authioritative explanation of the phenomenon from an ancient source. Interestingly enough, the main sectarian writings from Qumran do not rely on the device of pseudonymity, and the earliest Christian apocalypse also dispensed with it. While pseudonymity is a common feature of the genre it cannot be regarded as an indispensable element.

APOCALYPSE AND PROPHECY

Apocalyptic revelation obviously stands in some continuity with the prophetic revelations found in the Hebrew Bible. The account of the revelation in Daniel chapter 10, for example, draws heavily on Ezekiel 8–10. In the apocalyptic revelations, however, more emphasis is placed on the supernatural character of the revelation. The prophets sometimes receive their revelations from angels, especially in the later prophetic books, such as Ezekiel and Zechariah. In the apocalyptic writings, this feature is consistent. Apocalyptic symbolism is initially more bewildering than is usual in the prophets. Daniel’s vision of the four beasts rising out of the sea is a case in point. The prophets are said to stand in the council of the Lord (Jer 23:18) but we do not find tours of heaven or hell in the prophetic books. When Ezekiel is taken on a guided tour by an angel in Ezekiel 40–8, he is shown the new Jerusalem, on earth, rather than some otherworldly regions. So while there is continuity between prophetic and apocalyptic revelation, there is also a clear shift in emphasis. The apocalyptic writers shroud their message in mystery to a far greater degree than was the case with the biblical prophets. The attribution of an apocalypse to an ancient figure such as Enoch adds to this sense of mystery.

Hand in hand with this emphasis on the supernatural goes the increased interest of the apocalyptic writers in angels and demons (Rowland 1982; Mach 1992). Ancient Israel was familiar with the notion of a divine council, which represented the survival of ancient polytheism in a religion where only one God was worshiped (cf. Psalm 82:1: “God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment”. Not until the books of Daniel and Enoch, however, are members of the heavenly host given individual names. Henceforth Michael and Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel play roles of increasing importance in human affairs. Correspondingly, there are also supernatural forces opposed to the God of Israel. The book of Isaiah drew on ancient mythology to conjure up battles between the Lord and Leviathan and “the dragon that is in the sea” (Isa 27:1; cf. Isa 51:9). In the apocalyptic literature the forces of evil become more organized, under the leadership of a figure variously known as Belial or Satan. There is considerable variation in the apocalyptic writings in the roles (and names) allotted to angels and demons, but the angelic world is undeniably more prominent in these writings than in the books of the prophets.

There are also differences in the ways in which prophetic and apocalyptic texts deal with history. The apocalyptic writers inherited from the prophets the belief that God would intervene in history at a decisive point to judge the world. (Amos gave classical expression to this belief when he spoke of a “day of the Lord” that would be darkness and not light, in Amos 5:18.) This divine intervention is sometimes envisaged as an “end” – Amos proclaimed that “the end has come upon my people Israel” (Amos 8:2). The “end” envisaged in the prophets is normally the “end” of Israel, or Judah, or Assyria, or Babylon. It is not the end of the world as such, although it is sometimes described poetically with cosmic imagery. (Cf. the description of “the day of the Lord” in Isaiah 13: “the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light.”) Normally, too, the prophets address specific historical crises. They do not attempt to survey the course of history as a whole or measure out the time from beginning to end. The divine judgment that they envisage takes the form of the destruction of some earthly power, whether Israel or the nations, and the salvation they hope for is the restoration of Israel in its land.

The apocalyptic writers go beyond their prophetic predecessors in several respects. In the historically oriented apocalypses, we often find that history is divided into a set number of periods or epochs. In Daniel 9, Jeremiah’s prophecy that Jerusalem would be desolate for seventy years is interpreted as referring to seventy weeks of years, or 490 years. This calculation was enormously influential in later writings, including the Dead Sea scrolls. Enoch divided the course of history into ten “weeks” (1 Enoch 93; 91) but predicted a decisive new departure in the seventh week, with the emergence of an elect group that eventually rises to power. In these texts there is a sense that history has a fixed duration and that it can be calculated in advance, so that the end of history, as we know it, can be predicted. The book of Daniel is the only Jewish apocalypse that actually attempts to calculate the number of days until the “end” would come. We shall consider this prediction in some detail later. But the notion that the “end” could be calculated has had enormous influence on apocalyptic movements down to modern times.

