TRUTH, FALSEHOOD & THE VISITATION

- The Community Rule (III:18 - IV:26)

He has created man to govern the world, and has appointed for him two spirits in which to walk until the time of His visitation: the spirits of truth and falsehood. Those born of truth spring from a fountain of light, but those born of falsehood spring from a source of darkness. All the children of righteousness are ruled by the Prince of Light and walk in the ways of light, but all the children of falsehood are ruled by the Angel of Darkness and walk in the way of darkness. The Angel of Darkness leads all the children of righteousness astray, and until his end, all their sin, iniquities, wickedness, and all their unlawful deeds are caused by his dominion in accordance with the mysteries of God. Every one of their chastisements, and every one of the seasons of their distress, shall be brought about by the rule of his persecution; for all his allotted spirits seek the overthrow of the sons of light. But the God of Israel and His Angel of Truth will succor all the sons of light.

For it is He who created the spirits of Light and Darkness and founded every action upon them and established every deed [upon] their [ways]. And He loves the one everlastingly and delights in its works for ever; but the counsel of the other He loathes and for ever hates its ways.

These are their ways in the world for the enlightenment of the heart of man, and that all the paths of true righteousness may be made straight before him, and that the fear of the laws of God may be instilled in his heart: a spirit of humility, patience, abundant charity, unending goodness, understanding, and intelligence; (a spirit of) mighty wisdom which trusts in all the deeds of God and leans on His great lovingkindness; a spirit of discernment in every purpose, of zeal for just laws, of holy intent with steadfastness of heart, of great charity towards all the sons of truth, of admirable purity which detests all unclean idols, of humble conducts spring from an understanding of all things, and of faithful concealment of the mysteries of truth. These are the counsels of the spirit to the sons of truth in this world.

And as for the visitation of all who walk in this spirit, it shall be healing, great peace in a long life, and fruitfulness, together with every everlasting blessing and eternal joy in life without end, a crown of glory and a garment of majesty in unending light.

But the ways of the spirit of falsehood are these: greed, and slackness in the search for righteousness, wickedness and lies, haughtiness and pride, falseness and deceit, cruelty and abundant evil, ill-temper and much folly and brazen insolence, abominable deeds (committed) in a spirit of lust, and ways of lewdness in the service of uncleanness, a blaspheming tongue, blindness of eye and dullness of ear, stiffness of neck and heaviness of heart, so that man walks in all the ways of darkness and guile.

And the visitation of all who walk in this spirit shall be a multitude of plagues by the hand of all the destroying angels, everlasting damnation by the avenging wrath of the fury of God, eternal torment and endless disgrace together with shameful extinction in the fire of the dark regions. The times of all their generations shall be spent in sorrowful mourning and in bitter misery and in calamities of darkness until they are destroyed without remnant or survivor. The nature of all the children of the men is ruled by these (two spirits), and during their life all the hosts of men have a portion of their divisions and walk in (both) their ways. And the whole reward for their deeds shall be, for everlasting ages, according to whether each mans portion in their two divisions is great or small. For God has established the spirits in equal measure until the final age, and has set everlasting hatred between their divisions. Truth abhors the works of falsehood, and falsehood hates all the ways of truth. And their struggle is fierce in all their arguments for they do not walk together. But in the mysteries of His understanding, and in His glorious wisdom, God has ordained an end for falsehood, and at the same time of the visitation He will destroy it for ever. Then truth, which has wallowed in the ways of wickedness during the dominion of falsehood until the appointed time of judgement, shall arise in the world for ever. God will then purify every deed of man with this truth; He will refine for Himself the human frame by rooting out all spirit of falsehood from the bounds of his flesh. He will cleanse him of all wicked deeds with the spirit of holiness; like purifying waters He will shed upon him the spirit of truth (to cleanse him) of all abomination and falsehood. And he shall be plunged into the spirit of purification that he may instruct the upright in the knowledge of the Most High and teach the wisdom of the sons of heaven to the perfect of way. For God has chosen them for an everlasting Covenant and all the glory of Adam shall be theirs. There shall be no more lies and all the works of falsehood shall be put to shame.

Until now the spirit of truth and falsehood struggle in the hearts of men and they walk in both wisdom and folly. According to his portion of truth so does man hate falsehood, and according to his inheritance in the realm of falsehood so is he wicked and so hates truth.

For God has established the two spirits in equal measure until the determined end, and until the Renewal, and He knows the reward of their deeds from all eternity. He has allotted them to the children of men that they may be according to the spirit within [them at the time] of the visitation.

-----------------------------------

Again we see the theme of truth and falsehood in the texts. The first description in the Bible concerning this duality among mankind is in the mention of the seed of the daughter of woman and the seed of the serpent upon leaving Eden. The Dead Sea Scrolls were documented by a Jewish Brotherhood, the Essenes. The time of visitation is in relation to a 'Teacher of Righteousness', which was the prediction and objective of the Essene community.

