2.3 Qumran
2.3.3 The Damascus Document
The Damascus Document (CD) is comprised of manuscripts A and B and contains twenty columns. CDA and CDB date approximately to the 10th and 11th centuries CE, respectively.29 Original composition may date to the mid-first century BCE. The matter of its use of Zech 13:7 is simplified in that it is quoted with a partial explanation, but the discussion has been complicated by the long history of text-critical questions. CDA and CDB share common material in A 7:4–8:2 and B 19:1–14. The passages diverge, however, in their respective, substantiating use of scripture. Each passage states what will happen to those disobedient to (the community’s interpretation of) the covenant when God visits the land, declaring that God will “return their evil upon them.” CDA 7:10–21 then expounds this statement with a midrash on Isaiah-Amos-Numbers,30 while CDB 19:7–12 does so by Zechariah-Ezekiel.31 While interesting, these text-critical questions fall outside the scope of discussion as the suggested emendations of text critics do not affect the interpretation of Zech 13:7.32 And in any case, the only evidence by which to interpret Zech 13:7 is by the material within which it is embedded: CDB 19:7–12.
CDB 19:1 cites Deut 7:9, which says that God keeps covenant with those who “keep his precepts.” This quotation grounds the document’s subsequent exhortations, the first of which is the teaching that men should take women as wives, reside in camps “in accordance with the rule of the land,” and that wives should bear children. Column 19:5–7 states that all who “despise the precepts and ordinances” will be punished “when God visits the earth, when there comes the word which is written by the hand of the prophet Zechariah.” The quotation of Zech 13:7 follows. The wording of Zech 13:7 and the embedded explanation vis-à-vis Zech 11:7 are given in full:
Wake up, sword, against my shepherd, and against the male who is my companion – oracle of God – strike the shepherd and the flock may scatter, and I shall turn my hand against the little ones. Those who keep it are “the afflicted ones of the flock.”33 These shall escape in the age of
28 I argue this point in detail in Section 4.2.2.
29 See G.F. Moore 1911, 330–77, for a summary of the content of the documents. For an updated study of CD, see
Stephen Hultgren 2007.
30 Isa 7:17, 8:7; Amos 5:26–27; 9:11; Num 24:17.
31 Zech 13:7, 11:7; Ezek 9:4.
32 Notably, each scholar who has debated the text-critical issue at length (and there are many) has reached the
same conclusion regarding the meaning of Zech 13:7 in context. See e.g. Jerome Murphy-O’Connor 1971, 379–86; Michael Knibb 1991, 243–51; Hultgren 2007, 29–39; Kister 2007, 61–76.
the visitation, but those that remain shall be delivered up to the sword when there comes the Messiah of Aaron and Israel.
The passage goes on to quote from Ezek 9, where the prophet was instructed to slay everyone in the city who did not grieve the abominations being committed. CDB 19:11 describes the destruction of the disobedient from Ezek 9 as that which occurred “in the age of the first visitation.” The event is cited as a paradigm for that which will happen to the present disobedient in the age of the next visitation. Thus the “sword” is interpreted as the instrument of God’s vengeance, and the shepherd and the male are the recipients of the blow, and thus refer to the disobedient. The community interprets the “turning of God’s hand” as an act of benevolence rather than anger, and “the little ones” they interpret by the phrase from Zech 11:7, “the afflicted ones,” referring to themselves. Thus the community is “the afflicted,” and it will escape judgment in the future visitation. Zechariah 13:7’s phrase “little ones” attracted Zech 11:7 because each descriptor, “little ones” and “afflicted ones,” refers to a smaller group within the larger flock.34
Four important features emerge from this use of Zech 13:7. First, the passage is read as a prophecy concerning the future, as opposed to Ezek 9, which was understood as a past event. It is possible that the imperative of Zech 13:7 and its lack of surrounding narrative enabled the future, prophetic interpretation. Mark 14:27 too interprets it as a prophecy, albeit one that is fulfilled in the immediate future in Mark’s narrative. Second, the text is applied to the eschatological judgment. This use is not identical to the proposed interpretation of its use in Mark, but it need not be. It is significant enough that it is interpreted within a grid of eschatological significance, where the community will be saved, even though it is currently afflicted. Though “the shepherd” in CD 19 is evidently not a positive figure as in Mark 14:27, the Damascus community nevertheless self-identifies as “the little ones,” as I propose occurs in Mark vis-à-vis the disciples. Third, the passage attests to intratextual use of Zechariah whereby similar phrases in Zechariah are interpreted in light of one another. This feature is not
surprising, but it is akin to what I am proposing occurs in Mark 13, where intratextual connections between passages in Zechariah are interpreted in light of one another, and their fusionsurfaces in the Markan text. Fourth, this future judgment occurs when the Messiah comes (חישמ אובב). The Messiah’s arrival is apparently an appearance on earth. The latter is precisely what this study proposes occurs in Mark 8:38 and 13:26–27, namely, judgment by the Messiah at his arrival.
34 This interpretation of CD 19:7–11 is espoused by: Murphy-O’Connor 1971, 379–86; Philip Davies 1983, 151–53;
40
2.3.4: Summary
Several documents from Qumran attest to the belief that in the last days the community will be “tested and refined.”35 1QM describes this refinement with reference to the last battle against all the nations, using material from Zech 14 to depict the eschatological conflict. Assurance of victory stems from their belief in the assistance of “the holy ones,” arguably derived from their reading of Zech 14. 4Q176 includes Zech 13:9 in its compilation of verses from Isa 40–55. The material was collected on the basis of the respective promises that God would rescue them from present tribulation. The
presupposition is that the community is experiencing the time of affliction. Finally, CD quotes Zech 13:7 in its claim that judgment will occur at the Messiah’s arrival, and that the disobedient are assured “the sword,” while the “afflicted ones” are assured blessing.