If there is a foundation for Timothy Jay Schwab and The God Culture's aberrant theology, which includes fantastical prophecies about the Philippines, it is the Dead Sea Scrolls. Tim's thesis is that the community at Qumran was not the Essenes but exiled priests who fled Jerusalem once the temple became corrupted. It is this community whom God entrusted with preserving not only the true scriptures, which Tim says includes Jubilees and Enoch, but also the true interpretation of them. The Dead Sea Scrolls are actually the library of John the Baptist which means in 1947 his voice was crying out once again and we must listen.
Because Tim has made hundreds of hours of videos discussing this subject there is no way I will be able to cover every claim he has made. I shall instead focus on a few of his major claims and demonstrate how his conclusions are completely wrong. In this article I want to examine three of Tim's claims in regard to the Dead Sea Scrolls. Those three are the identity of the Qumran Community, the Sabbath, and the Name of God.
1. The Identity of the Qumran Community
Who lived in Qumran? Many would say the Essenes. Some would say nobody knows. Tim says it was John the Baptist.
There is a lot happening in this video. To sum up Tim's view, which is also laid out in his introduction to The Book of Jubilees and 2nd Enoch, the Qumran community was located in Bethabara which is where John the Baptist operated. The Dead Sea Scrolls are part of a library that he and his followers maintained. In fact, according to Timothy Jay Schwab, the Dead Sea Scrolls contain two prophecies concerning John the Baptist's eventual joining of the Community at Qumran.
Complete Dead Sea Scrolls, Geza Vermes, pg. 109
How is that a prophecy of John the Baptist? It's not! The prophecy here comes from Isaiah 40:3:
The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
That is indeed a prophecy of John the Baptist. Its fulfillment is to be found in the Gospels.
John 1:19 And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou?
20 And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ.
21 And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No.
22 Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself?
23 He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.
John the Baptist is the voice crying in the wilderness to make straight the way of the Lord which is Jesus Christ. The Community Rule says the voice crying out is "twelve men and three Priests, perfectly versed in all that is revealed of the Law" and that the path is "the study of the Law which He commanded by the hand of Moses." One cannot possibly read this and think they are talking about John the Baptist. It's pretty clear that the Qumran Community apply this prophecy to 15 people who wander about teaching the law of Moses. This interpretation of Isaiah's prophecy is right in line with the Community's strict observance of the law.
As for the second alleged prophecy, it is not a prophecy either.
The Master shall bless the Prince of the Congregation ... and shall renew for him the Covenant of the Community that he may establish the kingdom of His people for ever,
Complete Dead Sea Scrolls, Geza Vermes, pg. 389
What Tim has done is take a passage from the Blessings in the Dead Sea Scrolls out of context. In context the Master is not John the Baptist but the leader of the Qumran Community. He blesses first the faithful, secondly the high priest, thirdly the Sons of Zadok, and last of all the Prince of the Congregation who is the Messiah. If the Master and Prince were John and Jesus respectively then there is no way that John would bless
the Sons of Zadok the Priests, whom God has chosen to confirm His Covenant...
Complete Dead Sea Scrolls, Geza Vermes, pg. 388
John the Baptist would never utter this blessing because the Priest whom God has chosen to confirm His Covenant is Jesus Christ and He is a Priest after the order of Melchizedek forever according to both Psalm 110 and Hebrews 5. Likewise why would John bless the High Priest when Jesus Christ is our High Priest? He would not and this blessing is no prophecy of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ.
So, who exactly composed the Community at Qumran? Was it really exiled temple priests? The Damascus Document tells us.
But with the remnant which held fast to the commandments of God He made His Covenant with Israel for ever, revealing to them the hidden things in which all Israel had gone astray. He unfolded before them His holy Sabbaths and his glorious feasts, the testimonies of His righteousness and the ways of His truth, and the desires of His will which a man must do in order to live. And they dug a well rich in water; and he who despises it shall not live. Yet they wallowed in the sin of man and in ways of uncleanness, and they said, ‘This is our (way).’ But God, in His wonderful mysteries, forgave them their sin and pardoned their wickedness; and He built them a sure house in Israel whose like has never existed from former times till now. Those who hold fast to it are destined to live for ever and all the glory of Adam shall be theirs. As God ordained for them by the hand of the Prophet Ezekiel, saying, The Priests, the Levites, and the sons of Zadok who kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel strayed from me, they shall offer me fat and blood (Ezek. xliv, 15).
