Paul versus the Essenes

[Hoshiyya]

There's an absolutely fascinating commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians some of you should check out:
http://www.herealittletherealittle.net/index.cfm?page_name=Galatians

In this extract, Bryan Huie gives an interpretation of Galatians I doubt you will have heard of before.

QUOTE:

GALATIANS 4:10 You observe days and months and seasons and years. (NKJV)

The long-standing position of traditional Christian scholars is that Paul is criticizing the Galatians here for keeping the Sabbath and Holy Days given to Israel in the Torah. However, this position requires the assumption that Paul equates the observance of God's Holy Days with slavery to/worship of evil spirit beings.

This view ignores Paul's command to the Corinthians to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread (I Cor. 5:8), as well as his background and training as a Torah-observant Pharisee. In fact, it implies that Paul held the Gnostic position that the god of the Old Testament was an evil angelic being ("demiurge").

Clearly, the sectarians proselytizing at Galatia were trying to get the congregation to observe some type of Jewish "days and months and seasons and years." But were these the same "days and months and seasons and years" that normative Judaism kept?

If you remember from our earlier discussion, Paul's use of the phrase "Works of the Law" indicates that he was speaking specifically against beliefs held by the Qumran Essene sectarians, as defined in 4QMMT. According to Martin Abegg, another Qumran document (4Q327) was connected to 4QMMT:

4Q327 . . . plots the Sabbaths and festivals for one complete solar year . . . This is one of the few calendars that designates the extrabiblical Festival of Oil, which fell on the twenty-second day of the sixth month. The structure of the work makes it likely that two more extrabiblical festivals were originally listed as well: the Wine Festival and the Festival of Wood Offering. . . .

Some scholars believe that 4Q327 was not actually a separate and distinct work. They argue that instead it originally attached to the beginning of one copy of A Sectarian Manifesto (text 84). In favor of this suggestion is the handwriting: the same scribe wrote both 4Q327 and the copy of the Manifesto. . . . (p. 319, Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation)
As shown by 4Q327, another core belief of the Qumran Essene group was their calendar. It was a solar calendar consisting of 364 days per year which included the Essene version of God's commanded Holy Days (Lev. 23), as well as extrabiblical observances.

(....)

A recent article in the Biblical Archaeological Review gives us some specific information about this calendar and how it differed from the calendar used by the majority of Jews:

Even the Essene calendar was different. The Temple authorities maintained a lunar calendar; the Essenes followed a solar calendar, which consisted of exactly 52 weeks per year, that is, 364 days. According to this calendar, festivals always fell on the same day of the week. Thus, Rosh Hashanah (the Feast of Trumpets), Passover and the first day of Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles) always occurred on a Wednesday. The Essenes considered the solar calendar used by the Hasmoneans in the Temple, tied as it was to a 354-day lunar calendar, to be adulterated with Babylonian elements. For example, the names of the months - Nisan, Shevet, Adar, Tishri - were Babylonian. The difference in calendars created a terrible discrepancy in holiday observance, with the Temple authorities and the Essenes celebrating festivals on different days. This naturally created a sharp rift between the two groups. (p. 64, "Jerusalem's Essene Gateway," Biblical Archaeological Review, May/June 1997)

The Essene calendar was a rival to the traditional Jewish calendar endorsed by the Pharisees. Paul, trained as a Pharisee (Acts 23:6; 26:5; Phi. 3:5), would have followed the traditional calendar sanctioned by the Temple authorities. Yeshua himself endorsed this calendar indirectly (Matt. 23:1-3).

The Essene calendar (and consequently, their new year) always began on a Wednesday because the sun, moon, and stars were created on this day (Gen. 1:14-19). The first of the month was called "A Day of Remembrance"; however, the Essene months generally did not start with a new moon. The Qumran sectarians, following the Essene calendar, had substituted different feast days and different months for the true calendar observed by the majority of Jews. Because of the seasonal drift caused by the structure of their calendar, the Essene seasons were also off. Finally, as another document from Qumran (4Q319, "Calendar of the Heavenly Signs") shows, the Essenes had a different system of sabbatical and Jubilee years.

It is easy to understand why Paul would have viewed this calendar and its different holy "days," "months" which did not start on the new moon, out-of-sync "seasons," and variant sabbatical "years" as demonically inspired. These "days and months and seasons and years" were just as much satanic counterfeits as the pagan observances the Galatians had kept before their conversion.


END QUOTE

Per this interpretation, the Galatians were being influenced by teachings similar to what we find in the Essene writings - and interestingly, many MJs today are likewise being influenced by the writings of the Essenes - and Paul is arguing against THEIR law, and not the actual Torah, when he uses the Essene technical term "works of the law".

