Last week we talked about the role of John the Baptist but this week the action will transfer over to Yeshua (Jesus) and his baptism and temptation in the wilderness. The Gospel of Mark has a number of significant differences from the accounts found in Matthew and Luke because of the story he wants to tell–namely, how Yeshua ben Yosef from the backwater village of Nazareth is the Greater Exodus fulfillment of Isaiah 40-55. We are also going to take a brief look at 11Q13, better known as the sectarian Melchizedek Scroll.
Moderately edited. But don’t expect perfection.
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Mark Part 4—The Baptism, the Temptation, and the Melchizedek Scroll
Alright, this is part for of my series on the Gospel of Mark and I hope you caught my seventeen part series on Isaiah and the Messiah because the writer of this Gospel clearly meant for it to be linked with Isaiah chapters 40-55—with the exile and the estrangement of Israel from God, and the promise of the Servant who would bring them back into relationship and who would carry God’s salvation to the ends of the earth. It is evident that when the disciples read Isaiah 40-55 they recognized their teacher and all they had experienced during His ministry.
I can’t remember if I have mentioned this yet, but the Gospels are laid out as ancient biographies. Ancient biographies do not read the same way our modern drier biographies do. Different things were important to them. They wanted to hear different sorts of things; the themes were very different from what is important to us. They were not an anti-supernaturalism society and had no dividing line between life and politics and religion. Everything was lumped in together and connected. If you were talking about a great man, then you were going to hear stories about signs and omens surrounding his birth and major life events, like victories in battle and—although the latter is familiar to us, the former rather get snickered at as we tend to be quite skeptical and even when we should not be. But, that’s our ancestors and how they communicated and over the past few hundred years, we diverged from that and decided that we could do it better and that they were, as philosopher David Hume put it, “ignorant and barbarous people.” It is true that we tend to look at ourselves as the pinnacle of thought and other cultures as backward. It is exactly that sort of ethnocentric garbage inspired during the “Enlightenment” that has created such unbiblical readings of the Biblical text. We can’t look at ancient cultures as savage—unless of course we are willing to look at ourselves as quite savage as well! After all, the Democrats in Washington DC just recently struck down a bill that would have made it a requirement to protect and save babies born alive after failed abortions. Yeah, but other cultures are savage because they believe in signs and omens and miracles. Alrighty then.
Last week, we talked about Mark 1:2-8, about John the Baptist and so that meant delving quite a lot into Exodus, Isaiah and Malachi but this week the focus of the activity changes from John the Baptist to Yeshua/Jesus and the infancy of His ministry in the wilderness. The Exodus will come up again as it is a major theme throughout Mark.
Hi, I am Tyler Dawn Rosenquist and welcome to Character in Context, where I teach the historical and ancient sociological context of Scripture with an eye to developing the character of the Messiah. If you prefer written material, I have five years’ worth of blog at theancientbridge.com as well as my six books available on amazon—including a four-volume curriculum series dedicated to teaching Scriptural context in a way that even kids can understand it, called Context for Kids—and I have two video channels on YouTube with free Bible teachings for both adults and kids. You can find the link for those on my website. Past broadcasts of this program can be found at characterincontext.podbean.com and transcripts can be had for most broadcasts at theancientbridge.com
All Scripture this week comes courtesy of the ESV, the English Standard Version.
9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” 12 The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13 And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.
14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
16 Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” 18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19 And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. 20 And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.
Not a lot of verses, but I have to say that teaching from the Gospels is far more complex than teaching the Torah and the Prophets. For one—we know much more about the geo-political and religious life during the first century than during previous times. It’s just a fact. There is so much that we don’t know about life in Israel before the exile, and so we look at other cultures and we speculate but with the first century—dang there is a lot of information from Jewish as well as Gentile sources. Plus, we are talking about the most pivotal figure in history—the Messiah. No one was ever more important in history and no one is or ever will be. His teachings are the most important. His life is the most important. Understanding Him as much as we can is the most important. He died for us, and so we owe Him our undivided attention when He acts and speaks.
9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
So, last week we were introduced to John, who was identified as the forerunner to the Messiah and the fulfillment of God’s promises to send Elijah to His people. We were told that “all of Jerusalem and Judea” were going out to be baptized by him. So, I don’t want you to miss the focus of repentance here—it was Judea and Jerusalem who were seeing a need to repent. They were not being exalted as the elites but as people in need of turning toward God for forgiveness of sins (which they believed would end their occupation by Rome, when God finally fully wiped their national slate clean). Contrast that with the coming of one solitary man from Nazareth of Galilee, a tiny little nothing of a village that “nothing good can come out of” as per Nathanael in John 1:46. But this lone figure emerges not from the elite center of the Land but instead from nowhere to be baptized by John. It does not mention Him repenting or confessing His sins, just that He came to be baptized. And where? In the Jordan no less.
