James the Brother of Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls I (101 page)

For it, the original are the more peace-loving kind, many still associate with the term ‘
Essene
’, one encounters in the received Josephus. These seek always ‘to help the Righteous’ and in addition to ‘white garments’ wear ‘linen girdles’ exactly in the manner all texts aver about James and, by implication, John the Baptist. Nor ‘will they hate a person who injures them’ – here the admonition in the New Testament attributed to Jesus, to ‘love your enemies’ (though at Qumran, it should be appreciated, the general position was ‘hate the Sons of the Pit’). Paul-like, they seek to keep faith with Rulers, because their ‘position of Authority cannot happen to anyone without God’. These may be early Essenes and are obviously the Essenes of Josephus, ‘but after a lapse of time’ – according to this work attributed to Hippolytus – ‘they
split into four parties
’.
9

There are those who will carry no coin, ‘nor carry or look on any graven image’, a position clearly reflected in the Gospels. These will not even enter a gate on which there are statues erected, considering it a violation of the Law – note the relationship of this to an incident, described by Josephus, where the two Rabbis encouraged their followers to pull down the eagle Herod had erected over one of the gates to the Temple ‘contrary to the laws of their Forefathers’ at the beginning of the disturbances leading to the establishment of the ‘Zealot’ Movement.
10

But even more zealous than these, are those who, on hearing anyone
discussing God and His Laws
, if they suspect him to be an
uncircumcised person
, they will carefully observe him and when they meet a person of this description in any place alone, they will
threaten to slay him if he refuses to undergo the rite of circumcision
.
11
If he refuses to comply with this demand, they will not spare him, but rather execute him forthwith. Hippolytus now makes it clear that this more extreme group of Essenes ‘were called
Zelotai
by some (that is ‘
Zealots
’) and
Sicarii
by others’.

Taken at face value, this is absolutely devastating testimony, confirming the antiquity of the source, no matter to whom one wishes to attribute it (for ease of attribution we shall henceforth refer to it simply as ‘Hippolytus’). Not only this, but it totally illuminates the situation in Palestine at this time and the real import of evoking Phineas’ killing backsliders for introducing
pollution into the camp of Israel
.

‘Hippolytus’ now weaves this in with Josephus’ account of ‘Fourth Philosophy Zealots’, by asserting, as Josephus does on two occasions, that they will ‘
call no man Lord
except the Deity, even though one should attempt to torture or even kill them’.
12
This is, of course, the ‘freedom’ and ‘bondage’ Paul reverses and allegorizes into freedom from the
very
Law these ‘
Zealot Essenes
’ are dying to protect. For his part, Josephus describes the bravery and ‘immovable resolution’ of this group, which he is now calling not ‘
the fourth group of Essenes
’, but ‘
the Fourth School of Jewish Philosophy
’!

These, he says, did not mind suffering tortures or deaths of every kind, nor ‘could any such fear make them
call any man Lord
’. Their resolution ‘was well known to a great many’. Josephus declines to say more for fear that, as he puts it, what he has described would ‘be beneath the resolution they exhibit when undergoing pain’.
13

This, clearly, is very similar to what goes by the name among early Christians of martyrdom. As a Roman interrogator of prisoners Josephus should certainly have known, ‘for it was in the time of Gessius Florus’ (also sent out by Nero at his wife Poppea’s recommendation – this
after the fire in Rome
), ‘who by his abusive and lawless actions caused the nation to grow wild with
this distemper
, provoking them
to revolt against the Romans’
.

Thus Josephus’ description of ‘the
fourth
school of Jewish Philosophy’ in his
Antiquities
, where he did deign to discuss the Movement begun by Judas the Galilean and his mysterious colleague ‘
Saddok
’ at the time of the Census of Cyrenius some seventy years before – the same Census the Gospel of Luke equates with the birth of ‘Jesus’.

In the
Jewish War
, as we have seen, Josephus does begin his well-known description of the ‘
three
philosophical schools among the Jews’ at the point he mentions that ‘a
certain Galilean
, whose name was Judas (in the
Antiquities
, it will be recalled, Judas does
not
come from Galilee, but rather Gaulonitis – today’s Golan) incited his countrymen to revolt, upbraiding them as cowards if they
submitted to paying a tax to Rome
and would
after God, submit to mortal men as their Lords
’.

But instead of now going on to describe Judas’ sect – ‘which was not at all like the rest’ – Josephus at this point launches into his well-known description of the ‘
Essenes
’. At the same time, he cuts the above piece from his description of the Movement founded by Judas and
Saddok
in the
Antiquities
and adds it to that of ‘
the Essenes
’ here in the
War
. He now says of these Essenes:

They are above pain
… and as for death,
should it be for Glory
(we have encountered this ‘
Glory
’ in notices about Jesus and in the Scrolls above),
they esteem it better than living a long time
. And, indeed,
our War with the Romans gave abundant proofs what immovable resolutions they have in enduring sufferings
because, although they were
tortured and dismembered, burned and torn to bits, going through every kind of instrument of torture
to make them
blaspheme the Name of the Law-giver
or
to eat what was forbidden them
, yet could they not be made to do either of these, nor at the same time even
to flatter their torturers or shed a single tear
. Rather they smiled in their very pains and laughed scornfully at those inflicting these tortures on them, resigning their souls with great alacrity as
expecting to receive them back again
.

