מגילת "ברית דמשק" וזמנה

The background of the scroll is that of wars and the general destruction of Judah. Only a remnant remained of the people. The temple existed, sacrifices were offered and capital punishment was still administered. Close to this event, a band of persons was forced to leave the land of Judah and return to the land of Damascus. There they made a new covenant inspired by the ideal of a literal performance of the biblical precepts. The opposition to them was headed by an efficient and ruthless individual designated by them as "the man of scorn" (ʾish hallaẕon). They hated him very much and opposed the men of Judah and the house of David. In their view the messiah would come from Aaron and Israel and not from Judah. This expulsion was preceded by many and various debates on religious matters. These exiles accused the men of Judah of three serious crimes: polygamy, love of lucre and the defilement of the sanctuary. The allusion in the latter case is to family life in the holy city of Jerusalem, which was prohibited, in their view, as in every holy place. These details indicate that this scroll cannot be dated to the Hellenistic period, according the view of the majority of scholars nor to the middle ages, according Zeitlin and others. The writer dates it to the period of the return to Zion under Persian rule. Among the first to return were members of the ten tribes too. This was essential for the reconsecration of the land, which could not revert to its holiness until it was settled by representatives of all the tribes of Israel. These Israelites were hotheaded pietists, well meaning but unlettered. They came to the Holy Land in order to lead a holy and pure life, a goal which could not be achieved in the unclean lands of the dispersion. Some of them even settled in Jerusalem. They fought every deviation from this purpose. Close to the time of their arrival when the altar was to be rebuilt on another site, they fought and compelled its rebuilding on its original site (Ezra iii, 2–3). They turned Jerusalem, the holy city, into a monastery where family life was forbidden. The result was that there were no old people in Jerusalem living with their children as is usual, and no children. Zechariah fought against this and looked forward to the day when there would be old men in Jerusalem and children playing in its streets (Zech. viii, 2–5). There were other controversies between them but these were not recorded. These Israelites were finally expelled from Jerusalem, and an allusion to their residence can be found in I Chronicles ix, 3. This was then a thing of the past. "Those that returned of Israel" (shave Yisra'el) referred to in the scroll, are none other than the Israelites expelled from Jerusalem, and the "the man of scorn" none other than the prophet Zechariah. All that the man of scorn did, was done by Zechariah. Zechariah advocated the annulment of the fasts commemorating the destruction of the temple (Zech. viii, 19), whereas those that returned of Israel observed the day of fast (vi, 19). He was liberal in his views on the observance of Sabbath and festival prohibitions. In contrast to Jeremiah and Ezekiel he did not even mention the Sabbath, whereas the returning Israelites were very strict in their Sabbath observance (vi, 18). This was between the years 480–460 B.C. Then the "head of the kings of Yavan" (viii, 11) appeared on the scene. The allusion is to Pausanias king of Sparta who headed the confederacy of Greek States. In his struggle against the Persians he caused detriment to other citizens of the Persian empire and was accessory to the destruction of Judah. The "teacher of righteousness" is not identical with the teacher of the unity (Yaḥad). The teacher of the unity was the teacher of the community in the present, whereas the teacher of righteousness was the messiah destined to appear in the latter days (vi, 11). On his advent, they would be granted world dominion (xx, 35–27). Consequently the word פקדם (i, 7) must by taken as referring to the future, implying that he will visit them in the end of this period. The author lived some time between the destruction of Judah and this date. In the course of time, the identity of the man of scorn was forgotten and even the connotations of archaic biblical terms. The editor of MS B, who lived some time after these events, explained them, omitted verses fitting the background but not understood in his time, and even added a verse from Zechariah, their great enemy, as well as passages from other later biblical works. This scroll is a relic of original Israelite literature filling in an important chapter in our history during the Persian period, solving too a number of obscure passages in the Bible. It is evidently the βιβλίος διαϑήϰη alluded to in I Maccabees i, 57.