Perhaps the most momentous difference between apocalyptic and prophetic eschatology concerns the final goal of history. The apocalypses usually, though not always, envisage the restoration of Israel on earth in some form. (3 Baruch is an exception in this regard.) But the eschatology of the prophets is radically altered by the new belief in the judgment of the dead, and the possibility of the reward and punishment of individuals beyond the grave. Physical resurrection is only one of the forms that life after death can take. In some apocalyptic writings, the goal of life is transformation to an angelic state. (Such a hope is expressed clearly in 1 Enoch 104. See Himmelfarb 1991.) In this case, the hope of the apocalyptic writers conforms to their general fascination with the heavenly angelic world. The apocalypses give glimpses of that world in the present, and those that describe heavenly ascents give more extended glimpses of it. After death, the righteous can hope to participate forever in the heavenly world.

Other literary trajectories, besides that of prophecy, can also be traced in the apocalyptic literature. The German scholar Gerhard von Rad argued at length that the apocalypses were more closely related to wisdom literature than to prophecy (von Rad 1965), While this thesis has been generally rejected, it is true that apocalyptic revelation can be viewed as a kind of wisdom, and we shall find important lines of continuity with wisdom literature in the Dead Sea scrolls (Collins 1996a; see Chapter 3 below). The apocalyptic interest in the heavenly world, and especially in the heavenly temple, reflects the influence of priestly circles (Himmelfarb 1993). This priestly influence is especially important in the scrolls (see Chapter 8 below). Apocalypticism is not simply late prophecy, but is rather a new phenomenon of the Hellenistic age, which drew on many streams of tradition. Accordingly, we should expect to find varying emphases in different apocalyptic works.

THE APOCALYPTIC WORLDVIEW

The preceding sketch, brief as it is, should suffice to indicate the range of interests that we find in the apocalyptic writings. An apocalypse is not only a literary form. It also implies a particular view of the world (Collins 1991). Life on earth is shaped by supernatural forces, which are both good and bad. The course of history is determined in advance, although individuals still have some choice as to where they stand. There will be a divine judgment to reward the good and punish the wicked, and this judgment will have its effect not only on the last generation but also on the individual dead. This view of the world stands in fairly sharp contrast to that of the strand of biblical religion represented by the book of Deuteronomy. According to Deuteronomy, the word of God is “not in heaven, that of biblical religion represented by the book of Deuteronomy. According to Deuteronomy, the word of God is “not in heaven, that you should say, ‘who will go up to heaven to get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?’” (Deut 30:13). The goal of life is to live long in the land, and to see one’s children’s children to the third and fourth generations. For the apocalyptic writers, however, the knowledge that gives life must be obtained from heaven by special revelations, and the goal of life is eternal fellowship with the angels rather than long life on earth. It is true that some aspects of the apocalyptic worldview, such as the belief in demonic powers, were widely shared in the Hellenistic age, and that others, such as judgment after death, eventually came to be widely shared in Judaism. In the last two centuries of the common era, however, apocalypticism constituted a distinctive worldview within Judaism, as can be seen by contrasting the Book of Enoch with Ben Sira, or Daniel with 1 Maccabees. It is impossible to say how widely this worldview was shared. Key elements of it were rejected by some Jews (e.g. the Sadducees rejected the judgment of the dead). But neither was it peculiar to a particular sect or the product of a single movement.

A worldview is not necessarily tied to any one literary form, and the apocalyptic worldview could find expression in other genres besides apocalypses. An apocalypse, as we have seen, is a formal report of a revelation mediated by a heavenly being. Essentially the same view of the world can be found in other compositions that are either revelations of another kind (such as the Sibylline oracles) or in compositions that presuppose divine revelation but do not describe it directly (such as the Pauline epistles). The distinction between apocalypticism as a worldview and apocalypse as a literary form is essential to appreciating the role of apocalypticism in the Dead Sea scrolls. Formal apocalypses are extremely rare in the Qumran corpus, but the influence of the apocalyptic worldview in other genres of writing is pervasive.

