Dateline November 1991: Our First Look at the Unpublished Dead Sea Scrolls

In this archive interview footage from November 1991 I talk about three Dead Sea Scroll texts–two of them newly released at that time, all of which relate to the idea of a suffering Messiah figure who is then connected to the idea of resurrection of the dead. Although Christians later applied such texts to Jesus, the idea that the Dead Sea community had also held similar views of their Teacher of Righteousness–and the one they called the “Branch of David,” would be quite significant–since this would place these ideas over 100 years before the time of Jesus of Nazareth. For published articles on both the so-called “Slain Messiah” text (4Q285) and the “Messianic Apocalypse” (4Q521), see “Publications and Papers” in the top menu of this blog. So far as I have been able to determine, Michael Wise and I were the first to note and publish the connection between the latter text and the two-source (Q) version of Jesus’ exchange with the disciples of John the Baptist (Luke 7:18-23//Matt 11:2-6). Though seldom emphasized, it remains one of our closest parallels between a Dead Sea Scroll text and a New Testament gospel text.