There is another aspect of Fourth Philosophers that I don't know why I never realized before could pertain to Jesus, and that is what Josephus says in Ant. 18.1.6 about their willingness to suffer and die:
They also do not value dying any kinds of death, nor indeed do they heed the deaths of their relations and friends, nor can any such fear make them call any man lord. And since ]this immovable resolution of theirs is well known to a great many, I shall speak no further about that matter; nor am I afraid that any thing I have said of them should be disbelieved, but rather fear, that what I have said is beneath the resolution they show when they undergo pain.
This is the last piece of the puzzle as far as I'm concerned. So here is how it looks to me:
1. Fourth Philosophers rejected the oral Torah ("the customs of our fathers were altered"), as did Jesus (“Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders?").
2. They consequently had a new "system of philosophy" ("which we were before unacquainted"), as did Jesus ("What is this? A new teaching, and with authority!").
3. They otherwise subscribed to Pharisaic "notions," such as belief in the resurrection of the dead ("These men agree in all other things with the Pharisaic notions"), as did Jesus ("He must be killed and after three days rise again").
4. They were messianic ("one from their country should become governor of the habitable earth"), as was Jesus ("'Who do you say I am?' Peter answered, 'You are the Christ.' And Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him").
5. They had "I am He" guys who were like Jesus ("These were such men as deceived and deluded the people under pretense of divine inspiration, but were for procuring innovations and changes of the government; and these prevailed with the multitude to act like madmen, and went before them into the wilderness"; "See to it that no one deceives you. Many will come in My name, claiming, ‘I am He,’ and will deceive many").
6. They were into Daniel and considered him to be a prophet ("they had it written in their sacred oracles, that then should their city be taken, as well as their holy house, when once their temple should become four-square," c.f., Dan. 9:25, "Jerusalem will be restored and rebuilt with a city square and a moat during the troubles of those times"; and Josephus' opinion that he was "one of the greatest of the prophets ... he retains a remembrance that will never fail"), as was (and did) Jesus ("So when you see standing in the holy place 'the abomination that causes desolation,' spoken of through the prophet Daniel"; and "he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke this message quite frankly").
7. They had an extraordinary willingness to suffer and die ("They also do not value dying any kinds of death ... the resolution they show when they undergo pain"), and so did Jesus ("the Son of Man must suffer many things ... he must be killed").
And the DSS exhibit all of these elements as well, and since the majority of them are dated to the Herodian era (with one of them, the Damascus Document, using similar terms and concepts used by Christians, such as "the Way," Damascus, and the "New Covenant"), if I had to pick which "system of philosophy" collected and wrote them, I would pick the Fourth Philosophy.
Archaic (250-150 BCE) 21 manuscripts
Archaic to Hasmonean (200-150) 20 manuscripts
Hasmonean (150-ca. 50) 224 manuscripts
Transition to Herodian (ca 75-1 BCE) 5 manuscripts
Herodian (50 or 30 BCE-68 CE) 418 manuscripts
https://books.google.com/books?id=SBMXn ... ts&f=false
You know in spite of all you gained, you still have to stand out in the pouring rain.