Here we have notes from a variety of classes on Judaism and
Christianity: Leviticus, Judaism at the time of Jesus, the forty day ministry
of Christ, Apostles and bishops and the loss of authority, and Qumran
excavations.
Unraveling Leviticus—How the Ordinances, Teachings,
and Practices of Leviticus Connect with and Testify to the Restored Gospel of
Jesus Christ: The Holiness Code
Leviticus 17-27 (by Shon D Hopkin)
Prevalence of ordinances in Leviticus.
Ours are connected and built upon them.
This gives us an opportunity
to talk about temple ordinances too.
Other scholars see Leviticus
as a separate author, but Hopkins doesn’t see it that way.
Resources for more reading
on Leviticus:
--Covenant & Conversation: Leviticus, Rabbi Jonathon Sack
--Anchor Bible Commentary: Leviticus (3 vols), Jacob Milgrom (very
technical, loves seeing it as unified and why, where it meets the people’s
needs)
--Verse by verse Commentary, Kelly Ogden & Andrew Skinner
--Symbols & Shadows: Unlocking a deeper understanding of the
atonement, Donald Parry.
--Deeper Understanding of the atonement
--Jewish Study Bible (Old Testament) (old Jewish commentaries,
underpinning Jewish ideas)
--The Commentator’s Bible : Genesis- Deuteronomy
McConkie thought Leviticus
has no especial application to us and need not give us permanent concern,
except for a few passages. Hopkins spent a little time joking about how
McConkie’s assessment kind of pulls the rug out from under him. (“Why even take
this class?” “But look! You’re still here!”)
True, the ordinances in
Leviticus aren’t our ordinances, they aren’t as central for us to understand,
but they tell us the kind of things God may do in ordinances, and they are
meant to draw us up through levels of ordinances.
They form a foundation of
what we still do today.
Joseph Smith may have
indicated that there might be return of blood sacrifices at the Jerusalem
again. Others are not so sure.
Leviticus is the middle of
the books of Moses. In the middle we often find the points of emphasis.
This is the first book
studied by Jewish children.
Feast of Weeks, Pentecost,
or Feast of Harvest, Lev 23:15-22
--50 days after Passover
(May-June)
--Commemorates arrival at
Sinai and law written on stone tablets
--All came to Jerusalem to
be tithed, sacrifice, grain offerings.
--Commemorates the bounteous
blessings after Egypt deliverance. Today Ruth is read & Torah read at
nighttime.
--In NT, Pentecost is 50
days after crucifixion, time at which God wrote the law on their hearts by
giving Holy Ghost (Christ was the planting, and first-fruits, Holy Ghost was
the harvest of his sacrifice)
In Israel they have Sabbath
elevators – The elevator stops at every floor so you don’t have to push the
button.
Rosh Hashanah – Leviticus
23:23-25 (Sept- Oct)
--163 days after 1st
Passover.
--Also known as festival of
trumpets (100 blasts)
--This is the new year,
commemorates the creation of Adam & Eve and naming of the animals
--Anticipates the opening of
the heavens as Messiah comes and the beginning of Judgment (concluded Yom
Kippur)
--A day of remembrance and
goal setting
--Creation, law giving, time
to anoint kings.
--Joyful wedding feast
between God and Israel
--Tashlikh ritual, prayers
said by flowing water and one’s sins are then symbolically cast in. Mikvahs and immersion in living,
flowing waters.
--Part of the high holy days
and followed by day of atonement 10 days later
Feast of Tabernacles
Kukkot Lev 23:24-44
Booths commemorated their
wandering in the wilderness. Lots of rules about materials and how they are
made. Meals made there, some sleep there.
--Lasts 7 days
--Ecclesiastes is read
because of its focus on the passing nature of life.
--Law to be read
--Judgment to be delivered
this day.
--Tradition: Walking 7 times
around synagogue with branch of citron tree, a palm frond, a branch of myrtle
tree, willow branch.
--Tradition: On day eight
the Torah is taken out and goes around the synagogue 7 days.
Book of Mormon delivered to
Joseph Smith at a time that coincided with the Feast of Tabernacles.
(Interesting! Things that make you go ‘hmmm’)
At the center of King
Benjamin’s lecture is a discussion of atonement, repeating the words of an
angel, speaking with the tongue of angels.
