Royal Messianism and the Jerusalem Priesthood in the Gospel of Mark

Bernardo Cho

• Publisher: T&T Clark
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780567685780
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

Bernardo K. Cho investigates how Jewish messianism from the mid-second century BCE to the late first-century CE envisaged the proper relation between the Israelite king and the Jerusalem priests in the ideal future, and then proceeds to describe how the Gospel of Mark addresses this issue in depicting Jesus. Cho responds to claims that the Markan Jesus regards the kingdom of God as fundamentally opposed to the ancient Levitical system, and argues that, just as with most of its related Jewish literature, the earliest Gospel assumes the expectation that the royal messiah would bring the Jerusalem institution to its eschatological climax. But Mark also depicts Jesus's stance towards the priests in terms of a call to allegiance and warning of judgement. Cho concludes that the Markan Jesus anticipates the destruction of the Jerusalem temple because the priests have rejected Israel's end-time ruler and thus placed themselves outside the messianic kingdom.

Chapter 1

THE ROYAL MESSIAH AND THE JERUSALEM PRIESTS IN THE LATE SECOND TEMPLE PERIOD: THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

The present chapter addresses how the Qumran literature speaking of a royal messiah grapples with the power dynamics between kingship and priesthood in the ideal future. It is widely recognized that both offices occupy a central place within the messianic speculations attested in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Against the view that the Qumran messiah texts downplay the authority of the eschatological king in favour of a priestly ruler, however, I argue that the former was envisaged to take precedence on issues other than cultic and ceremonial matters. The evidence from Qumran suggests that the royal messiah would preside over the nation, even if his influence would be qualified by the role of the high priest as the officiator of the sacrificial system.

The ‘Davidic Branch’ and the ‘Prince of the Congregation’

The messianism of the Scrolls has been extensively discussed in the last half-century and need not be rehearsed here.¹ In short, the evidence precludes the assumption that ‘messiah’ corresponded to one single, rigid category for the Qumran community. As Hermann Lichtenberger points out, ‘schon für eine so eng begrenzte Gruppe, wie der Gemeinde von Qumran, die Rede von der Messiaserwartung dem Befund nicht gerecht wird’.² Yet, it is also altogether evident from the sources that, within a variety of hopes, the scriptural ideology of kingship played a significant role in Qumran.³ While the documents do not associate משיח exclusively with the king, several manuscripts show the hope for the restoration of the Israelite throne.⁴

Let us begin with 4Q252 (4QCommGen A) V, 1-4, a text belonging to a commentary on Genesis and probably dating from the first century BCE.⁵ The question how all the fragments constituting 4Q252 cohere structurally is disputed,⁶ but lines 1-4 unequivocally speak of the coming of an eschatological Davidic ruler:⁷

line 1:	לו]א יסור שליט משבט יהודה בהיות לישראל ממשל ]
line 2:	לוא י]כרת יושב כסא לדויד כי המחקק היא ברית המלכות]
line 3:	ואל]פי ישראל המה הדגלים [ ] עד בוא משיח הצדק צמח]
line 4:	… דויד כי לו ולזרעו נתנה ברית מלכות עמו עד דורות עולם
line 1:	[‘It shall no]t depart a ruler from the tribe of Judah’ (Gen 49:10), when Israel has dominion.
line 2:	One sitting on the throne of David [shall not be] cut off, for the staff is the covenant of kingship.
line 3:	As for the clans of Israel, they are the feet. [ ] until the coming of the righteous messiah, the Branch of
line 4:	David, for to him and to his seed was given the covenant of kingship for eternal generations^8 …

The first line cites the opening sentence from Gen 49:10 – ‘a scepter shall not depart from Judah [לא יסור שׁבט מיהודה]’ – with what Johannes Zimmermann calls a Wortspiel: it substitutes the word ‘ruler [שׁליט]’ for ‘scepter [שבט]’ and uses the latter with reference to the ‘tribe [שבט]’ of Judah.⁹ The second line in turn interprets the citation by linking the ruler with a royal figure, in language reminiscent of 2 Sam 7:16. The commentary adds that the ‘staff [מחקק]’ from the subsequent sentence in Gen 49:10 – ‘nor a staff from between his feet [ומחקק מבין רגליו]’ – represents the ‘covenant of kingship’, thus emphasizing God’s perennial commitment to maintaining the Davidic throne (cf. 2 Sam 23:5; Jer 33:19-26).¹⁰ All this is expanded in lines 3-4, where Jeremiah’s prophecy concerning the ‘righteous branch, a descendant of David’ (Jer 23:5; cf. 33:15) is associated with Gen 49:10. In short, 4Q252 affirms that the coming ruler would be none other than a Davidic king.¹¹

