Epochs and End-Time: The 490-Year Scheme In Second Temple Literature

Abstract

From the inception of the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls, scholars have taken note of an underlying conception shared by Qumranic and apocalyptic literature, namely, the assumption that historical events proceed according to divinely charted epochs predating creation and unfold according to a plan that includes end-times for happiness and for suffering. The covenanters believed themselves on the threshold of a revolution that would see the completion of the divine plan and usher in the End of Days. This article treats two works from Qumran, recently published by Devorah Dimant, that provide a deeper understanding of epochal calculations in sectarian literature, works that shed light on the self-praise of the Qumranites as “the men of truth . . . whose hands do not grow slack in the service of the truth, when the last period is drawn out for them, for all of God’s periods will come according their fixed order, as he decreed for them in the mysteries of his prudence” (1QpHab 7:10–14). The two texts in question are the Apocryphon of Jeremiah and Pseudo-Moses. Although Dimant identified Pseudo-Moses as part of the Apocryphon, I submit that these are two separate works and