A VERY SIMPLE PROOF FOR THE BELIEF THAT THE AGE OF THE

YAHAD EXTENDS BACK IN TIME TO WELL BEFORE THE

BABYLONIAN EXILE
Bob Young
23/03/2015
Version 1.04
Aim; The aim of this paper is to present a very simple proof that errors in translations,
interpretations and logic when dealing with the opening passages of the Damascus Document
(CD) have served to mislead modern scholars. These errors seemed to have arisen since the
Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, thereby locking many scholars into Qumran and the Essenes
in an era encompassing the year 175BC. The belief expressed in this paper is that the early root
of the Yahad was planted of old, well before the time of the Babylonian Exile.
Joseph L. Angel. Otherworldly and Eschatological Priesthood in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Leiden:
Brill, 2010, has this to say about the above mentioned problem; underscored the need to
broaden our perspective regarding Qumran origins beyond the confining borders of the Essene
hypothesis (p. 8). Oddly enough whilst setting out to follow this advice in the end I found
myself still inside the confining borders of the Essene hypothesis but I had moved well beyond
the confining borders of Qumran.

Introduction; The following well considered passage from the University of St Andrews web
page outlines the modern scholarship position nicely in regards to the currently accepted age of
the Yahad;
(1)

The Origins of the Community. Due to space limitations, my focus here

will be on a single pericope near the beginning of the Admonition, CD A
1.1-2.1, which appears to give a brief summary of the origins of the sect.
We are told that preexilic unfaithfulness was punished by God and was
followed by the "period of wrath," dated to 390 years after the conquest
by Nebuchadnezzar (the Babylonian exile, presumably 587/6 BCE). Then
there came twenty years in which the people knew their own guilt and
groped for the path, until God raised up a "Teacher of Righteousness" who
revealed God's will. He was opposed by the "man of scoffing" who
initiated the persecution of the sect. This outline appears to date the
period of wrath to c. 196-97 BCE and the rise of the Teacher of
Righteousness to c. 177-76 BCE. But there are two problems. First, the
number 390 is suspicious. It looks to be based on the number of years
decreed for the punishment of Israel in an oracle in Ezekiel 4.5. In
addition the twenty years could be taken as half of the forty years of
punishment for Judah decreed in the same passage. Therefore it could be
a very schematic estimate that is attempting to fit the sect's history into
the eschatological ten-Jubilee cycle alluded to in Daniel 9 and
11QMelchizedek (11Q13). Second, it is widely agreed that this pericope of
the Damascus Document is a piece of poetry, since it can be divided very
easily into couplets of parallel lines characteristic of Hebrew poetry.
However, the numbers and the reference to Nebuchadnezzar do not fit
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the poetic structure of the passage. They are clearly secondary additions
to it by a later editor. We have no idea what the basis for the numbers
was or how much they are historical vs. an ideological construct. So the
chronological
outline
of
the
Admonition
is
highly
suspect.
https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/divinity/rt/dss/abstracts/ddcr/

To summarize then, we have the modern commonly accepted origin of the Essenes c195BC with
the Teacher coming 20 years later c175BC. These dates tie in roughly with the archeological
data from Qumran as shown in the chart below.

Chart showing the various conclusions drawn from the archaeological data from the Qumran site. (Robert
Cargill)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qumran#mediaviewer/File:Qumran_chronology_chart_3.jpg
(From the chart above we can see that Qumran, the not completely agreed upon home of the Essenes, starts life
in the late iron-age and the abrupt end of that era at the time of the Babylonian Exile tends to suggest forced
exit. The site is then re-occupied around 130BC and is vacated by the Essenes after their destruction by the
Romans and then re-occupied by the Romans until the Bar-Kokhba revolt.)

However the date of 175BC is very much at odds with Plinys view. Pliny has this to say about
the Essenes;
The first reference is by the Roman writer Pliny the Elder (died c.79 CE) in his Natural
History.[6] Pliny relates in a few lines that the Essenes do not marry, possess no money, and
had existed for thousands of generations. Unlike Philo, who did not mention any
particular geographical location of the Essenes other than the whole land of Israel, Pliny
places them in Ein Gedi, next to the Dead Sea. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essenes