I haven't given this interpretation much consideration yet, but it is certainly an exciting idea.

 

[Chicken Little]

There's an absolutely fascinating commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians some of you should check out:
http://www.herealittletherealittle.net/index.cfm?page_name=Galatians

In this extract, Bryan Huie gives an interpretation of Galatians I doubt you will have heard of before.

QUOTE:

GALATIANS 4:10 You observe days and months and seasons and years. (NKJV)

The long-standing position of traditional Christian scholars is that Paul is criticizing the Galatians here for keeping the Sabbath and Holy Days given to Israel in the Torah. However, this position requires the assumption that Paul equates the observance of God's Holy Days with slavery to/worship of evil spirit beings.

This view ignores Paul's command to the Corinthians to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread (I Cor. 5:8), as well as his background and training as a Torah-observant Pharisee. In fact, it implies that Paul held the Gnostic position that the god of the Old Testament was an evil angelic being ("demiurge").

Clearly, the sectarians proselytizing at Galatia were trying to get the congregation to observe some type of Jewish "days and months and seasons and years." But were these the same "days and months and seasons and years" that normative Judaism kept?

If you remember from our earlier discussion, Paul's use of the phrase "Works of the Law" indicates that he was speaking specifically against beliefs held by the Qumran Essene sectarians, as defined in 4QMMT. According to Martin Abegg, another Qumran document (4Q327) was connected to 4QMMT:

4Q327 . . . plots the Sabbaths and festivals for one complete solar year . . .
This is one of the few calendars that designates the extrabiblical Festival of Oil, which fell on the twenty-second day of the sixth month. The structure of the work makes it likely that two more extrabiblical festivals were originally listed as well: the Wine Festival and the Festival of Wood Offering. . . .

Some scholars believe that 4Q327 was not actually a separate and distinct work. They argue that instead it originally attached to the beginning of one copy of A Sectarian Manifesto (text 84). In favor of this suggestion is the handwriting: the same scribe wrote both 4Q327 and the copy of the Manifesto. . . . (p. 319, Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation)
As shown by 4Q327, another core belief of the Qumran Essene group was their calendar. It was a solar calendar consisting of 364 days per year which included the Essene version of God's commanded Holy Days (Lev. 23), as well as extrabiblical observances.

(....)

A recent article in the Biblical Archaeological Review gives us some specific information about this calendar and how it differed from the calendar used by the majority of Jews:

Even the Essene calendar was different. The Temple authorities maintained a lunar calendar; the Essenes followed a solar calendar, which consisted of exactly 52 weeks per year, that is, 364 days. According to this calendar, festivals always fell on the same day of the week. Thus, Rosh Hashanah (the Feast of Trumpets), Passover and the first day of Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles) always occurred on a Wednesday. The Essenes considered the solar calendar used by the Hasmoneans in the Temple, tied as it was to a 354-day lunar calendar, to be adulterated with Babylonian elements. For example, the names of the months - Nisan, Shevet, Adar, Tishri - were Babylonian. The difference in calendars created a terrible discrepancy in holiday observance, with the Temple authorities and the Essenes celebrating festivals on different days. This naturally created a sharp rift between the two groups. (p. 64, "Jerusalem's Essene Gateway," Biblical Archaeological Review, May/June 1997)

The Essene calendar was a rival to the traditional Jewish calendar endorsed by the Pharisees. Paul, trained as a Pharisee (Acts 23:6; 26:5; Phi. 3:5), would have followed the traditional calendar sanctioned by the Temple authorities. Yeshua himself endorsed this calendar indirectly (Matt. 23:1-3).

The Essene calendar (and consequently, their new year) always began on a Wednesday because the sun, moon, and stars were created on this day (Gen. 1:14-19). The first of the month was called "A Day of Remembrance"; however, the Essene months generally did not start with a new moon. The Qumran sectarians, following the Essene calendar, had substituted different feast days and different months for the true calendar observed by the majority of Jews. Because of the seasonal drift caused by the structure of their calendar, the Essene seasons were also off. Finally, as another document from Qumran (4Q319, "Calendar of the Heavenly Signs") shows, the Essenes had a different system of sabbatical and Jubilee years.

It is easy to understand why Paul would have viewed this calendar and its different holy "days," "months" which did not start on the new moon, out-of-sync "seasons," and variant sabbatical "years" as demonically inspired. These "days and months and seasons and years" were just as much satanic counterfeits as the pagan observances the Galatians had kept before their conversion.


END QUOTE

Per this interpretation, the Galatians were being influenced by teachings similar to what we find in the Essene writings - and interestingly, many MJs today are likewise being influenced by the writings of the Essenes - and Paul is arguing against THEIR law, and not the actual Torah, when he uses the Essene technical term "works of the law".

