The Dead Sea Scrolls PART 8: Paul on the Road to Damascus (Acts 9 and 22)

Today, we will look at the testimony of Sha’ul or Paul and his spiritual transformation on the road to Damascus from a rabbinical student of Gamaliel to a Sent One of Mashiach Yeshua and the House of Tzadok.

In the Book of Acts chapters 9 and 22, Sha’ul or Paul was sure of what he saw and what he heard while he was traveling down from Jerusalem on the road to Damascus; the desert settlement of the Qumran Community House of Tzadok situated along the northwest shores of the Salt Sea or the Dead Sea. Four known biblical personalities knew the place well: the Prophet Jeremiah, Yochanan (John), the Immerser (the “Baptizer“), the Prophet Isaiah, and the Apostle Paul.

Jeremiah 9:2-3. Oh, that I had in the wilderness (aravah)—A lodging place for travelers; that I might leave my people, and go from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. And the road of their tongue is their lying bow (Hebrew: keshet; an allusion to corrupting Yah’s Covenant of Genesis 9:12-14). They are not valiant for The Truth on the earth. For they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me,” says Yehovah.

Matthew 3:1-2. In those days, Yochanan (John) the Immerser (the “baptizer”) came preaching in the wilderness (Hebrew: midbar and aravah) of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near!”

Isaiah 40:3. The voice of one crying, “In the wilderness (Hebrew: midbar) prepare The Way of Yehovah; make straight in the desert (Hebrew: aravah) a highway for our God.

Acts 9:1-2. Then Sha’ul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of Adonai, The Master, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of The Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

Join me on today’s program Episode 104 and Part 8 in my Dead Sea Scrolls Qumran Community series, and we will learn more about this place called Damascus, known for the writing of the Dead Sea Scroll Covenant of Damascus CD-B, 4Q267.