The Book 1 Enoch marks a new religious perspective. So familiar do 1 Ezra’s themes look in retrospect – angels, personal and national Judgment, one or two Messiahs, plus a Son of Man [the term Jesus almost always called himself]– that we can easily fail to appreciate just how startling they were in the third and second centuries BCE, and what a great departure they mark from the familiar words of Israel’s Prophets which rarely mention an individual messiah.

The first book of Enoch includes a classic vision of the last days with a final Judgment, rewards for the blessed and punishments for sinners; all the result of God’s own actions. In a later section known as the Parables, a messianic Son of Man is central to these events (chapters 37-71).

The richest sources for new ideas about Messiahs come from the Dead Sea Scrolls, which have revolutionized our view of last days debates in the generations before and after Jesus’s lifetime. Taking the Dead Sea Scrolls documents together, the vision of an individual messiah king got a boost from events during the Maccabean (Hasmoneans) age, even though that dynasty clearly represented a break from the Davidic line to a novel priestly line of rulers. As messianic visions became more important to Jewish thought during the second and first century BCE the Dead Sea Scrolls give evidence of the diversity of those approaches.

The Qumran Scrolls are usually associated with a Jewish sect tied to the Essenes and to First and Fourth Book of Enoch traditions. Most of the texts were written or at least preserved at the Jewish settlement of Qumran, founded around 160 BC, which survived over two hundred years, until the Jewish revolt of the late 60s CE. The Dead Sea Scrolls discoveries show the role of multiple messiahs, and eschatological figures. At least three figures in the Scrolls, all of them totally human, fit the messianic definition; a Prophet, a Priest and a King.

When Prophet John the Baptist came, the Jews asked him if he was a Messiah and he said “No”; they asked him if he was a pre-Messiah warner like Elijah and he said “No”. then in apparent reference to Deuteronomy 18:18, they asked him “Are you that Prophet [like Moses}” and he answered, “No”. (John 1:19-21).

The Dead Sea Scrolls text the Damascus Covenant, for instance, refers to messiahs from Aaron and Israel. Broadly, the Scrolls offer a “dual messianism,” with two key figures, so that the messiah of Aaron is a priestly religious counterpart to the more political or militant Davidic messiah.

Davidic titles are, much more common. The Genesis Pesher (4Q252 5:1-4) includes the words, “until the Messiah of Righteousness comes, the Branch of David.” Also 4Q521, a “Messianic Apocalypse,” which specifically mentions a Messiah, describes God alone “releasing captives, giving sight to the blind and raising up those who are downtrodden.’ And the “War of the Messiah,” which includes the text 4Q285 refers to a Messiah piercing, as in slaying enemies.

According to the Qur’an (6:85) the last of the Jewish Prophets were: “Zakariya, John, Jesus and Elias: all in the ranks of the righteous.” Prophet Jesus was a Messianic figure who will return during the Last Days of turmoil preceding the victory of good over evil in God’s Judgement Day and Messianic Age for all the righteous of mankind. The term for Prophet Jesus “al-Masih” [the Messiah in Hebrew] is used eleven times in the Qur’an in verses: 3:45, 4:157, 4:171, 4:172, 5:17 (twice), 5:72 (twice), 5:75, 9:30, and 9:31

If Prophet Jesus was a Messianic figure, a Messiah of Righteousness, the Branch [a descendent] of David; then Prophet Muhammad would be the Khatam an-Nabiyyin, the Seal of the Prophets; who was able to inspire a very long lasting religious community; plus being a Prophet validating previous messengers and their sacred scriptures. This dual........

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