Who is 'the Teacher of Righteousness"?

Discussion about the Hebrew Bible, Septuagint, pseudepigrapha, Philo, Josephus, Talmud, Dead Sea Scrolls, archaeology, etc.
Secret Alias
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Re: Who is 'the Teacher of Righteousness"?

Post by Secret Alias »

I am not wasting my time on this. https://books.google.com/books?id=tQHQB ... ak&f=false http://lisbethfried.com/curriculum-vitae/ For another point of view cf. the Anchor Bible Dictionary "Although it is not possible that Ezra's father was the Seraiah under consideration here (whereby he would be the brother of Jehozadak), it is possible that Ezra was a direct descendant of Seraiah." The point of course is that - aside from this serving as a deliberate distraction - this has no bearing on the question of whether or not Ezra could be the teacher or righteousness.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
John2
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Re: Who is 'the Teacher of Righteousness"?

Post by John2 »

I was just poking around for comments about the 390 years mentioned in the Damascus Document and noticed this observation by Martinez on page 195 in Qumranica Minora II: Thematic Studies on the Dead Sea Scrolls that seems relevant to this discussion:
What is clear is that here the 390 years do not refer to the exile of the Northern Kingdom, as is the case in Ezekiel, but to the exile of the Southern Kingdom linked to the conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchanezzar. And this implies that with this date the author of the Damascus Document provides his (own) interpretation of the duration of the Babylonian exile, very much like what is done in Dan. 9:24-27, when it reinterprets Jeremiah's seventy years as seventy weeks of years (490 years). It is also clear, and this seems much more important, that the author completely ignores the restoration of the Persian period. The birth of the "shoot of planting" is the first divine intervention after the punishment. From his point of view, "the remnant for Israel" from which the group was to emerge was still in exile, a situation that would end only with the emergence of the group. This means that the group invented for itself a historical memory in which the return of Ezra and Nehemiah does not exist and in which the situation of the exile only ends with the emergence of the group.

https://books.google.com/books?id=09qvC ... NT&f=false
You know in spite of all you gained, you still have to stand out in the pouring rain.
John2
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Re: Who is 'the Teacher of Righteousness"?

Post by John2 »

Collins adds on page 76 in The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to Jewish Apocalyptic Literature:
The failure of CD to acknowledge the sixth-century restoration is paralleled in several documents of the Hellenistic age, notably the Apocalypse of Weeks, but also Jubilees 1, whereas Daniel 9 still looks for the fulfillment of Jeremiah's prophecy, even thought it acknowledges the return in the Persian period. The Animal Apocalypse disputes the validity of the Second Temple. The statements of CD on developments after the destruction of Jerusalem must be read in this light.

https://books.google.com/books?id=PxjNs ... NT&f=false
You know in spite of all you gained, you still have to stand out in the pouring rain.
John2
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Re: Who is 'the Teacher of Righteousness"?

Post by John2 »

Grossman writes in Reading for History in the Damascus Document: A Methodological Method, Volume 45:
We have seen that the Damascus Document makes no mention of the Second Temple or the return from exile ... In fact, the text appears to ignore entirely such post-exilic priestly claims as those found in Ezra/Nehemiah and Chronicles, which offer genealogies and accounts of the return of the exiles in an attempt to confirm the authenticity of the post-exilic priesthood. In place of such claims, the Damascus Document locates the authority of its priestly remnant in a very different sort of departure and return: the willingness of the covenanters to 'depart from' sin and also from sinful people and places, while 'returning to' righteousness, whose location is articulated in similar geographic terms.

https://books.google.com/books?id=quDpw ... ra&f=false
You know in spite of all you gained, you still have to stand out in the pouring rain.
John2
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Re: Who is 'the Teacher of Righteousness"?

