Another curious similarity between the DSS and Christianity is the reference to being "like blind men groping for the way" after God is said to have "visited them" in the Damascus Document. As Flint notes in
Eschatology, Messianism, and the Dead Sea Scrolls:
The notion of a blind man losing his way is common in the Hebrew Bible (cf. Deut 27:18; 28:29; Isa 59:10; Zeph 1:17; Lam 4:14). Other relevant material is found in the
Damascus Document. For instance, CD 1:9 reads: "And they were like the blind and like those who grope their way," referring to the remnant of Israel. For twenty years they were like blind men groping for the way, and subsequently they sought God with a perfect heart; God then raised up for them a teacher of righteousness (CD 1:10-11).
https://books.google.com/books?id=DDUw9 ... my&f=false
CD 1:
For when they were unfaithful and forsook Him, He hid His face from Israel and His Sanctuary and delivered them up to the sword. But remembering the Covenant of the forefathers, He left a remnant to Israel and did not deliver it up to be destroyed. And in the age of wrath, three hundred and ninety years after He had given them into the hand of king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, He visited them, and He caused a root of planting to spring from Israel and Aaron to inherit His Land and to prosper on the good things of His earth. And they perceived their iniquity and recognized that they were guilty men, yet for twenty years they were like blind men groping for the way. And God observed their deeds, that they sought Him with a whole heart, and He raised for them a Teacher of Righteousness to guide them in the way of His heart.
While I lean towards the idea that the "root of planting" refers to the DSS sect, I've entertained the idea that perhaps Jesus was this arguably messianic "root of planting" that God caused to spring up, and more so now that I think Jewish Christians thought that Jesus was divine. As Blanton writes regarding this and the connecting expression "from Israel and Aaron" in
Constructing a New Covenant : Discursive Strategies in the Damascus Document and Second Corinthians:
The phrase [from Israel and Aaron] resonates with the sect's messianism ... However, CD 1:7-8 does not here refer to messianic figures per se, but to the continuation of the lineages that would eventually give rise to those figures.
The language of "root"/"shoot" combined with the planting imagery is related to biblical passages such as Isa 11, to Jewish texts of the Second Temple period such as Jub 1:16; 21:24; 1 Enoch 10:16, and to other texts that were produced by the sectarian Association, such as 1QS 8:5. Using this imagery the sect is able to establish its pedigree as a group that was founded by an act of divine election, as God chose and nourished the "root" that would later constitute the sect.
https://books.google.com/books?id=rdaTp ... sm&f=false
Jesus is referred to as a "root" several times in the NT.
Rom. 15:12:
And again, Isaiah says, "The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; in him the Gentiles will hope."
Rev. 22:16:
I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David ...
Rev. 5:5:
Then one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals."
And the part about being like "blind men" after God caused the root to spring up reminds me of how Jesus' disciples are presented in Mark. As Tyson, for example, writes in "The Blindness of the Disciples in Mark":
And MacDonald in
The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark:
The section intervening Mark's healing of the two blind men consists primarily of Jesus instructing the Twelve concerning discipleship, including the inevitability of suffering. Jesus was "on the way, going up to Jerusalem," where he would suffer and die, but the disciples remained blind to this fate. The evangelist seems to have crafted much of 8:27-10:45 to highlight the spiritual and moral blindness of the disciples, who failed to understand the necessity of suffering.
https://books.google.com/books?id=8JkFq ... nd&f=false
And if we were to go by the earlier dating for the crucifixion of Jesus (c. 20 CE), then twenty years later would coincide with the rise of James as a leader of the Jerusalem Church in the 40's CE, who would then be the Teacher of Righteousness in this scenario. In any event, this motif of "blindness" is another curious similarity between the DSS and Christianity, all the more so given that it appears in the larger context of practicing the way and the new covenant in a place called Damascus.
You know in spite of all you gained, you still have to stand out in the pouring rain.