__________________________________________________________

THE VISITATION AND THE TEACHER OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

"Now hear ye all who know righteousness and understand the actions of God; for He has a dispute with all flesh and will carry out judgement on all those who spurn Him , He hid his face from Israel and from His sanctuary and delivered them up to the sword. But when He remembered the covenant with the forefathers, He saved a remnant for Israel and did not deliver them up to destruction. At the moment of wrath three hundred and ninety years after having delivered them up to the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, He visited them and caused a sprout from Israel and from Aaron, a shoot of planting, in order to posses His land and become fat with the good things of His soil. And they realized their iniquity and knew that they were guilty men but they were like blind persons and like those who grope for the path for over twenty years. Yet God discerned their works because they sought Him with a whole heart and raised up for them a teacher of righteousness in order to direct them in the path of his heart." - Damascus Document 1:1-11.

"Seventy weeks are decreed for your people and your holy city: to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place." - Daniel 9:24-27

___________________________________

This comes at a time of the latter stages in the wider scheme of the times, indicating an inheritance of the fatness of earth. This is also the time that the Essenes ministered. The goal of the community, a brotherhood so be it, studiers of the law, metaphorically in 'digging a well' and 'building a wall', was a Lawgiver or Teacher of Righteousness. God loved the digger's of the well but was against those that imposed the building of the wall. Toward the coming of the 'Great Shiloh' as foretold by Daniel's Seventy Sevens. 

NEW COVENANT

JUDGMENT OF THE LORD

Now, therefore, hearken unto me [V Listen now], ye all who know righteousness [=V; GM justice] and meditate upon [GM understand; V consider] the work [GM actions; V works] of| God . For He has a controversy [GM V dispute] with all flesh and He will execute [GM carry out] judgment[V condemn] upon [GM against] all [V all those] who despise [GM V spurn] Him. | For because of their treason that [GM V when they were unfaithful] they forsook [GM in forsaking; V and forsook] Him, He hid His face from Israel and from His sanctuary| and delivered them unto [GM V up to] the sword

 - Damascus Document Ch. 1:1-5

THE COVENANT AND THE WELL

But with them that held fast to the commandments of God, who were left among them, God confirmed His covenant with Israel for ever, revealing unto them the hidden things in which all Israel erred: His holy Sabbaths and His glorious festivals, the testimony of His righteousness and the ways of His truth and the desires of His will which a man shall do| and live by them. He opened before them and they digged a well of many waters

 - Damascus Document Ch. 5:1-3

THE BUILDING OF THE WALL

And they justified the righteous and condemned the wicked. And all they who come after them| to do according to the interpretation of the Law in which the forefathers were *instructed until the*completing of the end of these years. In accordance with the covenant which God has confirmed to the forefathers to make atonement for their sins, so shall God make atonement for them. And after the completing of the end in accordance with the number of these years *one shall not join the house of Judah, but every man shall stand up against his net. The wall is built, the decree is far removed. And during all these years there will be Belial let loose against Israel as God hath spoken through Isaiah, the prophet, the son| of Amoz, saying: Fear and the net and the snare are upon thee, O inhabitant of the land. ## Its explanation is| : three nets of Belial concerning which Levi the son of Jacob hath spoken by* which he ensnared Israel, and *directed their faces to the three kinds of righteousness. The first is fornication, the second is *wealth, the third| is the *pollution of the sanctuary. He that fleeth from this will be ensnared by that, and he that escapeth the one will be ensnared| by the other. They that builded the *wall who walked after the *commanding one.

Damascus Document Ch. 6:6-22

TEACHER OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

they were guilty men, and but; V yet] they were like the blind persons] *groping in the way and like those who grope for the path] | twenty years. And God considered appraised] their deeds, for because] they sought Him with a perfect heart| and He raised for them a teacher of righteousness to make them walk in order to direct them] in the way path] of His heart.

 - Damascus Document Ch. 1:10-16

SMITTEN SHEPHERD

"O sword, awake, against | my shepherd and against the man that is my fellow, says God, smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered,. | and I will turn my hand to the little ones. And they that watch him are the poor of the flock

 - Damascus Document Ch. 9:6-8

A NEW COVENANT

they shall be judged. For they uttered error against the statutes of righteousness and despised the covenant and the pledge of faith which they have affirmed in the land of Damascus; and this is the New Covenant.

- Damascus Document (BII:10)

A VOW AND A CURSE

{GM} [He will not sw]ear by the Aleph and the Lamed ('EL = God) nor by the Aleph and the Daleth ('ADONAI = The Lord), but by the oath of the youths {GM} by the curses of the covenant. Neither should one mention the law of Moses, for [...] {GM} And if he swears and transgresses, he would profane the name. And if he sw[ears] by the curses of the covenant [he should do it before] {GM} the judges. If he transgresses, he will be guilty and will have to confess and make amends but he shall not be liable [for sin and shall not] {GM} die.

