30. ELECT OF GOD:
This is the text of 4Q MESS AR. FITZJMYER, pp 142-143 translates ".In his youth he will become like (like a ma)n who does not know anyth(ing, until) the time when he shall become skilled in three books. (Th)en he will become wise and will be endowed with disc(retion)..visions to come to him upon (his) knees. And with his father and with his forefa(th)ers life and old age; (and with him there will be counsel land prudence (and) he will know the secrets of man. And his wisdom will go forth to all the peoples, and he will know the secrets of all living things. (Al)l their calculations against him will come to naught, although the opposition of all living beings will be great. (But) his (ca)lculations will exist forever," Who could this person be? J. Starcky made some remarks bout a cryptic fragment (4QarP) which mentions the sending of Elijah before.? Fitzmyer finds his remarks tantalizing. FITZMYER, p. 137, states: "If what he (Starcky) says is true, then this tiny fragment preserves the earlier hint of a late Jewish belief in Elijah as the precursor of the Messiah. Starcky identified him with the "eschatological Prophet" and in the same context speaks of the Essenes of the Pompeian period (70 B.C. )expecting "unseul Messie et son precurseru. We would help out the discussion by simply saying that there would be a prophet in the end time to whom the real, translated Elijah would appear, as a preparation for the final coming of the true Messiah, Jesus Christ, and the people of Qumran were expecting their Only Messiah and his forerunner.