Teacher of Righteousness

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Teacher of Righteousness

The Teacher of Righteousness is a figure found in some of the Dead Sea Scrolls

Dead Sea scrolls

The Dead Sea scrolls consist of roughly 900 documents, including texts from the Hebrew Bible, discovered between 1947 and 1956 in eleven caves in and around the Wadi Qumran near the ruins of the ancient settlement of Qumran, on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea....
at Qumran

Qumran

Qumran is located on a dry plateau about a mile inland from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea in the West Bank, just next to the Israeli kibbutz of Kalia, West Bank....
, most prominently in the Damascus Document

Damascus Document

The Damascus Document is the name given to one of the works found in multiple fragments and copies in the caves at Qumran, and as such is counted amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls....
(CD). This document speaks briefly of the origins of the sect, probably Essenes

Essenes

The Essenes were, strictly speaking, a Jewish religious group that flourished from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century CE. Being much fewer in number than the Pharisees and the Sadducees the Essenes lived in various cities but congregated in communal life dedicated to asceticism, voluntary poverty, and abstinence from worldly pleasures, i...
, 390 years after the exile and after 20 years of 'groping' blindly for the way "God... raised for them a Teacher of Righteousness to guide them in the way of His heart" (CD 1:9-11). The Teacher claimed to have the proper understanding of the Torah

Torah

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The Teacher of Righteousness is a figure found in some of the Dead Sea Scrolls

Dead Sea scrolls

Qumran

Damascus Document

Essenes

Torah

The term "Torah" , or Five Books of Moses or Pentateuch, refers to the entirety of Judaism's founding Halakha and ethical religious texts....
, being the one through whom God would reveal to the community “the hidden things in which Israel had gone astray” (CD 3:12-15). He also claimed to be an inspired interpreter of the prophets, as the one “to whom God made known all the mysteries of the words of his servants the prophets” (1QpHab 7:5).

Identity of the Teacher

The exact identity of the Teacher is unknown. One theory initially advocated by Jerome Murphy-O'Connor

Jerome Murphy-O'Connor

Reverend Doctor of Philosophy Jerome Murphy-O'Connor Dominican Order, is a Dominican Order priest, a leading authority on Saint Paul and Professor of New Testament at the Biblique et Arch?ologique Fran?aise de J?rusalem in Jerusalem, a position that he has held since 1967....
and subsequently by Stegemann is that the Teacher of Righteousness served as High Priest

Kohen Gadol

Kohen Gadol or Kohen ha-Gadol is the title of wiktionary:High Priest of early Israelite religion and of Classical Age Judaism from the rise of the Israelite nation until the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem....
but was subsequently ousted by Jonathan Maccabeus. In 1 Maccabees

1 Maccabees

1 Maccabees is a deuterocanonical books book written by a Jewish author after the restoration of an independent Jewish kingdom, probably about 100 BC....
, no High Priest is named for the period from the death of Alcimus in 159 BCE to the claiming of the position of High Priest by Jonathan on the authority of Alexander Balas

Alexander Balas

Alexander Balas , ruler of the Greece Seleucid Empire 150-146 BC, was a native of Izmir of humble origin, but gave himself out to be the son of Antiochus IV Epiphanes and heir to the Seleucid throne....
in 152 BCE (1 Macc 10:18-20). From this it could be concluded that there was no High Priest for these years, and indeed Josephus

Josephus

Josephus , also known as Yosef Ben Matityahu and, after he became a Roman citizenship, as Titus Flavius Josephus, was a first-century Jewish historian and apologist of priestly and royal ancestry who survived and recorded the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70....
, drawing heavily on I Maccabees at this point in his history, comes to that conclusion (Ant. 20.237). It is improbable, however, that the office remained completely vacant for these years. Stegemann suggests that the reason that nothing is said in 1 Maccabees about a High Priest between Alcimus and Jonathan was apologetic: to conceal the fact that the Hasmoneans obtained the High Priesthood by usurping it from its rightful holder, the Teacher of Righteousness. Alvar Ellegård

Alvar Ellegård

Alvar Elleg?rd , born 1919 in Gothenburg, Sweden, was emeritus professor at Gothenburg University. He was also a member of the scientific board of the Swedish National Encyclopedia....
follows this line and argues that the Teacher of Righteousness was not only the leader of the Essenes at Qumran, but was also identical to the original Jesus

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , also known as Jesus Christ, is the central figure of Christianity and is revered by most Christian churches as the Son of God and the Incarnation ....
about 150 years before the time of the Gospel

Gospel

In Christianity, a gospel is generally one of the first four books of the New Testament that describe the birth, life, ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus....
s.