- Damascus Document 15:1-4

SHODDY WALL-BUILDERS

The serpents are the kings of the peoples and their wine is their ways. And the head of asps is the chief of the kings of Greece who came to wreak vengeance upon them. But all these things the builders of the wall and those who daub it with plaster (Ezek. xiii, 10) have not understood because a follower of the wind, one who raised storms and rained down lies, had preached to them (Mic. ii, 11), against all of whose assembly the anger of God was kindled.And as for that which Moses said, You enter to possess these nations not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your hearts (Deut. ix, 5) but because God loved your fathers and kept the oath (Deut. vii, 8), thus shall it be with the converts of Israel who depart from the way of the people. Because God loved the first (men) who testified in His favour, so will He love those who come after them, for the Covenant of the fathers is theirs. But He hated the builders of the wall and His anger was kindled (MS. B: against them and against all those who followed them); and so shall it be for all who reject the commandments of God and abandon them for the stubbornness of their hearts. This is the word which Jeremiah spoke to Baruch son of Neriah, and which Elisha spoke to his servant Gehazi. None of the men who enter the New Covenant in the land of Damascus, (B I) and who again betray it and depart from the fountain of living waters, shall be reckoned with the Council of the people or inscribed in its Book from the day of the gathering in (B II) of the Teacher of the Community until the coming of the Messiah out of Aaron and Israel.

- Damascus Document Ch 8:10-23

THE WELL AND THE LAWGIVER

And He took from Aaron men of understanding and from Israel wise men and made them understand, and they digged the well. "The princes digged the well; they digged it, the nobles of the people, by the lawgiver. The well is the Law, and they who digged it are the captivity of Israel who have gone forth out of the land of Judah and sojourned in the land of Damascus, all of whom God called princes. For they sought Him and their bough was not turned back in the mouth of one. And the Lawgiver is he who interprets the Law concerning whom Isaiah said, "He bringeth forth an instrument for his work. And the nobles of the people are they who came to dig the well by the precepts which the Lawgiver ordained to walk in them for all end of the wickedness. And they shall reach nothing beside them until there will arise the teacher of righteousness in the end of the days. And all they who were brought into the covenant they shall not enter into the Sanctuary to kindle His altar, and be shutting the door, concerning whom God said, "Who is there among you who would shut the doors, neither do you kindle my altar for naught." If they will not observe to do according to the interpretation of the Law, until the end of the wickedness, and to separate from the children of destruction, and to separate from the wealth of wickedness which is contaminated by a vow and curse, and from the wealth of the sanctuary, and rob the poor of his people (so that) widows be their prey, and they murder the fatherless and to distinguish between clean and unclean and to make known between the holy and the profane, and to observe the Sabbath according to its interpretation and the feasts and the day of fast according to the command of them who entered in to the New Covenant in the land of Damascus. To raise their offerings according to their interpretation, to love every one his neighbor as himself, and to strengthen the hand of the poor and the needy and the stranger, and to seek every one the peace.

- Damascus Document ch 6:3-22

AN OATH AND A NAME - AKAE AND BEKA.

And this is the task of Kasbeel, the chief of the oath which he showed to the holy ones when he dwelt high above in glory, and its name is Biqa. This (angel) requested Michael to show him the hidden name, that he may enunciate it in the oath, So that those might quake before that name and oath who revealed all that was in secret to the children of men. And this is the power of this oath, for it is powerful and strong, and he placed his oath Akae in the hand of (under the control of) Michael. And these are the secrets of this oath (God's promise, word) that heaven was suspended before the world was created, and forever, and they are strong through his oath (word, promise) And through it the earth was founded in water, and from the secret recesses of the mountains came beautiful waters, from the creation of the world and to eternity.

 - 1 Enoch 69:13-17.

--------------------------------------------

INTERPRETATION

God abhors the builders of the wall and adores the diggers of the well. The transgression was made in forsaking the covenant and ended in bloodshed and renewed; not until the completed time, there was a remnant for God's people. There was a new covenant on the concept of purification; basis of waters and opposing those who imposed the building of the wall. The covenant was sanctioned by an oath and a curse. The curse a smitten shepherd, scattered flock; the blessing a united assembly towards a Teacher of Righteousness.

NEW COVENANT

Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary. A tabernacle was set up. In its first room were the lampstand and the table with its consecrated bread; this was called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place, which had the golden altar of incense and the gold-covered ark of the covenant. This ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant. Above the ark were the cherubim of the Glory, overshadowing the atonement cover. But we cannot discuss these things in detail now.

When everything had been arranged like this, the priests entered regularly into the outer room to carry on their ministry. But only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still functioning. This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings—external regulations applying until the time of the new order.

The Blood of Christ But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. - Hebrews 9: 1-15

---------------------------------

Blood was shed for the atonement of sin. A new covenant for mankind in Christ Jesus. This came at the end of the prophesied 'Seventy Sevens' by Daniel concerning the decree issued to restore Jerusalem; preceding the Messianic Kingdom as proclaimed by John the Baptist and also Jesus leading up to the crucifixion.