The Jewish Encyclopaedia published in 1906, long before the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered
and quoting Hippolytus, again paints a very different picture of the Essenes, tracing their
development back to Moses thus tending to back up Pliny but more importantly confirm the
statement in the scrolls about a root being planted of old. Be warned, the full article is long and
complex but a must read for anybody seriously wanting to understand this argument. Quoting
from this article;
For their disciplinary life [] in connection with the things divine is of greater
antiquity than that of any other nation, so that it can be shown that all those who made
assertions concerning God and Creation derived their principles from no other source than
the Jewish legislation. [This refers to the asidean "ma'aseh'merkabah" and "ma'aseh
bereshit."] Among those who borrowed from the Essenes were especially
Pythagoras and the Stoics; their disciples while returning from Egypt did likewise [this
casts new light on Josephus' identification of the Essenes with the Pythagoreans: "Ant." xv.
10, 4]; for they affirm that there will be a Judgment Day and a burning up of the world,
and
that
the
wicked
will
be
eternally
punished.
(Emphasis
added)
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5867-essenes

This passage states that the age of the Essenes extends back in time beyond the time of
Pythagoras (570BC 475BC), therefore as we can see from the foregoing, the modern view of
the age of the Essenes varies widely from that held before the Scrolls were discovered.
So, who are we to believe?
My own personal view is that the age of the Essenes extends well back in time, long before the
Babylonian Exile and the proof of this statement is contained in the very first passages of the
Damascus Document. Further to this I believe that it is largely the translation and interpretation
of those very first passages in CD that has served to mislead modern scholarship.

A very simple proof

The Schechter translation of the opening passages in the Damascus Document (below), tells the
story;
Now, therefore, hearken unto me, ye all who know righteousness\1 and meditate upon the
work of God\2 . For He has a controversy with all flesh\ 3 and He will execute judgment\4
upon all who despise Him.
For because of their treason that they forsook Him, He hid His face\5 from Israel and from
His sanctuary and delivered them unto the sword\6. But when He remembered the covenant
of the forefathers\7 He left a remnant |5| to Israel and gave them not over unto
extermination.
And at the end of the wrath\8, three hundred and ninety years after He had given them
into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar\9, the King of Babylon, He remembered them, and made
bud from Israel and Aaron a root of a plant\10 to inherit His land, and to rejoice in the good
of His earth. And they meditated over their sin and they knew that they were guilty men,
and they were like the blind *groping in the way\ twenty years\12. And God considered their
deeds\13, for they sought Him with a perfect heart. \14 and He raised for them a\15
teacher of righteousness (Schechter translation) (emphasis added)

The body of this little text is obviously an early history of the Yahad describing how God
delivered them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, finally remembering them 390 years later
and made bud the root of a plant to inherit His land and to rejoice in the good of His earth; all of
this 390 years after the Babylonian exile. At this point them finally got around to meditating
on their sin and discovered that they were indeed guilty of a sin (treason) committed 390 years
ago before the Babylonian Exile. (Note that the time span of the wrath is left undefined, we
are only told the end date, no start date) Now here is the crux of the matter. Upon meditating
upon their sins they realised that they were guilty men; but guilty of what? Obviously their
treason!
Treasonous behaviour that was carried out before the time of the Babylonian Exile which as
we all know occurred on the following dates, 597BC, 587BC and 582BC! Surely this
sequence of events and their timing as told above is indeed very odd and makes no logical
sense. Taking 390 years to accept their guilt definitely places them in the category of the
slowest learners and paints God as being a little absent minded after taking 390 years to
remember them.
However be that as it may here in a document possibly written as early (or late) as 175BC we
have the Yahad telling the World that an early root of the Yahad committed treason in Gods
eyes some time before the Babylonian Exile thereby telling us that their early roots extend well
back in time and possibly long before the Exile. This really does make the 175BC dating look
very awkward indeed.
There is however one very important point to clarify about the above translation. That is the
possibility of the people of Israel committing the treason not the Yahad.

The Yahad is Israel.

To begin, the nation of Israel was destroyed long before the Babylonian Exile; c740 -722BC and
the people were then destroyed or sent into exile during the first diaspora.
There is however an interesting observation that the language of the Scrolls emphasises identity
with Israel and the difference from it. The sect is the true Israel and its social parent
historical Israel is not. In the case of the scrolls there are in fact three Israels in play.
Firstly there is the discredited Israel of the past, a nation punished by exile and a continuing
equally discredited entity; the contemporary Jewish society outside of the sect; and finally the
sect under discussion in the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Authors, The Yahad, The Sons of Light (SoL);
in the opinion of those inside the sect, the only true Israel. A group spared by God himself and
set aside of old to restore Israel to purity and greatness once again. This is one of the most
vital points in this paper as will be argued shortly. Here in records written c200BC is a
reference to an ancient act of God in regards to God having saved the Yahad of old and as will
be argued in the section on Dating the Age of Wrath, saved them somewhere around the time of
the Babylonian Exile (587BC).

