Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- About the Cover
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Prologue: The Prehistory of Power: Souls Spirits, Deities
- Part One Kings and Emperors
- 1 Divine Kingship in Mesopotamia
- 2 Pharaohs among the Indestructibles
- 3 Kingship among the Hebrews
- 4 The Deification of Roman Emperors
- 5 The Deva-Rajas in India and Southeast Asia
- 6 The Chinese Mandate from Heaven
- 7 The Japanese Imperial Cult
- Part Two Empires before the Common Era
- 8 The Legendary Empire of the Sumerians
- 9 Legendary Empires of Preclassical Greece
- 10 Patriarchs, Exodus, and the Epic of Israel
- 11 Legendary Empires of Ancient India
- 12 The Legendary Founding of Rome
- Part Three Founders
- 13 Moses: The Israelite Lawgiver
- 14 Buddha and Legends of Previous Buddhas
- 15 The Savior Narratives
- 16 Muhammad, the Qur’an, and Islam
- 17 The Virgin Mary through the Centuries
- 18 Tonantzin and Our Lady of Guadalupe
- Part Four Empires of the Common Era
- 19 Narrative Inventions of the Holy Roman Empire
- 20 The Epic of Kings, Alexander the Great, and the Malacca Sultinate
- 21 The Franks, Charlemagne, and the Chansons de Geste
- 22 The Legendary Kingdom of King Arthur
- 23 Ethiopian Kings and the Ark of the Covenant
- 24 Narratives of the Virgin Queen
- Part Five Ideologies
- 25 Discovery: The European Narrative of Power
- 26 Epics of the Portuguese Seaborne Empire
- 27 Dekanawida and the Iroquois League
- 28 The New England Canaan of the Puritans
- 29 The Marxist Classless Society
- 30 Adolph Hitler: Narratives of Aryans and Jews
- Epilogue: A Clash of Narratives
- Bibliography
- Index
- About the Author
15 - The Savior Narratives
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 December 2020
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- About the Cover
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Prologue: The Prehistory of Power: Souls Spirits, Deities
- Part One Kings and Emperors
- 1 Divine Kingship in Mesopotamia
- 2 Pharaohs among the Indestructibles
- 3 Kingship among the Hebrews
- 4 The Deification of Roman Emperors
- 5 The Deva-Rajas in India and Southeast Asia
- 6 The Chinese Mandate from Heaven
- 7 The Japanese Imperial Cult
- Part Two Empires before the Common Era
- 8 The Legendary Empire of the Sumerians
- 9 Legendary Empires of Preclassical Greece
- 10 Patriarchs, Exodus, and the Epic of Israel
- 11 Legendary Empires of Ancient India
- 12 The Legendary Founding of Rome
- Part Three Founders
- 13 Moses: The Israelite Lawgiver
- 14 Buddha and Legends of Previous Buddhas
- 15 The Savior Narratives
- 16 Muhammad, the Qur’an, and Islam
- 17 The Virgin Mary through the Centuries
- 18 Tonantzin and Our Lady of Guadalupe
- Part Four Empires of the Common Era
- 19 Narrative Inventions of the Holy Roman Empire
- 20 The Epic of Kings, Alexander the Great, and the Malacca Sultinate
- 21 The Franks, Charlemagne, and the Chansons de Geste
- 22 The Legendary Kingdom of King Arthur
- 23 Ethiopian Kings and the Ark of the Covenant
- 24 Narratives of the Virgin Queen
- Part Five Ideologies
- 25 Discovery: The European Narrative of Power
- 26 Epics of the Portuguese Seaborne Empire
- 27 Dekanawida and the Iroquois League
- 28 The New England Canaan of the Puritans
- 29 The Marxist Classless Society
- 30 Adolph Hitler: Narratives of Aryans and Jews
- Epilogue: A Clash of Narratives
- Bibliography
- Index
- About the Author
Summary
Two incomplete medieval copies of a hitherto unknown narrative were discovered in 1896 among many other discarded manuscripts in an attic storeroom (genizah) of a synagogue in Cairo. Now known as the Damascus Document, it was first published in 1910 (Vermes 1997, 11, n. 29; 125). Its origin was The Essenes, devoted to spirituality in a monastic setting outside mainstream Judaism at Qumran in the final centuries of the first millennium BCE. This document told the story of a previously unknown leader and prophet known as the “Teacher of Righteousness” (moreh zedekh). Though his identity remains unknown and details of his life are minimal, he and the Damascus Document are now recognized as exerting a profound influence on Jewish spirituality in Jerusalem and among the many dispersed Jewish communities around the Mediterranean. However, because the document was not known for two millennia, its place in history has remained a mystery.
Half a century later the Teacher of Righteousness rose to new prominence among Jewish scholars. Beginning in 1947, a treasure trove of manuscripts was discovered in nearly inaccessible caves above the Dead Sea. The story of their discovery by a Bedouin goat herder reads like dramatic fiction. Leading his sheep along a rarely used trail he casually threw a stone into a dark cave and heard the distinctive sound of it hitting pottery. Returning later, he and a friend made the initial discovery of tall clay jars containing parchment scrolls in what has been designated Cave 1 (Dupont-Sommer 1952, 9–13; Dimont 1962, 133–34). Over the next few years 11 caves, dozens of jars, and numerous hidden scrolls were discovered. Manuscripts numbered in the hundreds, fragments in the thousands. Hebrew copies of every Old Testament book except Esther were found, some in multiple copies. Among these, now known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, numerous manuscripts specific to the Essenic sect were discovered, including ten more copies of the Damascus Document, establishing it as perhaps the central narrative of the Essenic community. Taken together, they comprised a considerably more complete narrative than the 1896–97 fragments from Cairo.
Archaeological work at Qumran (1951–56) has uncovered coins establishing occupation dates of 150 BCE to 68 CE. Carbon 14 dating brought further clarification: “the general scholarly view today places the Qumran Scrolls roughly between 200 BCE and 70 CE” (Vermes 1997, 13, 125).
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- Invented History, Fabricated PowerThe Narratives Shaping Civilization and Culture, pp. 169 - 184Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2020