The Messiah before Jesus: The Suffering Servant of the Dead Sea Scrolls

Rating:
Summary: Not a new idea - but will open up avenues.
Review: A Messiah before Jesus is not a new idea. After all, this is what the main crux of the Dead Sea Scrolls is all about, where we have an Essene Teacher of Righteousness whose life not only paralles that of the life of Jesus, but appears to pre-date the Christian saviour. What is more, the Wisdom of Solomon, found in the Catholic Bible but not in the Protestant, if part and parcel of the Old Testament and not the New, suggests in chapters 2 & 3 that not only was there a Messiah before Jesus, but chapter 3 implies that there were many. The Dead Sea Scrolls in turn, "Manual of Discipline: Rules of the Order," also appears to support this view where it states, and I quote from the Millar Burrows translation:

"They shall not depart from any counsel of the law, walking in all the stubbornness of their hearts; but they shall be judged by the first judgments by which the men of the community began to be disciplined, until there shall come a prophet and the Messiahs of Aaron and Israel."

What the Manual of Discipline appears to suggest, was that there was not one or two Messiahs, one pre-dating the other, but rather there was a belief in many Messiahs, this being possibly a group, or "Messianic Order." However, on a more positive note regarding "The Messiah Before Jesus," Israel Knohl's view will certainly open up more avenues for thought, discussion and insight into what really was the situation in Palestine during this period in history.

Rating:
Summary: An odd bit of intrigue
Review: The Messiah Before Jesus is a new anomaly in Dead Sea Scrolls and New Testament studies. Israel Knohl is one of the many authors to propose an uncommon unheard of idea. The book is primarily about certain Qumran documents, the Thanksgiving Hymns, namely, the 'Self-Glorification Hymn.' His work is somewhat speculative, and rests on a number of historical assumptions. I'm not saying that this automatically makes it incredible, since most of history IS reconstruction. But for example, this Scroll theory heavily lies on the Sectarian Hypothesis regarding the Essenes inhabiting Khirbet Qumran. What I found interesting is his new historical insight on the book of Revelation (St. John's Apocalypse) and its historical basis in Roman history and connection to Qumran. Knohl's thesis is another which robs Jesus Christ of his orthodox "uniqueness." It views him as the successor to Menahem (the Essene's messiah) in a chain of messiahs that would continue even after Christ. So essentially, he disagrees with the historians and at the same time the Christians. He does this by asserting that Jesus DID in fact regard himself as the Son of God and the Suffering Messiah. (which Christians also would do, but for theological agreement with Him) Historians regard things like the divine conception and self predictions of suffering and death as post-historical Christ interpolations of the earliest Christians. They assent this because they have come to believe that such concepts were alien to the first century Judaism that expected a military Messiah-conqueror. But this book sets out to establish a precursor to Jesus identified as Isaiah 53's 'Suffering Servant.' I must admit I have a feeling that I need to recommend this book to all of you because it contains some profoundly interesting historical data that you might not find anywhere else. Such as the Paraclete of John's Gospel. Find out for yourself!! Israel Knohl gave me satisfaction. The work is condensed to about 100 pages with a plethora of footnotes that take up a good portion of the book's thickness, but none the less could quite possibly provide key information as to understanding Christ's messianic position!

Rating:
Summary: Interesting, even if main thesis fails
Review: This book provides an interesting discussion of some late Second Temple Period texts. The proposal that Augustus being called divi filius, Son of God, is reflected in a negative allusion to him in a Qumran Cave 4 text is well worth consideration. The Menahem mentioned in the Mishna (Hag. 2.2) may indeed be the Menahem the Essene mentioned by Josephus (Ant. 15), even though those writers who suggested this centuries ago misunderstood the origin of the name "Essenes," IMO.

But Menahem was not the Essene Teacher of Righteousness, nor was the teacher considered messiah.

The Essene Teacher was apparently earlier than Menahem (and earlier still than John the Baptist, James et al.). Most probably the teacher was Judah the Essene, a teacher, the first Essene mentioned by Josephus (in both Ant. and War).

Damascus Document indicates 390 years after the end of Babylonian captivity (538 BC), and after 20 more years, God saw the ma'asim. deeds, of a group (Essenes, from 'asah, 'osey hatorah, observers of torah) and raised the teacher. The Qumran Essene Pesher texts associate the teacher and the 'osey hatorah, the Essenes. Archaeology of Qumran and C14 and paleography dating of some Qumran mss also point to a time for the teacher earlier than Menahem, but fitting Judah.

In any case, Knohl raises several interesting questions.