I haven't given this interpretation much consideration yet, but it is certainly an exciting idea.

I kind of suspected that too so thanks! nice to have the proof.
I find the oil, wine and wood feasts as harvest festivals interesting . so IS the 6th month is Elul and sept? and the month to press oil ? these may not have been "Holy festivals"/ convocations but just workers feasts having to do with harvests why do them if you are not harvesting those things . but more like just a feast planned for the workers who picked and pressed the oil or the wine or cut wood for winter . these just might mean a dinner for the workers ... but someone no doubt was trying to make it
"holy and traditional " . I consider that to be interesting just considering the whole new testament and for sure REV and the references to those three elements ( don't touch grass , the wood , oil or the wine) . does anyone know were they once pagan feasts ? or something older than that going back to Noah or older ? because they pressed wine and oil before the flood too and I am sure they fed their workers also .
where I grew up no one fed people who worked for you . they bought or they brought their own lunch.
but I moved to the midwest and it is very different in that you can't get workers unless you feed them also. it is just polite to do it that way.
so sure it must older than dirt or well shovels .

 

[ContraMundum]

I haven't given this interpretation much consideration yet, but it is certainly an exciting idea.

Revisionism is always exciting. Personally, I'm not attracted to stuff like that, so I don't get too excited. That might explain why I've never warmed to liberal theology, higher criticism or new religions.

 

[Hoshiyya]

Revisionism is always exciting. Personally, I'm not attracted to stuff like that, so I don't get too excited. That might explain why I've never warmed to liberal theology, higher criticism or new religions.

Guessing you didn't read the article... if you ever do, let me hear your measured thoughts, and not just your self-congratulatory self-definition.

 

[Chicken Little]

christians talk about the need for relationship.. some think it means with a church, other with the pastor, other it means with religion, and to other it means with other christians ..... but this guy sums it up perfectly .

Paul shows here that, according to his legalistic observance of the Law before his conversion, he was considered righteous and blameless. However, this righteousness was based on Paul's fleshly ability to conform to the Law. The righteousness which is from God through faith in Yeshua is based on the power of the Holy Spirit to enable a person to be obedient. As we shall see later, Paul speaks of this allegorically in Galatians 4:22-31.

so the next question is if people are not in the right relationship to the spirit and to the Lord ( and they are in relationship to others things( christianish) are they still really under the law, OR WILL BE JUDGED BY THE LAW ? because it is that relationship to him and his spirit that is really what is preserving and purifying us. so if we are doing neither but still using his name as a cloak FOR OUR SINS , is that the REAL MEANING OF " using his name in vain " kind of stuff in the law ?

 

[Chicken Little]

OBSERVANCE ESSENE CALENDAR PHARISAIC CALENDAR
Day of Remembrance (start of month) every month, 1st day when New Moon sighted
Sacred New Year Wed, 1st month, 1st day 1 Nisan (1st month)
1st Day of Passover Feast Wed, 1st month, 15th day 15 Nisan
7th Day of Passover Feast Tue, 1st month, 21st day 21 Nisan
First Fruits of Barley (Wave Sheaf) Sun, 1st month, 26th day 16 Nisan
First Fruits of Wheat (Shavu'ot) Sun, 3rd month, 15th day 5, 6, or 7 Sivan (3rd month)
First Fruits of Wine Sun, 5th month, 3rd day Not observed
Feast of the Wood Offering Mon, 6th month, 2nd day 15 Av (5th month)
First Fruits of Oil Sun, 6th month, 22nd day Not observed
Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah) Wed, 7th month, 1st day 1 Tishri (7th month)
Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) Fri, 7th month, 10th day 10 Tishri
1st Day of Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) Wed, 7th month, 15th day 15 Tishri
8th Day after Tabernacles (Shemini Atzeret) Wed, 7th month, 22th day 22 Tishri

just really interesting stuff right there..

 

[Hoshiyya]

So there are three interpretations of Paul's words that are interesting to this discussion.

The conventional reading:

The typical interpretation of Paul is that he was generally against the observance of the Torah. Some parts of Christendom at some point came to the idea of the Jews being separate from this, and "still allowed" to keep Torah, but that Christians should not; furthermore, that Galatians is Paul's most explicit attack upon Torah observance, and his most intense, even comparing it to the worship of the idols. Since Paul reveals that worship of idols is (in some way) worship of demons, it is an especially forceful condemnation.

The MJ reading:

The normative MJ reading of Paul, among those who accept Paul, is that he was generally pro-Torah and that his opponents would be the proponents of antinomianism and the general pre-existing antinomian tendency/inclination, as well as anti-MJ Jews.
Then there are many MJs who have the same reading of Paul as the Christians, (see paragraph above,) and reject Paul on that basis as Antinomian.