The preceding statement clearly identifies the Yahad as being much older than commonly
accepted and as will be argued, possibly with links all the way back to Moses, however what is
the Covenant they speak of in the opening paragraphs of CD? Is the following Covenant the
one?
He [God] exalted Aaron, a holy man like Moses who was his brother, of the tribe of Levi.
7He made an everlasting covenant with him, and gave him the priesthood of the people.
(Ben Sira)

If so then the Yahad really is claiming links that extend back to Moses and very special links at
that! What is it that made the Yahad so super certain that they were the true Israel? Arrogance or
something they knew that others did not. We are told that their Teacher taught them all about the
hidden things. What were these hidden things? The true identity of this group has never been
firmly established either.
The identification of the Yahad (SoL) with Israel is clearly described in the following extract
taken from George Nickelburgs paper, Polarized Self-Identification in the Qumran Texts,
George W. E. Nickelburg, University of Iowa;
Polarised language of self-definition takes at least two forms in the Serek ha-Yahad in its
form in 1QS. The community transforms biblical continental language about Israel to refer
exclusively to itself. The Yahad alone, is Israel, the community of the new covenant. Thus
in the liturgy in 1QS 1 2, the priests pronounce blessings on the members of the group, but
call down the curses of the covenant on the outsiders and on those who do not sincerely
subscribe to the Yahads Torah, which has been revealed to the sons of Zadok (1QS 5: 8 9).
Thus, theologically and sociologically, the groups self-definition transforms biblical
language and conceptions by applying them exclusively to themselves. All other Israelites
are what the Yahad is not outside the bounds of divine mercy and blessing. In short
the existence of the community of the new covenant with the true, revealed Torah
requires by definition the existence of its negative counterpart: other Israelites who have
not renewed the covenant and are not privy to, and do not observe the Torah revealed to
the leaders of the Yahad. (Emphasis in red added),

The Yahad being the True Israel is one of the most important points in the argument and
possibly the most difficult to understand fully. In the passage taken from the quote above, The
Yahad alone, is Israel, we see it spelled out quite clearly that the opening paragraphs of the
Damascus Document tell us that the only remnant of the nation of Israel worthy of Gods divine
mercy was the Yahad! The exclusive nature of the Yahad will intrude upon many of the areas
discussed in the paper so a complete understanding and acceptance of this issue is vital to a
full understanding of the argument re the age of the Yahad.
Thus the opening passages referring to Israel in the Damascus Document, ie He hid His face\5
from Israel, can now quite obviously be taken to read He hid His face\5 from the Yahad as
will be argued in the following. Now, armed with a clear idea of the difficulties that lie ahead,
let us proceed to the search for the Age of Wrath.

The search for the Age of Wrath;

A close examination of the Schechter translation reveals that it contains or yields some
curiosities, if not errors. Put briefly these anomalies can be defined as;
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(1) TRANSLATION; According to Prof Barbara Thiering the usually translated after in
the opening passages of CD is not correct as per the following from the Professor; But
Vermes sees Babylon in its ordinary sense, and this forces him to translate after
Gods giving, making the Hebrew preposition for carry the meaning after that
is nowhere else evidenced, as the Jewish scholar Rabinowitz has observed. (Here

Prof Thiering is talking about the Vermes translation which is very similar to the
Schechter translation in that both use after) Many other translators also arrive at 390
years after the Babylonian Exile, at the end of the Wrath in their translations. However
the translation used by Theodor Gaster (below) places the Exile in the 390 year long
Era of Wrath completely altering event timing and I believe resulting in a more accurate
analysis.
(2) INTERPRETATION: The opening statement in CD He hid His face\5 from Israel I
believe is incorrectly interpreted in as much as the rest of the story is obviously the
history of the early beginnings of the Yahad during which they groped their way for 20
years before God visited them and raised the Teacher to show them the correct path. As
the Yahad considered themselves the True Israel, everything that the old discredited
Nation of Israel is not, should the opening therefore be interpreted to read; For because
of their treason that they forsook Him, He hid His face\5 from the Yahad and from
His sanctuary and delivered them unto the sword\6. But when He remembered the
covenant of the forefathers\7 He left a remnant |5| to the Yahad and gave them not
over unto extermination.

