March 2, 2009, 8:01 am by dc-agape.

 4Q266 Frag. 1

To start with I must start with the line of numbers and “words” above.  What these mean is that these are additional material (fragments) that do not belong to the surviving Genzina A which was published in 1951 by Millar Burrows.  The initial number 4 stands for which cave it was found in.  The Q stands for the discover location of Qumran.  The following number (266) indicates that this was the 266^th manuscript found in that cave at that site.  The “Frag” means exactly what it would seem to represent this is a fragment of the manuscript.  The number following this is the fragment number. 

This fragment is letting the Jewish people know that they must avoid the ways of evil.  This fragment uses terms like “the Children of Light” and the “Boundary-Shifters”.  It is quite obvious that these two groups are at odds, but both belong to the Jewish community.  It is a warning that the sins of the people would bring harsh punishment to the Jewish nation, but the “Children of the Light” must be patient until the punishment is over.  It would seem that the “Boundary-Shifters” were either the punishment for the sin of forsaking the teachings of Moses or they were the ones spreading lies about the teachings of Moses.  Basically, the “Children of Light” felt that the Traditions of Men had corrupted the Word of God.  As a result, Israel would be punished.  Remember this document was written at the time when the nation was occupied by the Romans. Sometime very near the writing of this document the Romans were forcing the Israeli people into the Second Dispersion.  As it turns out the Roman Empire did shift the boundaries of Israel and even change the name of the area to Judea Palestine. 

4Q266 Frag. 2 Col. 1

“Col. 1” is an extension of that first numbering system; this is the second fragment and the first column.  This fragment is about promising that what has started will end.  But a warning about celebrating holidays at the wrong time.  A shift in calendar use was occurring at this time as well.  The fragment goes on to promise that the specific period chosen by YHWH for punishment would end and that those who held onto the commandments would survive.  It ends with a continuation of how YHWH is in control of our freewill and that the future is set.  Here is a direct quote from the end of this fragment:

[He uncovered their] e[yes] to the hidden things and opened their ears that [they might hear deep things] 8 and understand future events before they happen to them.

The [] indicate where duplicates of the document were used to fill in the missing pieces from the best copy.  The number 8 in this quote indicates the line number on the column.

But the important thing here is that the author of this document believed that it was YHWH who would allow certain people to see and hear the Holy words and that it was YHWH that knew what would happen in the future.  Even this sect of the Jewish religion did not belief in freewill, and they knew that the future was set by the will of YHWH.

Since this document was used by some group that used to be considered the Yahad, does this mean that this document was a Holy Text or just a Tradition of Man.  I use the term “used to be considered” because recent translations of the Dead Sea Scrolls indicated that the neither the Yahad nor the Essences inhabited the Khirbet Qumran.

Posted in Damascus Document, Dead Sea Scroll, Readings | Print | No Comments »

March 2, 2009, 6:48 am by dc-agape.

I seem to have discovered either an ally in my experiment or I have stumbled onto a very dangerous situation.  My post on Hypocritical YHWH just got a ping from the “Wake-up Project”.  Since I am not familiar with the Muslim internal strife, I do not know whether this site is something of particular interest or if this site is even more heretical than my own.  Take a look for yourself:

The U-tube movie condemns the Traditions of Men, in this case the hadiths.  I am intrigued, but should I remove the link?  Does anyone know what the Wake-up Project is?

Posted in Holy Qur'an, Inerrancy - My Ass | Print | 4 Comments »