Dead Sea Scrolls: Community Rule
Presented on: Tuesday, May 2, 1989
Presented by: Roger Weir
Dead Sea Scrolls
Presentation 5 of 15
Community Rule
Presented by Roger Weir
Tuesday, May 2, 1989
Transcript:
The key to the meditative poem is that it is not a product of mythic language. That it not be an expression of imagination. That it be instead a composition which is written. That it be based on memory and mnemonic techniques. And that it has the presence of the self-operative in its form.
The classic traditional way of schooling oneself to this was to take a section of scripture, or to take a psalm, to take some sacred song, to take a prayer and to make that prayer part of your daily life. Especially at the close of the day. And at the close of the day to allow that hymn, or that poem, or that prayer, to engender in you an image response. So that your imagination was brought into play. But then to let that imaginative play and those images find an interiorized rest in your silence. It was time for you not to spits, to say anything. Time for you not to write anything. Time just to take it in and let the images circulate in you silently. And then to sleep. Sleep on it as we would say. And in the morning whatever feeling tone would come up that would be your, your key. And with that feeling tone then to do a short mourning contemplation of actively letting that feeling occur to you. So that the feeling occurs to you in a sense of existential presence. and once that's happened. Once you feel, and the classic saying is present to yourself, taking your cue from that initial feeling which came from an interiorized silent acceptance of an image base of a sacred poem, then you wrote from that your own poem. Your own prayer. From that sense of presence.
And what happens there is that you get a royal road into the deep self. Because the original scripture or the original hymn, the original sacred poem, will already have had that quality given to it by its writer. So that that will be like priming the pump. I don't know, most of you are old enough to remember that I used to have to prime the old water pumps. Do you remember that? You used to have to pour a little in before you can get anything out. Priming the pump. This is that sort of activity.
What you are priming the pump for is not the language but for self-presence. But for self-presence with an existential mode. When you have self-presence with an existential mode it can be translated into symbols, which can be expressed in poetry or in hymns, if you like. Either way. Sacred words. What you're expressing in sacred words is symbolic and not imaginary at all. And the symbol base comes from your inner self and not from nature.
And so that what you're trying to do is you're trying to sensitize yourself to this whole ecology of writing from your higher self as it were. To use a language which is really magical rather than a language which is mythical. and what happens if you do it right is that there's no pause. When you write you'll write straight through. it's very close to the technique of automatic writing. Only automatic writing is an unconscious form of this. Whereas this is the conscious mode of what would perhaps be considered automatic writing. It comes from your deep self. And that's what your
and the Hermetic wisdom liturgy has its apex in allowing for those persons, those individuals, to bring that moment out and share it. And that's the key to the whole thing working. So that this is the most important single point in it.
Towards the end of the lecture today I'll give you something further to read and to meditate on and to use. Ive given you many different examples and you can use any of them. so that's what we're up to.
Now this, this material on The Dead Sea Scrolls I have found is indispensable because the pattern that has been set up here has been working unconsciously. And it's best to make this material conscious to ourselves if we can. This evening this is The Community Rule. Or perhaps you might be familiar with it under the title The Manual of Discipline. And this was discovered from cave 1 at Qumran. And exists in several different versions, all of them more or less fragmentary. But they've been pieced together. And I'm using the translation which is provided by Geza Vermes in this pelican edition of The Dead Sea Scrolls in English.
Now I'm trying not to give you philosophic development tonight. Just to give you the material so that you can experience the material. I have several books up here which are excellent for the philosophic development. The rule of Qumran and Its Meaning by A.R.C Leaney, published in London a few years ago. And I'll show all these two later on. And this wonderful volume published in Westminster Maryland in 1960, The Monks of Qumran As Depicted in The Dead Sea Scrolls. And then of course there are many other standard volumes. The Ancient Library of Qumran by Frank Moore Krauss Jr, who I believe is still at Harvard. And there are several other volumes around.
But what I'm trying to do here is to give you the material in the quintessential form in which we have been able to recover it. This material has not been known since the 1st century A.D. Except for the little supply of material that came out around the year 790 A.D. And the outcome of that eventually was the development of Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism. So, this material is not known consciously but as a major construct in the, the subconsciousness of the 1st century A.D. and the, the very deep unconsciousness of the millennium after that.
This, this scroll The Community Rule was first published by Yale University in 1951. And if you run across its designation in readings its designated 1-Q-S. It means it's the, it's the very first to the Qumran Scrolls that attention was given to. And there are variant readings from other manuscripts but there are no parallels with Jewish literature. It is paralleled in the 2nd century A.D. by the early Christian ritual law doctrine put into the document called the Didache the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. And there are many other Christian writings.