Now, if we look in the Mishnah, we will see that the Jordan is not considered a fitting place for the baptism of purification that would prepare one for Temple attendance. In M. Parah 8.10 we see this, and this is out of my Kehati commentary, “The waters of the Jordan and the Yarmuk are unfit, because they are mixed waters. Which are mixed waters? If one which is fit and one which is unfit mingle together.”
Now, Josephus claimed that the baptism of John was for purification but the Bible doesn’t. The Bible says it is a baptism for repentance. Now, possibly this rabbinic ruling was after the time of John, because Josephus (a priest) has no issue with the idea of it being for purification a hundred years later, or Josephus misunderstood what John was doing. We don’t know. Doesn’t really matter because there was no need for this to be for purification. Although, interesting little tidbit here—remember that Namaan the Syrian was told to dip in the Jordan seven times to be cleansed of leprosy and Isaiah 53 has some very specific references to the Servant that use the same words as are used for lepers. So there might be that as well. But the Jordan River was not exactly in Judea—it formed the border with the eastern world. The tribes “beyond the Jordan” were the first to go into exile and the first to apostatize, to turn away from God. And so there was more than a bit of drama associated with the Jordan for good and for bad. It was where Joshua and the Israelites finally miraculously crossed over after the death of Moses. Elijah and Elisha parted the waters and crossed over right before the disappearance of Elijah. It was a place of healing and a place of the transferring of authority from Moses to Joshua, Elijah to Elisha and now John to Yeshua.
10 And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.
We have a really cool visual here of Yeshua coming up and the Spirit coming down. Let’s look at Isaiah 64:1 for some context:
Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence—
Mark 1:10 talks about the heavens being “torn open” and the Spirit coming down to descend on Yeshua. Now, this Gospel only claims that Yeshua (he) saw this happening. It says nothing about witnesses or the crowds hearing it. Nor does Matthew or Luke, but only the Gospel of John and it only has John the Baptist himself claiming to have witnessed it.
One more cool thing—look at Ex 19:10-11
10 the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments 11 and be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.
The Lord would not descend to Sinai UNTIL the people were consecrated. Here we have Yeshua baptized and consecrated and all of a sudden the heavens rip open and the Spirit descends. Yeshua as the ideal representative of Israel and God responding to Him as ideal Israel. Cool, huh?
Now, why a dove? Genesis 1:2 sort of hints at a birdlike presence hovering, and Deuteronomy 32:10-11 compares the Spirit to an eagle—but why does it say, here, “like a dove?” Well, a few possibilities. The most notable example of a dove in Scripture is obviously the dove sent out by Noah in Genesis 8 after the floodwaters started receding. We see in that dove the promise of life after chaos and death, redemption and forgiveness after a time of judgement—and so, very appropriate imagery to be associated with the Messiah who was about to perform exactly those functions on behalf of Israel and the nations.
11 And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
This is covenant language. The word “son” in the ancient world could have a number of different meanings depending on the context. Obviously, it can be a literal son, like my sons Matthew and Andrew, or it can be a covenant term between a god and the king who is his earthly representative. That’s what we see in II Sam 7:14-16:
13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, 15 but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’”
Of course, that was addressed to David and was speaking about Solomon, leaving us with the conundrum of David’s throne being empty for over 2500 years now—UNLESS the throne was re-established through Yeshua, which I believe was a big part of the renewed Covenant. You know, Sinai was ratified in blood so it was eternal, but the Davidic covenant was not—except at the Cross.
Bat kol is the Hebrew phrase meaning “daughter of voice” and is called the “Voice of Heaven.” Because of this feminine nature, the gnostic Gospel of Thomas actually credits this voice with being feminine. Obviously, it just doesn’t say male or female, we just assume male and I am not going to comment on it other than to just say that it is an interesting observation. So don’t get angry, not tipping any sacred cows here. So we have the bat kol, the voice from heaven and it says, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
Let’s look at Psalm 2:7-8:
7 I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.”
This is what is called an enthronement Psalm and if you ever want to do some serious studies into the Psalms, there is this scholar named Sigmund Mowinckel and I am not aware of anyone who is more respected in the field. The book is called The Psalms in Israel’s Worship and it isn’t light reading, but it is really informative. Enthronement psalms are believed to have been spoken over kings at coronations—the words of both men and God over the new king.