People cleansed of their
sins
People are given God’s name
Summary of chapters in
Leviticus
Kosher Laws
17 laws regarding sacrifices
and blood
18-20 laws governing sexual
relations
Purpose of the Law of
Moses – Ye shall be holy because I am holy (Leviticus 19:2)
--To make them holy as God
is holy.
--Dimensions of altar, laver
: These tell us we are operating
in God’s realm and we perform ordinances to become as He is.
--To bring behaviors on
earth from the common realm to the realm of God – eating, career, intimacy,
social interactions, childbirth
--To protect Israelites
spiritually from apostate, degraded influences of foreign religions and set
them apart so they could be blessing to others.
--To protect Israelites
physically (kosher laws)
--To constantly remind
Israelites of their status and submission to God.
Main principle: We are not
animals, we are children of Christ. We don’t launch into our lives like an
animal, we keep God in mind and do things in holy ways.
Covenants create order out
of chaos.
Coming to the highest level
of holiness. Baptism, gift of the
holy ghost, sacrament, temple covenants.
Eating what God tells us
what we don’t eat or drink so we submit to God. Healthy or not doesn’t matter,
we just submit to God.
Jesus lived the Law of
Moses.
Earth
(mankind)>>(upward)>>and (Israel & Ger)>> Priests
Modern Christian
misconceptions about the Law of Moses?
How to understand additions
in Jesus’s time
After Babylonian exile, Jews
say “never sin in idolatry again” They build a fence around the law. They judge
others not by the law, but by the fence.
New Testament view of the
Jews: They are a law to themselves and so cannot recognize the lawgiver.
A more sympathetic view of
the Jews: Rather than performing the law their own way, they want to perform it
as God wants.
What about the Jews’ view of
Christian Sabbath observance?
(Christians seem to be doing whatever they want, rather than trying to
find out what God wants)
Some examples of Pharisaic
laws of the Sabbath:
--No soaking of things
before Sabbath unless they can be completed the previous day.
--No making bread unless it
is mostly done (picky definitions of what parts should be baked for a loaf to
be “done”)
--A woman may not go out
with a needle that has an eye (she might work or advertise her sewing skills,
which is also work)
--If a man took out a loaf
into the public domain he is guilty, if two men took it out, they are not
guilty (because they can’t tell who of the two is carrying more of it.)
Orthodox Jews can’t drive on
the Sabbath. Neighbors open their parking lot for them to park there.
Are there things we do as
LDS that make obedience difficult like this?
Do we look for loopholes
like this? (Waiting until midnight on the Sabbath?)
Teachings from the
holiness Code Lev. 19:
--Fear parents
--Offer sacrifice at your
own will
--No making people stumble
--No avenging or grudges;
love your neighbor
--Honor the old
--Don’t vex the foreigner
--Treat a foreigner as if he
is a native and love him the same as yourself (Reminds us of the sealing of
children that weren’t born in the covenant)
Confusing teachings from
the code:
--Sacrifices should be
burned after the third day of not eating. Why? They are sacred; they shouldn’t
be disrespected.
--Don’t let cattle or seed
mix with other types of cattle or seed.
(This mixing was a heathen practice. ) Principle: Israel should not
mingle sexually with non-Israel.
This was something done in temple clothing and belongs in a divine
realm.
--Don’t tattoo, don’t cut
corners of hair. (Jews keep long
locks on the front sides.) This avoids ancient pagan mourning rite.
Sabbaths
--Every 7th day,
7th month, 7th year. Land rested, what grew naturally was for the poor, owner, family,
servants, beasts. Debts cancelled. The idea is God will provide and create for us.
--Every 50 years, land
reverts to original Israelite family. Israelite debt slaves set free.
Kosher Laws Lev 11 What
to eat or not.
--Respect for life, only eat
certain things.
--Second concern,
holiness.
The animals that weren’t to
be eaten were those that couldn’t be domesticated easily, could carry diseases,
were worshipped by false religions..
Later prohibitions – no
cooking or eating meat and milk together is the most prohibitive. Led to major separations between meats
and milks, different utensils and spaces of time between eating them.
Lev 26 Blessings:
--Rain in due season
--Promise of chasing one’s
enemies (Implies moral force, confidence in God, steadfastness)
--Bravery
--God will be among you
--We will be my people
Judiasm at the time of Jesus (by Matthew J. Grey)
The church has been
developing a new college-level curriculum for institute. Course on Jesus.
