The Fourth Deliverer A Josephite Messiah in 4QTestimonia It is generally recognized that Messianic belief at Qumran was not rigid. Some texts witness to two deliverers. Others are thought to have three: priest messiah, king messiah, and prophet (1). I wish to suggest here that one text, so far understood as having three deliverers, has in fact four. 1. 4Q175 4Q175 (4QTestimonia) dates from the early first century BCE (2). A well- preserved text, it comprises four separate sections, clearly demarcated by spaces and hook-shaped symbols, on a single page. The only damaged portion is the bottom right-hand corner, which leaves some gaps in the fourth testimony, but does not greatly hinder the understanding of the document as a whole. It is described as “a messianic anthology” and “a collection of fundamental biblical texts or ‘testimonies’, relating to messianic beliefs” (3). Each of its four sections cites a Bible text ending with a curse, as follows: (1) Deut 18,18-19, the prophet like Moses; (2) Num 24,15-17, the star come out of Jacob; (3) Deut 33,8-11, the blessing of the Levites; (4) Josh 6,26, Joshua’s curse on Jericho, followed by a passage from the Joshua Apocryphon (4Q379) another document found at Qumran (4). Here is the fourth passage. At the moment when Joshua finished praising and giving thanks with his psalms, he said “Cursed be the man who rebuilds this city! Upon his first-born will he found it, and upon his benjamin will he erect its gates!” (Josh 6,26). And now an accursed man, one of Belial, has arisen to be a fowler’s trap for his people and ruin for all his neighbours. …will arise, to be the two instruments of violence. And (1) 4Q175; 1QS IX.10-11. They are by the same scribe. (2) For more on text and dating see F.M. CROSS, “Testimonia (4Q175=4QTesti- monia= 4QTestim)”, The Dead Sea Scrolls (ed. J.H. CHARLESWORTH) (Tübingen 2002) VI B, 308. The Western Semitic Research Project website has a photograph: http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/wsrp/index.html. (3) G. VERMES, Dead Sea Scrolls in English (London 1962) 247; A. DUPONT-SOMMER, The Essene Writings from Qumran (Oxford 1961) 317. (4) The Joshua Apocryphon, or Psalms of Joshua, consists of 4Q378 and 379 (4QPsJoshua a & b). The 4Q175 citation is from 4Q379. As the Joshua Apocryphon includes Josh 6.26, the whole fourth testimony is taken from 4Q379. See C.A. NEWSOM, “The ‘Psalms of Joshua’ from Qumran Cave 4”, JJS 39 (1988) 56-73, who thinks it was not composed at Qumran (59); B.Z. WACHOLDER – M.G. ABEGG, A Preliminary Edition of the Unpublished Dead Dea Scrolls (Washington 1991) III, 178-189; T.H. LIM, “The ‘Psalms of Joshua’ (4Q379 fr. 22 col. 2): A Reconsideration of its Text”, JJS 44 (1993) 309-312; C.A. NEWSOM, “4Q378 and 4Q379: An Apocryphon of Joshua”, Qumranstudien (ed. H.-J. FABRY – A. LANGE – H. LICHTENBERGER) (Göttingen 1996) 35-85; E. TOV, “The Rewritten Book of Joshua as Found at Qumran and Masada”, Biblical Perspectives. Early Use and Interpretation of the Bible in the Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls (ed. M.E. STONE – E.G. CHAZON) (STDJ 28; Leiden 1998) 233-256.