The Covenanters of Damascus; A Hitherto Unknown Jewish Sect Part 3

7 The references are to page and line of the Hebrew text.

8 Others sought refuge in Egypt; the temple of Onias at Leontopolis had its origin in the same circ.u.mstances.

9 So they understood the words translated in the English version "the cruel venom of asps."

10 See 2 Macc. 4 16: "By reason of which (sc. their predilection for Greek ways) a dire calamity befel them, and those for whose customs they displayed such zeal and whom they wanted to imitate in everything became their enemies and avengers." a.s.sumption of Moses, 5 1: "When the times of retribution shall draw near, and vengeance arises through kings who share their guilt and punish them," etc., describes the same situation.

11 Cf. "the whole race of the elect root," Enoch 93 8.

12 See Schurer, Geschichte des judischen Volkes (3 ed.), vol. iii. p.

189.

13 A comparison with the Apocalypse of the Ten Weeks in Enoch (93 + 91 12-17) is in point here. The sixth "week" (period of 490 years) ends with the destruction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar; in the seventh a rebellious generation arises, all whose works are apostasy (the h.e.l.lenizers of the Seleucid time); at its end the "chosen righteous men of the eternal plantation of righteousness" are chosen to receive the sevenfold instruction about G.o.d's whole creation (apparently the cosmological revelations of Enoch); the historical retrospect closes before the robbery and desecration of the temple by Antiochus Epiphanes (170, 168 B.C.), of which the seer knows nothing. The chronological error here amounts to sixty or seventy years.

In the Introduction, p. xii, by a typographical error which is repeated on p. xxii, Dr. Schechter says that the 390 years of the text would bring us "to within a generation of Simon the Just, who flourished about 290 B.C.," and twenty years more would bring us into the midst of the h.e.l.lenistic persecutions preceding the Maccabaean revolt (about 170 B.C.). Margoliouth, whose hypothesis 490 does not suit any better than 390, takes courage from Schechter's doubts to disregard the numbers altogether. Gressmann (Internationale Wochenschrift, March 4, 1911) is led by metrical considerations to treat all the chronological notices as interpolations, and gives them no further consideration. But even if the figures were introduced by a later hand, they may still represent the tradition of the sect.

14 Perhaps we should emend _ma'mado_, "station," i.e. sect.

15 See below, p. 350, 354 f.

16 Cf. Isa. 30 20 f.

17 The Septuagint renders _ya?id_ most frequently by ??ap?t??, less often by ????e???.

18 The same prophecy which was applied by Akiba to Bar Cocheba and by the Dositheans to their founder (see below, p. 362).

19 The sect rejects the temple in Jerusalem and its wors.h.i.+p. Cf. 20 21 f., in the last crisis, "they will lean upon G.o.d ... and will declare the sanctuary unclean and will return to G.o.d."

20 Perhaps better, keep aloof, by vow and ban, from unrighteous, unclean gain.

21 See below, p. 353.

22 The name comes from Isa. 28 14, where the scorners are the rulers in Jerusalem, who boast of their covenant with death and their compact with h.e.l.l, who have made lies their refuge and hidden themselves in falsehood. See also Isa. 29 20.

23 It might be surmised that the false prophet had headed an insurrection-perhaps a Messianic rising-which ended in disaster.

24 See above, p. 333.

25 Or, as Schechter elsewhere expresses it, "disappeared." Among the synonyms for death, Aaron ben Eliahu names "gather in" (Isa. 58 8).

26 Introduction, p. xiii.

27 P. xiii. "We gather from another pa.s.sage that the Only Teacher found his death in Damascus, but is expected to rise again (p. 19, l. 35; p. 20, l. 1; cf. also p. 6, l. 11)." The verb _'amad_ means, as frequently in the later books of the Old Testament, "appear upon the scene." In this sense it occurs repeatedly in the book before us, and there is nothing in the context here to suggest a different interpretation.

