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Its verses describe the coming of a
divine messiah who would be the son
of God — terms that some rabbis and
scholars say would have been even
more foreign and offensive to Jews in
pre-Christian times than they are
today.
Disagreeing with the views of estab-
lished scroll scholars, Milton Fisher, a
professor of Old Testament at
Philadelphia Theological Seminary
and former president of that institu-
tion, said he does "not think the Son
of God text was written before the
time of Christ."

Pre-Christian
or a
fabrication?

Hanoch Guy, professor of Hebrew
and coordinator of Hebrew studies at
Temple University in Philadelphia,
agreed that "the language is absolutely
Christian."
The Dead Sea Scrolls supposedly
were written by a Jewish sect over a
period that began as early as 200 years
before the birth of Christ and ended
early in the first century.
In about 68 CE, most scholars
believe, the scrolls were stashed in
caves overlooking the Dead Sea where
they remained undisturbed until 1947
when an Arab shepherd boy stumbled
upon them.
For decades, the existence of the
Son of God text was known only to a
handful of scholars. But in the mid-
1990s, the entire text was published,
revealing striking New Testament
themes:
The text reads in part, "One nation
shall trample on another nation ...
[Then] his kingdom [shall be] an ever-
lasting kingdom ... He shall judge the
earth in righteousness, and everyone
shall have peace ... and every nation
will submit to Him."
In their efforts to portray the Son
of God text as a pre-Christian docu-
ment, scroll scholars theorize that it
referred to some figure who lived a
century or more before the birth of
Jesus.
But the evidence strongly suggests
that the writer was aware of
NewTestament theology, of Jesus and
of the end of the world that he
described. DI

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