The "Anti-Essenic" reading:

So the reading proposed by Bryan Huie is that Paul is arguing, in at least one epistle, against an Essenic or Essene-like influence among the Galatians, and more generally against Gnosticism. He is (thus) not attacking the traditional Jewish Torah observance, but rather the Essenic observances.

All of these three readings accept that Paul's words are sometimes very specific and technical and not as literal or general as a first-time reader of the Bible might think. All three readings see Paul as generally opposed to Gnosticism and as arguing against Gnosticism in various verses. Both camps, Christians and MJ, interpret the Gnostics as representing some form of Antinomianism.

I want to mention that I am not personally biased against the ancient Essene community. The Qumranic MSS are very interesting to me, but sadly not my field of expertise, hence I seldom bring up the Essenes / Qumran community. I disagree with their calendar system though. Some of their other teachings appear somewhat "cultish" to me. In any event "Anti-Essenic" was the title I chose for the time being to describe this third position, since the other two positions don't directly involve the Essenes.

 

[visionary]

I think the title should be "Essene dis Paul".

 

[Hoshiyya]

I think the title should be "Essene dis Paul".

Why ?

 

[Hoshiyya]

From the opening paragraphs of Huie's commentary on Galatians:

"The key to understanding anything in the Bible is an awareness of the CONTEXT of the Scripture you're reading. Paul's epistle to the Galatians is no exception. We have to remember that this text is a letter that Paul wrote to try and correct a problem that was occurring in Galatia. However, we only have ONE side of the discussion. We don't know what questions or statements Paul had received from the Galatians. In effect, reading this letter is like listening to a telephone conversation we're not directly involved with. We can't hear what the other party is saying, so we have to try and determine what was said through the answers given by the one we can hear.

To fully grasp what Paul is saying in this pivotal New Testament epistle, we must become aware of the specific problems that had arisen in Galatia. We must also try to discern who was causing those problems. Our goal in this article is to compare Paul's comments to the Galatians with teachings that existed in 1st-century Judaism. By doing this, we will attempt to identify the group of "Judaizers" who were disturbing Paul's converts in Galatia. In the process, we will look extensively at some of the documents uncovered during the 20th century in the Dead Sea scrolls found at Qumran."

History is complex, and to truly understand things we must study diligently and thoughtfully.

 

[Chicken Little]

From the opening paragraphs of Huie's commentary on Galatians:

"The key to understanding anything in the Bible is an awareness of the CONTEXT of the Scripture you're reading. Paul's epistle to the Galatians is no exception. We have to remember that this text is a letter that Paul wrote to try and correct a problem that was occurring in Galatia. However, we only have ONE side of the discussion. We don't know what questions or statements Paul had received from the Galatians. In effect, reading this letter is like listening to a telephone conversation we're not directly involved with. We can't hear what the other party is saying, so we have to try and determine what was said through the answers given by the one we can hear.

To fully grasp what Paul is saying in this pivotal New Testament epistle, we must become aware of the specific problems that had arisen in Galatia. We must also try to discern who was causing those problems. Our goal in this article is to compare Paul's comments to the Galatians with teachings that existed in 1st-century Judaism. By doing this, we will attempt to identify the group of "Judaizers" who were disturbing Paul's converts in Galatia. In the process, we will look extensively at some of the documents uncovered during the 20th century in the Dead Sea scrolls found at Qumran."

History is complex, and to truly understand things we must study diligently and thoughtfully.

I had the same fight with God about cultish sounding stuff in history that he wanted me to share and I fought him for years about it because of what men have done to it trying to preserve a tiny bit of a little bit of a big truth to where even the little piece isn't recognize able anymore because of what mankind did to that truth. now everyone mocks it incessantly . and I surely didn't want to get into that . it is their loss . but he didn't see it my way <LOL>
I suspect that hiding deep in these
cultish sounding groups are just people trying to hold on to some older or even more ancient truths but they have become to blurry to see now especially with scientism hiking it leg on everything.
you know the
rock that looks like a fat old lady ( they call venus ) , maybe it really was just a doll someone dad made for his little girl out of a rock ! for people who never believe in a god that is all they see.
or even Noahs ark at Goklitepe they didn't even know what it is but they know how old it is .. they proclaimed it was a 10000 year old Temple to worship animals or something. so no one can see Noah because the place has been so well perfumed up by the skunks and users and other critters and things who are " trying to preserve it " with their all their legs hiked .. I'm not saying the Essenenes or any others weren't cultish they may have started right but end wrong.. , but I am just as sure men try to hold on to truths that have been lost and that no one can explain now because they were lost and or afterwards were used by too many crooked minds. I don't think Paul would come against true history if from them or anyone , but only false practices or false beliefs about it that create false " traditions" of what was true history.