Post by John2 »

I wish I could see more of this, but Hempel has an interesting section in Ethical and Unethical in the Old Testament: God and Humans in Dialogue called "Ezra-Nehemiah and the Damascus Document: Some Common Ground" in which she notes that:
A number of scholars have suggested at one time or another that the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Damascus Document in particular, share a great deal with the social realities portrayed in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah ... Most recently, the work of Alexei Sivertsev (Sivertsev 2005a, 200b) is particularly interesting because of the way in which he argues for a great deal of continuity between the social realities behind Ezra and Nehemiah and the Damascus Document ... Let me try to sum up some key areas that point to a relationship between both Ezra-Nehemiah and the Damascus Document under the following three headings: Location - Community -Issues ....

https://books.google.com/books?id=X6OoA ... ra&f=false
The next page is blank for me, but most of the rest of the section is viewable and I will go over it when I get time. This is interesting subject.
You know in spite of all you gained, you still have to stand out in the pouring rain.
John2
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Re: Who is 'the Teacher of Righteousness"?

Post by John2 »

I don't see anything that stands out to me in Hempel's article above, but poking around some more I see that Collins writes in Beyond the Qumran Community: The Sectarian Movement of the Dead Sea Scrolls:
The situation of Ezra and Nehemiah differs from that of the Damascus Document ... The movement described in the Damascus Document has power to enforce internal discipline and to expel members who fail to conform, but it does not have power over the society at large, and so it relies on the threat of divine punishment. It also offers the prospect of reward in the afterlife, and idea that is not attested in Ezra and Nehemiah.

https://books.google.com/books?id=13ZxD ... ra&f=false
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John T
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Re: Who is 'the Teacher of Righteousness"?

Post by John T »

Secret Alias wrote: Fri Feb 16, 2018 11:39 am ...until Eisenman came on this forum under a pseudonym. Why is it preferable for anyone but Eisenman to assume that there is a conspiracy to falsify C14 evidence which makes his theory implausible? ...Only that it is better than what Eisenman2 has been posting in this forum.
There is a conspiracy behind the dating of the Dead Sea Scrolls?!? :wtf:

Here we go again, Secret Alias is trying to get people to do his homework for him while insulting them at the same time. :facepalm:
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Secret Alias
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Re: Who is 'the Teacher of Righteousness"?

Post by Secret Alias »

Ok buddy. The C-14 dated closes the books on Eisenman and his theory. It's that simple. Maybe you can move Christianity into first century BCE or beyond. But stop playing dumb. If my father dies (and he has) and everyone knows he's dead and I go on a forum claiming I've had contact with him, spoke with him, saw him wearing this or that - I am denying the fact that he's dead. To advance Eisenman's hypothesis once you've been informed of the C-14 results is to deny the C-14 evidence. I call such a denial C-14 evidence because it shares all the attributes of a conspiracy theory insofar as it's primary purpose is push aside actual evidence.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
Secret Alias
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Re: Who is 'the Teacher of Righteousness"?

Post by Secret Alias »

Ezra is a preferable hypothesis to explain the teacher of righteousness than any early Christian figure owing to the C-14 evidence which for all intents and purposes rules out any of those figures. There might be circumstantial reasons to doubt Ezra. Sure. But at least it's not impossible like Eisenman's theory. I've also provided a second candidate - the 'teacher of righteousness' is only a kabbalistic cipher for 'the messiah king' via 450 a number linked with gematria from other Qumran scrolls. Both of these options are plausible. Ezra could even be the 'messiah king' figure.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
John2
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Re: Who is 'the Teacher of Righteousness"?

Post by John2 »

Blanton writes on pages 35-36 of Constructing a New Covenant : Discursive Strategies in the Damascus Document and Second Corinthians in a section called "Covenant Renewal in Ezra-Nehemiah":
... the literature of the sectarian Association appears to bypass the Ezra-Nehemiah account. This is an important elision, the reason for which is not hard to deduce: the literature of the Association does not countenance a successful attempt at covenant renewal during the Persian Period. In fact, the Association's construal of Israel's history contradicts the idea that the Sinaitic covenant had been renewed prior to the sect's own formation ... Since Ezra-Nehemiah reports a return of Diasporic Jews to Jerusalem and may imply an attempt at covenant renewal there, [the Damascus Document] doe snot make mention of these books, as they provided information that would have weakened [the] claim that the covenant, broken prior to Jerusalem's destruction by Nebudchanezzar, was only renewed during the time of, and by the Association.

https://books.google.com/books?id=rdaTp ... ra&f=false
You know in spite of all you gained, you still have to stand out in the pouring rain.
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