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1 CHAPTER ONE JOHN THE BAPTIZER AND THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS James H. Charlesworth One fascinating question has preoccupied experts since the beginning of the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were first discovered in the winter of 1947. It is the relationship between John the Baptizer (or the Baptist) and the community of religious men who lived at Qumran, not far from where the Baptizer was active. The purpose of this paper is to present a hypothesis that appeared to me as I was preparing a critical edition of the twelve manuscripts of the Rule of the Community. I am persuaded that this document, the quintessential composition by the Qumranites, helps us understand the most likely relation between John the Baptizer and the Qumranites.1 INTRODUCTION Since 1956 I have been reading the speculations on how John the Baptizer must have been an Essene or could not have been related in any way to the Qumran Community. I am not interested here in providing a report of published research on this question. If one were contemplated , it might begin with the excessive claim by H. Graetz in 1893 that the first Jews who announced that the Messiah is coming were the Essenes. Graetz claimed that the Essene who sent forth this call to the Israelites was John the Baptist (whose name doubtless meant the Essene), he who daily bathed and cleansed both body and soul in spring water. Graetz contended that John appears fully to have entertained the belief that if only the whole Judean nation would bathe in the river 1. The present paper is a revision and expansion of one that was published in Donald W. Parry and Eugene C. Ulrich, eds., The Provo International Conference on the Dead Sea Scrolls: Technological Innovations, New Texts and Reformulated Issues (New York: Brill, 1999). I am grateful to the editors and publisher for permission to publish this revised version. 2 JOHN THE BAPTIZER AND THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS Jordan, acknowledge their sins, and adopt the strict Essene rules, the promised Messianic time could be no longer deferred.2 Obviously, no Qumran expert today would defend such a position in light of what is now known about the Qumranites and their library. The reference to Graetz illustrates that a report of research on the relationship between the Baptizer and the Qumranites would entail a large monograph, and that would blur my focus. Presently my concern is turned to the primary texts from Qumran. APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY My approach is appreciably different from most of the research published on this focused question. Frequently, those who are interested in John the Baptizer begin with the New Testament evidence and seek to comprehend what can be known about this pivotal figure in both Jesus research and in the study of Christian Origins.3 I, rather, begin with an interest in John the Baptizer and his place within Early Judaism (Second Temple Judaism). John the Baptizer is only the most prominent member of a wide and diverse baptist movement including Bannus, the Nasoreans, Ebionites, Elkasites, and the groups behind the Apocalypse of Adam and Sibylline Oracle book 4. It is important to keep in mind how the Baptizer relates to this wider baptist movement.4 As Adolf Schlatter affirmed, John was given the name “Baptizer” not by Christians but by Jews and probably by members of his movement.5 I shall approach this intriguing figure in light of what I have learned from preparing the first critical edition of all manuscript witnesses to the Rule of the Community. This and other editorial work awakened in me a special appreciation of the Qumranic laws and lore for admitting or excluding a prospective member—or even a full member—of 2. Heinrich Graetz, History of the Jews (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1893), 2:145–46. 3. B. Chilton portrays Jesus as a “Talmid” of the Baptizer. He mastered John’s “mishnah ,” learned to “embody” the imagery of Ezekiel, and in an apocalyptic manner saw the vision of the chariot. See Bruce D. Chilton, Rabbi Jesus: An Intimate Biography (New York: Doubleday, 2000), 41–63. 4. A helpful book, now dated and in need of expansion, is Joseph Thomas’s Le movement baptiste en Palestine et Syrie (150 av. J.-C.–300 ap. J.-C.) (Gembloux: Ducolot, 1935). 5. I am indebted to Hermann Lichtenberger for discussing this issue with me. See Adolf von Schlatter, Johannes der Täufer (ed. W. Michaelis; Gütersloh...

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