Sárospataki Füzetek 18. (2014)
2014 / 1. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - Jacob J. T. Doedens: The Return of YHWH and the End of the Exile
Jacob J.T. Doedens Ezra 13:39-50 relates also the return of the ten tribes, who went into Assyrian exile. “The overall impression that one receives from the book is that exile continues to the end and that one must cope with the present distress.”78 Similar notions are found in 2 Baruch: there will be a limited reign of the Messiah (2 Bar. 40:2), after the rebuilding of the temple, the nations will again honour Israel, but not in the same way as before (2 Bar. 68:6-7). The apocryphal books display the same thought: Tobit 14:5 describes how the ones who return from exile will rebuild a temple, which not will be like the previous one. When, however, the time of these ages is over, all exiles will return to rebuild Jerusalem “and the house of God shall be built in it forever with a glorious building as the prophets have spoken thereof.” (Tob 14:5). This means that despite the return, the total restoration is still to be awaited. The book of 2 Maccabees, similarly, describes the time of the Maccabean revolt with the prayer that all those who are still scattered among the nations will be brought together and that the oppressors be punished (2 Macc 1:27-29; 2:7.18). Sirach 36:1-17 also hopes for a time when the reign of the foreign nations will end and the people of Jacob will be gathered together. (2) Dead Sea Scrolls The Qumran texts,79 also, give witness of a view on a view on the exile as still enduring.80 The War Scroll phrases this thought as follows: when the exiled sons of light return from the desert of the nations to camp in the desert of Jerusalem. And after the war, they shall go up from there.81 The Damascus Document views the exile as having lasted longer than only 70 years: And at the period of wrath, three hundred and ninety years after having delivered them up into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, he visited them and caused to sprout from Israel and from Aaron a shoot of the planting, in order to possess his land and to become fat with the good things of his soil.82 78 VanderKam,"Exile in Jewish Apocalyptic Literature," 108. 75 Texts and translation: Florentino García Martinezand Eibert J. C.Tigchelaar, eds., The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, Leiden: Brill, 2000. Hereafter DSSSE. 80 For an overview, see Lawrence H. Schiffman, "The Concept of Restoration in the Dead Sea Scrolls," in Restoration: Old Testament, Jewish, and Christian Perspectives (JSJSup 72; ed. James M. Scott; Leiden: Brill, 2001), 203-221. See also Graig A. Evans, "Jesus and the Continuing Exile of Israel," in Jesus and the Restoration of Israel: A Critical Assessment of N. T. Wright's "Jesus and the Victory of God," (ed. Carey C. Newman; Downers Grove, III.: InterVarsity, 1999), 83-85. 81 1Q33 col. 1:3 (DSSSE 112-113). 82 CD-A col. l:5-7 (DSSSE 550-551). 42 Sárospataki Füzetek 17. évfolyam 20141 1
