THE BOOK
ISAIAH SCROLL.
He sold it to Anastasius Samuel, the Metropolitan of the Syrian Orthodox Church in East Jerusalem. Mar Samuel brought the scroll to the U.S., hoping to sell it and the three others he had in his possession. They were bought by Israeli archaeologist Yigael Yadin for $250,000 in 1954 and brought back to Israel. The scroll, along with over 200 fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls, is now housed in Jerusalem at the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum. This copy of Isaiah contains many minor differences from the later Masoretic text (the text which forms the basis of the Modern Hebrew Bible). Most of the differences are simply grammatical (for example, spelling certain words with an extra letter that does not alter the pronunciation).
Shrine of the Book.
The Shrine of the Book, a wing of the Israel Museum in the Givat Ram neighbourhood of Jerusalem, Israel, houses the Dead Sea Scrolls. The shrine is built as a white dome, covering a structure placed two-thirds below the ground, and is reflected in a pool of water that surrounds it. Across from the white dome is a black basalt wall. According to one interpretation, the colours and shapes of the building are based on the imagery of the Scroll of the War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness; the white dome symbolises the Sons of Light and the black wall symbolises the Sons of Darkness. The shrine houses the Isaiah Scroll, dating from the second century BC, the most intact of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The War of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness.
The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness, also known as the “War Rule”, ”Rule of War” and the “War Scroll”, is a manual for military organization and strategy that was discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls. The document is made up of various scrolls and fragments. It is possible that The War of the Messiah is the conclusion to this document.
The War of the Messiah
The war of the Messiah is a series of Dead Sea Scrolls describing the conclusion of a battle led by the Leader of the Congregation. The fragments that make up this document include 4Q285, also known as The Pierced Messiah Text, and 11Q14 with which it was found to coincide. It is possible that it also represents the conclusion of the War Scroll, as the two read coherently and discuss related thematic issues.
The Pierced Messiah Text (4Q285)
This six-line fragment, commonly referred to as the “Pierced Messiah”, is written in a Herodian script of the first half of the 1st Century and refers to the “stump of Jesse” – the Messiah – from the Branch of David, to a judgement, killing and cleansing of the land of the dead by the Messiah’s soldiers.
Translation from Hebrew
Hebrew is primarily made up of consonants; vowels must be supplied by the reader. The appropriate vowels depend on the context. Thus, the text (line 4) may be translated as “and the Prince of the Congregation, the Branch of David, will kill him”, or alternately read as “and they killed the Prince”. Because of the second reading, the text was dubbed the “Pierced Messiah”. The transcription and translation presented here support the “killing Messiah” interpretation, alluding to a triumphant Messiah (Isaiah 11:4).
The Pierced Messiah Controversy
In September 1952, Time magazine published an article on the War Rule fragment ‘... exploring the different interpretations’. A “piercing messiah” reading would support the traditional Jewish view of a triumphant messiah. If, on the other hand, the fragment were interpreted as speaking of a “pierced messiah”, it would anticipate the New Testament view of the preordained death of the Messiah. The scholarly basis for these different interpretations – but not their theological ramifications – are reviewed in, “A Pierced or Piercing Messiah?
Two Different Readings
There are two possible readings of the war scrolls, with most scholars agreeing on the former as the most logical, as it parallels with the War Scroll and other Dead Sea Scrolls.
Scholarly Consensus: English Translation of The War Rule
[Scroll] 4Q285 (SM) Courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority (12)
[...] Isaiah the prophet: [the thickets of the forest] will be cut
Down with an axe and Lebanon by a majestic one will (fall. And there shall
come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse.
the Branch of David and they will enter into judgement with
and the Prince of the Congregation, the Branch of David will kill him.
By stroke]s and by wounds. And a Priest [of renown (?) will command
The slain] of the Kittim.
Transcription and translation by G. Vermes (Wikipedia.)
Pierced Messiah Reading
“[...]Isaiah the prophet:[The thickets of the forest] will be felled]
With an axe and Lebanon shall f]all by a mighty one]. A staff shall rise
from the root of Jesse, [and a planting from his roots will bear fruit ...)
the Branch of David. They will enter into judgement with [...
and they will put to death the Prince of the Congregation, the Branch of
David ...
and with woundings, and the (high) priest will command ...
The slain] of the Kittim]”
Transcription and translation by Eisenman and Wise (Wikipedia.)
Despite the historical record denoting the many attempts of various kings and despotic rulers who strove to destroy the ancient scrolls recently discovered and now housed in ‘safe’ repositories, we should step far beyond the archaeological aspect and ask why they were hidden so securely, and also ask how they lasted so long? Of course, they were preserved for the most part in dry desert-air conditions.
