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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 August 2011
That there was, as has been suggested, an actual historical connection between John the Baptist and the Qumran Community is, and must at present remain, a hypothesis. The similarities to be found between them do not in any case depend upon this link being established. But I believe it to be one of those hypotheses which, once made, lead to further connections and open up new and significant possibilities. It is therefore important to test it. And where direct historical confirmation fails, the only way to test a hypothesis is to push it to its limits and see how much of the evidence it can in fact explain. And to push it beyond its limits is not necessarily a fault: on the contrary, it is likely to be the best way of discovering where those limits lie.
1 E.g., by Brownlee, W. H., “John the Baptist in the New Light of Ancient Scrolls,” Interpretation IX (1955). pp. 71–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar (cf. his earlier article “A Comparison of the Covenanters of the Dead Sea Scrolls with Pre-Christian Jewish Sects,” The Biblical Archaeologist XIII (1950), pp. 70–72; by Reicke, Bo, “Nytt ljus över Johannes döparens förkunnelse,” Religion och Bibel XI (1952), pp. 5–18Google Scholar; by Geyser, A. S., “The Youth of John the Baptist. A deduction from the break in the parallel account of the Lucan infancy story,” Novum Testamentum I (1956), pp. 70–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar; by Stauffer, E., “Probleme der Priestertradition,” Theologische Literaturzeitung LXXXI (1956), col. 143 f.Google Scholar; and, tentatively, by J. M. Allegro, The Dead Sea Scrolls, pp. 163–165.
I am particularly indebted to the first of these articles and to valuable help and criticism from Dr. R. P. Casey, Mr. H. W. Montefiore, and Mr. P. S. Watson.
2 This is not to deny that the Lukan birth narratives may be heavily overlaid with legendary and apologetic material. But they bear all the marks of a primitive Palestinian milieu, reflecting faithfully the unsophisticated piety of the circles in which they took shape. As both M. Goguel (Jean Baptiste, p. 70) and C. Kraeling (John the Baptist, p. 23) admit, it is difficult to see what motive these circles should have had in making John the son of an obscure country priest if he was not. Cf. Stauffer, op. cit., col. 143.
3 The nomenclature followed is that set out by de Vaux, R., Revue Biblique LX (1953). pp. 87 fGoogle Scholar:
1QS The Manual of Discipline.
1QSa The additional two columns associated with this.
1QM The War between the Children of Darkness and the Children of Light.
1QH The Psalms of Thanksgiving.
CDC The Damascus Document or Zadokite Fragment.
4 1QSa, published in Discoveries in the Judaean Desert (ed. D. Barthélemy, O. P. and J. T. Milik) I, pp. 108–18.
5 This is said specifically of the non-marrying Essenes but, though it was obviously more necessary for them, there are no grounds for denying the practice to those who allowed marriage.
6 There is nothing actually to suggest that John's disciples had any different regimen of fasting from other Jews. But it is at least conceivable that among the fruits John deemed worthy of repentance should have been counted an asceticism comparable with that for which he himself was known (Matthew xi, 18 = Luke vii, 33).
7 So also Reicke, op. tit., p. 14.
8 1QS viii, 12–16. Tr. W. H., Brownlee, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, Supplementary Studies, 10–12 (1951)Google Scholar.
9 Cf. 1QM vii, 5: “They shall all be volunteers for war, blameless in spirit and flesh, and ready for the day of vengeance.”
10 Gembloux, 1935.
11 There is a tendency among recent writers (cf. Kraeling, op. cit., p. 204, n. 14) to reject proselyte baptism as a source for John's baptism, whatever may have been its influence upon later Christian practice. It is in any case extremely doubtful whether it can be established as existing at that date. Thomas concludes a very careful examination of the evidence with the words, “The baptism of proselytes is attested at the end of the first century A.D. It is possible that one could admit its existence from the beginning of the century. But there is little probability that it was universally accepted so soon and above all that it constituted a practice clearly distinct from ordinary baths of purification” (op. cit., pp. 365 f.). Cf., most recently, Taylor, T. M., “The Beginnings of Jewish Proselyte Baptism,” N. T. Studies II (1956), pp. 193–198CrossRefGoogle Scholar, who reaches a similar conclusion.
12 Dahl, N. A., “The Origin of Baptism,” in Interpretationes ad Vetus Testamentum pertinentes Sigmundo Mowinckel septuagenario missae. Norsk theologisk tidsskrift LVI, 1–2 (1955)Google Scholar.
13 The phrasing preserved by Hippolytus (Refut. IX, 13, 4) is strikingly similar: βαπτίσματι λαμβάνειν ἄϕεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν.
14 Cf. Thomas, op. cit., pp. 140–149.
15 Cf. the insistence laid upon this by Josephus in his account of the Baptist (Antt. XVIII S, 2 (§ 117))- As has often been noticed, his description of John's baptism as being “for the purification of the body when the soul had previously been cleansed by righteous conduct” is in striking accord with 1QS iii, 8 f.
16 Do the words ἁληθῶς Ἰσραηλείτης, ἐν ᾧ δόλος οὐκ ἐστιν (John i, 47) perhaps reflect the Baptist's ideal taken over by Jesus? Cf. the covenanters' aim of being a house of community “for the Israelites who walk in perfeaction” in contrast with “the men of deceit” (1QS ix, 6 and 9).
