It is increasingly common, among scholars, to recognize that there were significant connections between the Galilean preacher Jesus and the Baptist, on the one hand, and the authors of the sectarian Dead Sea Scrolls, on the other. The correlations are certainly very intriguing, however one chooses to explain them.
With that in mind, why not have a sub-forum to discuss the Dead Sea Scrolls, with a particular emphasis on the light they might shed on the historical Jesus and Christian origins more generally? I would be very interested in contributing to such a forum, and I am sure many others would be as well.
The Dead Sea Scrolls constitute one of the most popular topics one can discuss in history and archaeology.
True but such a discussion would also require a certain level of expertise which I’m not sure anyone on this forum possesses including me for sure. As far as the question as to whether there was some relationship between John the B and the Qumran community go ** you do not have permission to see this link **. Prof Marcus believes there was such a relationship and makes his case.
Well, there are many topics to discuss in this area. I have been wondering about whether the people who lived at Qumran were really the same Jews we know as “Essenes” from the writings of Josephus, Philo and others; and also about where the name ‘Essene’ comes from; and many other topics that could be pursued on a dedicated subforum concerned with the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Out of curiosity, what do you think are the most striking similarities between Jesus and John, on the one hand, and the sectarian writings in the Dead Sea Scrolls, on the other?
The apocalpyptic, anti-establishment outlook is a very strong similarity. Jesus and the Essenes also had strikingly similar views on marriage, and both based their views on exactly the same text “male and female He created them”: the Essenes opposed people who took “two wives in their lifetimes”, and Jesus described as adultery the act of divorcing a woman and marrying another (so the Gospel of Mark). At the same time, Jesus was clearly not an Essene, as they did not go around preaching in public and proclaiming the Kingdom of God; rather they were instructed to not share their teachings with “the men of the pit”. So what could explain these similarities, when the Essenes were known to be very secretive about their teachings with Jews outside their community? That is one question that would be worth exploring.
Robert said
I think the idea of a subforum revolving around second-temple Judaisms, which would include the Dead Sea Scrolls, is a very good idea. It’s definitely an area that’s missing among our other subforums. If one really wants to understand the historical Jesus, one needs to see him in this context.
I second the idea of a forum on Second-Temple Judaisms (the plural ‘Judaisms’ would be good here). This will allow us to cover not just the Essenes and Dead Sea Scrolls, but also Enochic Judaism, (highly relevant to this site given that Enoch is quoted in the letter of Jude, and the Enoch books refer to a ‘Son of Man’ figure).
Another really fascinating topic: who was the Teacher of Righteousness?
A few scholars have even tried to identify him with Jesus, but this won’t work if we take the dating of the Dead Sea Scrolls seriously. All kinds of other opinions have been forwarded, mostly based on the common assumption that the Damascus Document situate the founding of the community in the early second century BCE. A less well-known approach to the interpretation of the Damascus Document, which has not received too much discussion, puts the founding of the community in the early Persian Period (with some identifying the Teacher with Ezra, for example).
He might turn out not to be any of the historical people whose names we know, of course.
Robert said
Your wish is my command, Omar. And thanks to Ben we know have this new subforum. Use it in good health!
Thank you, Robert and Ben! This will make our discussions more organized and focussed. I like the title of the subforum, and the threads that have been moved here.
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