Scholar Says Text of Scrolls Refers to Messiah Execution

Cal State Long Beach professor Robert Eisenman--the first scholar given official access to the Huntington Library’s collection of Dead Sea Scrolls photographs--said Thursday that he had discovered a fragmentary text that describes the execution of a messiah-like leader.

“This tiny scroll fragment puts to rest the idea presently being circulated by (the official scrolls translation) committee that this material has nothing to do with Christian origins,” said Eisenman, professor of Middle East religions. “This will excite believers” by illuminating the roots of their religion.

But other scholars cautioned that Eisenman’s translation needs verification and that it has long been known that the concept of a dying messiah existed during the period when the scrolls were written.

The 2,000-year-old scrolls, which were found in caves near the Dead Sea during the 1940s and 1950s, contain virtually all of the books of the Old Testament and describe the customs, laws and religious practices during the time Rome ruled what was then known as Palestine. Although about 80% of the original find has been published, the remaining 20%--mostly contained in small fragments--has not, leading to criticism that the official scrolls translators have delayed the project and concealed information that could be considered damaging to traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs.

The Huntington Library in San Marino opened its complete collection of the scrolls photographs to all qualified scholars in September, essentially breaking a 40-year monopoly that a handful of designated academics had held over the study and publication of the texts.

Eisenman said he found five lines of text on a fragment about an inch and a half by one inch in size while he was viewing microfilm from the Huntington. He said the text makes specific reference to “the prophet Isaiah” and alludes to messianic concepts such as “the staff” and “the root of Jesse,” King David’s father.

One line tells of “the putting to death” or the execution “of the leader of the community,” an individual the text appears to describe as “the branch of David.” Similar language is found in the biblical books of Jeremiah and Isaiah.

The text thus has “far-reaching” significance, Eisenman said, because “it shows that whatever group was responsible for these writings was operating in the same general scriptural and messianic framework as early Christianity.”

“This passage can be read in either the past or future tense,” Eisenman added--referring to Christian belief that Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament messianic prophecies and the Jewish belief that the prophecies refer to a messianic figure yet to come.

Eisenman said the text also refers to “woundings” or “piercings” in language paralleling the well-known messianic passage in Isaiah 53:5, which describes the “suffering servant” who “for our sins was wounded.”

Stephen A. Reed, a research scholar at the Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center in Claremont, said Eisenman’s translation was “possible” but may be “an interpretive jump . . . You can’t clearly conclude (from the grammatical construction) that the object of the death is the Messiah.” The Claremont center also has scrolls facsimiles but with restricted access.

Eisenman’s work is “interesting” but not “explosive or revolutionary,” said Eugene Ulrich, a University of Notre Dame theology professor who is the chief U.S. editor of the scrolls. He added that Emile Puech, a scrolls editor, had disclosed the same text at a meeting of scrolls editors in Madrid this year.

Although the concept of a dying messiah was once thought to be uniquely Christian, scholars have known since the 1950s that it was mentioned by the Jews who wrote the scrolls, according to Ulrich and James A. Sanders, president of the Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center.

“It’s a preliminary reading,” Eisenman acknowledged. “But without free access to all the unpublished scrolls, I could have never translated a fragment like this.”