17 Cf. the vivid description of the final judgment of the world by fire in iQH iii, 29–36.
18 This is probably a reference to Isaiah xliii, 19 (cf. the echo of v. 10 of this same chapter in viii, 6), where it is significant that the ‘new thing’ that God promises is precisely that he “will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” This may be additional evidence that the time of the way in the wilderness is “the period of the decree,” i.e., the End.
19 Cf. particularly O. Cullmann, Baptism in the New Testament, pp. 16–22; J. Jeremias, The Servant of God, pp. 81 f.
20 Translation as revised by W. H. Brownlee, B.A.S.O.R. 135 (Oct. 1954), p. 34.
21 B.A.S.O.R. 135 (Oct. 1954), pp. 33–38. Reicke (op. cit., p. 14) and Audet, J-P. (“Affinités littéraires et doctrinales du Manuel de Discipline,” Revue Biblique LX (1953), p. 74)Google Scholar come independently to a similar interpretation.
22 Cf. Test. Levi xviii, 6–8: “The heavens shall be opened ‥‥ and the glory of the Most High shall be uttered over him, and the spirit of understanding and sanctification shall rest upon him (in the water). For he shall give the majesty of the Lord to His sons in truth for evermore.” (Translation R. H. Charles.)
23 Originally again the παῖς θεοῦ as in the declaration “Thou art my Son” ? Cf. the v. I., ὸ ἐκλεκτός τοῦ θεοῦ, which Jeremias argues to be the true reading (op. cit. p. 61), and Luke ix, 35.
24 The nearest apparent parallel is in CDC ii, 10: “And through his Messiah he shall make them know his holy Spirit.” (Translation R. H. Charles.) But this certainly refers, like the rest of the passage, to the past history of Israel. Millar Burrows, The Dead Sea Scrolls, p. 350 (though not on p. 264), translates: “And he caused them to know by his anointed his holy Spirit”; and C. Rabin, The Zadokite Documents, p. 8, renders: “By the hand of his anointed ones,” (i.e., the prophets); cf. CDC viii, 2; iQS i, 3; and Ps. cv, 15.
25 The title ‘the Lamb of God’ remains as mysterious as ever. But both C. H. Dodd (The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel, p. 238) and Barrett, C. K. (“The Lamb of God,” N. T. Studies I (1955), p. 213)Google Scholar agree that it could plausibly have been used by the Baptist himself, standing in the apocalyptic tradition represented in Enoch and Revelation. The other echoes of the Servant language, if established, would again reopen the question whether the phrase should not be traced to the Ebed Jahweh tradition of Isaiah liii, 7 and 12, and, for the first time, could associate the Baptist himself with this interpretation. In any case, the idea of a divine agent (whether corporate or individual) who would take away the sin of the earth (or the land) must not now be judged at all inconceivable on the lips of John. But, whatever the precise background, it is the abolition, as much as the redemption, of sin which is in mind. Though the Qumran group thought of themselves as making atonement for the faithful, they had no doubt that the only hope for there being “no more wrong-doing” lay in the utter condemnation of wickedness (1QS iv, 23; viii, 9½). The prospects for the godless in eternal fire, both in their thinking (1QS ii, 8, 15) and in John's (Matthew iii, 10, 12 = Luke iii, 9, 17), reveal a conception of the purging of sin which owes quite as much to Malachi (iii, 2 f.; iv, 1) as to Second Isaiah.
26 Thomas, op. cit., pp. 86 f., cites John i. 31 and 33 as summing up very accurately the distinctive feature of John's mission, namely, that he alone within the Baptist movement (prior to the evidence of Qumran) justifies his activity by reference to a coming Messianic baptism.
27 Cf. Kuhn, K. G., “Die in Palästina gefundenen hebraïschen Texte und das Neue Testament,” Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche XLVII (1950), pp. 209 f.Google Scholar; Grossouw, W., “The Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament,” Studia Catholica XXVI (1951), pp. 295–299Google Scholar; Reicke, B., op. cit., Religion och Bibel XI (1952), pp. 15 f.Google Scholar; Mowry, Lucetta, “The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Background for the Gospel of John,” The Biblical Archaeologist XVII (1954), pp. 78–97Google Scholar; Braun, F. M. O. P., “L'arrière-fond judaïque du quatrième èvangile et la Communauté de l'Alliance,” Revue Biblique LXII (1955), pp. 5–44Google Scholar; Brownlee, W. H., op. cit., Interpretation IX (1955), pp. 84–89Google Scholar; Brown, R. E. S.S., “The Qumran Scrolls and the Johannine Gospel and Epistles,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly, XVII (1955), pp. 403–419 559–574)Google Scholar; Cullmann, O., “The Significance of the Qumran Texts for Research into the Beginnings of Christianity,” Journal of Biblical Literature LXXIV (1955), pp. 213–226CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Stauffer, E., op. cit., Theologische Literaturzeitung LXXXI (1956), col. 136–149Google Scholar; Molin, G., Die Söhne des Lichts (Vienna, 1954)Google Scholar; R. Gyllenberg, “Die Anfänge der johanneïschen Tradition,” in Neutestamentliche Studien für Rudolf Bultmann (ed. W. Eltester), pp. 144–147; M. Burrows, op. cit., pp. 338–340; W. F. Albright, “Recent Discoveries in Palestine and the Gospel of St John,” in The Background of the New Testament and its Eschatology (ed. W. D. Davies and D. Daube), pp. 163–171.
