The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

194 The Aramaic Bible: Tar gums in their Historical Context
Qumran texts. The author of such an official letter cannot be expected
to use simply the somewhat esoteric language—if it was fully developed
at his time—of the Dead Sea Scrolls. On the other hand,
4QMMT has so many similarities with the special theology and ethics
of the Qumran community and the Essenes of Ravius Josephus, that I
am strongly inclined to attribute this document to the Teacher of
Righteousness. The first 'editors' rightly suggested that its author must
have been a leading Qumran figure—he speaks in the first person
plural—most probably their great teacher and reformer. They pointed
to an interesting passage in 4Q171, the Pesher on Ps. 37. In 4.7-10 the
verse Ps. 37.32-33: 'The wicked seeks to kill the righteous' is referred
to the 'Wicked Priest', 'who tried to kill him (lahamito), because...he
has sent to him...' (shdlah'elaw). With the aid of 4QMMT one may
restore the lacunae in 4Q171.4.7-10 in the following way: 'who tried
to kill him on account of the letter (bigelal ha-'iggeret) and the law
(ha-torah) which he sent to him...And God paid him [i.e. to the
'Wicked Priest'] his recompense by giving him into the hands of
violent Gentiles ('arise goyyini) to execute (judgment) upon him'. The
Teacher of Righteousness appears in the context of this passage
(4Q171.3.15-16). He must be the sender of the letter and the man
whom the 'Wicked Priest' tried to kill. The law, mentioned here,
could have been the Sepher Ha-Hagu, i.e. the Temple Scroll (see
HQMiqd 56.4; 59.9; CD 5.2-3, 5; Deut. 31.26). The immoderate and
even furious reaction of the Jerusalem high priest to such a polite
letter and the harmonized law of 11 QMiqdash may have contributed
to the antagonism of the Qumran community against the Jerusalem
priests: the title kohen ha-r'osh, 'high priest', was turned into the
derogatory designation kohen ha-rdsha', 'Wicked Priest'. Moreover,
the separation concerning matters of purity and the withdrawal from
the official service in the temple, may have been completed by the
exodus to the Land of Damascus and finally by the withdrawal to the
desert. Josephus gives an interesting parallel to the statement 4QMMT
C 7: 'we have separated (parasnu) from the mass of people' in his
report on the Essenes: 'They excluded themselves (eirgomenoi) from
the holy place, offering the sacrifices by themselves' (Ant. 18.18-19).
After the intervention of the 'Wicked Priest' the exodus from Judea
may have followed; the separation from the temple was completed by
the migration to the Land of Damascus and by the life in the desert.
Who was the addressee, the recipient of this letter? He certainly