Law and Order

Daniel 12

6 And he said to the man clothed in linen, who

was above the waters of the river, How long the

end of these wonders?

7 And I heard the man clothed in linen, who was

above the waters of the river; and he held up his

right hand and his left hand unto the heavens,

and swore by him that liveth for ever that it is

for a time, times, and a half; and when the

scattering of the power of the holy people shall

be accomplished, all these things shall be

finished.

8 And I heard, but I understood not. And I said,

My Lord, what shall be the end of these things?

9 And he said, Go thy way, Daniel; for these

words are closed and sealed till the time of the

end. (Darby OT)


Let's have a look at some of the background to

the book of Daniel. These are some notes taken

from 'Every Prohecy of the Bible' by Walvoord.

'... the book records not only illuminating

experiences of Daniel himself but also the

remarkable prophecies which G-d gave to him which

provide a chronology both for the times of the

Gentiles and for the future of Israel up to the

second coming of Christ.' p.212


Daniel seems to understand very well that he has

been given a schematic chronology of world

events. We find the chronological interest here

in the final passage of the book. He already had

a view of events and their chronology related to

the kingdoms that would follow the Babylonian

Empire, and now he was taken, fast forward, to

the 'time of the end'. In verse eight is the

question, '...what shall be the end of these

things?' The text leaves us with no answer about

the chronological relationship between the series

of empires that follow the Babylonians and the

lapse in time until the end. But the book does

not stand alone. '... the Book of Daniel is the

key to prophetic interpretation, and proper

understanding of its revelation would do much to

help the interpretation of other prophetic

portions...' it helps us '...understand the

symbolism in the Book of Revelation.' And my

guess is that this is one of the more significant

aspects of Daniel, since it alone provides an

interpretation and a chronological context for

symbolism used in other prophetic text. Reading

through the texts, it becomes apparent that there

is a unique and consistent use of symbolism, some

of which I like to examine for their metaphorical

use. In other words, how is anyone supposed to

describe what's going to happen in the future?

What we are given in the text of scripture is a

language that can be translated, but not always

easily interpreted. This is one challenge that's

illustrated in the book of Daniel. For me, it's

well enough to know that there is a chronology of

events moving across the world stage, that is

directed by our Creator, who has a full grasp of

what is going to happen and when it's going to

take place. As I see it, we have been given

already, more than we really NEED to know about

what's in store, and it's likely better not to

know any more than we really need.


In case you haven't noticed, this is already much

more than the skeptic is able to accept. As a

believer, it's not quite so challenging to

acknowledge that in our finite limited capacity,

we are in no position to declare our personal

omniscience. But the skeptic seems to have few

reservations about that. I find it harder to

accept the theory of the omniscient skeptic, than

the doctrine of the sovereignty of G-d. But

that's just me. Some folks are smarter than me,

but the omniscience hurdle is a lofty challenge

for mortals. Walvoord takes up the discussion

'...Critics of the Bible picked up Porphyry's

idea and attempted to prove that Daniel was not a

genuine book of the Bible. Their objections have

been answered in full by many conservative

scholars. The discovery of...the Dead Sea

Scrolls...proved that it was impossible for the

book to have been written in the second century

B.C...' And what christians need to recognize is

that Jesus refers to Daniel as a prophet in Matt.

24:15. Case closed. I'll continue to be

skeptical of skeptics.


While surfing around the web, I found this little

piece on the Essene community -- the people who

are supposed to be the source of the Dead Sea

Scrolls. They shared a strong sense of law and

order. For me, it's hard to imagine why,

especially in ancient times, that there wouldn't

be a preference for external or otherwise

isolated sewerage systems in an urban area. It's

something that in modern times we take for

granted. In the historic description, we may be

distracted by religious ritual intertwined with

hygienic practice, but nobody in their right mind

questions the utility of a sanitary sewer system

anymore. Even though there is a complete failure

to grasp the significance of 'religious' ritual.

All of life is steeped in 'religious' ritual, we

just refuse to see that dimension, since we are

assimilated into the doctrine of the secular

humanists. The Essenes simply rejected

materialistic dogma, in preference to what they

recognized as a superior social code. It seems

that they understood that worship is the essence

of life.


