In and effort to develop a doctrine of MESIANISM in Dead Sea Scroll materials, VANDERKAM, p. 126 ".passages which initiated the present debate (on Mesianism) are four: l. CD 12:23-13:1: Those who walk in these statutes in the age of wickedness until the Messiah of Aaron and Israel takes his stand.." Only one Messiah here. 2. CD 14:18-19: "This is the exact interpretation of the statutes in which they shall be judge until the Messiah of Aaron and Israel takes his stand and he will pardon their iniquity.." Only one Messiah here also. 3. CD 19:10-11: "They shall be rescued at the time of the Visitation, but those who remain shall be delivered up to the sword when the Messiah of Aaron and Israel comes. One Messiah here. But there seems to be an effort in these quotations to draw attention to the fact that the Messiah will be of Judah, of Israel, but have priesthood (by references to Levitical or Aaronic) power or status. The Messiah is the Great High Priest. 4. CD 19:33-20: "Thus all of the men who entered into the New Covenant in the land of Damascus and turn apostate and depart from the well of living waters, shall not be reckoned with the Council of the people or written in its Book from the day of the dead of the "Teacher of the Community until the Messiah from Aaron and Israel takes his stand." One Messiah here. On page 128 VANDERKAM continues: from the T. Dan 5.4-10, "For I know that in the last day you will defect from the Lord, you will be offended at Levi, and revolt against Judah; but you will not prevail over them. An angel of the Lord guides them both, because by them Israel shall stand.And there shall arise from you from the tribe of Judah and Levi the Lord's salvation. He will make war against Beliar; he will grant the vengeance of victory as our goal. And he shall take from Beliar the captives, the souls of the saints; and he shall turn the hearts of the disobedient to the Lord." He quotes Ginzberg "it never occurred to anyone to depict the Messiah as the heir of both the priesthood and the monarchy. And "in their final form the Test 12 Patr. Envisage one Messiah, who associated with both Levi and Judah and is evidently identified as Christ. The final form is usually dated to the second half of the second century, or the beginning of the Third." P. 129. On p. 131, he states "the singular referents from the Testaments would appear to argue for the existence of a singular messianic expectation in Second Temple theology before the advent of Christianity." BROWNLEE in 1QS, lines 11 and 12, does translate a sentence that reads "doing so until there come the Prophet and the Messiahs of Aaron and Israel." Many argue from this and similar quotes that there are two Messiahs, but in line with what is said above, the clear meaning of the 1QS quote may be that there is a Prophet to be the forerunner of the Messiah, and the Messiah of Israel. But L.H. Schiffman, VANDERKAM, p. 132, quotes line 11: "The assembly of the men of renown (called to) the feast for the council of the community when (at the end of days) the Messiah shall assemble with them." Somewhat like the sacrament to be attended by the Messiah found in D&C 27. However the discussion goes on.
VANDERKAM then states, p. 135, that " 4Q252 l. v, introduces us to a royal messianic vocabulary which forms the basis of a number of additional Qumran messianic passages. We will select a few of these. On p. 137, VANDERKAM continues "elsewhere the expected messianic personage is he who comes at the end of history, "in the last day," with the backdrop of eschatological battle and judgement of the wicked." "the favored texts on which the scroll writers messianic hope is founded are Gen. 49:10, and Isa. 11:1-5." From 4Q246, THE SON OF GOD TEXT, p. 137, he quotes: "( g)reat he shall be called, and by his name shall be entitled. He will be called the Son of God, and they shall call him the Son of the Most High."
Of great interest is: 4Q521, PSALM ON THE RESURECTION. VANDERKAM, pp. 141-142, writes that this Psalm "refers to the messiah in the opening paragraph: The heavens and the earth shall hearken to his messiah and the healing of the sick and the raising of the dead in the second: he shall heal the sick and shall resurrect the dead and announce (glad tidings) to the humble." He goes on to conclude "that the messianism was pervasive in a large percentage of manuscripts, that the word "messiah" itself is found in only 17 (four in MSS of CD) of the nearly 700 sectarian manuscripts. 11of these contain clearly messianic passages while four other offer at least the possibility, and include 4Q287, 4Q375, 4Q521. "If we include the royal messianic vocabulary we have noted, then five additional manuscripts could be described as messianic. Texts referring to the "Son of God" (4Q246), "first born" 4Q369), or understood to evidence the birth of such a figure (4Q534) raise the total of "messianic texts" to 23. Messianism is an eminent, but not a preeminent topic in the scrolls," p. 143. On page 144 he continues: "1QS 9:10, of a priestly consort to the royal messiah. In 1Qsa 2:12) and blesses the bread and wine before the messiah of Israel partakes (1Qsa 2:19) and 4Q376 mentions both the Anointed Priest (4Q376 1 i l) and the Prince (4Q 376 liii l, liii 3). Researchers who conclude that 4Q175 is a collection of messianic proof texts will interpret lines 14-20 in reference to a Priest-Messiah..11Q-Melch 2:18 suggests that a messianic prophet also played a role in eschatological expectations. On page 185 we find: "The recent publication of 4Q369, in which reference is made to God's ("first-born son").."Son of God was understood in a messianic sense." As mentioned elsewhere in these notes 1Qsa 2:11-15 attests "the idea of a divine conception of the Messiah." On page 199 of VANDERKAM, taking a quote from 1QM, one of the important documents, it is stated: "(to the God) of Israel belong all that is and will be: (He Knows) all the happenings of eternity. This is the day appointed by Him for the defeat and over through of the Prince of the dominion of wickedness, and He will send eternal succour to the company of his redeemed by the might of the princely angel of the kingdom Michael..He will raise up the Kingdom of Michael in the midst of the gods, and the dominion of Israel among all flesh." The Kingdom of Michael is taken as all mankind of this earth. The discussion as to the role and presence of Messianism in the Scrolls goes on. It is of great interest to the LDS.