It’s critical to understand
the Judaism at the time of Jesus to understand his message and actions.
We use the phrase “the Jews”
to refer to the large entity as a block.
Instead there were priests,
sages, mystics, apocalyptic visionaries, ascetic holy men, Hellenized
philosophers, Romanized aristocrats, itinerant preacher, village miracle
workers, popular prophetic figures, nationalist zealots.
We can use “JudiasmS”
instead.
(Jesus wasn’t the only one
performing miracles)
Ask what type of group Jesus
was interacting with.
Don’t forget Pharisees, Sadducees,
Essenes, disciples of John, etc.
Teachings and actions of Jesus
have to be understood by understanding which group he’s dealing with at the
time.
We have to go back to Old
Testament for a little here to define the core of common Judaism:
--Holiness (kadosh): set
apart or different from everything around it. God called Israel as a holy
people. Covenant people are
different and set apart from the cultures around. It is the basis of the Law of Moses.
--Law of Moses makes Israel
holy (set apart)
--God dwells in the
Jerusalem temple.
--Hereditary priesthood that
mediates between God and the people. Takes sacrifices to God on behalf of
people, and takes message from God to people.
Zadokite priesthood, Zadok
was first high priesthood of the temple of Solomon.
Inter-Testamental period
Conquest of Alexander the
Great and the spread of Hellenism
Alexander empire 336-323 BC Conquers Persian
empire
Brings in a foreign culture.
Hellenism blended Greek and
local culture to add stability and longevity to his empire.
This poses a question for
Jews. Will they become Hellenized or not? To what extent can Jews participate
in it and still maintain their covenantal holiness?
It’s never as easy as
outright rejecting the other culture.
The question fractures Judaism to groups that respond differently.
Language. Question: Do you adopt the language? Elites speak Greek..
Most Jews weren’t ideologically
opposed to speaking Greek.
Elites adopt it and only
speak Greek. This led to the need for the Torah to be translated into Greek
(Septuagint)
Septuagint becomes the Old
Testament of the earliest Christians.
Entertainment. Question: Do you go to theaters? Do you go to Stadiums with athletic
competition? Do you participate in
athletic events?
Jews were more divided about
this. The Greeks run naked, which was disturbing.
Conservatives were in effect
asking “What’s it rated?”
Education and
Lifestyle. Gymnasium and
nudity. (gymnasium meant naked)
At the gymnasium, circumcision
became obvious between Jews and Greeks.
This causes more
fracturing.
Elite classes in urban
settings were more open to it, interestingly. Maccabbees tells of Jewish priests badly who wanted to
participated and surgically reversed their circumcision to fit in.
Philosophy and ethics –
Socrates, Plato, Aristotle.
Question: Are you open to learning the philosophies of the Greeks?
Some thought it was okay,
some thought it wasn’t. More
fracturing occurred in Judaism because of this.
Jewish intellectuals were
studying Greek philosophy and writing to show Moses was a philosopher.
Modernist progressives were wealthy and urban. They were okay with it because of their
connection to government.
Traditionalists
conservatives (lower-middle class, rural) reject Hellenization, and they
intensified their differences to try to remain different.
Antiochus IV Epiphanes
(175-164BC)
Until him, Hellenization has
never been forced on the Jews.
Antiochus insisted on forcing it at the point of the sword. (see 1, 2 Maccabees)
--Temple converted to temple
of Zeus. Pig sacrifice. Some Jews were okay with that. (!?)
--Jerusalem converted into a
Greek polis
--High priests replaced by
political appointees.
--Jewish law was banned,
replaced by Greek law. Circumcision punishable by death.
--Jewish priests adopt
Hellenistic lifestyle
Traditionalists decide to revolt
or their way of life will be obliterated.
Maccabean revolt
167-142BC raised Messianic hopes,
which were dashed later.
Hasmonean dynasty
142-63BC They liked Hellenism and
embraced it.
Assumption of high
priesthood and revival of Hellenism among upper class
This is the formation and
crystallization of Jewish sects with names
Sadducees were progressive.
Pharisees were
traditionalist
They have in common that
they both don’t like Jesus.
What debates are they
having?
--Degree of Hellenization
and Romanization
--Legitimacy of Jerusalem
temple and priesthood (some people were really upset about this)
--Religious leadership
(hereditary or lay Torah scholarship?)