The Priests are the converts of Israel who departed from the land of Judah, and (the Levites are) those who joined them. The sons of Zadok are the elect of Israel, the men called by name who shall stand at the end of days. Behold the exact list of their names according to their generations, and the time when they lived, and the number of their trials, and the years of their sojourn, and the exact list of their deeds...(They were the first men) of holiness whom God forgave, and who justified the righteous and condemned the wicked. And until the age is completed, according to the number of those years, all who enter after them shall do according to that interpretation of the Law in which the first (men) were instructed. According to the Covenant which God made with the forefathers, forgiving their sins, so shall He forgive their sins also. But when the age is completed, according to the number of those years, there shall be no more joining the house of Judah, but each man shall stand on his watch-tower: The wall is built, the boundary far removed(Mic. vii, II).
Complete Dead Sea Scrolls, Geza Vermes, pg 131-132
According to their very own writings the Priests, Levites, and Sons of Zadok are symbolic names indicating various categories of people who joined the Community at Qumran. There are other passages that seem to contradict this but I will not delve into that discussion because the answer is no one knows for sure who lived there. In ascertaining the identity of this group one must also take into account that some members lived in "the world" apart from Qumran with families and businesses.
In the ‘towns’ or ‘camps’, as the Damascus Document terms them (CD XII, 19, 23), adherents of the sect lived an urban or village life side by side with, yet apart from, their fellow Jewish and Gentile neighbours. They had wives and reared children, but clearly their sexual morality followed particularly strict rules.
Complete Dead Sea Scrolls, Geza Vermes, pg 34
Suffice it to say that in the Dead Sea Scrolls there is no prophecy of John the Baptist and it is highly unlikely that either he or Jesus had any doings with that community. A perusal of the documents shows that they taught a rigorous form of law keeping which Jesus never endorsed. They were also an exclusive group which took about 2 years to fully join. Messing up just once could mean anything from permanent exclusion to prison to probation for months or years.
Every man who preaches apostasy under the dominion of the spiritsof Belial shall be judged according to the law relating to thosepossessed by a ghost or familiar spirit (Lev. xx, 27). But no man who strays so as to profane the Sabbath and the feasts shall be put to death; it shall fall to men to keep him in custody. And if he is healed of his error, they shall keep him in custody for seven years and he shall afterwards approach the Assembly.
Complete Dead Sea Scrolls Geza Vermes, pg. 141
According to the Dead Sea Scrolls one could not even pull an animal out of a pit if it fell in one on the Sabbath day. Nor could one save a man who was drowning by using a rope!
No man shall chide his manservant or maidservant or labourer on the Sabbath. No man shall assist a beast to give birth on the Sabbath day. And if it should fall into a cistern or pit, he shall not lift it out on the Sabbath.
No man shall profane the Sabbath for the sake of riches or gain on the Sabbath day. But should any man fall into water or (fire), let him not be pulled out with the aid of a ladder or rope or (some such) utensil.
Complete Dead Sea Scrolls Geza Vermes, pg. 142
Compare those precepts with what Jesus says in Luke 14:5:
And answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day?
In contrast, Jesus disdained such exclusivity by openly preaching to and welcoming everyone. Jesus also never mentions a group at Qumran nor does he condemn the current High Priest for being a usurper. Whoever comprised the Qumran Community the fact is they were schismatics who cut themselves off from the God-ordained worship at the temple in Jerusalem. It is always the nature of such groups to proclaim that they alone have the truth. In this respect Timothy Jay Schwab and The God Culture are imitators of the Qumran Community as they have left the Church, which is the Body of Christ, proclaiming it to be the abode of Satan and that they alone have the truth. Remember, no matter how wicked Israel and Judah were God never forsook them but always dealt with them as His people until the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. God does not take schism lightly. There was one Israel and there is ONE Body of Christ.
2. The Sabbath
The issue of the Sabbath involves a lot of material which I cannot possibly cover here. Instead I want to focus on Tim's assertion that the Sabbath begins at sunrise on the 7th day, Saturday. After a tortuous process whereby Tim attempts to prove his thesis using the law of Moses and the timeline of the resurrection of Jesus Christ he ends by telling his audience that the Dead Sea Scrolls agree with him yet he declines to actually cite them.
8:20 Now, that's Jubilees, the book written by Moses, as the authority on the calendar specifically. Genesis was not. This is actually the final authority on this topic. Now, some have said, “But the Dead Sea Scrolls say,” we're not gonna cover the Dead Sea Scrolls because we don't have to. This is a Dead Sea scroll, in fact one of the most found books in all of the Dead Sea Scrolls called by the Dead Sea scroll community Torah. So, you can't trump that assuming they are interpreting a Dead Sea scroll documents properly and that is the key here.
The gist of this is that Jubilees and Scripture teach that the Sabbath begins at sunrise therefore the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Community at Qumran also believed this because Jubilees and the Scriptures were found amongst the scrolls. The Bible and Jubilees are literally Dead Sea Scrolls! That is a lie.
