Introduction: The Historical Parameters

Before discussing once again the Kittim in the Qumran sectarian scrolls, it is necessary to set out the historical and political parameters within which the comments of this essay are set. To my mind, the movement behind the sectarian compositions amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in the eleven caves at and near Qumran seems to have had a history that spanned well over two hundred years before the fall of the temple in 70 C.E., perhaps going back to the time shortly after the Maccabean Revolt, though some see traces of aspects of the movement even in the late third century B.C.E. The occupation of the Qumran site by a part of this movement probably took place at some time during the first quarter of the first century B.C.E., though a full analysis of the archaeological remains has yet to be published. This means that the origins of the movement rest in the closing phases of Seleucid influence in Judea during and after the Maccabean Revolt until the time of John Hyrcanus; its consolidation and diversification or fragmentation seem to belong to the reigns of Hyrcanus and Alexander Jannaeus, the only two rulers of the period to be significantly independent from external political control, whether Seleucid or Roman; and the Qumran site's occupation is almost contemporary with direct or indirect Roman influence and control in Judea.

For some scholars it has seemed or become inappropriate to say very much about what might have been taking place in the second century B.C.E. Such approaches propose that the 390-year scheme of the Damascus Document, though followed by a more precise twenty years when the movement was searching for the way forward, is nothing more than a symbolic number. In addition, the anonymity of the founding Teacher and his immediate opponents prevents any secure identification with actual figures. Given that the majority of the scrolls were penned in the first centuries B.C.E. and C.E., and that the majority of actual historical names in the scrolls belong to the first century B.C.E., for those who take this approach it is in the first century that we should look for the principal period of activity of the sectarian organization represented in the scrolls.