Critics of this theory accuse it of being too hypothetical: slotting the Teacher as High Priest into a convenient gap during which no other High Priest is recorded in the few sources we have. Not the Damascus Document, nor 1QS or 4QMMT suggest that the legitimacy of the High Priest was an issue for the split. In addition, the motivation behind the split of the sect from mainstream Judaism

Judaism

Judaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts....
appears to have been of a religious rather than political nature.

Other documents from the Dead Sea Scrolls portray the Teacher as being in heavy conflict against a figure termed the "Wicked Priest

Wicked Priest

Wicked Priest is a sobriquet used in the Dead Sea scrolls pesher, four times in the Habakkuk Commentary and once in the Commentary on Psalm 37 , to refer to an opponent of the "Teacher of Righteousness." The phrase is generally regarded as a pun on "Kohen Gadol" and identified with a Hasmonean High Priest or Priests....
", which has led to several proposals for their identity:

A Sadducees
Sadducees

The Sadducees were members of a Jewish sect and were rivals of the Pharisees , founded in the 2nd century BC. They ceased to exist sometime after the destruction of the second Temple in Jerusalem in 70AD....
priest as the Teacher, possibly even the legitimate high priest, against a "wicked" Jonathan Maccabee
Maccabees

The Maccabees were a Jewish national liberation movement that fought for and won independence from Antiochus IV Epiphanes of the Hellenistic Seleucid dynasty, who was succeeded by his infant son Antiochus V Eupator....
, a significant conflict mentioned in the Books of Maccabees
Maccabees

The Maccabees were a Jewish national liberation movement that fought for and won independence from Antiochus IV Epiphanes of the Hellenistic Seleucid dynasty, who was succeeded by his infant son Antiochus V Eupator....
. It should be noted that "zadok" in Hebrew translates as "righteous."
Hillel the Elder
Hillel the Elder

Hillel was a famous Jewish religious leader, one of the most important figures in Jewish history. He is associated with the development of the Mishnah and the Talmud....
as the Teacher, against a "wicked" Shammai
Shammai

Shammai was a Jewish scholar of the 1st century, and an important figure in Judaism's core work of rabbinic literature, the Mishnah.Shammai was the most eminent contemporary and the Halakha opponent of Hillel the Elder, and is almost invariably mentioned along with him....
, a significant conflict mentioned in the Talmud
Talmud

The Talmud is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Halakha, Jewish ethics, customs, and history. It is a central text of mainstream Judaism....
(Jerusalem Talmud Shabbat 1:4).
James the Just
James the Just

Saint James the Just , , also known as James of Jerusalem, James Adelphotheos, James, the Brother of the Lord, was an important figure in Early Christianity....
as the Teacher against a "wicked" Paul of Tarsus
Paul of Tarsus

Saint Paul, also called Paul the Apostle, the Apostle Paul or Paul of Tarsus , was a Hellenistic Judaism, who called himself the "Apostle to the Gentiles", and was, together with Saint Peter and James the Just, the most notable of early Christian missionaries....
, a hypothetical conflict extrapolated from a debate recorded in the Book of Acts.

It should also be noted that some scholars date the Damascus Document and the Dead Sea scrolls

Dead Sea scrolls

100 BC

Year 100 BC was a year of the Roman calendar....
, vastly predating the emergence of Christianity. This date would exclude both Hillel and James the Just, or any figure of early Christianity

Early Christianity

Early Christianity is commonly defined as the Christianity of the three centuries between the Crucifixion of Jesus and the First Council of Nicaea ....
. Other scholars associate the Damascus Document with the an early Christian sect called the Ebionites

Ebionites

The Ebionites were a Jewish sect that insisted on the necessity of following Torah, which they interpreted in light of Jesus' expounding of the Law....
, led by a person identified as The Zaddik

Tzadik

Tzadik is a title which is generally given to those who are considered to be righteous such as a spiritual master or rebbe. The root of the word tzadik, is tzedek , which means justice or righteousness....
whom numerous ancient sources identify as James the Just

James the Just

Saint James the Just , , also known as James of Jerusalem, James Adelphotheos, James, the Brother of the Lord, was an important figure in Early Christianity....
.