While there are no parallels with Jewish literature, there are many parallels with Neo-Pythagorean literature. And it's not mentioned in this, in any of the literature. None, no biblical scholars have recognized that there are any number of parallels. Now for your edification I'm doing the Pythagorean tradition at the Philosophic Research Society along with doing The Dead Sea Scrolls here. And the reason for that is that there is an overlap. There's a tangent there. There's an organizing principle in The Dead Sea Scrolls that does not come from the Jewish tradition. It comes from Pythagorean mystery communities. But it is never alluded to and never would have been alluded to in the material. Because as far as they were concerned, they were after the quintessence of the Jewish tradition and they were out to protest against Hellenizing influences. But nevertheless, the structure is Neo-Pythagorean.
Now in our time it's been mistaken for Buddhism. And there's a whole raft of literature that somehow Jesus went to India etc. etc. etc. It's not so at all. The early Buddhist communities are radically different from the Pythagorean communities. And the Mahayana Buddhist communities are all influenced by Neo-Pythagorean techniques. Mahayana Buddhism is really a Western religion and not at all indigenous in India.
So, there are many, many difficulties with this material just as religious Daoism from the 5th century on in China is Westernly influenced. Religious Daoism is not the same as the Chinese classic philosophy. Totally different. You do not find any demonology and **inaudible word**. It is the essence of the wholes operative structure of religious Daoism.
So, we're dealing with the, the core of what actually has obtained in history and making the religious mind worldwide.
So, here is the scroll of The Community Rule. The Entry into the Covenant: An Instruction on the Two Spirits is the first section. The first of three sections. in other words, how do you enter into the community and why is there community in the first place. And the great reason is that there are two spirits. And as we'll see they are balanced evenly. The spirit of darkness and the spirit of light are exactly 50/50.
Now the root core of this is most certainly a kind of a Zoroastrian dualism. But it doesn't come into Judaism through the Jewish experience. It comes into Judaism through the media of the foot Neo-Pythagorean influence. The master shall teach the Saints to live according to the community rule. And the community rule is that one should learn to love God's chosen persons and to hate his rejected persons. Rejection is just as important as acceptance. Hate is just as important as love in The Community Rule. In the Essenes. Ones God's chosen people are sons of light and his rejected people are sons of darkness. And the reason why there are both is that this is a mystery of God. And that God's vengeance is all wrapped up in this mystery of the 50/50 complete balance between darkness and light.
So, that this pattern is a completed pattern which is a mystery until the final day. The final day, if they don't use the term in this Community Rule it was called Yom Yahweh, God's day. Judgment, judgment day. One should go neither to the right nor to the left. And also, along with a spatial dimension there was a temple to mention, one should not be before nor after. everything must be exact. And its exactness is in accordance with an appointed time. So that there is a tone of what we would call predestination. God's will.
Admitted to the covenant of grace would be all those who freely devoted themselves. In other words, this was a self-election process. You elected to commit yourself to the community, to the covenant. And those who did brought all their knowledge powers and possessions into the community, saying amen, amen. Now this amen, amen is an amulet phrase. It's meant to seal. Amen is a sealing word. To seal your participation in this covenant.
Now notice what you brought in were knowledge, powers and possessions. This triad will occur again. Knowledge, power and possession.
One must discipline oneself not to abandon God during the Dominion of Satan because of fear or terror or affliction. Why is there a Dominion of Satan? Because it is a part of this plan. Now notice that this is a powerful theme from The Book of Job. We talked a couple of weeks ago about my discovery that The Book of Job indeed seems to have been written also at the early time was the founding of these communities. And seems to have been written by the Teacher of Righteousness just as The Book of Daniel was. And that the themes of The Book of Job are exactly the themes that are discussed in The Community Rule. And I'll point them out to you as we go on.
You might remember that The Book of Job nowhere refers to the law of Moses. It even has been called into contention that it was written by a non-Hebrew. That it was written by somebody of Arabic ethno background and not a Jew. But indeed, it fits into the theme.
So that there is a time of a Dominion of Satan so that the world is now on the condition of Job. And one may lighten his heart with life-giving wisdom. And expect that God will grant you eternal knowledge. Lighten your heart with life-giving wisdom and be given or granted eternal knowledge. So that wisdom, life-giving wisdom, is a preparatory opening up and in that opening God gives the gift of eternal knowledge. The Greek term for this was epiclesis. It meant that when you became wise you formed yourself like an open hand in your life, in your comportment to reality. And when that open hand was made available God put the gift of eternal knowledge into those, into that hand. into the openness of your being. But you had to open yourself to receive this. This is very powerful here. Notice here that this is quite different from the Mosaic Torah. That's quite a, quite a difference here. You're not following a law you're preparing yourself to receive something which is, is outside of legal exploitation.
The damned are to be rejected finally into a shadowy place of everlasting fire to be destroyed without pardon. To be cursed forever. Now nowhere in Judaism do you find an eternal hell like this before this. This is the first time that it surfaces in this form. And it's exactly the sophomoric idea of hell that people would have in a colloquial kind of imagination in in the West now. Exactly the same. A shadowy place of everlasting fire cursed forever.
Now in the community, the priest shall enter first rank one after another according to the perfection of their spirit. Then the Levites. And thirdly all the people one after another in their thousands, hundreds, fifties, tens. That every Israelite may know his place in the community of God according to the everlasting design. No man shall move down from his place nor move up from his allotted position.