Alternative forms of leadership develop. Local village sages and lay Torah scholars begin to appear.
--Scriptural authority and
canon (written Torah or ancestral tradition? Which takes precedence?) Major
debate with different responses. Sadducees only accept 5 books of Moses and
nothing else. Others canonize prophetic writings.
--What kind of weight do you
give to ancestral tradition? This
impacts theology and doctrinal teachings. Issues of resurrection, angels,
Messiah, end times, etc. No
resurrection mentioned in 5 books of Moses so Sadducees don’t accept
resurrection. Sadducees don’t believe in angels or end times or Messiah. (And why would you want a Messiah if
you’re in charge of things? Messiahs are for marginalized groups)
Pharisees
Apocalyptic visionaries,
nationalistic zealots, Jewish philosophers, popular prophetic figures,
messianic claimants.
Essenes called themselves
the sons of Zadok, believed they were the heirs of the Zadokites.
New Testament Christianity, Creedal Christianity,
Mormon Christianity: Restoration Teachings and Early Christianity: The Forty
Day Ministry: Prelude to preaching the gospel in the early church (by Stephen
D. Ricks)
It was THE formative
experience for the apostles and disciples of Jesus in the ancient church.
It is the transition from
doubt to certainty and commitment.
It prepared the apostles for
committed and energetic missionary labors despite violent opposition.
Pre-resurrection Doubt
Peter didn’t think he would
doubt and not be offended, but Jesus warned him he would be. All the other disciples said the same
thing as Peter.
Peter denied Jesus three
times. (Matt 26:74-75)
The disciples had
weakness. (Matt 26:40-42) They
could not watch with him one hour. Their eyes were heavy.
The doubt of all the
disciples
Peter’s denial of Jesus and
Thomas’s expression of doubt likely represent all the disciples doubt after the
crucifixion. (John 20:24-25) Others had seen the Lord, but he said unless he
saw and touched, he would not believe.
Jesus did reassure Thomas.
(John 20:26-28)
Probably al the disciples
doubted after the crucifixion.
Post forty-day ministry
Peter heals the infirm (acts
3:4-7) In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.
Peter speaks in tongues on
the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4)
From doubt to commitment: What
event proved decisive in transforming the apostles from doubters to firmly
committed believers? The 40-day ministry.
We now possess in the early
apocryphal writings an impressive body of evidence that bears on the
historicity of the 40-days. (Acts
1:2-3) showed Himself alive by many infallible proofs being seen forty days and
speaking of the kingdom of God.
Examples: Pseudoclementiana,
the Apocryphon of James, the letters of peter to Philip, the Gospel of Philip,
the Acts of Thomas, Andrew, John, Peter, Philip, and Matthias, and the Martyrdom
of Matthew.
They are found in the Apocrypha
New Testament
Some are Gnostic writings in
the Nag Hamadi materials.
A favorite theme of the
apocrypha is the teachings of the Lord to the apostles during the forty days.
When Ignatius wants an
unanswerable argument for the resurrection, he appeals to the forty days and a
non-canonical witness.
It has always disturbed scholars
so they don’t like to discuss it,
How do scholars view the
40-day ministry?
40-day periods of spiritual discipline
and preparation.
40 has to do with
observation, expectation, but especially with separation.
Some thing it is a mere
example of condescension and friendship or a magnanimous recompense for a long
farewell.
The most conspicuous
teaching in the forty days is the picture of the future which is unrelieved
pessimism and gloom: violent end to the disciples, they will be rejected by all
men and there will be false shepherds within the church. The events are limited
to a scope of two generations, the undoing of the Christian society by
perverters and corrupters in its midst.
Nothing is reported about
the forty-day ministry.
Luke tells about the
ministry, but says nothing about it.
Ignatius mentions the
handling of the Lord by peter
D&C 91 about the
apocrypha of the Old Testament
Persistence of early
Christian ritual
The rites all look to the
temple and to the instructions of the forty days. There’s a definite residue of
early Christian ritual that goes far beyond anything known to later
Christianity.
Ritual is conservative, but
interpretations are different.
Gnostics whose writings
describe the forty-day ministry. They claim to have knowledge but insist
adherents accept all of their teachings
Some are very interesting,
but others are crazy
The oldest definition of gnosis is the knowledge from the forty
day ministry.
Gnosticism left a mark upon
the Christian church that persists today.
