The Time of Salvation

Book excerpt: 4Q246 (4QApocryphon of Daniel ar), 4Q521 (4QMessianic Apocalypse), and 4Q215a (4QTime of Righteousness) are among the «newer» texts from Qumran Cave 4 that are of relatively recent publication. All three texts share an interest in eschatology, and more specifically in the time of salvation. Two of them, 4Q246 and 4Q521, are among the most debated texts from the Qumran library, chiefly because they are assumed to have significant and substantial parallels to texts in the New Testament. The main aim of the thesis is a separate and detailed analysis of the three texts. More substantially this analysis aims at presenting improved textual editions of each of the texts, with new readings, critically examine and evaluate scholars' attempts to restore the texts' fragmentary parts, and writing detailed commentaries on the texts. On the basis of this detailed treatment of the three texts, the images they present of the time of salvation are compared in a synthetic presentation.