The Messiah before Jesus: The Suffering Servant of the Dead Sea Scrolls

Israel Knohl, "The Messiah before Jesus: The Suffering Servant of the Dead Sea Scrolls"
University of California Press (2000) | English | ISBN:0520215923 | 164 pages | PDF | 6.86 MB

In a work that challenges notions that have dominated New Testament scholarship for more than a hundred years, Israel Knohl gives startling evidence for a messianic precursor to Jesus who is described as the "Suffering Servant" in recently published fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Messiah before Jesus clarifies many formerly incomprehensible aspects of Jesus' life and confirms the story in the New Testament about his messianic awareness. The book shows that, around the time of Jesus' birth, there came into being a conception of "catastrophic" messianism in which the suffering, humiliation, and death of the messiah were regarded as an integral part of the redemptive process.