 

[BelieveTheWord]

I've been trying to say this for a while. I think the more typical MJ view is that Paul is talking about Torah, but it isn't as bad as it seems. I've never seen this type of argument work out very well. I like the article, and many of his other ones, but the issue of Galatians is quite easy to distill.

If Paul's topic is indeed the Torah of Yah, then he is clearly in gross error and blaspheming.

If he is dealing with another set of laws, then his anger and abrasiveness are more justified.

 

[pat34lee]

If Paul's topic is indeed the Torah of Yah, then he is clearly in gross error and blaspheming.

If he is dealing with another set of laws, then his anger and abrasiveness are more justified.

The problem here wasn't Paul but the fact that one word, 'law' meant three different things in Hebrew. Torah, ceremonial law, and Rabbinic law. Once you determine which he is talking about at any time, the problems clear themselves up. The link in the OP has a good section on what "works of the law" means.

 

[Hoshiyya]

I've been trying to say this for a while. I think the more typical MJ view is that Paul is talking about Torah, but it isn't as bad as it seems. I've never seen this type of argument work out very well. I like the article, and many of his other ones, but the issue of Galatians is quite easy to distill.

If Paul's topic is indeed the Torah of Yah, then he is clearly in gross error and blaspheming.

If he is dealing with another set of laws, then his anger and abrasiveness are more justified.

"the issue of Galatians is quite easy to distill. "​

Well to most people it is still seen as Paul's most direct and unambiguous attack on God's laws.

"If Paul's topic is indeed the Torah of Yah, then he is clearly in gross error and blaspheming.
If he is dealing with another set of laws, then his anger and abrasiveness are more justified"​

Yes I agree, and this article I share is an attempt to identify what the "other set of laws" was.

"I think the more typical MJ view is that Paul is talking about Torah"​

I don't know if that's numerically the more typical, but maybe it is. I refer to the view that Paul attacked Torah-observance as "the conventional view", whereas the view that he was pro-Torah is really only held by MJs, hence it is the MJ view, a view unique to MJ.

 

[Hoshiyya]

The problem here wasn't Paul but the fact that one word, 'law' meant three different things in Hebrew. Torah, ceremonial law, and Rabbinic law. Once you determine which he is talking about at any time, the problems clear themselves up. The link in the OP has a good section on what "works of the law" means.

Just as Paul's controversy is really all about the definition of a few words, so is the case with the TNK.
The definition of Elohim is crucial as to whether the Bible is a monotheist or polytheist text.

Regarding the definition of the Works of the Law, here's that section, for those interested:

GALATIANS 2:15 "We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, 16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law [ergon nomou] but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law [ergon nomou]; for by the works of the law [ergon nomou] no flesh shall be justified. (NKJV)

Here we are introduced to the phrase "works of the law" for the first time in the letter to the Galatians. This phrase has been the foundation for much Christian doctrine and theological understanding. Most Christians believe that "works of the law" is a reference to observing the Law of Moses. They interpret Paul's words here to mean that obedience to the Torah is no longer required. In fact, some take Paul's statement to mean that obedience to the Law demonstrates a lack of faith.

However, this interpretation is unjustified based on Paul's prior comments to Peter. Peter was NOT following the Law of Moses when he separated himself from the Gentiles. Rather, he was adhering to traditions found in the Oral Law. Could it be that Paul's use of the phrase "works of the law" was intended to refer to something other than the Law of Moses?

Due to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947, new light has been shed on the heresy that Paul was combating in Galatia. In the fourth cave excavated at Qumran, a manuscript named Miqsat Ma'ase haTorah (4QMMT) was found. It was only translated and released to the public in 1994.

In the November/December 1994 issue of Biblical Archaeological Review, scholar Martin Abegg commented on the importance of this document to understanding Paul's letter to the Galatians:

MMT . . . stands for Miqsat Ma'ase Ha-Torah, which Strugnell and Qimron translate "Some Precepts of the Torah." This translation unfortunately obscures MMT's relationship to Paul's letters.

In this case, miqsat does not mean simply "some." The same word is used in Genesis 47:2, where Joseph presents five of his brothers to Pharaoh. Here the word could be understood to mean the most important of the brothers or perhaps the choice or select. In other words, when the word is used in MMT, it does not refer just to some random laws; these laws are important to the writer. A similar understanding of the meaning of the word can be gleaned from its use in the Talmud. Thus we might translate the word more accurately as "some important" or "pertinent."

