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arises and makes everyone rest from the sword.
118
Blank
5
His kingdom will be an eternal kingdom, andall his paths in truth. He will jud[ge]
6
the earth in truth, and all will make peace. The sword will ceasefrom the earth,
7
and all the provinces will pay him homage. The great God is his strength,
8
he will wagewar for him; he will place the peoples in his hand and
9
cast them all away before him. His rule will be aneternal rule, and all the abysses (4Q246 2:1-9).
119
The preserved text of the first column tells us that someone (a seer?) falls in front of thethrone of a king and addresses him. He describes the evils to come, among which thereference to Assyria and Egypt plays an important role. Even more important is the apparitionin the second column, here quoted, of a mysterious person to whom will be given the titles of
―son of God‖ and ―son of the Most High,‖ and whom ―all will serve.‖ His apparition will befollowed by troubles, but these will be transient like a spark and will only last ―until the people of God arises and makes everyone rest from the sword.‖
The scenario is quite similarto the one described in the
War Scroll,
and the period of wars will be followed by the peacebrought forth by the protagonist of the text and by the fighting of the people of God. He willconquer all kings with the strength of God, will end war, and will establish an eternalkingdom in which all will make peace, and in which justice will rule eternally.This protagonist
is described with the features of Daniel‘s ―Son of Man,‖ from whomcome the expressions ―his kingdom will be an eternal kingdom‖
(dan 3:33 and 7:27) and
―his
rule will an eternal rule
‖
(Dan 7:14), which our author applies to the mysterious protagonist of his tale, whom he considers without any doubt to be an individual. This person is presented as judge of the whole world and his rule extends to the whole globe. His action will end theperiod of previous crisis and he will bring in the situation of eschatological peace, whichallows us to understand
the exalted titles of ―son of God‖ and ―son of the Most High‖
appliedto him
, and which places him (without using the term of ―messiah‖) in the category of
a royalMessiah,
120
or in the category of what I called
―heavenly Messiah.‖
121
The texts breaks at theend of the second column. We do not have thus many more details of the period of peacewhich will follow his intervention.
118
As the editor indicates (DJD XXII,174-175) it is also possible to read the verbs as and , translating
―jusqu‘à ce qui‘il relève le people de Dieu et qu‘il fasse tout reposer de la glaive.‖
119
DSSSE
1: 494-495.
120
The majority of the commentators, among them Collins,
The Septer and the Star,
154-172, F.M. Cross,
―Notes on the Doctrine of the Two Messiahs at Qumran and the Extracannonical Daniel Apocalypse (4Q246), in
Current Research and Technological Developments
, 1-13, Zimmenrmann,
Messianische Texte aus Qumran
(WUNT 104; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1998)
,
128-169
,
Xeravits,
King, Priest, Prophet
, 209-210, and nowPuech,
Eretz Israel
, 149.
121
F. García Martínez, ―Two Messianic Figures in the Qumran Texts,‖ in
D.W. Parry
–
S.D. Ricks,
Current Research and Technological Developments on the Dead Sea Scrolls
(STDJ 20; Leiden: Brill, 1996), 14-40,reprint in
Qumranica Minora II
, 13-32.
20
A somehow more detailed glimpse of the dreams of peace after the eschatological waris provided by the well known Messianic Apocalypse (4Q521),
122
where we do have a sort of description of some of the works of the Messiah. And with this quote I end:
1
[For the hea]vens and the earth will listen to his anointed one,
123
2
[and all th]at is in them shall not turnaway from the precepts of the holy ones.
124
3
Strengthen yourselves, you who are seeking the Lord, in hisservice.
Blank. 4
Will you not in this encounter the Lord, all those who hope in their heart?
5
For the Lordwill consider the pious and, call the righteous by name
125
,
6
and his spirit will hover upon the poor,
126
andhe will renew the faithful with his strength.
7
For he will honour the pious upon the th[ro]ne of an eternalkingdom,
127
8
freeing prisioners, giving sight to the blind, straightening out the twis[ted]
(Ps 146:7-8).
9
And for [ev]er shall I cling to [those who h]ope, and in his mercy
[…]
10
and the fru[
it of …]… not be
delayed.
11
And the Lord will perform marvelous acts such as have not existed
128
, just as he sa[id,]
12
[for
]he will heal the badly wounded,
and will make the death live
, he will proclaims good news to the poor
(Isa61:1). (4Q521 2 ii 1-12)
129
The text describes the wonderful work that God will do in the time of the Messiah. Althoughthe wording of these actions is taken from the biblical text (particularly the Psalms and Isaiah)the author has added two fundamental elements: that they will happen at the time of theMessiah, and that the resurrection of the faithful will be one of the acts of God.This element (the resurrection as one of the glorious acts that the Lord will performduring the messianic age) is particularly notable because the precision
―he will make the deathalive,‖
is absent from the text of Isaiah quoted with a formal introduction. Apparentlyrestricted to the just, and connected with the announcement of good news to the poor,resurrection here is one of various elements that characterize the kingdom of God at the endof time. The perspective is purely inner-worldly and is interwoven with references from Isaiahand from the Psalms. This text is full of interesting elements that we cannot comment on here
122
Published by E. Puech,
Qumrân Grotte 4. XVIII: Textes hébreux
(DJD XXVI; Oxford: Clarendon, 1998), 1-38, pls. I-III.
123
, which, as the editor signals, can be interpreted as a singular or as a plural, s
ee E. Puech, ―SomeRemarks on 4Q246 and 4Q521 and Qumran Messianism,‖ in D.W. Parry –
E. Ulrich (eds.),
The Provo International Conference on the Dead Sea Scrolls
(STDJ 30; Leiden: Brill, 1999), 545-565, pp. 554-555. But theinterpretation a single Messiah is generally accepted, although the interpreters are divided as to the character of this Messiah: a Royal, Priestly or Prophetic Messiah. See for a summary of the opinions, Zimmermann,
Messianische Texte
, 379-382.
124
, can also be interpreted as singular or plural written defectively, not uncommon in Qumranorthography. The expression is unique.
125
The two terms used are (here and on line 8) and . Without trying to identify the people thusdesignated with the members of the Qumran community, it is clear that the text address only the faithful, calledon the next line .
126
The word is used here.
127
Expression taken from Ps 145:13. On 4Q491 11 i 11-12, th
e expressions ―throne‖ and ―eternal kingdom‖ are joined to the ―council of the poor‖
(
)
128
. These marvelous acts will be done by the Lord (), a designation that is applied by somescholars to the Messiah, but that refers clearly to God.
129
DSSSE
2: 1044-1045.
21
(from the spirit that
hovers
over the poor, and the close parallel to Matt 11:3
–
5, where also theresurrection is added to the biblical quote and is connected to the announcement of goodnews to the poor), but it serves perfectly to illustrate the use of the resurrection as one of theessential elements of the Messianic age which function is to allow the just to share in thepeace of the Messianic age.
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