Time: The 490-Year Scheme in Second Temple Literature."

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1 April 20 (Easter Sunday) Forgiveness: What the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Book of Daniel, and the Rabbis Can Teach Today s Christians about Forgiveness Fred Horton Wake Forest University (all rights reserved) Daniel, Melchizedek, and the Tenth Jubilee The Time is Fulfilled! Mark summarizes Jesus message to the people of the Galilee in Mark 1:15 as follows, The season is completed and the kingdom of God is here. Change your mind and trust in the Good News. 1 The season to which Mark s Jesus referred is evidently a measureable period of time which we is now finished. Recent discoveries and recent scholarship have shone a new light on the season and its duration. The season is the period of time referred to in Daniel 9:24-25: Seventy weeks are decreed for your people and your holy city: to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. Know therefore and understand: from the time that the word went out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the time of an anointed prince, 2 there shall be seven weeks; and for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with streets and moat, but in a troubled time. The weeks in this prophecy are actually periods of 7 years, and the coming of an anointed prince, therefore, should be 49 years after Cyrus II freed the Jews of Babylon to return to Jerusalem. 3 Cyrus decree of liberation occurs twice in Ezra, Ezra 1:1-4 (Hebrew); 6:1-12 (Aramaic) and finds some general historical validation in the so-called Cyrus Cylinder: I returned (to these) the sacred cities on the other side of the Tigris, the sanctuaries of which have been ruins for a long time, the images which (used) to live therein and established 1 πεπλήρωται ὁ καιρός. Instead of this πεπληρωνται οι καιροι (D it), The seasons are finished. These words are missing from Matthew s account, and the entire summary is lacking in Luke. John, of course, neither has Jesus baptized nor tested in the wilderness, so it is not surprising that there is no equivalent to the account in Mark. 2 Collins, Daniel : A Commentary on the Book of Daniel, See the discussion of these verses ibid For the advanced reader, see Werman, "Epochs and End- Time: The 490-Year Scheme in Second Temple Literature." 1

2 for them permanent sanctuaries. I (also) gathered all their (former) inhabitants and returned (to them) their habitations. 4 Unlike us, however, the ancient reader did not have a computer that would let him/her check out Wikipedia and calculate exactly how long the Israelites spent in captivity or the exact date of Cyrus decree that freed the Jews in Babylon to return to Jerusalem. It matters little to historical remembrance that the time of exile was more like 62 years than 70 years, as reckoned in Jeremiah 25:12; 29:10. It is likely that the author chose a number corresponding to ten sabbatical years rather than a number derived from some other kind of calculation. Likewise, the idea that the 490 years envisioned in Daniel 9:25 is anything other than an ideal number selected to represent ten Jubilee years. 5 The Jubilee regulations in Leviticus 25 come from the Holiness Code (H) 6 in which Israel s holiness is to be achieved through the observance of certain regulations dealing with private matters of sex and marriage to such public matters as the observance of feast days and the conduct of the priests. The Jubilee in the form we encounter it in Leviticus 25 presents a difficulty in deciding which year exactly is to be the Jubilee year. The problem is that the chapter has one reckon the year of the Jubilee by counting seven weeks of years (7 x 7 = 49 years) and yet the Jubilee begins in the seventh month on Yom Kippur and one hallows the 50 th year as the Jubilee. Since, however, it is the case that the year previous to the 50 th was a sabbatical year, would Israel then be obligated to celebrate effectively two years of sabbatical rules and in the second such year, the 50 th year, remit all debts and free all who are in bondage? So, perhaps, 4 Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts : Relating to the Old Testament, Although this event seems very solid because of the Cyrus Cylinder, Shavit and Harshav, "Cyrus King of Persia and the Return to Zion: A Case of Neglected Memory." point out that the event never achieves any remembrance in biblical and Jewish tradition beyond mere mention that Cyrus freed the Jews. This stands in sharp contrast to the liberating stories of the Exodus. So there is no tale of reugees struggling back across the Fertile Crescent to Jerusalem from Babylon, the names of their leaders, or any events that occurred. The lack of a festival of Return is especially interesting. 5 See Leviticus 25 for a description of the Jubilee as seven sabbatical years (25:8) or 49 years. The 70 weeks of years in Daniel 9:24, then, correspond to 70 x 7 = 490 years or ten Jubilees. The importance of the number, I submit, is in its sabbatical content. Therefore, the question of when the Jubilee would fall would be difficult to answer, thus enhancing the indeterminate nature of the prediction. One could surmise that it was about time, even though the exact time would have come and gone in the last part of the first century BCE. 6 In 1877, Klostermann, (Klostermann, "Der Pentateuch: Beitr ge Zu Seinem Verst ndnis Und Seiner Entstehungsgeschichte.") proposed the title The Holiness Code (Heiligkeitsgesetz, usually abbreviated H) in reference to Leviticus 17:1-26:46, so named because of the thematic idea of holiness throughout and because of the coherence of H within the Priestly (P) corpus. Characteristics of H include the refrains, You shall be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy (19:2), and You will be holy to me because I the LORD am holy (20:26). Further, H frequently uses the short motivation clause I am the LORD in this code, leaving Zimmerli, ""Heiligkeit" Nach Dem Sogenannten Heiligkeitsgesetz."to claim that holiness for H is grounded in the being of Yahweh who has brought this people into being as a holy people. Readers unfamiliar with the classical documentary hypothesis might want to consult an introduction to the Hebrew Bible for the details. In brief, this hypothesis sees two pre-exilic (pre-586 BCE) narrative sources for the first five books of the Bible (the Pentateuch). The book of Deuteronomy, also pre-exilic at its root takes the designation D. The priestly writings (P) come from the period of the exile 597/ BCE and consist of a legal commentary on the combined strands JE and is the single source of Leviticus. As noted above, we term Leviticus 17:1-26:46 the Holiness Code (H). 2

