The Rule of the Blessing (1QSb) is a very fragmentary text once thought to be part of the text of the

Community Rule The Community Rule ( he, סרך היחד, ''Serekh haYahad''), which is designated 1QS and was previously referred to as the Manual of Discipline, is one of the first scrolls to be discovered near ''khirbet'' (ruin of) Qumran, the scrolls found in ...

scroll found in Cave 1 at

Qumran Qumran ( he, קומראן; ar, خربة قمران ') is an archaeological site in the West Bank managed by Israel's Qumran National Park. It is located on a dry marl plateau about from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, near the Israeli ...

as part of the

Dead Sea Scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls (also the Qumran Caves Scrolls) are ancient Jewish and Hebrew religious manuscripts discovered between 1946 and 1956 at the Qumran Caves in what was then Mandatory Palestine, near Ein Feshkha in the West Bank, on the ...

. It is added as one of two appendices (including the equally

eschatological Eschatology (; ) concerns expectations of the end of the present age, human history, or of the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions (both Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic), which teach that nega ...

Rule of the Congregation) following the book of the

, on one of the first seven scrolls discovered at the

site. The Rule of the Blessing includes three

benedictions A benediction (Latin: ''bene'', well + ''dicere'', to speak) is a short invocation for divine help, blessing and guidance, usually at the end of worship service. It can also refer to a specific Christianity, Christian religious service including ...

for use during the eschaton: one for the general assembly of the

Tribe of

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, which describes a sort of “living water” bringing them into a new

covenant Covenant may refer to: Religion * Covenant (religion), a formal alliance or agreement made by God with a religious community or with humanity in general ** Covenant (biblical), in the Hebrew Bible ** Covenant in Mormonism, a sacred agreement b ...

with God, one concerning the Kohen (priest) Sons of Zadok, chosen by God who will act “like angels” and lead

after the War. The third prayer is that for the messianic meal, to bless the “Prince,” or Davidic

messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...

, who has come to deliver

. Similar prayers are found elsewhere in the scrolls, and some believe that this particular manuscript may be a collection of prayers for general, daily use.

Bibliography

*Phillip R. Davies, George J. Brooke and Phillip R. Callaway. "The Complete World of the Dead Sea Scrolls," London: Thames and Hudson, 2002. *Michael O. Wise, Martin G. Abegg Jr., and Edward M. Cook. "The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation," San Francisco: HaperSanFrancisco, 2005. *

Lawrence H. Schiffman Lawrence Harvey Schiffman (born 1948) is a professor at New York University (as of 2014); he was formerly Vice-Provost of Undergraduate Education at Yeshiva University and Professor of Jewish Studies (from early 2011 to 2014). He had previously ...

, The Eschatological Community of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Atlanta: Scholar's Press, 1989. *

, “Rule of the Congregation.” The Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Ed. Lawrence H. Schiffman and James C. Vanderkam. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. 797–798. Ancient Hebrew texts Dead Sea Scrolls Essene texts {{manuscript-stub