Teacher of Righteousness

The Teacher of Righteousness (in Hebrew: מורה הצדק Moreh ha-Tzedek) is a figure found in some of the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran, most prominently in the Damascus Document. This document speaks briefly of the origins of the sect, probably Essenes, 390 years after the reign of Nebuchadnezzar and after 20 years of 'groping' 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, and being the one through whom God would reveal to the community “the hidden things in which Israel had gone astray”.

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 Kohens (priests) of patrilineal progeny of Zadok (the first high priest to serve in The First Temple), leading scholars to assume the Teacher as a Kohen (priest) of Tzadokite lineage.

One theory initially advocated by Jerome Murphy-O'Connor and subsequently by Stegemann is that the Teacher of Righteousness served as High Priest but was subsequently ousted by Jonathan Maccabeus. In 1 Maccabees, no High Priest is named for the period from the death of Alcimus in 159 BCE to the claiming of the position of High Priest by Jonathan on the authority of Alexander Balas in 152 BCE (1 Macc 10:18-20). From this it could be concluded that there was no High Priest for these years, and indeed Josephus, drawing heavily on I Maccabees at this point in his history, comes to that conclusion (Ant. 20.237). It is improbable, however, that the office remained completely vacant for these years. Stegemann suggests that the reason that nothing is said in 1 Maccabees about a High Priest between Alcimus and Jonathan was apologetic: to conceal the fact that the Hasmoneans obtained the High Priesthood by usurping it from its rightful holder, the Teacher of Righteousness.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 identical to the original Jesus about 150 years before the time of the Gospels.

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