And the very first line of the first Servant Song—Isaiah 42:1
Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.
Although Mark 1:11 isn’t a direct quote of either, it has elements of both. So we have the concept of the newly enthroned king being (at the very least) witnessed before John the Baptist as the Davidic heir, and not only the Davidic heir, but the word beloved is agapetos—this is not a casual relationship between two covenant members, this is agape love expressed toward the son. And not only does this expression point toward the Davidic kingship, but also toward the Servant—who we spent seventeen weeks talking about!
12 The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.
The Spirit drove Yeshua into the wilderness immediately after that proclamation was made. From where? Well, from the wilderness. Mark 1:4 clearly states that John was baptizing people in the wilderness so I find it really interesting that the Spirit drove Yeshua deeper into the wilderness. Think of the Israelites passing through the Yam Suf—that was the wilderness too. In Ex 14:2, Pharaoh called it the wilderness, he said that the wilderness had shut them in. But they passed through the Yam Suf, a type of baptism, and deeper into the wilderness. Remember I said the Exodus language in the Gospel of Mark is just all over the place. By being baptized by John in the Jordan, and by being led by the Spirit into the wilderness, He is reenacting the Exodus story—but, as we will see, as the ideal son of Israel who will not falter when tested and tempted.
13 And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.
Forty days—we are immediately reminded of two guys associated with forty days—Moses and Elijah—again! Moses did forty days on Mt Sinai, twice, and Elijah was out in the wilderness on the run from Jezebel and an angel fed him a meal that sustained him for forty days and nights on his journey to Horeb. Mark says he was being tempted by Satan but this account gives no details, doesn’t report a victory or an end to the temptation. This is a bare bones account. But I will tell you one detail that no one else records—that he was with the wild animals. Now, David was with the wild animals when he protected the sheep and he killed them. Nebuchadnezzar was with the wild animals, living among them when he was being disciplined by God. Was this a hostile situation, or was this perhaps a fulfillment of Is 11:6-10?
6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.
7 The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.
9 They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. 10 In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.
Although there are some similarities, I don’t see enough evidence here to support it. There is nothing in Mark to suggest that this was a friendly interaction. It would have to be seriously read into the text and although this is a Messianic passage, it seems very much to be a second coming sort of Messianic age situation. But, going forward, as recorded in Matthew and Luke, the angels ministered to Him. This was no easy test. It was forty days in the wilderness—probably between Elul 1 and Yom Kippur, a very hot and dry season. Mark also doesn’t mention fasting, but Matthew and Luke both do. I want you to think about Israel in the wilderness—how long were they able to make it before wanting to kill Moses and Aaron for lack of food and water? See the parallels? Yeshua endured, without cursing God—even with wild animals thrown into the mix. And possibly no tent. Yeshua endured faithfully what Israel, as a whole, could not–what none of us could.
14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
Okay, so the Gospel of John tells us that a lot of time went by between verse 13 and fourteen—between the temptation in the wilderness and John’s arrest. Mark isn’t interested in focusing on Yeshua during this intermediate time and probably because, as we will see, Mark is more interested in proclaiming Yeshua as the Second Exodus and His ministry as conquering the forces of darkness. But once John is arrested, Yeshua came into Galilee (from where? No one says.). Unlike John’s ministry, which was fairly stationary in nature, focused in the wilderness around the Jordan, Yeshua’s ministry was far more mobile. But the differences between John and Yeshua went way beyond that. John never worked even a single miracle. As I mentioned last week (1) he didn’t have to because as a priest he had credibility without them and (2) he wasn’t a part of the incoming Kingdom, but was the last voice of the world as it was before the Cross. Don’t get me wrong, he is still going to rank head and shoulders above any of us in the Kingdom, but this was about his function and the timing of his witness.
Now, Yeshua was proclaiming the Gospel of God, which is the same as saying that God is going to release them from bondage. The Kingdom of God is inaugurating. Sounds like the Exodus again, right? But not only is Yeshua proclaiming this salvation from sins, but He is saying that the time is now. Because the time is now, there is no time to waste. They must repent and they must believe that it is happening.
Do you remember all those times in Isaiah 40-55 where we went through the same exact thing? God would announce His plans and His salvation and the whole earth would rejoice—except for His people, who would respond that they don’t see any cause for celebration. All those prophetic perfect tense announcements, proclaiming what would be as though it was already a done deal. But they never once believed it. It would be truly maddening but only if we think we are much different. Repent and believe, it is the prophetic equivalent of a broken record. And, if any of you out there don’t know because maybe you’ve never listened to a record, a broken record will keep repeating the same thing over and over again.
