The teacher of righteousness is alive, awaiting the messiah. hʼsf in CD as allusion to the Sinaitic and Damascene covenants
The Moreh Zedek, commonly translated as the Teacher of Righteousness, should perhaps be better rendered as the True Guide. Two works, The Damascus Cocument and the Commentary on Habakkuk, make him the leader of the sect. But, was he a historical figure as is generally supposed, or was he a figure of...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
College
1999
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| In: |
Hebrew Union College annual / Jewish Institute of Religion
Year: 1999, Volume: 70/71, Pages: 75-92 |
| IxTheo Classification: | HD Early Judaism |
| Further subjects: | B
Teacher of Righteousness
B Divine covenant B Messiah B Damascus Document |
| Summary: | The Moreh Zedek, commonly translated as the Teacher of Righteousness, should perhaps be better rendered as the True Guide. Two works, The Damascus Cocument and the Commentary on Habakkuk, make him the leader of the sect. But, was he a historical figure as is generally supposed, or was he a figure of the future, a forerunner of the Messiah? Whichever view one accepts determines the understanding of the word heasef in CD 19:35 and 20:14. If historical, heasef records his death prior to the coming of the Messiah. In other words at the time of the composition of this document the Teacher was already dead, but the Messiah had not as yet arrived. By contrast, this paper argues that the Teacher, whom scholars have been unable to identify, is not a figure of history. The word heasef does not refer to his death, but to his presiding over an assembly that will take place in the land of Damascus when the berit chadashah, the new covenant, will be established prior to the coming of the Messiah. Therefore the Dead Sea Scrolls do not identify him by name, only by a sobriquet. |
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| ISSN: | 0360-9049 |
| Contains: | In: Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Hebrew Union College annual / Jewish Institute of Religion
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