Teacher of Righteousness at Qumran and the Elijah Template

by koot van wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

conjoint lecturer of Avondale College

Australia

25 November 2009

Anyone familiar with F. F. Bruce should know that in 1957 he wrote an article dealing with the Teacher of Righteousness and ended concluding that he operated in the template of Elijah. He did not use the word template, but that is this researcher's word to indicate a structure of beliefs, data concerning the reappearance of Elijah in future. What we know of this reappearance is shrouded by many legends, traditions and other stories created in post-biblical times in Christian and Jewish circles. Some thought that he would really be resurrected again before the Advent of the Lord. The Elijah template is in essence that the spirit of the Elijah message will encourage a person or persons to  proclaim the nearness of the Messiah, or His Advent, the last days, the last generation and signs of the last days. The call was to repentance and return to the Word of God.

Bruce (1957: 27) indicated in his article that there are various suggestions by scholars in his day as to who the Teacher of Righteousness is but that they are just tentative identifications: Ezra (T. Gaster 1956: 273ff and especially 100); Nehemiah (I. Rabinowitz JBL 73 [1954] see F. F. Bruce 1957: 17); Onias III (H. H. Rowley 1952: 62); "pious" Onias (A. Dupont-Sommer 1954: 38); John the Baptist (Robert Eisler 1931: 254 and 1949: 284); Jesus (J. L. Teicher JJS 2 [1950]: 121). The datings of the people will also be different: Ezra in 457 BCEff; Nehemiah in 444 BCEff; Onias III in 170 BCEff; "pious" Onias in 63 BCE; John the Baptist in 26-30 CE; Jesus in 27-31 CE.

We will not enter into the detail as to what led a scholar to allocate his/her date and identification but rather proceed to explain our own identification and dating of the Teacher of Righteousness.

Identification of the Teacher of Righteousness

It is wise to realize that there is no clear information at Qumran as to who he was. Some have suggested that his name was Zadok but that is unlikely since the name would have read (Zadok ben X) not only Zadok. We identify him as an individual who operated between 47-7 BCE during the time of King Herod the Great of Jerusalem. His sect gathered themselves at the Dead Sea and he was a prominent leader for them preparing the remnant for the arrival of the Messiah or Messiahs (one of Aaron [thus a priest] and one of Israel [presumably a king of David descendant] see Bruce 1957).

Dating the Teacher of Righteousness and his sect

Bruce indicates that it is not possible to design a systematic eschatology at Qumran. We are left with no more than a few indications: a 390 year period mentioned in the Zadokite Work in the section of Admonitions we are told that the Lord remembered the remnant after a period of 390 years, He visited them and they returned to the land. They were confused for 20 years and then the teacher of Righteousness arrived and operated for 40 years (see F. F. Bruce 1957: 8).

Message of the Teacher of Righteousness

He was to prepare his people for the arrival of the Messiah. He understood that time to be shortly and the seriousness of the time meant that the people had to imitate their teacher. They focused on a spiritual revival. The message is one which contest against the forces of evil since they understood that the "man of evil" was to arrive before the Advent. These ideas they must have interpreted from the role of the Little Horn of Daniel 7:25ff. They have collected in the Old Testament all the pericopes dealing with the evil ones or one and they have strung them together into a theology of the Evil One that will be dealt with by the Messiah when He comes.  An Investigative Judgement and Executive Judgement following each other is also contemplated in the pesher Habakkuk by the Teacher of Righteousness. The Kittim was to be dealt with (presumably the Romans but other scholars who opted for an earlier teacher want it to be the Greco-Seleucids in line with the book of Maccabees). The sect was apocalyptic and eschatologically orientated and they acted in the expectancy of the role of Elijah as outlined in the book of Maleachi 3 in the Hebrew and 4 in the English. Bruce do not doubt that the Teacher of Rigtheousness acted under the understanding of his Elijah role.

390 years

F. F. Bruce has interesting comments to make in his 1957 article that the 390 years are related to the 70x7 weeks of Daniel 9:24-27. In fact, he indicated that they may have used Ezechiel 4:4 in order to apply the year=day principle, similar to what Seventh Day Adventists have been doing ever since their inception in 1844 (see F. F. Bruce 1957: 17). The terminus a quo of Bruce and other scholars is a problem. They start it in 586 BCE since the Zadokite Work in Admonitions do mention Nebuchadnezzar. But, think about it, it was the destruction in 586 BCE and not the time of the remembrance by the Lord. The Lord visited them in 457 BCE in Ezra's day [in our opinion] when they could return to build the temple. This researcher thinks that the Teacher of Righteousness used the same calculation as set forth here, that the 490 years was to start from 457 BCE, and that they year-day principle was to be used (as Bruce also said) and further that the birth of the Messiah was to be sometime after 8 BCE. We assume he knew the calculations of the year-day principle since the Three Men from the east that visited Christ at His birth could have derived their calculation in the following way from Daniel 9:24-27: from 457 BCE the 490 years should run to 34 CE. One week earlier will be 27 BCE and that would be the start of the ministry of the Messiah thus, 30 years was the age that men in public office was supposed to be, and that would lead them to 4 BCE as the year when the Messiah was to be born. When the angels who comprise the star that led them to Bethlehem announced His birth, they knew already of this calculations in Daniel 9:24-27.

John the Baptist seemed also to have expected Christ exactly in the year 27 CE which would fit exactly into the year-day principle applied to Daniel 9:24-27 as we suggest here. It was at the end of the 69 weeks of 483 years that the Messiah was to come to him to be baptized. And He did. 

Herod the Great and his paranoia

Herod the Great was king until 4 BCE and he killed many babies in that year due to the news that a king was to be born. We assume, that he also killed the Teacher of Righteousness in 7 BCE and that his sect from Qumran fled to Damascus and migrated there. The coins and pottery at Qumran seems to support this view that the group left during that time.

Elijah Template of Teacher of Righteousness and John the Baptist

Two individual seemed to have acted in the expectancy of the nearness of the Advent of the Messiah, his first Advent. The extra-biblical one is the Teacher of Righteousness at Qumran and his remnant or sect and the other is John the Baptist a little later with his people at the Jordan. Both acted with the template of what the Old Testament expected Elijah would do and the announcement of what is expected when the Messiah was to come. The probably problem that both the Teacher of Righteousness and John had, is that they did not understand that there will be one Messiah but two Advents, one as Priest and one as King, priest first and king later. 

Interpretation methods of the Elijah Message adherents

In is remarkable how they interpreted the prophecies as fulfilling later than the times of the prophets themselves, not with a double application method but with a single application method. It is also remarkable how some of the phrases coincide with what the modern movement of Adventism also expounded from the Scriptures, both Qumran and the message of John the Baptist. My own commentary of Habakkuk was done without the pesher Habakkuk in mind, although I have had this text as a prescribed text for Hebrew III at University. The future allocation of  some events as to happen shortly before the Advent of the Messiah (First Advent for the pesher, Second Advent for me) was an astonishing part of my investigation. It would be useful to look at the eschatological message of the Qumran sect and to compare their various themes with that of our own.  

Source:

http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/qumran_bruce.pdf which is the article by F. F. Bruce, "The Teacher of Righteousness in the Qumran Texts" (1957).