Irenaeus charged the Gnostics
misrepresented true and familiar doctrines.
--They use genuine logia but give them a false twist,
--they look orthodox,
--they counterfeit ,
--they imitate the
sacrament,
--they parody marriage
rites,
--they counterfeit
revelation with potions and drugs,
--they misinterpret
scriptures,
--they are bad interpreters
of the good word.
All 40-day teachings are
described as secret and to a select group. (Did Jesus warn of this? “He is in
the secret chambers”)
Considerable time is taken
up with telling the disciples not to disclose what has been taught.
Coptic gospel of Thomas
starts with “the secret words which the living Jesus spoke”
Apocryphon of John on war of
heaven
Acts of Thomas on the “seal”:
those baptized asked for the seal from the apostles.
The seal might be a name,
mark,
Gospel of Philip on marriage--
to obtain the highest of the three heavens
Marriage ordinances caused
shock to those who didn’t know what happened in them.
Female disciples in second
Jeu “twelve female disciples”
The pearl: an allegory on
the plan of salvation. Hymn of the
pearl from the acts of Thomas
40-day ministry included a
mount of transfiguration experience with the rest of the apostles. It was also
the more sure word of prophecy.
Joseph Smith noted Peter ,
James, and John were sealed up to eternal life by revelation.. All the apostles were promised eternal
life.
3 Ne. 28:1-3 Jesus spoke to his disciples asking
them what they wanted and 9 wanted quick return to God, and 3 wanted to live to
do missionary work.
Jesus teaches pre-mortal
life, creation of the world, life as probationary state, foretells events of
the last days, return of Elijah, primitive church perverted after one
generation, prepare for tribulation..
He gives them hope for their
own resurrection in glory: salvation of the dead is a major theme, ordinances,
baptism, sacrament, ordination of apostles, initiation or endowment “mysteries”
with emphasis on garments, marriage, prayer circles,
Discusses baptism, sacred
meals, washings, anointings, garments, marriage as requirement for highest
heaven, creation of the earth and subsequent events with a dramatic monologue
between god, Satan, Adam, and Eve.
Detailed account of the fall
and expulsion from Eden, heavenly counsel and expulsion of the rebellious
offspring
All the apostles were
endowed with power from on high. And as the Nephite disciples in the new worlds
would be.
New Testament Christianity, Creedal Christianity,
Mormon Christianity: Restoration Teachings and Early Christianity: Apostles,
Bishops, and the Loss of Authority (by Stephen D. Ricks)
Stephen Ricks wrote some
books on marking scriptures.
Eastern church was earlier
than the western church.
Jesus created a religious
community.
The highest authority was
held by the Twelve and at their head was Peter. (Eduard Meyer)
At the present time, do not
look for any other prophet or apostle except us. There is one true prophet and
twelve apostles. (What Clementine heard Peter say, as in the Clementine
Recognitions 4:35)
Clementine heard street
preaching and visited with Peter who told him the above.
Clement claimed to be bishop
of Rome after Peter.
Bishops were subordinate to
apostles.
“They were apostles; I am
but a man” (Ignatius of Antioch,)
He also said it would be presumption to issue orders as if he were an
apostle.
Iganatius never appeals to
his title of bishop of Antioch to give more authority to his instructions. Nor
does he use Episcopal (bishop) power to give justification.
Polycarp admitted he
couldn’t come up to the wisdom of Paul who accurately and steadfastly taught
the word of truth.
The man who tried to settle
the Easter controversy was the surest claim that the church had no apostolic
guidance any more. (Hugh Nibley, Apostles and Bishops)
Christ came from God, and
the apostles came from Christ. (Clement, Epistle to the Corinthians 42:2)
Was Peter bishop of Rome?
The claim had its origin in
the second century and was dogmatically motivated.
Peter was in Rome and was
martyred there, but we know nothing about his activities and role in the
Christian community in Rome. It is out of the question that he was its first
bishop. (Norbert Brox, Kirchengeschichte
des Atertums, 106)
The Gospel of the Twelve Apostles has Christ ordain Peter an archbishop, though such
an office did not exist before the fourth century.