The Damascus Document is very clear that the Sabbath begins at sundown on the sixth day and that this is ACCORDING TO THE LAW.
Concerning the Sabbath to observe it according to its law
No man shall work on the sixth day from the moment when the sun’s orb is distant by its own fulness from the gate (wherein it sinks); for this is what He said, Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy (Deut. v,12). No man shall speak any vain or idle word on the Sabbath day. He shall make no loan to his companion. He shall make no decision in matters of money and gain. He shall say nothing about work or labour to be done on the morrow.
Complete Dead Sea Scrolls, Geza Vermes, pg 141
What more can one say? It is very obvious that Tim is wrong about the Dead Sea Scrolls supporting his thesis that the Sabbath begins at sunrise on the 7th day as is clear from this passage which says it begins at sundown on the 6th day and that this is according to the law. This brings up a lot of questions about the Qumran Community's calendar and the extent of the authority they give to Jubilees as well as how they interpret it. Jubilees teaches an impossible 364 day solar calendar. The calendar to be found in the Old Testament is lunisolar and not solar. That is not an insignificant contradiction and it is one of the many proofs that Jubilees is not scripture.
Tim says one cannot trump the authority of the Qumran Community in regards as to when the Sabbath begins. Will he now submit his interpretation of Jubilees to their authority and retract his erroneous teaching that the Sabbath begins at sunrise on the 7th day?
3. The Name of God
The issue of the Name of God is very important amongst certain modern day Protestant schismatics and heretics, especially those associated with the Hebrew Roots movement. Timothy Jay Schwab, a modern day Protestant schismatic and heretic who admits he has been associated with the Hebrew Roots movement (he really loves the Cepher Bible), is pretty, pretty, pretty sure that he knows exactly how to correctly pronounce God's name.
Now, I am not going to quote from this video or anywhere else to contradict Tim about the pronunciation of the Name of God. Instead I will cite the Dead Sea Scrolls. The fact is that the Community at Qumran would have excommunicated Tim for a video like this, and indeed his constant repetition of the divine name (or at least what he thinks is the divine name), which is akin to condemning him to death.
If any man has uttered the [Most] Venerable Name even though frivolously, or as a result of shock or for any other reason whatever, while reading the Book or blessing, he shall be dismissed and shall return to the Council of the Community no more.
Complete Dead Sea Scrolls, Geza Vermes, pg 107
That is practically a death sentence because to not be in the Community is to be outside of the company of the elect. According to the Dead Sea Scrolls Timothy Jay Schwab is condemned to death for pronouncing the Name of God. How much more so for teaching others to do the same? If you are really interested in how the Qumran Community used the divine name I recommend this paper from Dead Sea Scrolls expert Lawerence Schiffman. It's actually a chapter from a book he wrote about the scrolls.
This tendency to avoid pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton is noticeable in Qumran biblical manuscripts and in the Masoretic text. In both corpora when the Tetragrammaton occurs, ‘adnoaii’ often appears before it. It was probably added at some point by a scribe to instruct the reader to substitute the surrogate name for the Tetragrammaton.
The study of these two texts has shown that the sect, like the Essenes, the New Testament, Philo, and the tannaim, was very hesitant about oaths. The Qumranites prohibited all oaths by the Tetragrammaton as well as those by other divine names or the Torah. Other uses of the Tetragrammaton for curses, magic, public reading of the Scriptures, and recitation of benedictions were likewise prohibited.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvzpv5js.12?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents
The fact is Timothy Jay Schwab would not be welcome in the Qumran Community. For one thing he teaches doctrines at odds with what they taught and for another he is married to a second wife while his first wife is still alive.
The ‘builders of the wall’ (Ezek. xiii, 10) who have followed after‘Precept’ - ‘Precept’ was a spouter of whom it is written, They shall surely spout (Mic. ii, 6) - shall be caught in fornication twice by taking a second wife while the first is alive, whereas the principle of creation is, Male and female created He them (Gen. i, 27)’
Complete Dead Sea Scrolls, Geza Vermes, pg 132
No matter how you slice it the marriage of Timothy Jay Schwab to the twice divorced Anna Zamoranos is condemned. It is condemned by Jesus Christ as adultery (Matt. 5:32) and it is condemned by the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls as fornication.
This is the end of the article. I admit that not everything is covered here but this article is large enough already. To contradict Timothy Jay Schwab and The God Culture completely on the three issues enumerated above would take a book and I don't have that luxury. What I hope to convey here is that Timothy Jay Schwab is either ill-informed and does not know what the Dead Sea Scrolls teach or he is covering up the parts that contradict him.
