The Dead Sea Scrolls Today, rev. ed by James VanderKam

Author:James VanderKam [VanderKam, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2010-03-06T14:42:00+00:00

The wicked watches out for the righteous and seeks [to slay him. The Lord will not abandon him into his hand or] let him be condemned when he is tried [Ps 37:32-33].

Interpreted, this concerns the Wicked [Priest] who [watched the Teacher of Righteousness] that he might put him to death [because of the ordinance] and the law which he sent to him. (i-io iv 7-9; P. 490)

The editors of Some of the Works of the Torah (4QMMT) interpreted it as a letter, possibly from the Teacher to the Wicked Priest, in which the points at issue between them are listed and discussed. If this is the proper way in which to read the text (the matter is disputed), the irenic tone of the communication is noteworthy. At least one copy of the text begins with a full calendar of the year - 364 days with all the festivals known from other Qumran texts. It also mentions more than twenty legal issues, many concerned with ritual purity, about which the two sides disagreed. It closes with the hope that the recipient will recognize the truth of what is said so that he can rejoice in the end along with Israel.

If the two leaders ever had peaceful relations, they eventually soured. In the passage from the Commentary on Psalms quoted above, the expositor charges the Wicked Priest with attempting to kill the Teacher. A section in the Commentary on Habakkuk reads:

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