Stoned-Campbell Disciple

Grace and Grace in the Dead Sea Scrolls

It is a common view promoted in myriads of Protestant sermons that Jews of Jesus’s day thought they were working their way to salvation, that they had no understanding of grace, that their religion was devoid of genuine spirituality. This foil is used to preach certain passages in Paul, that Paul was miserable and desperately fleeing legalism.

There are massive problems with this picture. First, the people thinking like this do not read the Hebrew Bible where God’s Hesed/grace, mercy, forgiveness is the foundation of everything. Second, people thinking like this do not read the Apocrypha which has some of the finest proclamations on God’s grace and mercy to be found. And third, this point of view is demolished by all kinds of writings by Jews outside the canon of Scripture. I will share two marvelous texts found in the Dead Sea Scrolls: One from the Community Rule/Manual of Discipline and the other from the Hymns.

1) Manual of Discipline/Community Rule

“For mankind has no way, and man is unable to establish his steps
since justification is with God …
As for me, if I stumble, the mercies of God
shall be my eternal salvation.
If I stagger because of sin of flesh,
my justification shall be by the righteousness of God which endures forever.
When my distress is unleashed
He will deliver my soul from the Pit
and will direct my steps to the way.
He will draw me near by His grace,
and by His mercy will He bring my justification.
He will judge me in the righteousness of His truth
and in the greatness of His goodness
He will pardon all my sins.
Through His righteousness he will cleanse me
of the uncleanness of man
and of the sins of the children of men,
that I may confess to God His righteousness,
and His majesty to the Most High.
(Community Rule XI.11-15)

2) The Hymns

“As You have said by the hand of Moses,
You forgive transgression, iniquity, and sin,
and pardon rebellion and unfaithfulness”
(IV.10. This is almost a quotation of the God Creed in Exodus 34.6)

“Righteousness, I know, is not of man,
nor is perfection of way of the son of man [=way of humans] …
For I remember my sins
and the unfaithfulness of my fathers.
When the wicked rose against Your Covenant
and the condemned against Your word
I said in my sinfulness,
‘I am forsaken by Your Covenant.’ …
I lean on Your grace
and on the multitude of Your mercies,
for You will pardon iniquity,
and through Your righteousness
You will purify man of his sin.”
(XII.30-37)

Read these out loud. Here we have a window into the faith of pious Jews in Jesus’s day. Some of these passages in fact sound almost like Paul himself could have written them.

Sometimes we need some historical context to hear what Jesus and the New Testament writers were all about and what the real issues actually were.

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 9th, 2025 at 7:03 am and is filed under Grace, Jesus, Jewish Backgrounds, Paul. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.