Jeremiah, Community Leadership, and the “Origins Myth” for the Yaḥad

Abstract

This is the conclusory chapter of the book, which deals with Jeremiah, Community Leadership, and the Origins Myth for the Yaḥad. It focuses on the impact of these personae upon the communities that penned, collected, and transmitted the Jeremianic traditions that survived in the scrolls found at Qumran. The Jeremianic traditions considered in this presentation are evaluated as traditions tied to a founder. The focus in this presentation is narrowed to the manuscripts from the Qumran scrolls now designated the Apocryphon of Jeremiah C, with particular close attention paid to the most extensive of these witnesses, 4Q385a, and in conversation with fragments from other copies in 4Q387, 4Q388a, and 4Q389. This book also demonstrates an attachment to the reputation of Jeremiah, and shows the extent to which his reputational authority functioned in contributing to a wider leadership myth for the community or communities that eventually form the Yaḥad Essenes.Keywords: Apocryphon of Jeremiah; Jeremianic traditions; Qumran scrolls; Yaḥad Essenes