James the Brother of Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls I by Robert Eisenman Read Free Book Online

another with the Spartans, which proudly proclaims that the Jews and the Spartans are related and therefore ‘brothers’! 1
    At first, the Maccabees seem to have affected only the title of ‘High Priest’. At some point in the first or third generations, however, the title ‘King’ was adopted. Though the Maccabees were from a priestly family, the question has been raised in the debate relating to the Dead Sea Scrolls, whether they ‘usurped’ the High Priesthood. There is no indication whatsoever of such a usurpation, and the Maccabees seem to have occupied what appears to have been a very popular priesthood indeed. Josephus, for instance, at the end of the first century in Rome, evinces no embarrassment at the Maccabean blood he claims flows in his veins. On the contrary, he would appear to be most proud of it ( Vita 1.2–6).
    The Book of Daniel and Apocalyptic
    The appearance of the Romans in the eastern Mediterranean would appear to be referred to at an important juncture of the Book of Daniel, where their victory over the Syrian fleet in the eastern Mediterranean is mentioned (11:30–35; 190 BCE). This seems, in fact, to trigger the predatory activities upon the Temple by the Seleucid King Antiochus Epiphanes, the villain of both Daniel and the Maccabee Books. Here, too, the Book of Daniel uses the key terminology of ‘the Kittim ,’ which the Dead Sea Scrolls use to refer to foreign armies invading the country, to refer to the Romans (11:30). This is important for sorting out chronological problems at Qumran.
    Along with Ezekiel and Isaiah, Daniel is perhaps the most important scriptural inspiration for much of the apocalyptic ideology and symbolism of the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as for the literature of Christianity. Daniel is also, chronologically speaking, one of the latest books in the scriptural canon, except perhaps for Esther.
    Daniel’s clear association with the Maccabean Uprising in Palestine was doubtlessly one of the reasons why the Rabbis, following the uprisings against Rome, downgraded it from its position among the ‘Prophets’, placing it among the lesser ‘Writings’. No doubt, the Rabbis saw Daniel as a representative of a new, more vivid, style of prophetic expression, which we now call apocalyptic. This style, which they downplayed because of its association with the movement that produced both the Maccabean Uprising and the Uprising against Rome, is very much admired in the documents from Qumran, as it is by New Testament writers. In Daniel, prophetical and eschatological motifs – concerned with the End Times – are combined amid the most awe-inspiring and blood-curdling imagery.
    For instance, Daniel is the first document to refer to what might be described as a ‘Kingdom of God’. God is not only described as ‘enduring forever’, ‘working signs and wonders in Heaven and on earth’, and ‘saving Daniel from the power of the lions’ (that is, death), but as having a ‘sovereignty which will never be destroyed’ and a ‘kingship that will never end’ (6:26–28). Daniel also evokes the ‘Son of Man coming on the clouds of Heaven’, one of the basic scriptural underpinnings for the Messiahship of Jesus and a title often applied to him. This passage will also loom large below in the materials relating to James’ activities in the Temple and the proclamation he makes there.
    For Daniel, ‘the Holy Ones’ ( Kedoshim ) make war on a foreign invader who has violated and pillaged the Temple. This foreigner, who has ‘abolished the perpetual sacrifice’, is clearly Antiochus Epiphanes (7:13–8:12) - the villain of Jewish Hanukkah festivities ever since. Daniel uses additional terms that became popular, particularly at Qumran but also in the New Testament and the Koran – namely, ‘the Last Days’, ‘the Wrath’, ‘the Time of the End’ and, of course, the Resurrection of the Dead (12:2–13).
    The way Daniel refers to the Resurrection of the Dead is