| The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Book of Mormon: The correlation between the actions of these two groups of people is not the only similarity. A study of the theological themes in the documents they produced reveals several common topics in their beliefs. 5
1. The writings of the community of the Dead Sea Scrolls reveal a strong sense of being a covenant people, who saw themselves as the continuation of the true Israel. Compare the ideas in the following quotations from the scrolls with the feelings of the peoples of the Book of Mormon, who saw themselves as a "remnant of the house of Israel" (title page of the Book of Mormon): {W}elcome into the covenant of kindness all those who freely volunteer to carry out God’s decrees, so as to be united in the counsel of God and walk in perfection in his sight, complying with all revealed things concerning the regulated times of their stipulations. (1QS I 7–9) And all those who enter in the Rule of the Community shall establish a covenant before God in order to carry out all that he commands and in order not to stray from following him for any fear, dread or grief that might occur during the dominion of Belial. When they enter the covenant, the priests and the levites shall bless the God of salvation and all the works of his faithfulness and all those who enter the covenant shall repeat after them: ‘Amen, Amen.’ (1QS I 16–20)
(1QS I 24–6)
Blank And the priests and the levites shall continue, saying:. . . "whoever enters this covenant leaving his guilty obstacle in front of himself to fall over it. When he hears the words of this covenant, he will congratulate himself in his heart, saying: ‘I will have peace.’ (1QS II 10–3)
(1QS II 16–7) 6
2. The writers of the Dead Sea Scrolls insisted on strict observance of the law of Moses, including a particular concern for the time and manner of observing the festivals. The members of the Dead Sea community intended to live "the law which he commanded through the hand of Moses" (1QS VIII 15). Compare the following quotations from the scrolls to 2 Nephi 25:24, where Nephi says that they "keep the law of Moses" even though they "believe in Christ" and "look forward with steadfastness . . . until the law shall be fulfilled": For [the Instructor . . .] . . . [book of the Rul]e of the Community: in order to seek God [with all (one’s) heart and with all (one’s) soul; in order] to do what is good and just in his presence, as commanded by means of the hand of Moses and his servants the Prophets; in order to love everything which he selects and to hate everything that he rejects; in order to keep oneself at a distance from all evil, and to become attached to all good works; to bring about truth, justice and uprightness. (1QS I 1–5) As it is written: "In the desert, prepare the way of {the Lord}, straighten in the steppe a roadway for our God." This is the study of the law which he commanded through the hand of Moses, in order to act in compliance with all that has been revealed from age to age, and according to what the prophets have revealed through his holy spirit. (1QS VIII 14–6) And he taught them by the hand of the anointed ones through his holy spirit and through seers of the truth, and their names were established with precision. (CD II 12–3)
3. Writers from both these groups display a vivid sense of expectation of the coming of the Messiah. Like the early Christians, they lived in the belief that the end of days was at hand and that their struggle was with the principalities and powers, and they reinterpreted the scriptures in that context. According to one eminent scholar in the field, Professor Frank Moore Cross, "Theirs was a church of anticipation."7 Many of the Dead Sea Scrolls, such as the Rule of the Congregation (or Messianic Rule), are written in expectation of the time when the Messiah would be present in their midst or (in the case of the Temple Scroll) of an era immediately preceding the Messianic age. The Book of Mormon, too, reveals an intense expectation of the coming of their Messiah (usually referred to in the Book of Mormon as Christ).8 The Nephites "look forward unto Christ [i.e., the Messiah] with steadfastness for the signs which are given"(2 Nephi 26:8). Indeed, the prophets of the Book of Mormon even prophesy the year of Christ’s birth: Nephi prophesies that Christ will be born "six hundred years from the time that my father left Jerusalem" (1 Nephi 10:4), while the mysterious Samuel the Lamanite tells the Nephites that he would be born in five years (Helaman 14:2). Examine the strong messianic expectations in the following excerpts from the scrolls:
Introduction | Section 1 | Section 2 | Conclusion and Notes |