Further to this we are told that And they meditated over their sin and they knew that
they were guilty men Guilty of what? Obviously their Treason and that Treason was
carried out prior to the Exile as confirmed in their own written history!
Now this has very serious ramifications for the dating of the Yahad for we know the
exact dates of the various captivities (597BC, 587BC and 582BC) and in the Damascus
Document we are told that the Yahad committed their Treason before these dates
making them by their own admission much older than modern scholarship will accept.
However I can understand why people have been led astray by the opening passages in
CD for I have been struggling for over twelve months to finally to come to some sort of
understanding of the correct interpretation. Twelve months during which I have read,
studied and written endlessly about the beginnings of the Yahad and it is only today, in
writing the above passage on interpretation that I am finally satisfied with my analysis.
Until today had I never before come to a full and total understanding that the Yahad,
by admitting their treason in their own history, had therefore stated that the early
roots of the Yahad extended back beyond the Babylonian Exile.
(3) LOGIC: The modern, commonly accepted date of the raising of the Teacher is 20 years
after the modern, commonly accepted end of the Wrath (c195BC), roughly coinciding
with the re-occupation of the Qumran site (130BC), left abandoned since c586BC.
However a close examination of the era encompassing 175BC shows that logically this
could not possibly be the end of the Wrath for the year 175BC was in the beginnings of
another era of turbulence. By 198 BC the Seleucids were firmly in control, and would
remain so up until the Maccabean Revolt (168-164 BC). By the time the Ptolemaic sway
over Palestine came to an end, Greek cities had been established throughout the country,
and Hellenism had sunk strong foundations, ultimately to tear the nation apart before
Judea regained its independence. Thus the year 195BC definitely does not sound like a
strong candidate for the end of the Age of Wrath. The era encompassing 195BC would
not end until Jerusalem was razed to the ground by the Romans, Masada dealt with, the
Bar Kokhba revolt put down and the Jews finally expelled from what would henceforth
be known as Palestine. An age of Wrath for sure, but not the Wrath written about in
the Scrolls. However by far the greatest error in logic is by defining the Era of
Anger as that period between the Babylonian captivity (587BC) extending to 390
6

years later (197BC), proponents of this interpretation are including the release from
the Babylonian captivity, the rebuilding of the Temple, the rebuilding and resettlement
of Jerusalem and the very early Second temple era as being inside the Era of Anger.
Surely to include these events as acts of Gods wrathful behaviour is just plain wrong!
To summarise then we have what I believe to be errors in Translation, Interpretation and very
importantly logic all combining to mislead.
In the foregoing I believe that I have dealt adequately with the translation and interpretation
problems but not with the logic problem. Let us therefore have a close look at what I believe
to be the correct, logical definition of the Era of Anger.

The Era of Anger

Once again before we commence we must clear up a vital point. That is we must find a
translation that fulfils all of the requirements called for in our quest for an accurate and logical
translation. For a more detailed examination of the translation problem see my paper How old
are the Essenes? Another look at the age of this ancient desert sect.
(www.academia.edu/youngbob) in which many translations are compared for their outcomes.
(A note on the following translation: I obtained this translation from the web page of the
Nazarenes of Mt Carmel, however much later I found a very similar translation in Theodor
Gasters book, The Dead Sea Scriptures published in 1956, so I suspect that the
Nazarenes used Gasters translation however I have no proof of that at the moment. I
believe this translation to be a more correct translation which delivers a very realistic and
logical outcome. This translation delivers such a different meaning that it is
almost impossible to believe that it is a translation of the same opening
passages of CD.)
Now listen, all right-minded men, and take note how God acts: He has a case against all
flesh and exacts satisfaction from all who spurn Him.
Whenever Israel broke faith and renounced Him, He hid His face both from it and from His
sanctuary and con-signed them to the sword. But whenever He called to mind the covenant
which He had made with their forbears, He spared them a remnant and did not consign
them to utter extinction.
So, in the Era of Anger, that era of the three hundred and ninety years, when He delivered
them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, He took care of them and brought
to blossom alike out of the priesthood and out of the laity that root which had been
planted of old, allowing it once more to possess the land and to grow fat in the richness of
its soil. Then they realized their iniquity and knew that they had been at fault. For twenty
years, however, they remained like blind men groping their way, 2 until at last God took note
of their deeds, how that they were seeking Him sincerely, and He raised up for them one
who would teach the Law correctly,8 to guide them in the way of His heart and to
demonstrate to future ages what He does to a generation that incurs His anger, that is, to
the congregation of those that betray Him and turn aside from His way. From the web
page of The Nazarenes of Mount Carmel.