So that you have to understand that this is a very rigid lockstep pattern. And that your entry in is not that you are appreciated in your sense but that you fill a slot. The pattern is that the slots are all made for the elect. And you come in and you're in your function you accept to fill that slot. When all the slots are filled. When the temp time-space pattern is filled, with all the slots being filled with people then the pattern as a whole will come to life. And the pattern as a whole when it comes to life will be the threshold through which the Messiah will come.
Now this form that's here is also Pythagorean but it comes from Egypt. It's an Egyptian religious understanding of reality. To use a popular phrase, the Egyptian religious understanding is that time and space are digital. every moment of time, every instance of space, is objectively real. And once it's objectively real there's no way it can become undone or unreal. And so that must then be filled, in the Egyptian religious idea with the radiance of Rah. And as time goes on there are more compartments, more moments of time so it has to be extended. One does the cycle again and again because there are continuing new digital elements that have to be yet again filled. So that there is a odd kind of a sense here which passes into the Dead Sea community.
He shall not be counted among the upright for he is not persistent in the conversion of his life. What is the conversion of your life? The conversion of your life is from your own willfulness to God's will. From living in your own private helter-skelter way to accepting a role in God's pattern plan. The conversion is that you move to a digital time-space, which is a part of a design away from the kind of helter-skelter egotistical sense.
Now notice here our idea of the person is totally violated by this. Notice here that even at this time, the what would have been the colloquial quality of the individual which is not as strong as ours at all. But the person who would have gone their own way would have been a lost sheep. So, the, the figure of the shepherd, which comes from originally used in Isaiah and then becomes very prominent as an allegorical metaphor in the Essene communities. The shepherd is one who brings you back to the fold. The fold is God's pattern, God's will.
Now I believe that this still holds in Judaism and in Christianity and in Islam. And I believe it still holds in Mahayana Buddhism. The Amitabha Holy Land, the Western paradise of Amitabha, in Mahayana theology is exactly this.
For it is through the spirit of true counsel concerning the ways of man that all his sins should be expiated. That he may contemplate the light of life. He shall be cleansed from all his sins by the spirit of holiness. Uniting him to his truth when flesh is sprinkled with purifying water and sanctified with cleansing water.
Two different kinds of waters. Sprinkled with purifying water. Sanctified the cleansing water. Now the purifying water is like a water which comes from above. And the cleansing waters at water that comes from below. The waters above, the waters below. This is a recreation of man. This is a replay of a Genesis mythic theme on an individual symbolic level.
What are you being purified and cleansed for? To take your place and play your part in filling out this pattern of God. God has a plan. But the plan cannot work unless there are human beings who live it. And thus, make it work. So, the queue for the community here, the manual discipline, is to establish this living mandala of people as it were in time.
If one is made clean then there is a submission of soul to the precepts of God. And this would be the covenant of the everlasting community. Once you have joined this pattern there, this pattern itself is eternal. The pattern because it is eternal will not fade. And because you have committed yourself, your life, to this pattern your life will not fade. Notice now that there is a radical difference between this salvation and the idea of salvation that Jesus uses. It is a radical difference. In this salvation you survive because you become the part of God's pattern. In Jesus's idea of it you survive because God has given you individually the whole pattern. The individual is a mobile universe. And Jesus' brilliant radicalism is quite different from this. It is in fact the, it would be the, the converse of this. Jesus was not in the scene at all.
The masters responsibility in the community is to teach all the sons of light. What does he teach them? He teaches them the signs which identify three kinds of work. The work of a lifetime. The work for the time of visitation for chastisement or judgment. And three the time of reward. So that you have here the teaching of signs for identifying. Not symbols for expressing but signs for identifying. So that what happens here is that there is a transfiguration from images to emblems. Not to symbols but to emblem. There would be symbols if someone's own self were working. But because it's someone else's self-working that you accept then they become emblems. If the understanding were expressed out of your own psyche, then that would be symbolic. But for you to express someone else's psychic working out of it and appropriate those, those become, those are emblems and not symbols. It's different. Images can then become emblematic but notice this still does not free the individual.
So that from the god of knowledge and this is the first time that this phrase is used. They're not saying Yahweh. Saying the God of knowledge. So that this is the, this is the first time you can see that Gnosticism is Jewish not Christian at all. From the God of knowledge comes all that is and shall be. Established the whole design before they're being laws for them. And therefore, we have a task. What is our task? Our task is to fit into the pattern of God's laws so that that pattern can work its purpose.
Now there are two spirits in which to walk until the time of his visitation. Now this is very clear in the Essene communities. That this condition of the 50/50 balance between light and darkness is a condition which will reach its culmination, its apex, at the time of God's visitation. After that will be a different condition. So that the end is the end of the condition of fifty-fifty. It's the end of the time where darkness and light would have to be dealt with on an equal basis. After the visitation comes a time of renewal when only goodness obtains. What happens to evil is that it becomes a negative. It becomes a knot. It becomes a deficiency of good rather than something active in its own right.
