(September 28, 2015 at 7:05 am)Aractus Wrote:(September 28, 2015 at 6:38 am)pocaracas Wrote: Guys, can anyone point me in the right direction or straight out tell me how we know that there were several apocalyptic preachers around the first century, in that particular middle-eastern region?
How can we say that the Teacher of Righteousness and Jesus were not the same historical person?
The "Teacher of Righteousness" is just some unknown person from the 1st century BC. Unknown as in we don't know his identity. Could he have influenced Jesus? Absolutely - we don't really know who influenced Jesus since nothing of value is told to us about Jesus before he begins his ministry. It is generally used to establish there was a culture of Messianic teachers at the time, which itself lends further credibility to the historic existence of Jesus. He couldn't have existed as a Messianic teacher in an age with no Messianic activity (well not unless he really was the Son of God anyway).
The Teacher may be an unknown person, but the fact remains that someone wrote down some stuff about him that matches to an astonishing degree what was later written about Jesus.
You're saying that the two figures, the Teacher and Jesus, are used to claim that there was a culture of messianic teachers at the time?
That's it? No one else?
Not even someone just complaining about all the riffraff?
