Teacher of Righteousness

The title of Teacher of Righteousness is in some of the near Qumran 1948-1956 discovered scrolls mentioned the Dead Sea. The so- called figure appears there as a leader of a jachad said Community of Judaism.

Findings

The title appeared 15 times in a few manuscript fragments from the caves at Qumran on, especially the so-called Damascus Document (CD) and in a comment to the prophet Habakkuk ( 1QpHab ). There, these teachers will be interpreted for its presence as a Torah - boom, the former prophecy in the Tanakh with the claim definitive teaching. He appears as a man sent by God Toralehrer, who led the congregation according to the will of God, and made ​​them the grace of God, sure. He had been taught by God himself, so that he could interpret the prophetic books right and predict the upcoming action of God. His followers who followed him, and lived according to his teachings, would be saved from the judgment, while those who opposed him, would be punished by God.

Explanatory models

Since the Damaskuschrift a is called the " Wicked Priest " who had the teacher and his followers, the jachad dogs, assume some researchers, even the teacher himself was a former High Priest of the Temple in Jerusalem and had after he was deposed a temple critical Jewish sect founded. These have retreated by 160 BC to Qumran and there awaits the final judgment.

These hypotheses represent today especially Hartmut Stegemann, the case in the core Roland de Vaux, director of the first excavation team of Qumran, follows. This had been set up in the 1950s, the theory that Qumran was the home of a Jewish sect end that was it was the same as mentioned in some ancient sources Essenes or part. They 've owned the scrolls, partly manufactured and hidden in the caves before the Romans, who destroyed the settlement in 68 AD. Some newer researchers, the identity of the Qumran inhabitants with scrolls owners on the one hand, the Essenes other hand, since about 1990 in question.

In the 1990s, numerous popular and pseudo-scientific theories about the Teacher of Righteousness came up with: He was identified with various people of the New Testament, including John the Baptist, Jesus of Nazareth and James. This speculative theories presuppose not only the identity of the jachad with the inhabitants of Qumran and Scroll owners, but also a direct relationship between them and the early Christians. This is contradicted by the evidence of the age of the font fragments from the caves that mention the Teacher of Righteousness: They originated in the first century BC.

Relationship to primitive Christianity

The so-called Manual of Discipline ( 1QS ) of jachad demanded dereliction of new members, regular ablutions, communal meals, a latter-day cultic meal, and threatened with violation of rules on exclusion. A celibate and a secluded ascetic way of life, they did not ask. However, the Teacher of Righteousness is not found in this document; whereas CD is a detached attitude to the Temple cult, puts 1QS leadership of priests and Levites in jachad close. Therefore, it is questionable whether these font types can be assigned to one special group.

Some New Testament scholars see parallels to primitive Christianity, in particular to the features that characterized the early Jerusalem church: baptism, breaking of bread ( Eucharist ), community of goods (Acts 2/4). Even Jesus had appeared as the final interpreter of the Torah, not as a donor of new bids. However, Jesus and his disciples did get out from the rest of Judaism back, but wanted to reform it altogether. They stayed at the temple and took part in the Passover.

The messianic expectation is not uniform in the common texts of the scrolls found at Qumran: Some texts speak of " two sons of oil ", others only by a future King of the healing time. The teacher saw himself does not seem as Messiah.

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