Heres a list of the Pesher texts, also.
These are what we're pulling from.
I have not removed texts that have too early of dates.
Continuous pesharim
1QpHab: Habakkuk pesher
4Q161-165: 4QpIsa a-e (Isaiah pesher)
4Q166-167: 4QpHos a-b (Hosea pesher)
4Q169: 4QpNah (Nahum pesher)
4Q170: 4QpZeph (Zephaniah pesher)
4Q171 & 173: 4QpPs a-b (Psalms pesher)
Thematic pesharim
4Q174: 4QFlor (the Florilegium)
4Q177: 4QCatena a
11Q13: 11QMelch (the Melchizedek Midrash)
OK. Here goes nothing: This is not going to be a professional assessment, as you know I'm strictly Amateur (I don't want to affect my Olympic hopes), So what I'm going to do is go down that list of Pesharim and find passages that I've seen Eisenman write about, plus anything else as it occurs to me. So please don't be too hard on me if I get this stuff a bit wrong, and please don't blame Eisenman if I stuff it up.
So:
1QpHab: Habakkuk pesher
http://www.preteristarchive.com/BibleStudies/DeadSeaScrolls/1QpHab_pesher_habakkuk.html
At the start we have the usual stuff about The Righteous Teacher and the Liar and the punishments for people following the liar and ignoring the Righteous one.
Then some stuff about the "Kittim" (Romans):
"Their horses are swifter than leopards and fleeter than evening wolves" [Hab 1.8].
Their horses step forward proudly and spread their wings; They fly from afar like an eagle avid to devour.
"All of them come for violence; the look on their faces is like the east wind" [Hab 1.8-9a].
[Interpreted, this] concerns the Kittim who trample the earth with their horses and beasts. They come from afar, from the islands of the sea, to devour all the peoples like an eagle which cannot be satisfied, and they address [all the peoples] with anger and [wrath and fury] and indignation.
...
And they shall gather in their riches, together with all their booty, "like the fish of the sea."
And as for that which he said, "therefore they sacrifice to their net and Burn incense to their seine": Interpreted, this means that they sacrifice to their standards and worship their weapons of war.
Re the bold: Eisenman argues that this refers to Imperial Romans, because they had an image of the Emperor Augustus on the standards whom they worshipped as a god. He says that earlier Romans under Pompey didn't do this.
Interpreted, this means that they divide their yoke and their tribute -- their sustenance -- over all the peoples year by year, ravaging many lands.
"Therefore their sword is ever drawn to massacre nations mercilessly [Hab 1.17].
Interpreted, this concerns the Kittim who cause many to perish by the sword -- youths, grown men, the aged, women and children -- and who even take no pity on the fruit of the womb.
Now we see a description of Roman "Tax Farming" which didn't start in Judea until after the Quirinius Census. Tax being one of the main ignition points for the movement started by Judas the Galilean.
And as for that which He said, "that he who reads may read it speedily"
Interpreted this concerns the Teacher of Righteousness, to whom God made known all the mysteries of the words of His servants the prophets.
"For there shall be yet another vision concerning the appointed time. It shall tell of the end and shall not lie [Hab 2.3a].
Interpreted, this means that the final age shall be prolonged, and shall exceed all that the prophets have said; for the mysteries of God are astounding.
Delay of the Parousia? The end times seem to be a bit slow in arriving for these guys...
"If it tarries, wait for it, for it shall surely come and shall not be late" [Hab 2.3b].
Interpreted, this concerns the men of truth who keep the Law, whose hands shall not slacken in the service of truth when the final age is prolonged. For all the ages of God reach their appointed end as he determines for them in the mysteries of His wisdom.
["But the righteous shall live by his faith"] [[Hab 2.4b]].
Interpreted, this concerns all those who observe the Law in the House of Judah, whom God will deliver from the House of Judgement because of their suffering and because of their faith in the Teacher of Righteousness.
And here we see a slightly different take than Paul's on this particular verse. Faith alone is not enough, without the observance of the Law.
This is the very same issue between Paul and James that we see in the Epistle of James in the Bible.
"Moreover, the arrogant man seizes wealth without halting. He widens his gullet like hell and like death he has never enough. All the nations are gathered to him and all the peoples are assembled to him. Will they not all of them taunt him and jeer at him saying, 'Woe to him who amasses that which is not his! How long will he load himself up with pledges?'" [[Hab 2.5-6]].
Interpreted, this concerns the Wicked Priest who 9/ was called by the name of truth when he first arose. But when he ruled over Israel his heart became proud, and he forsook God and betrayed the precepts for the sake of riches. He robbed and amassed the riches of the
men of violence who rebelled against God, and he took the wealth of the peoples, heaping sinful iniquity upon himself. And he lived in the ways of abominations amidst every unclean defilement.