3 there is only one such year; but this doesn t explain why it would be called the 50 th year. The solution may be that Leviticus 25 contains a compromise between a sabbatical system and one called a pentecontad calendar based on seven 50-day divisions of the year with either 15 or 16 days intercalated to make up the remainder of the year. This pentecontad calendar would privilege 50 and multiples of 50 such as If these numbers leave you gasping for air, join the club. What they do suggest, however, is that there was no mechanical or mathematical accuracy about determining how many years had passed since the Jews release from bondage in Babylon (538 BCE). The ideal number 490 or ten weeks of years stands for an ideal cycle without great precision as to how long it lasted. The Jubilee is a measure of time that is convenient for certain kinds of history, and we see this clearly in the Book of Jubilees, a document known to us completely only in Ethiopic but also known in fragmentary form from the discoveries at Qumran, the Dead Sea Scrolls. These fragments are certainly the oldest fragments we have and can be dated on the basis of paleography, i. e. the study of how the script of a language changed over time, to the second century BCE. The original document, was almost certainly by a Jew who wrote in Palestine during the period of Maccabean rule. This book divides up the history of the world from creation to the Exodus from Egypt into jubilee cycles, measuring them in terms of a sabbatical scheme, i. e. into 49-year cycles. 8 Daniel 9:24-25 makes it clear that the tenth Jubilee after the release from Babylon is the most important for its purposes, and texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls make it clear that this tenth jubilee is the culmination of the ages, the last jubilee in which the benefits of the jubilee accrue to Israel in perpetuity. Since the Book of Jubilees ends with the Exodus, there is no discussion of a tenth jubilee after the return from exile, even though there is a vague revelation of a time of repentance and restoration in Jubilees 1:15-18, Among the discoveries by the Dead Sea at Qumran, however, there are at least two documents with references to a tenth jubilee, both, unfortunately, very fragmentary. From the fourth cave at Qumran, we find a fragmentary text that reads in part: And I will n[ot] search them out until the end of ten jubilees of years because of their infidelity, which they commit[ed against me]. 9 (4Q387a Frag. 3 ii.2-4) 7 SeeBen-Dov and Saulnier, "Qumran Calendars: A Survey of Scholarship "for a discussion of recent research on the calendars used in first-century Palestine. See also Beckwith, Calendar, Chronology, and Worship : Studies in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity. 8 SeeWintermute, "Jubilees (Second Century B. C.): A New Translation and Introduction " for an excellent translation of and introduction to the Ethiopic version. 9 I have translated all Qumran texts as they are transcribed in Florentino García Martínez and Eibert J. C. Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, 776.; but in an effort to represent the lacunae correctly, García and Martínez have produced an unwieldy translation in English that improves with the relocation of the clause until the end of ten jubilees of years in the manner I have offered. 3