In other words, there is an angel of goodness called the Prince of Light. And there's an Angel of Darkness called the Satan. After the visitation the Satan will cease to have existence on an equal par with the prince of light. And it will be goodness which is real. And whatever is darkness will be like illusion and delusion. But up until that time evil is just as real as good.
So that there are two spirits in which to walk until the time of his visitation. The spirits of truth and the spirits of falsehood. And all the way through the 1st century A.D. the word the primary word used of Satan is the liar. Belial, the liar. So that he would embody the spirit of falsehood.
Now the Prince of Light needs to be contrasted with the Angel of Darkness. The God of Israel corresponds to the angel of truth. And this is the old Jewish idea of the angel of the presence. You find this in the earliest statements in Genesis for instance. The earliest statements of, for instance when the when the exodus is taking place out of Egypt. The whirlwind tornado that holds back the Egyptian army is the angel of the presence of God. And this becomes later on the Prince of light here in The Dead Sea Scrolls.
This is a spirit of mighty wisdom which trusts in all the deeds of God. Now this is a central theme in The Book of Job. In other words, the angel of the presence, the precursor of the spirit of light, is a spirit of mighty wisdom which trusts in all the deeds of God. In other words, trust not only in the good things but trust that the dark things are a part of God's design. All the deeds of God. This is, it needs to be stressed because we're not contrasting light and darkness here. We're coming for contrasting completeness and darkness. That's a, it's quite different.
A spirit of discernment in every purpose. A zeal for just laws of holy intent with steadfastness of heart. And you can see again this is another one of the major themes of The Book of Job. The steadfastness of heart with holy intent. A spirit of discernment in every purpose. And a zeal for just laws. Of humble conduct sprung from understanding of all things. Faithful concealment of the mysteries of truth And then there's this phrase from the manual discipline, These are the counsels of the Spirit to the sons of truth in this world . In other words, this is the kind of characteristic one should engender in one's practice.
Now the visitation is also a Job theme. That is to say the major turning point in The Book of Job is the theophany, the coming of God in a whirlwind. The visitation shall be healing. And there we will be great peace in a long life. There will be fruitfulness. There will be everlasting blessing. Eternal joy and life without end. A crown of glory. A garment of majesty and unending light.
So that in The Community Rule one finds this imagery of a garment of light which later on will become a major theme in Gnosticism. Now The Community Rule is written at least by 100 B.C. probably written actually around 100, I would think around 135-140 B.C. That the notion of putting on a garment of light is in The Community Rule of The Dead Sea Scroll. It doesn't originate in Gnosticism in the 2nd or 3rd century A.D. It originates at least 400 years before.
Why so? Because this garment of light is a numinous visionary quality which would have come out of this kind of a discipline. Anyone whose practice anything like this and
for instance a garment of light would be totally what we would call colloquially, an aura. What classically was called the glory. The glory of a person was their aura. One puts on a garment of light. One is discernibly there with this capacity intact. So that this is all here by 135 B.C.
Now the Angel of Darkness is given Dominion by a mystery of God. It is a mystery which will only be revealed to the elect at the time of the visitation. Why there should be a Dominion is a mystery. And his Dominion is the rule of persecution. This is another theme in The Book of Job. Notice all these themes in The Community Rule are found in The Book of Job. And my contention is, is that The Book of Job would have been written around somewhere around 160 B.C. by the Teacher of Righteousness. I think that it just becomes clearer every week. The more I look into it I can see it.
So, the Angel of Darkness has a rule of persecution. His function and its efficacy is that persecution in all of its dimensions should obtain in equal amount to Goodness. Now God loads his counsel and forever hates his ways, says the book of The Community Rule. And these are the, the descriptive elements of it.
Greed. Slackness in search of righteousness. Lies. Deceit. Wickedness. Haughtiness and pride. Brazen insolence. Abominable deeds. Lust. Lewdness and service of uncleanness. Blaspheming tone. blindness of eye. Dullness of ear. Severe stiffness of neck. Heaviness of heart. Darkness and guile.
At the time of the visitation all of this darkness will come to its apex. At the time of the visitation is like these two ways will meet in their asymptotic expression. That is to say there, their nth degree of power will occur. And when it does there will be plagues by the hand of destroying angels. So that the way in which evil will be routed out of the world is that it will be yanked out in its maximum power. It won't be squashed down but yanked out in its maximum power. In other words, pulled out through the top.
Now this is quite different from the way that Jesus would. quite different. The whole thing in Jesus strategy is obviously not to pull it out by, by sending the thermometer through the top. But to cut the base upon which it can operate. to take away power from it. And the, the parable of this is the, is the fig tree which didn't have any figs and, and the tree shriveled because the power of life was taken away from it. The same thing with evil. evil is, is not drawn out to the top in an apocalyptic play but its whole amperage of being is taken away from it. Now the saying in classical mysticism is that a 1/3 of its power was taken away. And that was enough to deflate it. Once the deflation begins because of its own compulsiveness, its compulsiveness was unconscious. And once the deflation set in it was compulsive about deflating itself. That's the understanding of it.