"Shall not your oppressors suddenly arise and your torturers awaken; and shall you not become their prey? Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you" [Hab 2.7-8a].
[Interpreted, this concerns] the Priest who rebelled [and violated] precepts [of God . . . to command] ...
Sounds very much like a description of a corrupt Herodian Priest like Ananus ben Ananus.
And as for that which He said, "because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you":
Interpreted this concerns the last Priests of Jerusalem, who shall amass money and wealth by plundering the peoples. But in the last days, their riches and booty shall be delivered into the hands of the army of the Kittim, For it is they who shall be "the remnant of the peoples."
"Because of the blood of men and the violence done to the land, to the city, and to all its inhabitants" [Hab 2.8b].
Interpreted, this concerns the Wicked Priest whom God delivered into the hands of his enemies because of the iniquity committed against the Teacher of Righteousness and the men of his Council, that he might be humbled by means of a destroying scourge, in bitterness
of soul, because he had done wickedly to His elect.
The last Priests? No more ever again?
The description of the death of the Wicked Priest matches the death of Ananus Jnr in Josephus:
http://www.biblestudytools.com/history/flavius-josephus/war-of-the-jews/book-4/chapter-5.html
Josephus said:
.
But the rage of the Idumeans was not satiated by these slaughters; but they now betook themselves to the city, and plundered every house, and slew every one they met; and for the other multitude, they esteemed it needless to go on with killing them, but they sought for the high priests, and the generality went with the greatest zeal against them; and as soon as they caught them they slew them, and then standing upon their dead bodies, in way of jest, upbraided Ananus with his kindness to the people, and Jesus with his speech made to them from the wall. Nay, they proceeded to that degree of impiety, as to cast away their dead bodies without burial, although the Jews used to take so much care of the burial of men, that they took down those that were condemned and crucified, and buried them before the going down of the sun.
I also note just after this passage is a long one praising Ananus and saying that his death was the reason for the fall of Jerusalem. Eisenman thinks this might be the passage that early Church Fathers said was applied to James, but doesn't exist any more:
...
I should not mistake if I said that the death of Ananus was the beginning of the destruction of the city, and that from this very day may be dated the overthrow of her wall, and the ruin of her affairs, whereon they saw their high priest, and the procurer of their preservation, slain in the midst of their city. He was on other accounts also a venerable, and a very just man; and besides the grandeur of that nobility, and dignity, and honor of which he was possessed, he had been a lover of a kind of parity, even with regard to the meanest of the people; he was a prodigious lover of liberty, and an admirer of a democracy in government; and did ever prefer the public welfare before his own advantage, and preferred peace above all things; for he was thoroughly sensible that the Romans were not to be conquered. He also foresaw that of necessity a war would follow, and that unless the Jews made up matters with them very dexterously, they would be destroyed; to say all in a word, if Ananus had survived, they had certainly compounded matters; for he was a shrewd man in speaking and persuading the people, and had already gotten the mastery of those that opposed his designs, or were for the war.
And the Jews had then put abundance of delays in the way of the Romans, if they had had such a general as he was. Jesus was also joined with him; and although he was inferior to him upon the comparison, he was superior to the rest; and I cannot but think that it was because God had doomed this city to destruction, as a polluted city, and was resolved to purge his sanctuary by fire, that he cut off these their great defenders and well-wishers, while those that a little before had worn the sacred garments, and had presided over the public worship; and had been esteemed venerable by those that dwelt on the whole habitable earth when they came into our city, were cast out naked, and seen to be the food of dogs and wild beasts. And I cannot but imagine that virtue itself groaned at these men's case, and lamented that she was here so terribly conquered by wickedness. And this at last was the end of Ananus and Jesus...
Earlier Josephus refers to this Ananus as arrogant and corrupt and not popular at all. Did someone mess about with this passage to minimise the influence of James? I don't know.
Anyway, on with the Pesharim:
Column 10 - "condemned House"
that its stones might be laid in oppression and the beam of its woodwork in robbery. And as for that which he said, "by cutting off many peoples you have forfeited your own soul":
Interpreted this concerns the condemned House whose judgement God will pronounce in the midst of many peoples. He will bring him thence for judgement and will declare him guilty in the midst of them, and will chastise him with fire of brimstone.
Column 10 - "the city is Jerusalem"
And as for that which he said, "because of the blood of the city and the violence done to the land":
Interpreted, the city is Jerusalem where the Wicked Priest committed abominable deeds and defiled the Temple of God. The violence done to the land: these are the cities of Judah where he robbed the poor of their possessions.
I'm not sure whose "House" is being condemned, but the Wicked Priest is at work in the Jerusalem Temple, committing abominations and robbing the poor.
The Temple Priests were doing that stuff in Herod's time.
OK. That's Habakkuk. I'll be back later to look at the next one.
Cheers.
Very long run-on sentences are a plague of mine, I must admit.