An Unpublished Dead Sea Scroll Text Parallels Luke’s Infancy Narrative
Sidebar to: Dead Sea Scroll Variation on “Show and Tell”—It’s Called “Tell, But No Show”
A still-unpublished Dead Sea Scroll fragment, whose siglum is 4Q246, bears striking similarities to a passage from the annunciation scene in Luke’s Gospel. In the Gospel, God sends the angel Gabriel to announce to Mary, a virgin betrothed to Joseph, that she will conceive a son whom she is to call Jesus. In making the announcement, Gabriel says to her:
“He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High … The power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God” (Luke 1:32, 35).
In the fragment from Qumran, we do not know who is speaking or who is being spoken of, but this is what the fragment says:
“[X] shall be great upon the earth. [O king, all (people) shall] make [peace], and all shall serve [him. He shall be called the son of] the [G]reat [God], and by his name shall he be hailed (as) the Son of God, and they shall call him Son of the Most High.”
In both passages, we are told that he will be “great”; that he will be “called” “Son of the Most High” and “Son of God.” This is the first time that the term “Son of God” has been found in a Palestinian text outside the Bible.
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