The Gospel of the Kingdom is a really big deal. It was and is God’s wake up call to humanity—His final word. This is what allegiance to God looks like. Repent and believe Yeshua’s announcement of the inaugurating kingdom of heaven on earth. It is the decisive point in history.
I want to bring up the Melchizedek Scroll—it is one of the Dead Sea Scrolls, 11QMelch. Now, just in case anyone believes that everything in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Jewish literature during the intertestamental period was meant to be Scripture, that is incorrect. In fact, only 40% of the fragments recovered were copies of Scripture. Thirty percent of the DSS were sectarian writings—that means that they are writings that teach us a lot about how the Qumran community thought and what they believed and how they interpreted and reinterpreted Scripture. Another thirty percent are wisdom writings like Ben Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) and pseudepigraphic (fake name) writings penned under the names of Biblical characters—like Enoch, the Patriarchs, Moses, Joshua, etc. and these were very popular during Hellenistic times. They spoke about subjects that aren’t generally very biblical but creatively fill in the “what if’s” that Scripture leaves open—subjects like the Nephilim, what happened to Enoch, Angels—and introduces concepts like the Watchers—subjects that were very much influenced by the Persian exile and Hellenistic ideas. We see apocalyptic works, again, like Enoch and these were very popular for about four hundred years—they were really like the pinnacle of fictional entertainment in the day and even get quoted in other works, like the Bible (which also quotes Gentile fictional sources) because certain popular expressions mean stuff to everyone, right? If I say, “You’ll shoot your eye out” then I imagine most of you are snickering because of the movie A Christmas Story that wasn’t so much about Christmas but instead about a young boy’s obsession with scoring a Red Ryder BB Gun. And there are a quite a few popular (at the time) quotes from secular sources that ended up being quoted in Scripture. I actually considered quoting The Princess Bride but then it would never end.
But anyway, one of the scrolls is called 11Q13 or 11QMelch and offers some interesting opinions on the mysterious figure of Melchizedek who is only mentioned in three locations in the Bible—in Genesis 14, Psalm 110 and in the book of Hebrews in order to midrashically (I made up that word) explore Yeshua’s position as Messiah and heavenly Priest. As is usual, the less someone is described in Scripture, the more legends pop up and the more stuff people make up. It’s a totally Jewish thing to do. Heck, until the Targums in the first century, Nimrod was considered a great guy. But then the legends started up and on one hand, some writers are saying he was driving rebellious people away from Babel so they would stop building the tower and on the other hand, some people had him doing to Abraham what Nebuchadnezzar did to Rack, Shack, and Benny with the fiery furnace and all that (just for you Veggie Tales fans). Later Rabbinic legends had him in the role of Zoroaster, even though they were separated by a thousand years. In fact, we still know nothing about the historical Nimrod—and modern urban legends sprung up almost two hundred years ago (before the mass findings of cuneiform tablets from the ANE world) linking Nimrod to Semiramis (who actually lived around the same time as King David, maybe eight hundred years later) and Tammuz, a mythological figure who never lived at all—so they mixed a real-life Bible person with a much later date Babylonian Queen and said they were the parents of a mythical shepherd god who probably predated the both of them. Historically, people do this—they take people who are barely mentioned and make them a big huge deal. Again, like the Nephilim. Everything we generally think we know about them has been made up from the outside and imported into the text, which is called eisegesis and eisegesis is often very bad, boys and girls. It really muddies the waters and makes us think the Bible says things that it does not say. And I have been as guilty as anyone when it comes to thinking stuff is in the text that ends up not being there.
But anyway, the Melchizedek Scroll. 11Q13 meaning the eleventh cave of the Qumran region and the thirteenth document from that cave. Now, in their writings, the Qumran community has some relatively unique takes on certain things and a few unique figures show up in their documents. The Teacher of Righteousness shows up a lot and is generally supposed to be one of the early leaders of the Qumran community who was persecuted and rejected by certain evil individuals (supposed to be the Pharisees and Sadducees). Lemme tell you, there is a lot of bitterness in some of these documents about the treatment of this teacher and those folks weren’t playing. They wanted the culprits and everyone who agreed with them to fall under the worst kind of wrath. We also see references to the “sons of light” (themselves) and the “sons of darkness” (everyone else). And Yeshua actually uses those terms as well in Luke 16:8 and John 12:36. This is why the finding of the DSS just created such an explosion in first-century Biblical studies—all of a sudden we have all these phrases that show up in the Bible expounded in their original context. It’s super cool.