So that there were these two spirits then in The Dead Sea Scrolls, spirit of truth and spirit of falsehood. Now the nature of all the children of men is to be ruled by these two spirits in proportion to their judgment. And in equal measure until the final age. So, one wasn't just all in one camp or all in the other but there was a proportion, a mixture, a ratio. And what you to do was to weight the ratio in the favor of goodness. And it was impossible to do this in the world where there was no discipline. Because in the world the condition that obtained was exactly 50/50 good and evil. No matter what you did 50/50 good and evil would come out. So that the only way to weight it was in this community with this discipline.
But notice, notice what happens here. You cannot increase your dimension of goodness one iota even with the discipline. You still will have equal amount of darkness in the community. So, the essential problem in the Essene community was not to attain goodness but to handle the evil that's still there and you can't get rid of. This is radically different for the way in which Jesus works. Jesus the man was unconcerned with the demonic radioactivity of evil. Whereas the Essenes were totally preoccupied with it. It colored everything that they did.
And so that there was a struggle. And their struggle was fierce in all their arguments for they do not walk together.
Well wait for the tapes to be changed.
END OF SIDE ONE
Now this is another theme in The Book of Job, that the struggle occurs on the level of arguments in language. It's real focus seemingly is in the way in which you live in the world but it's real focus in its quintessential mode is in your language. And so, there is this kind of a fierce debate going on as it were in your psyche by the language of the angel of darkness and the language of the angel the presence of God, or the prince of life. here's a quotation. But in the mysteries of his understanding, God's understanding. And in his glorious wisdom, God has ordained an end for falsehood and at the time of the visitation he will destroy it forever.
Now notice here the Gnostic, classical Gnostic view, is that there, there was no effective visitation. There is still good and evil. That's in its indigenous and the structure of the universe and can't be gotten rid of. The difference is that in The Dead Sea Scrolls, in the Essene, the, the stained the tent was in a pattern of a mystery play that God had in store for man. In the Gnostic view it was indelibly in the ne
physical structure of the universe and couldn't be gotten rid of. Just because some plan come to a fruition one had to leave the whole condition. One had to leave that universe. One had to turn ones back up.
So that for Gnostics there there's no, the implicitness is that Christ was not effective. which is why the essential reason why Gnostic, Gnostic doctrines were considered heresies. That is the brutal fact is that they weren't, they denied the efficacy of God's ability to, to penetrate true through the structure of the world to create the real. He would have been limited in his powers. He could not bring the real through this ossification universe. The universe with its resistances and laws and darkness and evil even, evenly-matched would be resistant to God's introducing himself through that. You could not be an exception to it.
So that he will refine, says The Manual of Discipline, The Community Rule. He will refine for himself the human frame by rooting out all spirit of falsehood from the bounds of his flesh. So, the understanding of the Essenes is that the body is to be purified, will be purified. that the body will become pure. The flesh will become pure. Notice this is not getting rid of the body for an ascetic ideal but a purifying the body because the body is the ideal. This was an asceticism for perfecting the bodies that the body could then lead a fruitful life in eternity. The idea of the resurrection of the flesh is clearly an Essene idea. it's clearly in this kind of a mode. And we'll see it in just a minute.
The whole purpose was then to instruct the upright in the knowledge of the most-high. To teach wisdom of the sons of heaven to the perfect of the way. And that this was established in everlasting covenant. And all the glory of Adam shall be theirs. And we talked about the glory as being like the psychic radiance. That all the glory of Adam shall be theirs. The determined end is a renewal. And that was the time of the visitation. So, the end is not like a final end period but at the end of this balance of good and evil both being real, equally real. And it's a time where in the renewal only good will be real.
Now The Rule for the Men of the Community is the second part of The Community Rule. And the Rule for the Men of the Community, the counsel of the community who freely pledged themselves to be converted from evil to God's will. The first rule was to separate the congregation from the men of falsehood. To separate oneself out. To leave to go away. To gather together away from them. Separate. Under the authority, and the phrase here used as the sons of Zadok. And then The Dead Sea Scroll, The Community Rule tells us that the sons of Zadok are the priests who keep the covenant.
Now this is a very early use of allegory. Im gonna talk next week about allegory more. But allegory doesn't come into play until the 2nd century B.C. The first instance of conscious allegory in the world was in Alexandria about 215 B.C. Ptolemy the fourth, Ptolemy Philopator built a building in Alexandria called the Homer, Homerian. it was a temple divinizing Homer and divinizing Homer's works and books and so forth. And the temple and the sculptures in it in the freezes and so forth were the first incidence of conscious allegory in the world. In fact, it's the first time that the that two different words in Greek were brought together to form the word, word allegory. Two different totally different words in Greek where syntactically mixed together. And allegory is actually a made-up word. It's a synchronicity word that comes out of Alexandria in around 215 B.C. but the conscious practice of using allegory as a mode of consciousness did not occur until later on in the 2nd century B.C. and it was perfected by these neo-Pythagorean religious communities, like the Essenes or the therapeutae.
