In Luke, chapter 7:19-22 we read of an interesting encounter between Jesus and the disciples of John the Baptist:
7:19 And John calling unto him two of his disciples sent them to Jesus, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another?
7:20 When the men were come unto him, they said, John Baptist hath sent us unto thee, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another?
7:21 And in that same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits; and unto many that were blind he gave sight.
7:22 Then Jesus answering said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached.
Many readers have puzzled over Jesus' response. I certainly have wondered myself. The Savior's response would doubtless have been inspired, revealed to Him by His Father. And yet Jesus' response seems a bit tepid by modern expectations.
Craig Evans, a brilliant scholar and defender of faith in Christ and the New Testament record, discusses the significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls in a video published on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIwV__gW5v4, from 10:13 to 16:03. Here Mr. Evans, himself a devout Roman Catholic, points out that Jesus' response to John the Baptist is not considered "Messiah-esque" (my expression) enough by many scholars. However, Mr. Evans adds that a document discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1948, Scroll 521 from Cave 4, a document now called 4Q521,dating to at least the first century BC, roughly 100 years prior to the New Testament events, sheds light on the context in which the encounter between Jesus and two of John the Baptist's disciples took place:
Scroll 521 from Cave 4 (4Q521)
1: for the heavens and the earth shall listen to his Christ
2: and all that is in them will not turn away from the precepts of the saints.
3: Strengthen yourselves, ye who are seeking the Lord, in his service!
4: Will ye not in this encounter the Lord, all those who hope in their heart?
5: For the Lord shall consider the pious, and call the righteous by name,
6: and his Spirit shall hover upon the poor, and he will renew the faithful with his strength/priesthood.
7: For he shall honour the pious upon the throne of an eternal kingdom,
8: freeing prisoners, giving sight to the blind, straightening out the twisted.
9: And forever shall I cling to those who hope, and in his mercy...
10: and the fruit of...
11: And the Lord will perform marvellous acts such as have not existed, just as he said,
12: For he shall heal the badly wounded and will make the dead live, he will proclaim good news [gospel] to the poor
13: and ... he shall lead the ... and enrich the hungry ... and all ...
The parallels between the record in Luke, dated to the mid first century AD and to 4Q521 dated to (at least) the first century BC are salient. Scroll 4Q521 attests to the beliefs of Jews regarding the coming Messiah. Little wonder that in the second century AD the Pharisees opted not to include this scripture in their canon of scripture that has since come to be known as The Old Testament. Imagine if they had included this passage.
Mr. Craig Evans has written and spoken of the importance of 4Q521 in understanding Luke 7:19-22 and the four Gospels in general. Certainly this discovery of 1948 is incredible not only for its merits as ancient Hebrew writs but for its powerful witness of truths that were commonly held in Judea before and during the time of Jesus Christ, but later rejected precisely because they did testify of Him. There is something curious about 4Q521--it is in Hebrew. If it had been written in the first century BC it might have been composed in Aramaic. Certainly other Dead Sea Scroll documents that testify of the coming "Son of God" are in Aramaic. I wonder if the Hebrew language of 4Q521 may suggest that the document was composed prior to the first century BC.
But I would have the reader consider something else: Before 4Q521 was discovered in 1948, another record came forward in 1829. This passage dates to 124 BC, so it was either immediately concurrent with 4Q521 or it soon came to be concurrent: Mosiah 3:3-11, The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ.
3: And [the angel from God] said unto me: Awake, and hear the words which I shall tell thee; for behold, I am come to declare unto you the glad tidings of great joy.
4: For the Lord hath heard thy prayers, and hath judged of thy righteousness, and hath sent me to declare unto thee that thou mayest rejoice; and that thou mayest declare unto they people, that they may also be filled with joy.
5: For behold, the time cometh, and is not far distant, that with power, the Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity, shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a tabernacle of clay, and shall go forth amongst men, working mighty miracles, such as healing he sick, raising the dead, causing the lame to walk, the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear, and curing all manner of diseases.
6: And he shall cast out devils, or the evil spirits which dwell in the hearts of the children of men.
7: And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people.
8: And he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning; and his mother shall be called Mary.
9: And lo, he cometh unto his own, that salvation might come unto the children of men even through faith on his name; and even after all this they shall consider him a man, and say that he hath a devil, and shall scourge him, and shall crucify him.
10: And he shall rise the third day from the dead; and behold, he standeth to judge the world; and behold, all these things are done that a righteous judgment might come upon the children of men.
11: For behold, and also his blood atoneth for the sins of the those who have fallen by the transgression of Adam, who have died not knowing the will of God concerning them, or who have ignorantly sinned.
Notice the similarities between 4Q521 and Mosiah 3:
- Both date to the 1-2 centuries BC.
- Both mention "Christ".
- Both mention "The Lord".
- Both mention "heaven and earth".
- Both "good news" and "glad tidings" respectively.
- Both mention "healing the badly wounded" and "healing the sick/curing all manner of diseases" respectively.
- Both mention giving sight to the blind.
- Both mention "faithful" and "faith" respectively.
- Both mention "strength" and "power" as Priesthood references respectively.
- Both mention "name".
- Both mention "hungry" and "hunger" respectively.
- Both mention "marvellous acts" and "mighty miracles" respectively.
- Both mention "heart" and "hearts" respectively.
- Both mention "eternal" an "eternity" respectively.
And upon closer analysis more similarities are to be discerned, such as "throne" and "reigneth" and "exist" and "was/is". Just as 4Q521 establishes the context for the entire Gospel of Jesus Christ, Mosiah 3 does so to an even greater and more astonishing extent.
As it happens, many critics claim that Joseph Smith merely lifted Gospel themes from The New Testament and ascribed them to a prior period, King Benjamin's angelic visitation in 124 BC. The Holy Ghost, however, bears witness that The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, is true. And if anyone wants a small corroboration from another record that has come out of the earth, there is 4Q521 that bears thematic and terminological relations to Mosiah 3, only they were separated by thousands of miles and thousands of years. Of the two, Mosiah 3 was the first passage to declare that these tidings of great joy existed two centuries before the Savior's ministry. So either Joseph Smith got the sequence of events uncannily correct 119 before the Dead Sea Scrolls discovery manifested through archaeology what the sequence of events had been (a clear understanding of the miracles that were to be performed by the coming Christ), or the witness of the Holy Ghost really is reliable.
As it happens, many critics claim that Joseph Smith merely lifted Gospel themes from The New Testament and ascribed them to a prior period, King Benjamin's angelic visitation in 124 BC. The Holy Ghost, however, bears witness that The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, is true. And if anyone wants a small corroboration from another record that has come out of the earth, there is 4Q521 that bears thematic and terminological relations to Mosiah 3, only they were separated by thousands of miles and thousands of years. Of the two, Mosiah 3 was the first passage to declare that these tidings of great joy existed two centuries before the Savior's ministry. So either Joseph Smith got the sequence of events uncannily correct 119 before the Dead Sea Scrolls discovery manifested through archaeology what the sequence of events had been (a clear understanding of the miracles that were to be performed by the coming Christ), or the witness of the Holy Ghost really is reliable.
However one chooses to see this, one thing is certain: the passages are "actually textual".
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