In the above translation we find that the Yahad is delivered into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar
during the Era of Anger which is defined as an era lasting 390 years, thereby dramatically
altering the timing of events, particularly the raising of the Teacher of Righteousness. More
importantly we are told that God took care of the Yahad almost immediately they were taken
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into captivity, (when He delivered them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,
He took care of them.) thus placing the entire early Yahad history as told in the opening of
CD, inside of the period of the Exile. This is a much more logical sequence of events
This is exactly how Fr. Jeromy OConnor saw it, as told once again on the St Andrews web
page;
Indeed, Jerome Murphy O'Connor has argued that the Qumran sect originated in the
Babylonian diaspora, partly on the basis of this interpretation of the Damascus
Document. (emphasis added)

However, once again Fr OConnor has misinterpreted the opening by stating that the Yahad
originated inside the period of the Babylonian Exile. The Yahad must have existed prior to the
Exile for God to have saved a remnant to deliver into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. However
not only that, but the time that God saved a remnant to deliver into the hand of
Nebuchadnezzar was not the first time that the Yahad had been naughty.
God alone knows how many times the Yahad misbehaved before they finally learned their lesson
during the Exile and started seeking Him sincerely. Thus indicating that the age of the Yahad
extended back, long before the Babylonian Exile and all of this is laid out clearly in the Yahads
own history, confirming the account as told by Pliny, long, long ago.
Now we move on to define the Era of Anger. Looking over the entire span of Jewish history
from Moses to the Bar Kokhba revolt c138AD, the whole history appears to be one single age of
wrath. There are few standout dates that would qualify as the end of Gods wrath with the
possible exception of the Bar Kokhba revolt which more or less ended Jewish history in
Palestine.
One date that would most assuredly qualify as the end of a period of wrath is the date at
which we are told God allowed Cyrus the Great to treat the Babylonian Exiles kindly,
releasing them from captivity, thus freeing them to return home if they so wished and then to
allow the rebuilding of the second Temple; surely an act of great kindness on Gods behalf
when we consider His fury during the preceding 392 years.
As pointed out previously to include these events in the Era of Anger is a serious error indeed.
The year 539BC marked the end of one of the most dreadful eras in Jewish history during which
the entire old United Kingdom was completely destroyed by the Assyrians and Babylonians and
its people sent into exile or captivity. An era during which we are told God vented his anger in
an almost unprecedented manner and during which the suffering of the Jews was unimaginable.
All of the events that took place c539BC were of an entirely different nature The year 539BC
was a most significant date in Jewish history, marking the end of a very nasty era and the
beginnings of a new golden age in their history; the second Temple period. Surely this must be a
more logical ending to the wrath than 195BC? If any day deserves the title of the end of the
wrath then the day Cyrus announced the Jews were free must reign supreme! Therefore if we
accept 539BC as the logical end of the age of wrath and count back, we arrive at another most
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significant date in Jewish history which is the death of Solomon c931BC, a period of 392 years
or near enough to the stipulated 390 year period. So far, so good!
The problem here is in assuming that the Era of Anger (Wrath) actually spanned 390 years. Of
the many translations compared in my previous paper, the only one that defines the era as lasting
390 years is the Mt Carmel translation. All of the other translations deliver a span of
undetermined length. However does the 392 year interval I am proposing encompass events that
would qualify it as the Age of Wrath? Indeed it does! It encompasses the Exile of the 10 ten
lost tribes as well as the Babylonian Exile and the time when Israel was stubborn as in Hosea
4:16 thereby confirming that Babylon was indeed Babylon in this case.
16. For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer: now the LORD will feed them as a lamb
in a large place.