So that separation from the congregation of the men of falsehood under authority of the sons of Zadok who are, allegorically, the priests who keep the covenant. every decision is determined by them. And here's the triad again. Doctrine, property, and justice. Now all of these are major threads in Job. Doctrine, the arguments about good and evil. Property, the loss of things and the regaining of things. and justice. not only that justice be done that one, but one have one's day in court. One be exonerated if you are guiltless. Punished if you are not. So that doctrine, property, and justice there's that triad again that we talked about earlier.
And then the second use of allegory in The Dead Sea Scrolls. The first is that the sons of Zadok are the priests who keep the covenant. The second allegory, there are only three. the second one, He shall circumcise in the community the foreskin of evil inclination and stiffness of neck. Now this is allegorical and it's totally un Jewish. The circumcision of the foreskin is a basic fact of the Torah. To interpret it allegorically is a change in consciousness. What change is it? it's an interiorization from the ritual activity to a symbolic activity. It's taking the image and taking it from its ritual context where it actually happens on physical foreskin and turning around and interiorizing it and making it a simper symbolic reference. The image is a symbolic reference towards the foreskin of evil inclination and stiffness of neck. So, this is the second use of allegory in The Community Rule, which is the first conscious use of allegory anywhere in this literature. Anywhere.
Where did they get it? The only place in the world they could have gotten it from is Alexandria. Which means that in 135 B.C. when The Community Rule is being written there is a continuous contact with the Esoteric communities in Alexandria. There has to be. It's the only place in the world that was happening operative.
The community of the everlasting covenant has two components to it. And notice that the two components are very interesting. They carry all the way down through. They carry through Judaism as a theme. And they are like honed to razor sharpness in the Essenes. The community of the everlasting covenant has an element. One element is Aaron and the other element is Israel. Aaron is pledged to holiness and Israel is pledged to the house of truth. And together these two elements woven together make a code of behavior. Just like the code of Hammurabi or whatever it is. A code is always a sign that there is a king. There's a divine will operative. This code of behavior is God as the king operating. Not man.
There should be a binding oath before the community. But in accordance with all that has been revealed of it to the sons of Zadok. The keepers of the covenant. The seekers of his will. These are telling phrases. The keepers of the covenant. The seekers of his will. They're all capitalized.
In other words, there is the Torah. There is the law of Moses. But the Torah has been surrounded by a sphere of interpretation. However, the interpretation goes the law goes with it. Notice now that the law of Moses has been subsumed by the interpretive freedom of the community under the authority of the sons of Zodak, the priests who keep the covenant. I don't know if this is coming through as strongly as it should. But this is a very strong. it's, what they're saying here is that the law of Moses is not abrogated but it's assumed subsidiarity into the interpretive quality. They're taking on themselves the authority to interpret it the way that they see fit. And you can see where this can go. And indeed, it went every which way.
Now outside the covenant are those who have not sought to know the hidden things. And revere revealed matters. Again, there's a bifurcation. There are two elements operating here. The whole notion of knowing hidden things is new to Judaism at this time. Before the middle of the 2nd century B.C. there never was an element in, in Judaism that what God says to man is so much of a hidden thing requiring interpretation. To rehear revealed matters. So, you have this knowing hidden things interiorizing meaning. It's not going to, not going to the prophets to find God's meaning. It's going within yourself to find God's meaning. But yourself not as an individual yourself as a part of the community. So that God's hidden meaning is in the interiorization of the community. Hence The Community Rule. This is not a program for individual discipline. It's a, it's a tract of sociological discipline because only in the community will the hidden things be known.
The transposition to a single person, the interior single person, was mooted by the Teacher of Righteousness but not followed by the successors. We have here the case of a brilliant genius and the successors of being a great deal less. And that they did the best they could with it. But they were disadvantaged because the Teacher of Righteousness was really somebody. He out stepped by 200 years the capacity of anybody else around it. Just like Jesus as a person out stepped by 300 years any capacity on an individual level. It wasn't until the 3rd century A.D. late that there was anybody like Plotinus who could have understood and and appreciated the individual level of transcendence.
Then there's a quotation here, They shall not enter the water to partake of the pure meal of the saints. And you have the paring here of the two elements. The water which purifies and the pure meal of the saint, which will cleanse one.
The scripture quotations occur. And there's one from Exodus and one from Isaiah. and this is the first time in The Dead Sea Scrolls that there is any use of quotation from Scripture. Keep away from all that is false. from Exodus 23:7. Keep away from the man and whose nostrils is breath forward wherein he is counted, from Isaiah 2:22. This is the first use of Hebrew logoi sayings. That is this whole notion that later became endemic structure of Judaism, where is it written, search the scriptures and that whole thing. This is the first time that this happens. And this incidentally is a neo-Pythagorean treatment of this process. The sayings of, of Pythagoras are 500 years before this would have been in common the prototype.