So, they wrote about Melchizedek, who they have translated/expounded/whatever into a Messianic/eschatological figure. By eschatological I mean “dealing with the last times.” And you can actually find a text of this in Wikipedia, which I will link for my blog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/11Q13 and that is what I will post in the transcript but I will read a bit from Wise, Abegg, and Cook’s Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation. Remember, these were the writings of commentators giving their opinions about various things they believed they saw and especially as they felt their community was like the only true representation of Judaism and so they had some very interesting and self-serving ideas—this isn’t Scripture. It is also very fragmented. But what this is, even though it is not Scripture, is an interesting window into the Messianic views of at least one group sometime in the centuries about a hundred years before the birth of Yeshua. And it is going to tell us about the proclamation of a Gospel, again, the inbreaking of God’s kingdom—but because the Qumran Covenanters were such a vengeful group, they really focused on the judgment aspects and forgot all about all the verses we studied about the ingathering of Israel and the salvation of the nations when we did Isaiah 40-55. But still, their view of Melchizedek, who they saw as a Messiah figure, was complete with Jubilee imagery, the return of inheritance and all that. They do make some references to Isaianic materials, just not the materials that ended up applying to Yeshua at this point. They REALLY liked the vengeance stuff. A LOT. Like, “No forgiveness of sins for you outsiders! You guys are toast!”
(I actually forgot to read from the other book and read from this instead. oops.)
11QMelch II… And concerning that which He said, In [this] year of Jubilee [each of you shall return to his property (Lev. 25:13); and likewise, And this is the manner of release:] every creditor shall release that which he has lent [to his neighbor. He shall not exact it of his neighbor and his brother], for God’s release [has been proclaimed] (Deut. 15:2). [And it will be proclaimed at] the end of days concerning the captives as [He said, To proclaim liberty to the captives (Isa. 61:1). Its interpretation is that He] will assign them to the Sons of Heaven and to the inheritance of Melchizedek; f[or He will cast] their [lot] amid the po[rtions of Melchize]dek, who will return them there and will proclaim to them liberty, forgiving them [the wrong-doings] of all their iniquities. And this thing will [occur] in the first week of the Jubilee that follows the nine Jubilees. And the Day of Atonement is the e[nd of the] tenth [Ju]bilee, when all the Sons of [Light] and the men of the lot of Mel[chi]zedek will be atoned for. [And] a statute concerns them [to prov]ide them with their rewards. For this is the moment of the Year of Grace for Melchizedek. [And h]e will, by his strength, judge the holy ones of God, executing judgement as it is written concerning him in the Songs of David, who said, ELOHIM has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgement (Psalms 82:1). And it was concerning him that he said, (Let the assembly of the peoples) return to the height above them; EL (god) will judge the peoples (Psalms 7:7-8). As for that which he s[aid, How long will you] judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah (Psalms 82:2), its interpretation concerns Belial and the spirits of his lot [who] rebelled by turning away from the precepts of God to … And Melchizedek will avenge the vengeance of the judgements of God… and he will drag [them from the hand of] Belial and from the hand of all the sp[irits of] his [lot].And all the ‘gods [of Justice’] will come to his aid [to] attend to the de[struction] of Belial. And the height is … all the sons of God… this … This is the day of [Peace/Salvation] concerning which [God] spoke [through Isa]iah the prophet, who said, [How] beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who proclaims peace, who brings good news, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion: Your ELOHIM [reigns] (Isa. 52:7). Its interpretation; the mountains are the prophets… and the messenger is the Anointed one of the spirit, concerning whom Dan[iel] said, [Until an anointed one, a prince (Dan. 9:25)] … [And he who brings] good [news], who proclaims [salvation]: it is concerning him that it is written… [To comfort all who mourn, to grant to those who mourn in Zion] (Isa. 61:2-3). To comfort [those who mourn: its interpretation], to make them understand all the ages of t[ime] … In truth … will turn away from Belial… by the judgement[s] of God, as it is written concerning him, [who says to Zion]; your ELOHIM reigns. Zion is …, those who uphold the Covenant, who turn from walking [in] the way of the people. And your ELOHIM is [Melchizedek, who will save them from] the hand of Belial. As for that which He said, Then you shall send abroad the trump[et in] all the land (Lev. 25:9) …
(The Complete Dead Sea scrolls in English by Géza Vermès 2003)
How will their interpretation hold up? We’ll have to see.