Let us now look in detail at this 392 year time span and see if it actually contains evidence of
Gods wrathful behaviour. According to the Hebrew bible the death of Solomon led to the
dividing of the old United Kingdom. Solomon we are told, died of natural causes at around 80
years of age. Upon Solomon's death, his son, Rehoboam succeeded him as king. However, ten of
the Tribes of Israel refused to accept him as king, causing the United Monarchy to split and form
the northern Kingdom of Israel ruled by Jeroboam, while Rehoboam continued to reign in the
southern Kingdom of Judah. More importantly the dividing of the kingdom was followed by the
Assyrian destruction of the historical Israel (not the Yahad) with the exile of Israelites beginning
c740BC and the final destruction of Samaria in 722BC. Thus began the first Diaspora with the
ultimate loss of the Ten Tribes which later became known as The ten lost tribes. Worse still,
Israel was then repopulated by the Assyrians with foreign people and thus began the Samaritan
problem.
For anyone looking for an indication of just how angry God was at that time then the act of
delivering the Israelites into the hands of the Assyrians should settle the matter once and for all.
Here we have the penultimate act of punishment. These were the most cruel and vicious people
ever to stalk across the face of planet Earth. It is interesting to note that the Assyrian episode is
never raised in scrolls scholarship yet Habakkuk tells us of the Chaldeans heaping dust against
the stronghold. Building earthen work ramps was the trademark Assyrian siege technique.
Age of Wrath? We have not started yet! Years later Nebuchadnezzar responded to Zedekiahs
revolt by invading Judah (2 Kings 25:1) initiating the siege of Jerusalem in January 589 BC.
During this siege, which lasted about eighteen months, "every worst woe befell the city, which
drank the cup of God's fury to the dregs". (2 Kings 25:3)
In the eleventh year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar succeeded in capturing Jerusalem. Zedekiah
and his followers attempted to escape, making their way out of the city, but were captured on the
plains of Jericho, and were taken to Riblah. There, after seeing his sons put to death, his own
eyes were put out and, being loaded with chains, he was carried captive to Babylon along with
many of the most important Jews in Judah where they stayed until 539BC. Thus the entire old
United Kingdom was completely destroyed in that most dreadful 392 years of Gods wrath
during which the suffering of the Jews is unimaginable!
9

Therefore this 392 year period starting with the death of Solomon and ending with the return
from Exile is not only a most significant period in Jewish history during which God vents His
fury in an almost unprecedented manner, it also encompasses the period of Israel backsliding
and the Babylonian Exile exactly as outlined in the Damascus Document. Would this
turbulent span of 392 years qualify as the Age of Wrath? One would indeed think so!
As a result of this analysis we arrive at the earliest possible date for the raising of the Teacher as
being 587BC +20 = 567BC a date in the middle of the Babylonian Exile. However CD tells us;
He took care of them and brought to blossom alike out of the priesthood and out of the
laity that root which had been planted of old, allowing it once more to possess the land
and to grow fat in the richness of its soil. Then they realized their iniquity and knew that
they had been at fault. For twenty years, however, they remained like blind men groping
their way,2 until at last God took note of their deeds, how that they were seeking Him
sincerely, and He raised up for them one who would teach the Law correctly, 8 to guide them
in the way of His heart.

It is obvious from the foregoing that the actual date of the raising of the Teacher is entirely
dependent upon the amount of time it took for all of the preliminary preparations (bring to
blossom, possess the land, grow fat, realise their guilt, grope for 20 years whilst seeking Him
sincerely, after which God eventually took note and raised the Teacher) to be completed before
the raising of the Teacher actually took place and there appears to be no mention of how long
that took in the scrolls, however it would have been some time after 587BC.
It is important to note also the reference to the root planted of old, once again indicating that
the early root of the Yahad was planted before the Babylonian Exile, a vital piece of information
completely missing from the Schechter translation. From the foregoing then, it would appear
that the timing of events as outlined above certainly does open the way for Ezra or Pythagoras to
be contenders in the search for the real life identity of the Teacher of Righteousness; if all other
necessary considerations can be satisfied.
Sadly, as a result of extensive efforts failing to identify any individuals in the Second Temple era
as an exact fit for the real life identities of people hidden under the DSS sobriquets of the
Teacher, Wicked Priest, Dripper of Lies or the House of Absalom, modern scholars seem to have
reluctantly come to the conclusion that this search is a futile exercise. This is a conclusion to
which I wholeheartedly agree! To date there has not been one successful attempt in this search
for the simple reason I believe, these people existed outside of the Second Temple era.
They are to found instead in the period known as the Babylonian Exile, or immediately after,
and at least for part of the story, far away across the sea in Magna Grecia where the story of the
first Teacher finally comes to its sad ending. Therefore we are I believe, discussing a time
preceding or right at the beginning of the Second Temple era; certainly not towards the end of
that era and very definitely well outside the confining borders of Qumran!

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