Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered - The Preterist Archive

2:9. The play on the Sod / Yesod, i.e. 'Secrets'/'Foundations', imagery here is also present, for example,
in Ibn Gabirol's eleventh century The Crown of the Kingdom mentioned above (lines 14, 112, 164 and
170). We have been following this language throughout the Qumran corpus.
In later fragments, many of these themes are reiterated, and the text now shifts to an emphasis on
understanding 'all Mysteries', with particular interest in 'the Mystery of Being'/'the Mystery of
Existence'. It is noteworthy that these kinds of inquiries seem to have, at least in theory, been
proscribed in Talmudic Judaism. Not only do we have here references to 'the scales of Righteousness',
'Lying', 'swallowing', and 'Ways', but in Fragment 7.3 the ubiquitous 'amal ('suffering works') language
appears again. This is to be found, as we have seen, in Isa. 53, and used in the Habakkuk Pesher to
delineate how one is 'saved'.
In Fragment 9, the most surprising allusion occurs in relation to being 'Righteous' and 'works', and that
is the expression Yesha' ('Salvation'). It first appears in a construct Yesha' ma'saiv ('the Salvation of
His works') in Line 8 in relation to 'not removing the Law of God from your heart' (note once again the
ubiquitous 'heart' usage here). Then in Line 11, following another reference to 'amal - this time
expressed as a verb (10) - one comes upon the construct 'the children of Yesha" or 'the children of
Salvation'. The text then goes on to speak of 'inheriting Glory' and 'everlasting joy'.
The use of the noun 'Yesha’ or the verbal noun 'Yeshu' ato' ('His Salvation') is fairly widespread at
Qumran and much underrated. One finds expressions such as these in two important contexts in the
Damascus Document: viii.43 relating to 'God Fearers' - 'until God reveals Righteousness and Salvation
to those who fear His Name'- and viii. 57, relating to 'not rejecting the Laws of Righteousness',
'listening to the voice of the Teacher of Righteousness' and 'being forgiven' 'and they would .see His
Salvation' (italics ours). The verb 'see' here is of prime importance. These terms also crop up in several
interesting contexts in the War Scroll (xiii, xiv and xviii) and another equally Messianic section
preceding the 'Planting' section in the Qumran Hymns (vii. 19).
Some would feel that such a concept was really quite new for the people of the ancient world; nor had
the Greeks yet personified it in various deities. The personification of this concept in the Gospel
presentation of Messianic events in Palestine in the first century can in this light be considered a most
revolutionary development and one that has not ceased exercising its influence on mankind even now.
In Fragment 9.2/ 10.1, the theme of 'keeping' is applied to that of 'Mysteries' in conjunction with the
parallel one of 'not forsaking the Law' (8). This theme of 'Mysteries' is pursued to the end, particularly
the single mystery, 'the Mystery of Existence', amid continued allusion to 'justifying by Your
judgement' - found throughout the Qumran corpus 'zeal' and a new usage, 'poverty', another obvious
variation of the 'Poor' theme, as opposed to 'Riches', in connection with which the 'swallowing'
imagery is used again (10.9). The expression Ebion / 'the Poor One' is actually used on a number of
occasions, linking up with the previous work again, and leading to the final message: 'walking in
Righteousness', 'lying down in Truth', and 'inheriting eternal bliss'.