The Messianic View of the Dead Sea Scrolls

The Messianic View of the Dead Sea Scrolls

Tony HK SHER

“Messiah” denotes someone who is being anointed with oil. In the Old Testament, the term is generally used to describe a person anointed and thereby installed to a certain position, mainly either as a king or a priest. But in the post-Old Testament time, it gradually developed as a special term that denoted a futuristic figure who will come at the end of time as a representative of God to eradicate all evil and deliver the people of God. The Dead Sea Scrolls, since its discovery, have long been recognized as a cache put away in the caves at the Dead Sea by a Jewish sectarian group with fervent eschatological beliefs. Do the Scrolls reflect the same view of Messianic expectation as the term gradually developed in the rabbinic and Christian times? This paper will carry out a survey on the related documents of the Dead Sea Scrolls, aiming at outlining a general picture of the idea of the Messiah figured in the Scrolls. After the survey, this paper will try to integrate the relevant information andformulate the view of the Messiah( s) presented in the Dead Sea Scrolls.