The Early History of Qumran's Messianic Expectations

This essay will focus on the messianic loci of two texts, the Damascus Document and the Rule of the Community. These are the texts that have been most frequently cited in discussing the messianism of Qumran. Generally, scholars refer to both texts to support the general Qumranic picture of the expectation of the double messiah. Working on my doctoral dissertation on the Qumranic picture of the mediator of salvation I came to the recognition that the consensus on this question is not wholly acceptable. What made me further investigate the issue was the fact that contemporary research seems to be trying to get away from a diachronical description of the messianic expectations of the Qumran Community. The authors of the newest monographs and essays mainly concentrate on great thematic blocks, and thematic development does no longer have a central role. Going somewhat against this tendency, this essay also looks for the place these texts have in the early history of the Community itself.