4 It is not clear exactly which event starts the clock on the ten jubilees of this passage; but if the prophecy is like that of Jubilees 1:15-18, a parallel strongly suggested by the context of the reference should be to the liberation from exile. 10 The calculation of the ten jubilees as a multiple of seven is not clear in the Pseudo-Moses document, even though the importance of the Sabbath in the fragment is clear. There is, however, no doubt about the importance of the number seven and its multiples in the 11Q13, often termed the 11QMelch because it centers on Melchizedek as a heavenly redeemer who will appear in the tenth jubilee to rescue the children of light: Its interpretation] for the end of days concerns the captives, who [ ] and whose teachers were hidden and protect[ed]; and from the inheritance of Melchizedek, fo[r ]. And these are the inheritan[ce of Melchize]dek, whom he shall return. And he will cry out to them the message of release to free them from [the debt?] of all their iniquities. [And so] this thing [will oc]cur in the first week of the jubilee after ni[ne ju]bilees, and the D[ay of Atone]ment will be the end of the tenth jubilee to make atonement in it for all the sons [of light and]the men of the lot of Mel[chi]zedek. (11QMelch ii.4-8) The interpretation 11 is an interpretation of Leviticus 25:13 and Deuteronomy 15:2. This last jubilee will feature the forgiveness of debts commanded in the Torah but will also include God s forgiveness of the obligations Israel incurred through its many iniquities. Exactly why Melchizedek is the heavenly messenger of this forgiveness and, indeed, the one to make atonement to achieve it, is not well understood. Some would contend that there was a tradition about Melchizedek that shows up both here and in the Epistle to the Hebrews of the New Testament. 12 Others like me are not convinced that Hebrews is based on any such tradition since one could derive its assertions about Melchizedek from Genesis 14:18 and Psalm 110:4 if one follows the ordinary ways of interpretation available to the author of Hebrews. 13 The Tenth Jubilee and Its Effects We might end by pointing out that the idea of the tenth jubilee, an idea first encountered in Daniel 9:24-24, though not by name defines the time or the season Jesus in Mark 1:15 10 Indeed, the text has been dubbed 4QpsMoses b in addition to its more prosaic name 4Q387a. Pseudo- Moses refers to the recognition that the text derives from some kind of Moses document. 11 The Hebrew פשרו (pishro), its interpretation, refers to a specialized apocalyptic interpretation by which the interpreter takes the words of the Hebrew Bible to refer to the end of days. The absolute form of the Hebrew word has been taken over into English as Pesher in reference to an apocalyptic commentary to distinguish it, say, from a Midrash, a searching out of scripture for the law of life. 12 Annette Steudel, Melchizedek in Schiffman and VanderKam, eds., Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls, 536, provides a quick but helpful summary of this viewpoint. 13 Horton, The Melchizedek Tradition: A Critical Examination of the Sources to the Fifth Century A.D. And in the Epistle to the Hebrews.. I believe the author of Hebrews is as interested in what is not said about Melchizedek in those two passages as in what is said. 4

5 proclaimed as fulfilled. Just as Melchizedek is to arrive in the tenth jubilee to make atonement for all the children of light, so too Jesus in the fullness of time appears to proclaim release and to make atonement. What then does it mean to live in the time of redemption and to partake of the atonement for which the one from heaven makes? How does one appropriate God s forgiveness of our iniquities and continue to live in the new age, the tenth jubilee? The answer to those questions will occupy us for the next two sessions. Beckwith, Roger T. Calendar, Chronology, and Worship : Studies in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity. Leiden ; Boston: Brill, Ben-Dov, Jonathan, and Stéphane Saulnier. "Qumran Calendars: A Survey of Scholarship " Currents in Biblical Research 7, no. 1 (2008): Collins, John J. Daniel : A Commentary on the Book of Daniel. Edited by Frank Moore Cross. Hermeneia. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, Martínez, García and Florentino, and Tigchelaar, Eibert J C. The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition. Leiden: Boston : Brill ; Grand Rapids, Mich. : Eerdmans, Horton, Fred L. The Melchizedek Tradition : A Critical Examination of the Sources to the Fifth Century A.D. And in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press, Klostermann, August. "Der Pentateuch: Beitrge zu Seinem Verstndnis Und Seiner Entstehungsgeschichte." Zeitschrift für die gesamte Lutherische Theologie und Kirche 38 (1877): Pritchard, James B. Ancient Near Eastern Texts : Relating to the Old Testament. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, Schiffman, Lawrence H, and James C VanderKam. Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls. New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, Shavit, Yaacov, and Barbara Harshav. "Cyrus King of Persia and the Return to Zion: A Case of Neglected Memory." History and Memory 2, no. 1 (1990): Werman, Cana. "Epochs and End-Time: The 490-Year Scheme in Second Temple Literature." Dead Sea Discoveries 13, no. 2 (2006): 2, Wintermute, O. S. "Jubilees (Second Century B. C.): A New Translation and Introduction." In The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. 2 vols. Zimmerli, Walther. ""Heiligkeit" Nach Dem Sogenannten Heiligkeitsgesetz." Vetus testamentum 30, no. 4 (1980):