The fragment makes no mention of the messiah’s stance towards the Jerusalem priesthood, but this is because 4Q252 is probably not preoccupied with the question what in particular the messiah was supposed to achieve. Apart from column 5, the content of 4Q252 lacks any messianic interest, which suggests that the text is intended to preserve an existing tradition. The main thrust of 4Q252 V, 1-4 is thus simply to speak of the royal messiah as one who would fulfil Jacob’s blessing by ruling over the nations.¹²

An even more significant piece of evidence is found in 4Q174 ( Florilegium) 1–2 I, 10-13. The first column of fragments 1–2 comments on the narrative of 2 Samuel 7 by linking it with another scriptural passage anticipating the restoration of the royal dynasty (Amos 9:11).¹³ Lines 10-13 read as follows:¹⁴

line 10:	וה]גיד לכה יהוה כיא בית יבנה לכה והקימותי את זרעכה אחריכה ]
	והכינותי את כסא ממלכתו
line 11:	לעו]לם אני אהיה לוא לאב והוא יהיה לי לבן הואה צמח דויד העומד]
	עם דורש התורה אשר
line 12:	בצי[ון בא]חרית הימים כאשר כתוב והקימותי את סוכת דויד הנופלת[ ]
	היאה סוכת
line 13:	דויד הנופל[ת א]שר יעמוד להושיע את ישראל
line 10:	[‘And de]clares Yahweh to you that he will build you a house’, and ‘I will raise up your seed after you and establish the throne of his kingdom
line 11:	[fore]ver. I myself will be to him as a father, and he will be to me as a son’ (2 Sam 7:11-14). He is the Branch of David, who will arise with the Interpreter of the Law, who
line 12:	[ ] in Zi[on in the L]ast Days, just as it is written: ‘I will raise up the booth of David which is fallen’ (Amos 9:11). This booth of
line 13:	David which is falle[n is the one who] will take his stand in order to save Israel.

In 2 Sam 7:10-14, God promises to build the temple, to give David victory over his enemies, and to establish the royal dynasty forever. What is peculiar of 4Q174 is that line 11 explicitly attributes the fulfilment of the divine words in 2 Sam 7:14a – ‘I will be to him as a father, and he will be to me as a son [אני אהיה לוא לאב והוא יהיה לי לבן]’ – to the epithet ‘Branch of David’ (cf. Jer 23:5; Zech 3:8; 6:12). Lines 12-13, in turn, further substantiate his status as the eschatological king: he is the ‘fallen booth of David’ spoken of in Amos 9:11, who is expected to be ‘raised up to deliver Israel in the Last Days’.¹⁵ Lines 18-19 make a reference to Ps 2:1-2, wherein the rulers of the nations are said to plot ‘against the Lord and against [his anointed]’ ([על יהוה ועל [משיחו). Since God speaks of the king as ‘my son [בני]’ in Ps 2:7, the allusion in lines 18-19 reinforces the belief that the royal messiah would be regarded as the king of the nation par excellence.¹⁶

In line 11, the document says that the royal messiah would also arise with the Interpreter of the Law. George Brooke has argued that 4Q174 links the function of the Interpreter of the Law with the office of priesthood.¹⁷Indeed, priestly ideology is prominent in 4Q174, as the text immediately anteceding lines 10-13 contains explicit temple imagery (4Q174 1–2 I, 2-6; cf. Exod 15:...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Title
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: Justification for the Study
• Chapter 1 The Royal Messiah and the Jerusalem Priests in the Late Second Temple Period: The Dead Sea Scrolls
• Chapter 2 The Royal Messiah and the Jerusalem Priests in the Late Second Temple Period: the Pseudepigrapha
• Chapter 3 The Messiahship of Jesus in Markan Christology
• Chapter 4 The Royal Messiah and the Jerusalem Priests in Mark 1–10
• Chapter 5 The Royal Messiah and the Jerusalem Priests in Mark 11–16
• Conclusion: The Markan Jesus Among the Royal Messiahs
• Bibliography
• Index of References
• Index of Authors
• Copyright