The holy congregations shall examine his spirit in community with respect to his understanding and practice of the law under authority of the sons of Aaron, who are restoring the covenant. And under authority of the multitude of Israel who are returning to the covenant. In other words, the sons of Aaron are setting up the covenant and the multitude of Israel returns to the covenant. The sons of Aaron are the priesthood to do the preparing. And Israel as, as the community accepts the covenant and fills it out. So, the priests are making the structure of God's plan and the people are filling the slots of that structure and filling it out making a living plan. It's like that.
Everyone, that is every person, must obey his Superior. There's a pecking order. Everyone must be ranked. And you must obey your superior. Everyone would have their spirit and deeds examined yearly. Also, Pythagorean notion. And then advanced in accordance with his understanding and perfection of the way. But in daily practice one should rebuke a person on the same day but admonish him before witnesses, before you accused him before the congregation. In other words, there was a tertiary level here. You can admonish somebody and then you could admonish him before witnesses. And who are more serious than you could accuse him before the, the congregation.
For every ten men there should be a priest among them. They all sat according to their rank. The priest blessed the first fruits of bread and new wine. And conducts the study of the law continuously. It should be construct and study the, the construct of the interpretation of the law continually. They don't say this here but that is surely what they meant. One third of every night was to be devoted to the study of law in a praying together. The night would be 12 hours and so you have four hours roughly. Four hours of darkness. Four hours of, of study. Every night.
The priests were first. the elders second. The rest by rank. Each must speak in turn. And each congregation as a whole would have a guardian. There would be a one-year probation before being allowed to take a meal with the congregation. Your property and earnings would be handed over. And there would be a two-year probation before you could drink with the congregation.
One year before you could eat. Two years before you can drink.
Now here are some of the law infractions. Why are their infractions? Because every code, notice it's a code, must have a list of infractions and punishments. For lying about property, you are excluded from the pure meal with the congregation for one year. If you were caught just lying, I believe it was three months. But if you lie about property that's a year. If you utter the most venerable name, God's name, you were expelled from the community. Immediately. If unwittingly ill spoken six months penance, penance and no pure meal of the congregation. This was if you ill spoke against a priest. If you just ill spoke against someone, three months. For lying six months. If you failed to care for your companion three months. For spitting while in the assembly 30 days. If you interrupted a companion while speaking ten days. Now notice that the codes are picky against ethnocentric habits.
For going naked without being obliged, six months. For falling asleep before the assembly of the congregation, thirty days. For gesticulating with the left hand, ten days. Notice all of the behavior modifying conditions that are in here.
For murmuring against the authority of the community, expelled permanently. Notice it doesn't say for, for ranting against it, for murmuring against it. If you murmured against the companion unjustly, six months.
After ten years in the community if your spirit failed so as to betray the community, you were expelled. Now The Community Rule gives us a very powerful structure. In the congregation as a whole this was the most powerful structure, twelve men and three Priests. These twelve men and three priests, and later on in The New Testament it will be twelve men and one priest, Jesus. But here 160 years before him twelve men and three priests. Each perfectly versed in the revealed law, the interpreted law.
They shall preserve the faith in the Land. And land is always capitalized here because it's always meant to be silently the promised land. They shall preserve the faith in the Land with steadfastness and meekness. And shall atone for sin by the practice of justice and by suffering the sorrows of affliction. Now this is a theme both in The Book of Job as you can readily see. And also, in the Palestinian mission of Jesus. One reason for the crucifixion was because these people were used to the fact that the leader of the congregation atoned for the people sins by accepting this which inform on himself. Job like. This is an element has not been appreciated. And to consider this as like in the major structural aspect of the mission and teaching of Jesus is to misunderstand it completely. Is to be ethno, ethnically ignorant, sociologically impaired. He was dealing with these people in the only way in which they could relate to. This is also as I pointed out a theme in The Book of Job. Now you better get yourselves a copy of The Book of Job.
Now these twelve men and three priests they shall be witnesses to the truth at the judgment. That is when the final day comes, they will be the witnesses for and against mankind. So, the whole idea of Christ is a judge at the quick and the dead at the Judgment Day is a transferal of this theme two centuries before and really doesn't have anything to do with Jesus at all. It's a mythic regression and a subconscious transference of a pattern that was established under different conditions in a different world. World where, where good and evil were still operative. Well see this will have great consequences.
So, they shall be witnesses to the truth at the judgment. And they shall atone for the Land and pay to the wicked their reward. Established for this are two vehicles, a house of holiness for Israel. And Assembly of Supreme Holiness for Aaron. Now this house of holiness is different from the Assembly of Supreme Holiness. The Assembly of Supreme Holiness for Aaron means it's like a priestly function. It's like a temple but it's the holy of holies of a temple. What would this be? The Assembly of Supreme Holiness becomes the purified mind. The house of holiness for Israel becomes the Land as a kingdom of God. So that one has two different themes working here. Related but nevertheless two different themes.