Each of the Catholic church
priesthood offices—bishop, priest, deacon-- are in fact Aaronic priesthood
offices. The others – archbishop, cardinal, pope—are post-biblical innovations)
Peter suggests ordaining a
bishop in the presence of all the apostles, including Paul and James, bishop of
Jerusalem, then doing homage to him. (Apostolic Constitutions)
Neither New Testament nor
early Christian history offer support for a notion of apostolic succession as
“an unbroken line of Episcopal ordination from Christ through the apostles down
through the centuries to the bishops of today. (Sullivan, From Apostles to bishops: The development of the episcopacy in the
early church, 15-16)
Thus, if apostles can’t pass
on authority, the authority is lost.
Some fellow named Stephen in
second century boasted of his episcopate and contends he holds the succession
from Peter. (Firmilian, cited by Cyprian of Carthage, Epistles 74:17)
No bishop sets himself as a
bishop of bishops, since every bishop, according to his liberty and power, has
his own proper right of judgment and can’t be judged by others, nor can he
judge another. (Cyprian, Concerning the baptism of heretics.)
Through the changes of time
and successions, the ording flow onwards so that the church is founded upon the
bishops and ever act is controlled by them, (Cyprian, Epistle 26.1) People are writing in the name of the
church.
“no bishop should annoy
another bishop” (Council of Arles, 4th century)
James as an anomaly
By the end of the first
century, prophecy was not being poured out as expected in the last times.
(W.H.C. Frend, The Rise of Christianity,
140)
“The apostles died out”
(Norbert Brox)
Apostolic period closed by
the year 67 when peter, Paul and James had disappeared from the scene. The sub-apostolic
period had the last third of the first century during which most of the New
Testament was written with the exception of the undisputed letters of Paul.
When the apostles became
extinct, and those who heard them passed away, then fraud and delusions of
false teachers arose. So they attempted without shame to preach their false
doctrine against the gospel of truth.(Hegesippus, in Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica 3.32.8)
James the Lord’s brother
received a calling to join the twelve. (Gal 1:19)
The quandary of the
post-apostolic Christian church
Unspiritual,
institutionalized, compromised by worldliness in the second century.
The gift of prophecy was the
strongest recommendation to divinity, and eventually the main church no long
possessed it.
Tertullian left the church
when he saw that. He became a Montanist. They preached that prophecy must be
found in the church if it is the true church. (Nibley)
Eventually he realized the
Montanists didn’t have it either, so he left them too.
Tertullian challenged
churches to show him the gift of prophecy and he would acknowledge their
divinity.
He insisted the church was
not bishops; it was the spirit working through an inspired man.
Miraculous powers conferred
upon the apostles are their credentials to prove they were bearers of new
revelation from God to man. So those gifts could be withdrawn. (John Kaye,
Bishop of Lincoln, The Ecclesiastical
History of the Second and Third Centuries illustrated from the writings of
Tertullian)
Many were reluctant to
believe that the powers were withdrawn. Combined prejudice and policy made them
anxious to conceal the truth.
In second century, they had
a suspicion that the power of working miracles was withdrawing. They affirmed
miracles, but couldn’t point to particular instances. They tried to keep up
belief in its continuity. Some invented miracles.
The return of apostles and
prophets?
The second century is like a
tunnel we emerge from to find an unexpected situation.
The Dead Sea Scrols and the Archeology of Qumran: The
Excavations at Qumran (Matthew J. Grey)
Found 11 caves total
containing scrolls
Pattern: Caves in the
immediate vicinity of a clump of ruins.
The ruins were assumed to be
a Roman fort, and they were ignored.
Rising interest in those
ruins.
Ruins of a settlement on the
north side of a dry wadi
On the cliffs overlooking
the wadi are the ruins.
1951-1956: Roand De Vaux and
G. Landkester Harding start excavating the site, hoping for light on the
context of the scrolls and caves.
De Vaux was a French Catholic
priest. Harding was inspector of antiquities with Jordan government.
Found cylindrical jars with
bowl-shaped lids. This is a very unique pottery style, found no-where else in
Judea.
This linked the cave scrolls
with the Qumran site.
Interpretations: 1) site is
associated with the scrolls. 2) sectarian settlement of Essenes. (Josephus
spoke of them, but they were not mentioned in the New Testament)
Philo had a geographic reference
to the Essenes.
De Vaux came up with a
chronology of Qumran.
Iron age : cistern,
rectangular building
Period 130-100BC : sectarian
settlement. Essenes move in.
100-31 BC, Earthquake in
31BC: They returned and repaired it.
