Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered - The Preterist Archive

. . these will wander astray in blindness (53) . . . [th]ese (people.) Then there shall arise (5 4) . . .
[H]oly O[n]es shall return (5 5)... Evil.
12. The Son Of God (4Q246) (Plate 4)
This is another Messianic pseudo-Daniel fragment in Aramaic, relating to the literature centering about
that figure. It is full of the language and heightened imagery of these apocalyptic visionary recitals. In
fact, it takes its cue from a reference in the Biblical Daniel to the 'Kingdom' that 'the God of Heaven
will set up ... which shall never be destroyed', nor be conquered or absorbed, but rather 'last forever'
(Dan. 2:44). There are also parallels in style with the 'little Apocalypse' in the New Testament, where
Jesus is pictured as foretelling the future woes leading to the destruction of Jerusalem (Luke 21:20).
A key phrase in the text is, of course, the reference to calling the coming kingly or Messianic figure,
whose 'rule will be an eternal rule', 'the son of God' or 'the son of the Most High', while previous
kingdoms, because of their transitoriness, are compared only to 'shooting stars'. Other imagery in the
Biblical Daniel also helped define our notions about Jesus as a Messianic figure, imagery relating to
the 'Son of Man coming on the clouds of Heaven' (Dan. 7:13). This imagery is strong in the War
Scroll, where it is used to interpret 'the Star Prophecy' (Columns xiff. This is repeated even more
forcefully in Column xixf., where the Heavenly Host is depicted as coming on the clouds of Heaven
and 'shedding judgement' like 'rain' on all mankind).
There can be no denying the relation of allusions of this kind to the Lukan prefiguration of Jesus: 'He
will be great, and will be called the son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give him the Throne
of his father David ... For that reason the Holy offspring will be called the Son of God' (Luke 1:32-35).
Images of this kind, however, abound in Old Testament scripture, particularly in honouring great
kings. See, for instance, Ps. 2:7: 'You are My son; on this day have I begotten you' (in Christian
tradition, part of the prefiguration of Jesus' baptism; for a more Jewish Christian presentation of this,
see Heb. 1:5 and 5:5). See, too, 2 Sam. 7:14: 'I will be a father to him [David] and he shall be a son to
Me', or Ps. 89:27: 'He shall say to Me, "You are my father, my God - the Rock of my deliverance."'
Scriptural pre-figurations such as these are also strong in Wisdom and at Qumran, where all 'the
Righteous' are reckoned as 'the sons of God'. This is particularly true in the Qumran Hymns where the
'sonship' imagery regarding the Righteous and its putative author 'the Teacher of Righteousness' is
strong throughout. In the Son of God text, one should also note the emphasis on 'Truth' or
'Righteousness' two central Qumran concepts (hence, our capitalization of them throughout this work).
Nor can there be any mistaking its eschatological nature and its emphasis on 'judging' or 'the Last
judgement', more key Qumran conceptuality's probably stemming from Daniel's proclamation of 'the
end time' in 8:20, 11:25, etc.
That the concepts incorporated in words of this kind have gone directly into Christian presentations of
its Messiah and his activities is hardly to be doubted. See, for instance, Line 4 in Column 2 and Matt.
10:3 4: 'I came not to send peace, but a sword.' This kind of 'sword' allusion is also found in Column
xix. 12 above of the War Scroll, 'the sword of God', used in the war against 'the Kittim'. Further to this,
one should note the allusion again to 'Peoples' in Line 8.
One point, however, should be emphasized: the Messianic figure envisaged in texts like the Son of