The Essene community prepared for centuries(?) for the coming incarnation of a messiah and great teacher.
- The preparation of the Christ Lineage
The Teacher of Righteousness
The Teacher of Righteousness (in Hebrew: מורה הצדק Moreh ha-Tzedek) is a mysterious figure found in some of the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran, most prominently in the Damascus Document.[1] This document speaks briefly of the origins of the sect, probably Essenes, 390 years after the reign of Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem (586 BC). after another 20 years of looking blindly for the way; "God... raised for them a Teacher of Righteousness to guide them in the way of His heart"
The Teacher is extolled as having proper understanding of the Torah, qualified in its accurate instruction,[3] and being the one through whom God would reveal to the community "the hidden things in which Israel had gone astray".[4] Although the exact identity of the Teacher is unknown, based on the text of the Community Rule scroll, the teachers of the sect are identified as Kohanim (priests) of patrilineal progeny of Zadok[5] (the first high priest to serve in Solomon's Temple), leading scholars to conclude the Teacher as a priest of Zadokite lineage.
Alvar Ellegård follows this line and argues that the Teacher of Righteousness was not only the leader of the Essenes at Qumran, but was also considered something of a precursor to Jesus Christ about 150 years before the time of the Gospels.[8] In 1965 the Dead Sea Scrolls document known as Melchizedek dated to around 100 BC reveals the Essenes were waiting for this Melchizedek ( King of Righteousness ) High Priest and King Messiah. The Essenes also write in this document that they knew the time of his appearing due to the prophecies written in Daniel.
John the Baptist[edit] Barbara Thiering questions the dating of the Dead Sea Scrolls and suggests that the Teacher of Righteousness preached coming fiery judgment, said "the axe is laid to the roots of the tree", called people "vipers", practiced baptism and lived in the wilderness of Judea. Due to these reasons, she believes there is a strong possibility that the Teacher of Righteousness was John the Baptist.[16] Her belief is based on the idea that the Dead Sea Scrolls were written in code.