More significant for our purposes, however, are the other two words, ma'ase ha-torah. Strugnell and Qimron translate this phrase as "precepts of Torah," while Lawrence Schiffman offers "legal rulings of Torah." These translations are accurate enough, but they nonetheless cloud the Paul connection.

A few minutes with a concordance of the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, leaves little doubt that the Greek equivalent of ma'ase ha-torah is likely ergon nomou. Ergon nomou is commonly translated in English versions of the New Testament as "works of the law." This well-known Pauline phrase is found in Romans 3:20,28 and in Galatians 2:16; 3:2,5,10.

. . . Ma'ase ha-torah is equivalent to what we know in English from Paul's letters as "works of the law." This Dead Sea Scroll and Paul use the very same phrase. The connection is emphasized by the fact that this phrase appears nowhere in rabbinic literature of the first and second centuries A.D.—only in Paul and in MMT. (pp. 52-53, "Paul, 'Works of the Law,' and MMT," Biblical Archaeological Review, November/December 1994)

This ancient document is of great importance in understanding the heresy that Paul was combating at Galatia. As we will see by another of Paul's statements later (Gal. 4:10), the evidence is overwhelming that his opponents there were adherents to some of the same doctrines that those in Qumran held.

Several books have addressed this particular Dead Sea Scroll since it was first published. In a more recent work, Abegg speaks further about the significance of 4QMMT (which he calls A Sectarian Manifesto):

In all of antiquity, only the Manifesto and Paul's Letters to the Galatians and Romans discuss the connection between works and righteousness. For that reason alone this writing is of immense interest and importance. But the Manifesto has additional significance. While the sectarian documents found in the caves at Qumran fairly bristle with legal discussions on a variety of issues, only this work, commonly known as 4QMMT (an acronym from the Hebrew words meaning "some of the works of the Law"), directly challenges the position of another religious group.

. . . The Manifesto presents a well-reasoned argument couched in a homily, complete with applications, illustrations, and exhortations. Following a thesis statement that identifies the central problem—the impure are being allowed to mix with the pure (the profane with the holy)—the author lists some two dozen examples to prove his point . . . The addressee (and secondarily, the reader) is then encouraged to follow the author: separate from those who practice such things. . . . (p. 358, Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation)

Abegg's translation of the 4QMMT author's concluding statements shows that the Qumran sectarians were advocating obedience to their particular interpretation of the Tanakh:

[Indeed,] we [have written] to you so that you might understand the book of Moses, the book[s of the Pr]ophets, and Davi[d] . . . (p. 363, Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation)

Here is Abegg's translation of the final exhortation found in 4QMMT:

Now, we have written to you some of the works of the Law, those which we determined would be beneficial for you and your people, because we have seen [that] you possess insight and knowledge of the Law. Understand all these things and beseech Him to set your counsel straight and so keep you away from evil thoughts and the counsel of Belial. Then you shall rejoice at the end time when you find the essence of our words to be true. And it will be reckoned to you as righteousness, in that you have done what is right and good before Him, to your own benefit and to that of Israel. (p. 364, Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation)

Abegg succinctly summarizes the author's intention for a reader of 4QMMT:

. . . The final exhortation presses home the author's true point: to be accounted righteous, one must obey the Law as interpreted in the Manifesto.

This final exhortation is of great importance for a fuller understanding of statements the apostle Paul makes about works and righteousness in his Letter to the Galatians. The author of the Manifesto, probably thinking of Psalm 106:30-31 (where the works of Phinehas were "reckoned to him as righteousness"), is engaged, as it were, in a rhetorical duel with the ideas of the apostle. Paul appeals to Genesis 15:6 to show that it was the faith of Abraham that was "reckoned to him as righteousness" (Gal. 3:6) and goes on to state categorically that "by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified" (Gal. 2:16). Probably the "false brethren" (Gal. 2:4) that Paul opposed held a doctrine on justification much like that of the present writing (i.e., 4QMMT). (p. 359, Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation)

In his essay "The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Historical Jesus," James H. Charlesworth speaks of the emphasis the Qumran Essenes placed on purity:

As we know from an unpublished letter ("Some of the Precepts of the Torah") . . . the Qumran group held to rules for purification that differed from other Jews (4QMMT). The Qumranic penal code, which included the death penalty, was closely aligned with the rules for purity. In terms of the concept of purity Jesus was categorically different from the Essenes. (p. 25, Jesus And The Dead Sea Scrolls)

It was the issue of ritual purity as defined by the Oral Law that caused Peter to separate from Gentiles in Antioch. The relationship between the cause for Peter's hypocrisy and the "different gospel" being brought to Galatia by the "false brethren" is why Paul chose to use the story of Peter to launch his attack on his opponents there. Regarding the nature of the teachings found at Qumran, Charlesworth writes:

. . . The Essenes originated as a separate group because of their interpretation of legal issues (4QMMT). Many of the Dead Sea Scrolls are legalistic . . . (p. 32, Jesus And The Dead Sea Scrolls)

The Essenes at Qumran were a subgroup of the majority of Essenes:

. . . The Essenes of Josephus cannot be simply equated with the Qumranites. The history of the Qumranites is long, covering three centuries, and there is considerable development at Qumran. Likewise the lifestyle of the "Qumran Essenes" would be more strict than those living, for example, in Jerusalem. There were at least two distinct types of Essenes in Palestine. (p. 42, Jesus And The Dead Sea Scrolls)
As these quotations show, the teaching brought to Galatia by the sectarians went far above and beyond the requirements of the written Torah.

GALATIANS 2:17 "If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! 18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. (NIV)

Now Paul, in an effort to head off any counter argument that he was opposed to obeying the written Law of Moses, goes on the offensive against lawlessness (I John 3:4). He states that justification through the sacrifice of the Messiah does not give us license to sin.

GALATIANS 2:19 For I through the Law died to the Law that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (NKJV)

The penalty for sin is death, as Paul states in his epistle to the Romans (Rom. 6:23). Therefore, those who have broken any of God's laws are under this penalty (cf. Jam. 2:10). Because of this requirement of the Law, Paul had to die. But instead of physically dying, Paul was able to substitute the Messiah's sacrificial death for his own. However, in order not to become a lawbreaker again after having been cleansed of his sins, Paul had to subject his will to that of Messiah Yeshua. He had to become a living sacrifice, living his life in obedience to God instead of obeying his own fleshly lusts.

http://www.herealittletherealittle.net/index.cfm?page_name=Galatians

 

[visionary]

The works of the law that the Qumran text refers to are obviously typified by the 20 or so religious precepts (halakkah) detailed in the body of the text. For the first time we can really understand what Paul is writing about.

 

[visionary]

The "works of the law" that Yeshua and Paul condemned were the human additions to God's Law which made it a system of bondage and misery and Yeshua pointed out, it often made the Law of God void.

 

[Hoshiyya]

Yes, let's look at this particular part of the 4QMMT:

Now, we have written to you some of the works of the Law, those which we determined would be beneficial for you and your people, because we have seen [that] you possess insight and knowledge of the Law. Understand all these things and beseech Him to set your counsel straight and so keep you away from evil thoughts and the counsel of Belial. Then you shall rejoice at the end time when you find the essence of our words to be true. And it will be reckoned to you as righteousness, in that you have done what is right and good before Him, to your own benefit and to that of Israel.
(p. 364, Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation)

It is easy to see, if we study without bias, that this Essenic document is using the same terminology as found (and combated) in the writings of Paul.

 

[ContraMundum]

Guessing you didn't read the article... if you ever do, let me hear your measured thoughts, and not just your self-congratulatory self-definition.

Yeah, I did. I got bored after about the third paragraph. My immediate thought was this "I don't think the world needs yet another theory on Paul- and I don't see any benefit to it"

 

[Rachel Rachel]

There's an absolutely fascinating commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians some of you should check out:
http://www.herealittletherealittle.net/index.cfm?page_name=Galatians

In this extract, Bryan Huie gives an interpretation of Galatians I doubt you will have heard of before.

QUOTE:

GALATIANS 4:10 You observe days and months and seasons and years. (NKJV)

The long-standing position of traditional Christian scholars is that Paul is criticizing the Galatians here for keeping the Sabbath and Holy Days given to Israel in the Torah. However, this position requires the assumption that Paul equates the observance of God's Holy Days with slavery to/worship of evil spirit beings.

This view ignores Paul's command to the Corinthians to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread (I Cor. 5:8), as well as his background and training as a Torah-observant Pharisee. In fact, it implies that Paul held the Gnostic position that the god of the Old Testament was an evil angelic being ("demiurge").

Clearly, the sectarians proselytizing at Galatia were trying to get the congregation to observe some type of Jewish "days and months and seasons and years." But were these the same "days and months and seasons and years" that normative Judaism kept?

If you remember from our earlier discussion, Paul's use of the phrase "Works of the Law" indicates that he was speaking specifically against beliefs held by the Qumran Essene sectarians, as defined in 4QMMT. According to Martin Abegg, another Qumran document (4Q327) was connected to 4QMMT:

4Q327 . . . plots the Sabbaths and festivals for one complete solar year . . . This is one of the few calendars that designates the extrabiblical Festival of Oil, which fell on the twenty-second day of the sixth month. The structure of the work makes it likely that two more extrabiblical festivals were originally listed as well: the Wine Festival and the Festival of Wood Offering. . . .