However, the fact that those we have notated thus far add considerably to Isaiah’s two key prophecies for humankind, must surely point to a powerful aspect of Divine Will ensuring that enough would be preserved to enable certain crucial and connective linkages to that Will to be recognised by future humanity --- us, today!
So: Now that we have added a little flesh to Isaiah historically and academically, it’s time to really get to the heart of this man and especial Prophet from the “crucially more important” spiritual side to better understand what he was really trying to tell us. To that end --- and notwithstanding the large amount of prophetical Scripture from him --- there are only two main prophecies that we of present-day humanity should especially get to grips with. Although the first one we will look at now is of critical importance even if it stood alone; coupled with the other prophecy, we know it to actually be epoch-making. For the combined connectivity of both Key Scriptures translates to a Final Outcome for planet earth and all its peoples in all their different religions, cultures and societies.
What, then, is the Great Prophet’s singular and key Scripture and Prophecy that determines the “final outcome” for all religions and faiths of humankind? Whilst representing a centuries-old battleground for Muslims and Christians in a religious sense, its critical importance far outweighs any kind of ‘competitive religiosity’ in terms of claim and counter-claim. For this Scripture casts a net of Divine Ordination so wide that its intention and purpose was always to encompass all of global humanity for this very time.
Seemingly simple to understand, and perhaps even benign and innocuous to some, it literally describes the very Essence and Source of the Power of and in Creation. Thus, in a very real sense, it portends the outworking of The Divine Laws of Creation in a specific framework of Divine Power. [Full explanations will be forthcoming in later Discourses. For now, Isaiah’s recognition of Who he was really prophesying about is our immediate concern.] From Bible Scripture: This is it!
“However the Almighty Himself will give you a proof. -- Look! That Virgin
shall conceive and bear a Son, and you shall call his name God-with-us.”
(Isaiah 7:14. Fenton Bible).
That is the Old Testament Scripture from Isaiah’s time around 2,800 years ago. As an especial prophet in Hebrew history, he is quoted often throughout the New Testament. Ordinarily we might aver that Isaiah’s essential contribution to the spiritual upliftment of humanity would be a good thing and he should be quoted more often, perhaps more especially for the Christian Church. For in the overall religious mind-set of Christianity, their elevation of the Bible to its “pedestal of literal truth” has resulted -- in this case -- in one of the greatest “blunders” it was ever possible for a church and religion to achieve.
To counter it historically would always have been an impossible undertaking, and certainly in earlier, darker times would have meant torture and then fire at the stake. As in the past, in the mind of the global Christendom and the legions of self-styled “real believers”, the sanctity of the Bible must never be questioned. Despite that “closed-mind” religious stance, what we are saying here should not be construed as any kind of attack on the Church -– and it certainly is not on the Bible.
However, as we must often affirm throughout; in place of error, distortion and/or non-understanding, we are tasked to reveal where Truth lives. So must that now be here, which is to Proclaim the most crucially-decisive prophecy of the “Great Prophet”, Isaiah --- ultimately for all of humanity --- if global humanity should so choose to accept. Because our “ordained mission” requires Isaiah’s power of prophecy, the following Scripture is crucial to this Discourse.
“However the Almighty Himself will give you a proof. -- Look! That Virgin
shall conceive and bear a Son, and you shall call his name God-with-us.”
(Isaiah 7:14. Fenton Bible).
It certainly seems clear enough in its apparent meaning; that “the virgin who will conceive” is Mary, Mother of Jesus, and that Jesus is therefore the “God-with-us”. In addition, it is academically accepted -– in virtually all theological/religious discussion --- that “God-with-us” is translated to mean Immanuel or Emmanuel, in the name and in those two versions of its spelling. Isaiah, however, says differently, for Jesus was never called by those two names, except by latter-day “Christians”.
Now: To really get to grips with Matthew’s inexcusable and horrendous interpretative blunder in that crucial Scripture, we must seriously examine his narration of the birth of Jesus. There, if we are really awake, we will see, recognise, and hopefully understand, his appalling error, now bequeathed to posterity and nauseatingly promulgated as unassailably correct by any and every Bible scholar. Matthew’s horrendous distortion really is there, plain enough to see --- and recognise.
The great tragedy for global Christendom in the first instance, wrought by simple non-recognition of the error, has effectively prevented billions of human souls from the critical and stupendous recognition of the Divine reality of “Son of God/Sons of God”. The “Great Prophet”, as we shall learn, “puts it right”.
Since we are about to critically examine the concept of Son/s of God --- a notion implacably opposed by Islam --- in this immediate section about Jesus, let’s hear, again, some of the Koranic texts that vociferously ‘deny’ the very concept of “Sonship” inherently forever connected with and to THE ALMIGHTY.