Jewish Apocalyptic Writings:
The "Dead Sea Scrolls"
OF THE JERUSALEM
TEMPLE, ZEALOTS & PELLA-BOUND CHRISTIANS
War Scroll
Dead Sea Scroll 1QM, 4Q491-496
"And the dominion of the Kittim shall come to an end, so that wickedness shall be laid low without any remnant; and there shall be no survivor of the sons of darkness.”
"On the day of clamity...the Sons
of Light shall battle with the company of darkness amid the clamor of
Gods and men. And it shall be a time of great tribulation from its
sudden beginning to its end in eternal redemption." (1.10)
WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID
Norman Golb
"The War Scroll, like the Manual, is not consistent in
perspective: It appears to be made up of two or three sections
containing more than one author's vision of the apocalyptic battle
ceremonies. It is suggested in the main section of the text that warfare
will take place over forty years, and encompass battles with most of the
countries of the known world. Yet the battle formations seem always to
stream out from the gates of Jerusalem, to where the warriors return
after their forays." (Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?, (1995)
p. 80)
Howard C. Kee
"In preparation for the new age, the community is instructed
in detail about the war that will take place between the force of evil
and the people of God (lQM [War Scroll]). Angels will battle the
heavenly hosts of evil, as the priests and the community's soldiers
fight the earthly foes. Indeed, the war of the faithful remnant of
Israel is to be fought against all nations: 'There
shall be eternal deliverance for the company of God, but destruction for
all the nations of wickedness' (lQM 15). The priests, and
especially the high priest, will strengthen the troops for the final
battle against the nations of the world. Rome - referred to regularly as
'the Kittim' - will fall, while the chief priest, the priests, and the
Levites will sound the trumpets to aid the troops. In preparation for
this final war details are given even to the sizes of the standards,
shields, spears, and swords of the army. These divinely endowed forces
are identified as 'the divisions of God for the vengeance of his wrath
on the sons of darkness'." ("Membership in the Covenant People at Qumran
and in the Teaching of Jesus" in Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls
(James H. Charlesworth, Ed. - 1992), p. 116)
Chris King
"In keeping with the rules of Roman warfare, it [the war]
will be fought with the use of phalanxes. It will go on for forty years.
In the first twenty years, all the foreign nations will be conquered; in
the following twenty, all other Jews. This was conceived as a sequence
of successful military campaigns against the great powers. The identity
of the children of darkness changed with history from the Jerusalem
priesthood to the Romans, who finally destroyed Qumran for its
intransigence in 68 AD." ("The
Apocalyptic Tradition")