Some scholars believe that 4Q327 was not actually a separate and distinct work. They argue that instead it originally attached to the beginning of one copy of A Sectarian Manifesto (text 84). In favor of this suggestion is the handwriting: the same scribe wrote both 4Q327 and the copy of the Manifesto. . . . (p. 319, Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation)
As shown by 4Q327, another core belief of the Qumran Essene group was their calendar. It was a solar calendar consisting of 364 days per year which included the Essene version of God's commanded Holy Days (Lev. 23), as well as extrabiblical observances.

(....)

A recent article in the Biblical Archaeological Review gives us some specific information about this calendar and how it differed from the calendar used by the majority of Jews:

Even the Essene calendar was different. The Temple authorities maintained a lunar calendar; the Essenes followed a solar calendar, which consisted of exactly 52 weeks per year, that is, 364 days. According to this calendar, festivals always fell on the same day of the week. Thus, Rosh Hashanah (the Feast of Trumpets), Passover and the first day of Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles) always occurred on a Wednesday. The Essenes considered the solar calendar used by the Hasmoneans in the Temple, tied as it was to a 354-day lunar calendar, to be adulterated with Babylonian elements. For example, the names of the months - Nisan, Shevet, Adar, Tishri - were Babylonian. The difference in calendars created a terrible discrepancy in holiday observance, with the Temple authorities and the Essenes celebrating festivals on different days. This naturally created a sharp rift between the two groups. (p. 64, "Jerusalem's Essene Gateway," Biblical Archaeological Review, May/June 1997)

The Essene calendar was a rival to the traditional Jewish calendar endorsed by the Pharisees. Paul, trained as a Pharisee (Acts 23:6; 26:5; Phi. 3:5), would have followed the traditional calendar sanctioned by the Temple authorities. Yeshua himself endorsed this calendar indirectly (Matt. 23:1-3).

The Essene calendar (and consequently, their new year) always began on a Wednesday because the sun, moon, and stars were created on this day (Gen. 1:14-19). The first of the month was called "A Day of Remembrance"; however, the Essene months generally did not start with a new moon. The Qumran sectarians, following the Essene calendar, had substituted different feast days and different months for the true calendar observed by the majority of Jews. Because of the seasonal drift caused by the structure of their calendar, the Essene seasons were also off. Finally, as another document from Qumran (4Q319, "Calendar of the Heavenly Signs") shows, the Essenes had a different system of sabbatical and Jubilee years.

It is easy to understand why Paul would have viewed this calendar and its different holy "days," "months" which did not start on the new moon, out-of-sync "seasons," and variant sabbatical "years" as demonically inspired. These "days and months and seasons and years" were just as much satanic counterfeits as the pagan observances the Galatians had kept before their conversion.


END QUOTE

Per this interpretation, the Galatians were being influenced by teachings similar to what we find in the Essene writings - and interestingly, many MJs today are likewise being influenced by the writings of the Essenes - and Paul is arguing against THEIR law, and not the actual Torah, when he uses the Essene technical term "works of the law".

I haven't given this interpretation much consideration yet, but it is certainly an exciting idea.

I haven't read through the responses so someone may have already brought this up. I don't want to be off-topic but have you heard Israeli professor Rachel Elior's opinion that the "Essenes" never existed but were in fact Zadokite (Sadducee) Priests ousted during the political chaos that preceded the Hasmonean revolt in the second century BCE.

The Hasmoneans, a priestly family but not of the Zadokite line, cast out the Hellenizers from Jerusalem but instead of restoring the Zadokite line installed their own members in the high priesthood. Some of the Zadokites and their followers challenged the legitimacy of the Hasmonean priestly leadership and seceded from Temple service. This conflict between the Zadokite "secessionists," as Elior calls them, and the Hasmonean usurpers is the theme of many of the most interesting scrolls found at Qumran. Elior views the Qumran scrolls as a Zadokite library, not an Essene library as has been the consensus view. Amid the chaos and intense religious ferment of the Hasmonean period (152-37 BCE), new voices began to be heard - those of scholars known as Pharisees who disputed the legitimacy of the Hasmonean priests and kings and who argued with the Zadokite priests about the solar calendar and their claims to possess an open line to the divine. These scholars, who would become known as rabbis or sages, were unhappy about the exclusiveness of the priests and the power they had accrued through their claims to esoteric knowledge as confidants of angels. In a game-changing move, the rabbis declared that the age of prophecy had long since ended and that the priesthood had been severed from ongoing access to higher authority.
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http://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Features/From-the-sun-to-the-moon