The Qumran Sectarians in an Imperial Context: A Postcolonial Reading of Pesher Habakkuk

Two concerns occupy the first-century B.C.E. author of the Pesher Habakkuk—the danger of the conquering Romans and the persecution of the Qumran sect by the Wicked Priest. This chapter uses a postcolonial lens—in particular, Frantz Fanon’s theory of horizontal violence—to understand why the pesherist treats these two threats simultaneously and, in many instances, attributes the same immoral characteristics to both. Fears about Rome and the sect’s inability to resist its external pressure meant that their only recourse was to turn their hatred against those Jews who benefitted from imperial rule, which included the Hasmoneans, other non-sectarians, and the Wicked Priest. Understanding the Pesher in this way reveals that the Qumran sect was far from removed from the larger imperial world and, instead, developed its sectarian beliefs in reaction to that world.