The Spirit and Its Role
The “Spirit” and Its Role
1. Introduction
What role does the Holy Spirit play in our lives? It played a big role in the Dead Sea Scrolls and in Paul’s letter to the Galatians. The people being addressed in the Dead Sea Scrolls are Jews and Christians, so they do not yet know the modern day Holy Spirit. However, they do deal with spirits that affect their lives the same way the Holy Spirit affects the lives of the Galatians. In both cases the audience is being tested by falsehood, vanity, freedom and slavery. The Holy Spirit is the tool used to bring the people back to the Word of God and the Gospels.
2. Leaders of the People
There are some major similarities and dissimilarities between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the First letter to the Galatians. The Dead Sea Scrolls are addressing the Jews and preaching to them not to stray away from the teachings of God. The leader or preacher in the Dead Sea Scrolls is the Master or leader of the community (1QS, 4Q55-264, 4Q280, 286-7,4Q502,5Q11,13). This is the same role that Paul takes with the Galatians. The new Christians look to him for guidance and for the word of Jesus. The master in the Dead Sea Scrolls teaches and preaches from the Book of Community Rule. Paul is teaching the Galatians the Gospels. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, God Himself hands down His word to Moses and to his people. The word that Paul was preaching to the Galatians was given to him by Jesus Christ (Gal 1:11). Both the Dead Sea Scrolls and Paul’s Letters were addressing the people straying away from the Word of God and the Word of Jesus. Both sources are dealing with false missionaries trying to preach fallacies.
3. Vanity
Paul’s letter to the Galatians and the Dead Sea Scrolls both address the issue of faith and vanity. Paul wants to know if the Galatians received their faith from the Spirit or from the works of the Law (Gal 3:2). The Galatians were crucified with Jesus and born with the Holy Spirit. But through vanity, and fallacy by false prophets they were becoming flesh. In the Dead Sea Scrolls (4Q255) the author tells the people to keep away from all things that...