Period 4BC-68 AD: destruction
by fire in 68AD. Romans came in
and destroyed and burned it, toppled it.
Some Essenes fled down to Masada afterwards, taking some of their
scrolls there too.
Period 68AD to 73AD: Roman
garrison of tenth fretensis
Big round cistern survives
today.
At time of Jesus, there was
western complex and eastern complex.
All fed by the same water system.
Channels all around the site
taking water about the settlement.
Water features
The site is alienated from
civilization. No natural springs.
They got water from flash
floods from the wadi to the west that happened once or twice a year.
Use aqueducts and water
channels to direct the rain. Used to fill up ritual baths and mikvaot.
Ritual purity was a prime
priority for them. They have more ritual baths than water cisterns for
drinking.
Qumran lacks personal
private living space.
Who lived here? Where did
they sleep?
They think 100-150 people
living there at most at any given time.
This seems to be a sectarian
community center people come to for a time and then eventually go back home.
This is like a periodic temple service period because they thought the temple
priesthood was in apostasy.
They perhaps lived in tents
outside the settlement or in the caves themselves.
Qumran’s western complex
seems to have been an industrial area. Eastern buildings have the interesting
things.
A large watch tower guarded
northern flank of the site.
Guarded people from the north or south. They probably saw the Roman legions coming from it.
Scriptorium – rectangular
room. The place where the scrolls were written, copied, preserved,
produced.
Found ink wells,
benches/tables that spread over a whole room. Ink wells are very rare. An
indicator of scribe activity. 3-4 ink wells found there, only two inkwells
found elsewhere in Israel.
Potsherds found that were
written as scribal exercises. (Potsherds were the sticky-notes of the ancient
world, since pottery is breaking all the time.)
Probably scroll storage as
well.
De Vaux thought people sat
at tables to copy scrolls, but no, they sit on the floor with writing materials
on their laps. What are tables used for? Unrolling the scrolls and sewing them
together.
Synagogue?
Plastered benches all along
the walls facing each other, west of scriptorium.
Reading, praying,
hymn-singing. At all times they had at least 10 men there who read Torah and
say prayers, then they are relieved.
They believed they were
communing with angels if they were saying certain words at certain times of
day.
Assembly and dining hall.
Large rectangular room fitting
100-150 men. Adjacent to it is a pantry with 1000 stacked table dishes. (plates, cups, bowls)
This is interesting because
usually the Jews would have a communal dish and eat out of it. But in Qumran each had their own dishes
to avoid contaminating each other ritually.
Found a bunch of animal
bones (kosher) that had been put in pottery, buried about the site. This suggest the community treated
their meat like sacrificial animals. This is like eating sacrificial meat from
the temple.
They are treating their
community like a temple.
In the dining room, all sit
on the floor with individual cup and bowl, one would say blessings. Noted and
described by Josephus.
Food: Bread, wine, and
limited thin stews.
They would use these meals
to look forward to the Messianic banquet at the end times.
Mikvots and toilets.
Toilets still smelled like
human feces even now. He found their latrine, which was exciting. ;-) Latrine in a covered room, had to go by
a mikva bath.
At the time of Jesus,
latrines were not a thing. Usually people went in the streets. So Essene toilet
was very unusual for its time.
They cared about toilet privacy, for purity reasons. Must wash yourself ritually after you
go.
Manure merchants would come
clean out cesspits, then sell it to farmers for fertilizer.
Pottery factory.
Their own kiln for
distinctive pottery. Tall jars,
plates, cups, bowls for their dining.
Final feature—Qumran
cemetery.
Graves identified by
piled-up stones. For anyone residing in Qumran at the time and died while
there. Only two graves were women,
none were children. Most of them were men.
Shaft graves. Put body in
shaft, cover body, then fill in the shaft with rubble.
Challenges to De Vaux’s
interpretation in recent years.
--No scrolls found at the
site. How strong is the connection then?
--No final excavation
report. He never published a final report. We have to go off his notes.
Six excavations of Qumran since
him.
Alternative theories
presented 1980s to present:
--fortress?
--country villa
--potter factory?
--fortified manor house
--agricultural estate
All alternative theories
must dissociate site from the scrolls (but not a problem because the site
burned to the ground so the scrolls would have burned), and all are selective
with the evidence.
The only theory that
accounts for the full evidence and acknowledges the scrolls is the sectarian
Essene theory of De Vaux.