To me, this illustrates the idea that the so

called 'religious' notions of law and order, have

always been at the leading edge of social

progress. Always. Of course, it demands that

there is a prudent effort toward implementation,

and that's where 'religion' often winds up in the

ditch. It get's hijacked by people with another

agenda. As I see it, the christian agenda in the

U.S. today has been mostly hijacked by the 'money

changers', much as in Jesus' time. (See 1 Tim. 6)


Here is where I found a little bit more

information about the Essene community that

populated Jerusalem in contrast to the others who

chose a more reclusive lifestyle removed from the

scene of the crime.


http://www.centuryone.org/essene.html

--->
Josephus mentions a certain Essene teacher named

Judas living in Jerusalem in 104 B.C.E. (13)

Later, Josephus reports, the youthful Herod the

Great met an Essene named Menahem. (14)


According to Josephus, the Essenes were one of

three major Torah schools; the other two were the

Pharisees, who were mostly lay people, and the

Sadducees, the aristocratic and powerful priestly

class of Jerusalem. The nucleus of the Essene

movement was made up of Zadokite kohanim, or

priests. From the time of Solomon, the Temple's

high priests had come from the house of Zadok, a

son of Aaron, from whom the founders of the

Essenes descended. After the successful

second-century B.C.E. revolt of the Maccabees and

the reestablishment of an independent Jewish

state, the Hasmonean kings (from the Maccabee

family) assumed not only the kingship but also

the high priesthood. The king and high priest

were one. The Zadokites among the Essenes

considered the non-Zadokite priests usurpers and

declared their Temple sacrifices illegal. The

Essenes refused to take part in Hasmonean

sacrificial offerings and adhered to purity rules

far stricter than those the Temple authorities

were enforcing.


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.

15 Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 18.20.
16 Philo, Quod omnis homo probus liber sit 75.
17 Philo, Apologia pro Judaeis 1.


The most popular and influential of the three

Torah schools was that of the Pharisees. They

were less radical than the Essenes and were ready

to compromise with the Sadducees and, to some

extent, cooperate with the Romans. According to

Josephus, the Pharisees numbered six thousand;

the Essenes,, four thousand. (15) The

contemporaneous Jewish philosopher and exegete

Philo of Alexandria gives the same number of

Essenes. (16) Like Josephus, Philo reports that

the Essenes "are living together in large

communities in several cities of Judea and in

many villages." (17)


Because of the Essenes' strict purity rules

(among other things, sexual intercourse was

forbidden in Jerusalem, and at least some members

were celibate), we may assume that they lived in

their own section of the city. I believe that the

earliest gate at our site, the Gate of the

Essenes, led to the Essene quarter of Jerusalem

on Mount Zion.


This conclusion is supported by my discovery of

yet another previously unknown landmark mentioned

in Josephus's description of the First Wall - the...

18 Josephus, The Jewish War 5.145.


Essene Latrines.


19 See 11QMiqdash 46.13-16, trans. in The Temple

Scroll ed. Yigael Yadin, 3 vols. (Jerusalem:

Israel Exploration Society/Ben Zvi, 1983), vol.

1, p. 294. place of the Bethso.

(18) According to Josephus, the Bethso lay

between Hippicus Tower (near modern Jaffa Gate)

and the Gate of the Essenes.


Since the 19th century, most scholars have agreed

that the term "Bethso" derives from the Hebrew

beth-soa, or latrines. According to the longest

Dead Sea Scroll, the Temple Scroll, the Essenes

did build such a structure-outside their city, to

the northwest-precisely where Josephus locates

the Bethso.


The Temple Scroll specifies: "And you shall make

them a place for a hand, outside the city, to

which they shall go out, to the northwest of the

city, [where they shall make] roofed buildings

with pits within them, into which the excrement

will descend [so that] it will [not] be visible

at any distance from the city, three thousand

cubits." (19)


The Essene law is evidently a strict

interpretation of Deuteronomy 23:13: "There shall

be a place for you outside the camp, where you

may relieve yourself."

The route described in the Temple Scroll matches

the topographical situation around the Essene

quarter. An Essene leaving Jerusalem through the

Gate of the Essenes would turn to the northwest

and follow the path between the city wall and the

ravine descending into the Hinnom Valley and

reach his destination at a bend in the wall near

the former Bishop Gobat School. Josephus, too,

notes that the Essenes selected more retired

spots" to defecate.(20)

20 Josephus, Jewish War 2.149.


The resulting frequent foot traffic through the

Gate of the Essenes surely explains why its sills

were so well worn. What I have identified as the

remains of the Bethso appear in an 1875 diagram

of the scarp of Mount Zion by Palestine

Exploration Fund archaeologist Claude R. Conder.

This drawing shows a platform with two converging

sewage channels running parallel to the rock

scarp. A military man, Captain Conder suggested

that the platform might have been a horse stable

that served as a hiding place from which city

defenders could ambush enemy attackers. Today, a

terrace is built over the platform and only the

eastern corner remains visible.
The discovery of several miqva'ot (singular,

miqveh [ritual baths]) just outside the gate

further supports the identification of this area

as an Essene quarter. As I mentioned earlier,

while digging near the gate we discovered some of

the tunnels Bliss dug a hundred years ago. A few

remained intact, among them one leading along the

sewage channel. Carefully creeping through it at

a depth of some 30 feet, I noticed several

smaller feeder channels descending from the

north. These suggested that the channel passing

through the Essene Gate collected refuse water

coming from throughout the quarter.
--->