The Sword of the Messiah 41 In conclusion, the hope for the liberation of “Israel” from bondage to foreign and domestic oppressors lies for the author of Psalms of Solomon in the concept of a future Davidic messiah that is strongly rooted in Isaiah 11. The messiah will sift the righteous and the sinner by his Spirit-imbued word of wisdom and power that has a twofold effect: for the righteous it will bring cleansing, liberation and restoration; for the sinner it will announce judgment and destruction. Some scholars contend that the psalmist portrays a “spiritual” messiah rather than a political militant one (17). However, although the messiah in Psalms of Solomon certainly has a spiritual side (his source of liberation is divine), we cannot dichotomize this from the political dimension (liberation from the Romans and illegitimate Jewish rulers) and militant dimension (the violent aspect can hardly be denied in, e.g., 17,24-25.35) (18). Hence, the traditional picture of a political warrior-messiah is still present, but it has been supplemented with that of a Spirit-empowered teacher-messiah. 2. Qumran The Essene community at Qumran might have originated as a faction within the anti-Seleucid coalition (the Hasidim?) of the Maccabean period during the latter part of the second century B.C.E., but was destroyed during the first Jewish revolt in 66-70 C.E., and most of the sectarian scrolls can be dated to the first century B.C.E.(19). In the Qumran literature, we find the conceptualization of three eschatological figures — occasionally a prophet like Moses, and more often the messiahs of Aaron and Israel (1QS 9,11 is the locus classicus for this expectation, but cf. CD 7,17-21; 1Q28a col 2,11-22; 4Q174 (17) DE JONGE, “Psalms”, 174; J.H. CHARLESWORTH, “Messianology in the Biblical Pseudepigrapha”, Qumran-Messianism. Studies on the Messianic Expectations in the Dead Sea Scrolls (eds. J.H. CHARLESWORTH et al.) (Tübingen 1998) 30-31; cf. HORSLEY – HANSON, Bandits, 106. (18) Cf. J.J. COLLINS, The Scepter and the Star. The Messiahs of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Other Ancient Literature (New York 1995) 54-55. (19) MURPHY, World, 188-189; J.J. COLLINS, The Apocalyptic Imagination. An Introduction to Jewish Apocalyptic Literature (Grand Rapids – Cambridge 21998) 146-150. See also G. Boccaccini’s challenging thesis that the Essenes at Qumran were an offshoot of Enochic Judaism (Beyond the Essene Hypothesis. The Parting of the Ways between Qumran and Enochic Judaism [Grand Rapids 1998]). References to Qumran literature are taken from F. GARCÍA MARTÍNEZ – E.J.C. TIGCHELAAR, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition (Leiden – Grand Rapids 1997- 1998).