Читать книгу Judaism I - Группа авторов - Страница 60

The »pious« (Ḥasidim) of the Maccabean period and their temporary support of the insurgents developed into a strictly religious group, separate from the Hasmonean High priests, whose theological thinking and lifestyle is described in texts found at Qumran, and who called themselves Yahad, »community.« (This self-designation of the community will be retained as a technical term so as to avoid possible associations with Christian monastic communities or modern church structures.)

The broad consensus is that the community of the Yahad—the Qumran texts being viewed generally as its legacy, the center of their community being very close to the caves where the manuscripts were discovered—belonged to the Essene movement, which is known from ancient Jewish and non-Jewish sources.⁸² However, not only do the ancient reports of the Essenes display differences between them, but also the texts found at Qumran are highly disparate. Even if one disregards the manuscripts of writings which were later included in the Hebrew canon or are part of the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, the extant material cannot all be ascribed to the production and/or copying activity of the members of the Yahad. Archaeological, paleographic, and historical criteria, as well as correspondences in content suggest there is good reason to see the community of the Yahad as part of the broader Essene movement. This is indicated by community meals, hierarchy, community property (»community of goods«), the probation period for novices, the tense, polemic-filled relationship with the Jerusalem temple and its High priest, the significance of cultic purity, and the 364-day solar calendar. On these points the ancient accounts of the Essenes, the genuine writings of the Yahad, and archaeological finds from the settlement appear to agree, although the connection between them remains a matter of debate.

There is no consensus on the history of the Yahad. A widespread view is that the founder of the community was the »Teacher of Righteousness,« a (high) priest expelled from the Jerusalem temple. He formed the Yahad from a lay group emerging from the Ḥasidim, together with his priestly followers, in the time of the Hasmonean High priest Jonathan (153–143 BCE)—his counterpart, referred to as the »Wicked Priest.« Hartmut Stegemann,⁸³ on the other hand, represented the view that the Teacher of Righteousness was not the founder of the Yahad, but came into an already existing community and claimed leadership on the basis of his divine legitimation. His appearance led to division. The original community, which belonged to the Hasidic movement but had a strong priestly orientation, was reconstituted in an even more emphatically priestly way by the »Teacher of Righteousness«, with the priests (»Zadokites«) who fled Jerusalem with him. Its claim was that it represented the true divine covenant, unlike the Judaism associated with the Jerusalem temple, which had gone astray. This thesis has not met with universal acceptance. Some see the Yahad community as a group of late returnees from the Babylonian Exile, while others prefer not to see the »Teacher of Righteousness« as a unique historical figure but as a type of the teacher of the Yahad. With its strong priestly orientation, yet others see the background of this community in the Sadducees, rather than the less strict Pharisees. The latter position, however, tends to confirm the old thesis that the Yahad came about as the result of a revolt by traditionally priestly groups against the Hasmonean usurpation of the High priesthood.

Their rejection of the Jerusalem temple and its priesthood is expressed in two lines of argument: in the rejection of the incumbent Jerusalem High priest, the »Wicked Priest«, as is clear in 1QpHab, and in the associated non-participation in sacrifices at the Jerusalem temple and its replacement by worship and complete obedience to the Torah.