Teacher of Righteousness

The Teacher of Righteousness (Hebrew: מורה הצדק, romanized: more haṣṣeḏeq) is a mysterious figure found in some of the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran, most prominently in the Damascus Document.^[1] This document speaks briefly of the origins of the sect, probably Essenes, 390 years after the Neo-Babylonian Empire captured Jerusalem in 586 BCE. After another 20 years of looking blindly for the way; "God... raised for them a Teacher of Righteousness to guide them in the way of His heart".^[2]

The Teacher is extolled as having a proper understanding of the Torah, qualified in its accurate instruction (i.e. an inspired interpreter of the prophets, as the one "to whom God made known all the mysteries of the words of his servants the prophets" – 1QpHab 7:5) and being the one through whom God would reveal to the community "the hidden things in which Israel had gone astray".^[3]

Although the exact identity of the Teacher is unknown, based on the text of the Community Rule, the teachers of the sect are identified as Kohanim (priests) of patrilineal progeny of Zadok^[4] (the first high priest to serve in Solomon's Temple), leading scholars to conclude the Teacher as a priest of Zadokite lineage.^[4]