28 Cf. Acts 1 11.

29 See Isa. 59 20.

30 The quotation is to be thus restored; see Exod. 20 6 and Deut. 7 9.

The next two or three lines are very obscure: "From the house of Peleg, who went out (or, will go out) from the city of the sanctuary, and they will rely on G.o.d (cf. Isa. 10 20) when the transgression of Israel is at an end, and will declare the sanctuary unclean, and will return to G.o.d. The prince (?) of the people with few words (??)." The house of Peleg may be an etymological allegory for the seceders; the city of the sanctuary is probably Jerusalem (cf. 6 11 ff., above, p. 338); but neither the connection with the preceding nor the meaning of the sequel is clear.

31 Text, "and confessed," which leaves the sentence without a predicate.

32 See also 7 20: "The sceptre" (Num. 24 17) "is the prince of all the congregation; and when he arises he will destroy all the children of Seth."

33 It is not improbable that the author thought also of the other meaning of the word _taphel_, here rendered "stucco," viz. something insipid, stupid; cf. Lam. 2 14, in a pa.s.sage which, like Ezek. 13 10, refers to the false prophets. I see nothing to indicate that "the wall" is the fence or hedge which the Pharisaean rabbis drew around the law to protect it from infraction, as Dr. Schechter thinks.

34 The text explains, "this is the prater of whom it says, they prate unceasingly" (4 19 f.; cf. Mic. 2 11). Dr. Schechter regards this explanation as "a disturbing parenthesis."

35 The Jannes and Jambres of 2 Tim. 3 8.

36 Such marriages, especially with a sister's daughter, are not only permitted, but especially commended in the Talmud (Yebamoth 62b-63a; see Maimonides, Issure Biah 2 14), and are still common in countries where the Jews are free to follow the rabbinical law. On the Karaite prohibition of marriage with a niece, see below, p. 366.

37 On the pollution of the sanctuary, cf. a.s.sumption of Moses 5 3; Testament of Levi 14 5 ff.; Psalms of Solomon 2 3.

38 On the portals of the sun, see Enoch 72, etc.

39 Perhaps an error of the text for 2000; see below, -- 8.

40 Cf. Jubilees 50 8.

41 This holds on week-days as well as on the Sabbath.

42 Perhaps we should read, "make an '_erub_' " (a legal fiction by which dwellings or limits were treated as one). The Sadducees and Samaritans rejected this evasion of the law.

43 See 12 12 ff.

44 Similarly the Essenes, at their reception into the order, bound themselves by the "tremendous oaths" which Josephus describes, B. J.

ii, 8 7.

45 The oath by the Tetragrammaton included _a fortiori_.

46 The Essenes excluded oaths altogether, except in the initiation of members. See also Slavonic Enoch 49 1; Philo, De spec. legibus ii, 1, and elsewhere (Charles, Secrets of Enoch, p. 65). Our sect recognizes judicial oaths (9 8 ff.) and imprecations (9 12), as well as vows under oath (16 6 ff.).

47 On the relation of the Jubilees to the sect, see further below, p.

359.

48 Cf. Jubilees 2 9, G.o.d appointed the sun ... for sabbaths, and months, and feasts; and Jubilees 6 37, the observation of the moon disturbs the calendar.

49 It seems necessary to supply these words.

50 "The book of _hagu_." The rendering "Inst.i.tutes" is not offered as a translation of the name, but as indicating the probable character of the work. See below, p. 353 f.

51 Dr. Schechter renders "Censor," and remarks, "Such an office, entirely unknown to Judaism, could only have been borrowed from the Romans." But the functions of the Inspector or Supervisor bear no resemblance to those of the Roman censors; and for the ident.i.ty of the t.i.tle the translator is solely accountable, not the const.i.tution of the sect. Mr. Margoliouth talks loosely about dependence on Roman administrative models; it would be interesting to learn in what particulars. With the very large authority vested in the Supervisor may be compared that of the managers, or administrators (?p?e??ta?), among the Essenes, "without whose directions they do nothing"; though the functions of the managers in the Essene coen.o.bite establishments were of course quite different from those of the Supervisors of our sect.

52 In the partly illegible lines that follow, his dealing with the congregation is compared with that of a shepherd with his flock.-Dr.

W. H. Ward suggests that the t.i.tle _meba??er_ may be connected with Ezek. 34 11 f., where the verb is used of a shepherd's looking out for his flock.