THE DIVERSITY OF THE SCROLLS

Also essential to our subject is an appreciation of the diversity of material in the Dead Sea scrolls. The corpus of the scrolls can be divided roughly into three categories: those that are clearly sectarian, those that show no signs of sectarian authorship, and those which may or may not be sectarian. In the first category are texts that clearly pertain to a sectarian community. The clearest examples are provided by the Community Rule and the Damascus Document, which legislate for forms of community life that are distinct from the communal organization of Israel. There are differences and discrepancies between these rule books, but they are also closely related. We group them together here as sectarian, on the assumption that they pertain to the same movement, although that movement may have allowed for some diversity. This movement is widely, and plausibly, identified with the Essenes, a sect which had two orders, according to Josephus, one of which married and one which did not (see Collins 1992; VanderKam 1995a: 71–98). Several other compositions from Qumran are closely related to the sectarian rule books, by various considerations. These include the biblical commentaries or pesharim, the thanksgiving hymns or Hodayot, and the Rule of the War of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness.

At the other end of the spectrum are several books that were known before ever the scrolls were discovered, and that cannot be attributed to the sectarian group described in the Community Rule. These include the biblical texts (including Daniel) and apocryphal books such as Tobit and Ben Sira, but also, significantly for our purpose, fragments of 1 Enoch and Jubilees. Also in this category are several compositions that show no trace of sectarianism and that are almost certainly part of the common heritage of Judaism. These include the non-canonical psalms in the Psalms Scroll, and such writings as the Prayer of Nabonidus, which preserves an older form of the tradition contained in Daniel 4.

The third category constitutes a gray area between the other two. Several compositions have no distinctively sectarian vocabulary or motifs, and yet are quite compatible with the sectarian worldview. So, for example, the Aramaic work known as the Testament of Amram has all the rudiments of the dualism of the two spirits that finds its classical expression in the Community Rule. Yet the editor dated it, on the basis of palaeography, to the early or mid-second century BCE, and suggested that it was composed before the Dead Sea sect separated itself from the rest of Judaism (Milik 1972a). The so-called “Son of God” text (4Q246) likewise lacks specifically sectarian terminology, but we shall argue that it is fully compatible with the messianic expectations of the Dead Sea sect. In many of these cases it may be impossible to draw a clear line between compositions that are sectarian and those that are not. We must content ourselves with pointing out the affinities of these texts with both the Qumran scrolls and the wider literary context of Second Temple Judaism.

APOCALYPTICISM AND THE SCROLLS

On any reckoning, the corpus of actual apocalypses in the Dead Sea scrolls is quite scanty (Stegemann 1983). The chief exemplars of the genre among the scrolls are the books of Enoch and Daniel, which were already well known before the scrolls were discovered. The other works that come into consideration are found mainly in highly fragmentary remains of Cave 4, and most of them are in Aramaic (Dimant 1994a). The aforementioned “Son of God” text ...

Table of contents

• COVER PAGE
• TITLE PAGE
• COPYRIGHT PAGE
• SERIES EDITOR’S PREFACE
• BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE
• LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
• GLOSSARY
• 1 WHAT IS APOCALYPTICISM?
• 2 DANIEL, ENOCH AND RELATED LITERATURE
• 3 CREATION AND THE ORIGIN OF EVIL
• 4 THE PERIODS OF HISTORY AND THE EXPECTATION OF THE END
• 5 MESSIANIC EXPECTATION
• 6 THE ESCHATOLOGICAL WAR
• 7 RESURRECTION AND ETERNAL LIFE
• 8 THE HEAVENLY WORLD
• 9 THE APOCALYPTICISM OF THE SCROLLS IN CONTEXT
• BIBLIOGRAPHY