Not only do we have here, once again, the very essence of what is normally understood as ‘Christian’ martyrdom, but these are the very words ascribed to the literary prototypes of the Maccabean Movement two centuries before, where the doctrine of Resurrection of the Dead is first enunciated in a straightforward manner. This is in the ‘Seven Brothers’ episode in 2 Maccabees 7, caricatured in Gospel discussions of Resurrection.
14
In the ‘Seven Brothers’ episode, the mother of the brothers urges each in turn to ‘
die for the Laws of his country
’ encouraged by the doctrine of Resurrection from the Dead.

As the martyred teacher of the Law, Eleazar, who ‘preferring to
die gloriously
rather than live a
polluted life
’, is made to express it in the episode just preceding this one, to teach the young an example of ‘
how to make a good death, zealously and nobly for the venerable and Holy Laws
’ (2 Macc. 6:28). The brothers are portrayed as disdaining life and limb ‘
for the sake of His Laws, hoping to receive them back again from Him
’, since ‘
it is for His Laws we die
’ (7:9–12).

For her part, the mother encourages the seventh brother to make a good death, averring that God, ‘in His Mercy will most surely
raise you up to both breath and life
,
seeing you now despise your own life for the sake of His Laws
… Fear not this brutal butcher, but prove yourself worthy of your brothers and
welcome death
, so that in His Mercy I shall
receive you back again in their company
’ (7:23–29). This last is, surely, the explanation for the Masada suicide, to avoid pollution and to be reunited together again at the Resurrection – which is the reason that the ‘
bones
’ passage from Ezekiel has been found buried under the synagogue floor there.

In the same book, Judas Maccabee, following these martyrdoms, after a particularly difficult battle, is portrayed as making a sacrifice on behalf of the fallen, in which ‘
he took full account of the Resurrection
, for if he had not expected the fallen to rise again, it would have been altogether silly and superfluous to pray for the dead. But since he had in view the splendid recompense reserved for those who make a good death, the intention was completely
Holy and Pious
’ (12:45–46). As the second and fourth brothers put this, after being
skinned alive
and otherwise tortured, because they would not
break the Law
, ‘The King of the Universe will raise us up to new and everlasting life … whereas for you, there will be no Resurrection again to life’ (7:9–14).

In the parody of these things in the Synoptic Gospels, ‘some of the Pharisees
with
the Herodians’ (this is an important addition) ‘send out spies to
ensnare
’ Jesus about whether or not ‘it was Lawful to pay tribute to Caesar’ (Mt 22:15–40 and pars.). Here not only do we have the ubiquitous ‘net’ and ‘snare’ language – of course, with reverse signification – but also the ‘tribute’ question again. In addition, there is the theme of ‘spying’, also encountered in Paul’s complaints against ‘those of the circumcision’ in Galatians 2:4–12, who ‘come in by stealth
to spy out the freedom
’ that Paul and his companions ‘enjoy in Christ Jesus, because they wish to
reduce us to bondage
’, this a different kind of ‘bondage’ than that being referred to above where the tax question is concerned.

After this, a group identified as ‘the Sadducees’ comes, for whom ‘there is no Resurrection’ – the very words used in 2 Maccabees 7:14 above. Of course, the Sadducees are, also, the party Josephus identifies as denying the doctrine that the dead could enjoy immortal life, the knowledge of which Acts also portrays Paul as evincing (Acts 23:6–10). The situation being caricatured here in the Gospels also parodies the story of John the Baptist and the arcane Jewish legal custom of levirate marriage being alluded to there – in this episode relating to the ‘Seven Brothers’, each rather being portrayed as, in turn, ‘leaving no seed behind’ and, therefore, marrying the wife of the next (Mt 22:23–33 and pars.).

Thus, instead of
noble
encouragement to martyrdom on the part of the mother to her seven sons – a thing few Jewish mothers would encourage even today – to die for the Holy Laws of their country, taking note of the doctrine of resurrection, as in 2 Maccabees, here each brother is basically portrayed as marrying the wife of the previous brother and the tragic pathos of the original story turned into something resembling comic farce.

The ‘Sadducees’ then ask the nonsense question, which brother will get whose wife after the Resurrection (Mt 22:28 and pars.). Not only does this completely trivialize the basic Zealot Resurrection ideology, it shows clear knowledge of the direct connection of the ‘Seven Brothers’ story, as it was told here in 2 Maccabees, to the doctrine of resurrection – not to mention knowledge of Josephus’ portrait of the ‘Sadducees’ generally. It also makes a mockery of the hope of resurrection being expressed in the willingness to undergo torture and the steadfast attachment to the Law described in Hippolytus’ picture of his fourth group of ‘Essenes’ and Josephus’ ‘Fourth Philosophy’ followers of Judas
the Galilean and Saddok
– that is, ‘
Zadok
’.

Hippolytus’ Naassenes, Ebionites, and Elchasaites

It is following this attestation of the longevity of these ‘Essenes’, ‘many living over a century’ – echoing Epiphanius’ picture of James ‘dying a virgin at the age of ninety-six’ and Simeon bar Cleophas ‘a hundred and twenty’, both following ‘
the Nazirite life-style
’ – that Josephus gives the description about their willingness to undergo any kind of torture rather than ‘blaspheme the Law-giver’, ‘eat what was forbidden them’, or ‘flatter their torturers’, all clearly themes of this ‘Seven Brothers’ episode in 2 Maccabees above connected to its resurrection ideal.

As Josephus puts this point about their longevity, this is ‘because of the simplicity of their diet (by which he appears to be implying, like Hippolytus, that they
ate only vegetables
) and the regularity of the life-style they observe’. This culminates in his description of their willingness to undergo torture and martyrdom like the early Christians, but again of course for the absolutely opposite reasons – those reasons expressed by 2 Maccabees not the Gospels and Acts.