These two together the house of holiness for Israel, the Assembly of Supreme Holiness for Aaron, notice the allegory working here. Those two together are what is called the precious cornerstone. And it's emphasized as a quotation from Isaiah, Isaiah 28:16. The precious cornerstone of what? Of the new order. The new order. One that had never been seen before.
So that when they have been confirmed for two years in perfection of the way by the authority of the community. They shall be set apart as holy within the council of the men of the community. And the interpreter shall not conceal for them out of fear of the spirit of apostasy any of those things hidden from Israel which have been discovered by him.
In other words, in this body of twelve men and three priests, among these fifteen, anything can be discussed. Anything that has come out without fear of apostasy. So that while the Essene community as a whole was a very rigid structure, at the hub these 15 men had a peculiar kind of warrant to be completely free in whatever would come out of their experience. Whatever could be revealed.
What happens if you have a rigid structure with the only opening in the center, is that all the pressures on the structure seek to center themselves around the opening at the, at the center. It becomes a pressure point. The twelve and in the three priests. Incidentally the way that this works in the mythic regression in Christianity the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The trinity is a mythic image of this Essene three priests. It's um. I can't begin to tell you how much a theological mishmash human beings have been laboring under for centuries, if not millennia. it's unbelievable. If you allow me, it all is going to go.
So that they can discuss anything that has been discovered without fear of apostasy. So that the final statements are, Separate away from the world. Go into the wilderness. Make straight in the desert a path for our God. This is a quotation from Isaiah 11:3.
And then the third allegory in the document, that the path is the study of the law. The path is the study of the Herminia of the law. And the document ends with two very interesting ways. First a summation as if it were like a sermon. That the whole Community Rule had been a sermon and now this is the, this is the point of the sermon. We're going into the desert to make straight the path of the Lord. And the path is a study of the of the Herminia of the law. They shall atone to obtain loving-kindness for the land without the flesh of Holocaust and the fat of sacrifice. That is to say no more blood on the altars. You don't sacrifice life anymore. You don't sacrifice things anymore. That prayer rightly offered shall be as an acceptable fragrance of righteousness. That's the phrase that they translate it as. And perfection of the way as a delectable freewill offering. The new sacrifices our prayer rightly offered and perfection of the way. So, at the point of the sermon is that we're not going to have sacrifices on an altar in a building anymore.
Now they've gone through all this. And the final thing of the precepts of the master what is to teach. And the closing thing is that the whole document is a hymn, a sacred hymn. And I guess by now you should understand why they would close with a sacred hymn. And it begins in certain ways about the seasons of the year. Because setting up the great calendar, the mandala of time and, and everything. And this is how it ends.
Blessed art thou my God who opened us the heart of thy servant to knowledge. Establish all his deeds and righteousness. And as it pleases thee to do for the elective mankind, grant the son of thy handmaid may stand before thee forever. For without thee no way is perfect. Without thy will nothing is done. Is thou who has taught all knowledge. And all things come to pass by they will. There is none beside thee to dispute that counsel. Or to understand all thy holy design. or to contemplate the depth of thy mysteries or the power of thy might. Who can endure thy glory? And what is the son of man in the midst of thy wonderful deeds. What shall one born of woman be accounted before thee, needed from the dust? His abode is the nourishment of worms. He is but a shape but molded clay and inches towards dust. What shall hand molded clay reply? What counsel shall it understand?
And you can see at the very end of The Community Rule a parallel echo of The Book of Job again. As I said to you, I think it was two weeks ago, the earliest Midrash was a targum of commentary on The Book of Job, The Testament of Job. Which was found with The Dead Sea Scroll material.
The whole structure of the community took the themes from The Book of Daniel and The Book of Job and developed it into a process. Subconsciously a neo-Pythagorean tone structured out the new interpretive qualities. The Alexandrian influence was so pervasive that it wasnt even understood is an influence. It was like the water in which the transformation took place. And out of this between 135 B.C. and 31 B.C., in that hundred years all of The Dead Sea Scroll material laid the preparation.
We're going to talk next week about The Masonic Rule or The Rule of the Congregation. But you should know that this community came to a sudden disastrous halt in 31 B.C. And we've talked about it I think last year more times than this year.
In 31 B.C. an enormous earthquake hit the Qumran area. And the earth shattered and split the great cistern, the baptismal cistern of community, exactly in half. And one side of the community went two feet in subsidence from the other side. And they completely immediately abandoned the community because there was some catastrophic element that had been introduced into the community. Here was the most perfected, dedicated community to God on earth in their eyes. And God smashed the whole community with such precision and accuracy, that it traumatized the entire movement. There was no repopulating of Qumran for more than 30 years. From 31 B.C. until about 1 B.C. or so nobody inhabited Qumran. It was left alone. It was radioactive psychically. No one knew what to do.
It's in that time period between 31 B.C. and 1 B.C. that Jesus is born. And he's born not into this kind of community, but he's born into the catastrophic trauma of this community trying to find out what have we done. Where are we to go? Who are we anyway? What's real? He's born into that kind of environment.
More next week.
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