What Does the War Scroll Say About the Great Tribulation?

War Scroll: A Hebrew scroll from Qumran Cave 1, designated 1QM, that describes a final war between the Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness. Scholars also call it the War Rule.

Sons of Light: The scroll’s name for the righteous side in the final war, led by God, the Prince of Light, and the angel Michael. The community that kept the scrolls saw itself in this group.

## What Does the War Scroll Say About the Great Tribulation?

Column 1 of the War Scroll describes a day of calamity. On that day the Sons of Light fight the forces of darkness, and divine beings and men join in the uproar. The text calls it a time of distress for the people God redeems, worse than any before it, and it says the distress ends in everlasting redemption. The phrase “great tribulation” is a translator’s choice. The scroll is a Jewish text from before the time of the New Testament, and it never mentions Jesus.

## Quick Facts

Scroll: The War Scroll, also called the War Rule, designated 1QM. Found: Qumran Cave 1, on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea. Language: Hebrew. Date of the manuscript: The end of the first century BCE or the early first century CE. Condition: Nineteen columns survive. The bottoms of the columns, and probably some final columns, are lost. Other copies: Cave 4 fragments, numbered 4Q491 to 4Q496, preserve different versions of the text. First publication: Eleazar Sukenik published the scroll first. Passage in this card: Column 1, the opening description of the final war. Genre: Disputed. Scholars debate whether it is a battle manual, a liturgy, or an apocalypse.

## What Does the Passage Say?

Column 1 opens the scroll with a preview of the war. It names a day of disaster before God. On that day the Sons of Light fight the company of darkness. The text says gods and men join in a great uproar. It then calls the war a time of distress for all whom God redeems, a suffering that has no equal. The distress begins suddenly and ends in eternal redemption.

The rest of the scroll fills in the plan. It describes a war that lasts forty years, rules for trumpets and banners, the organization of the army, and a seven-stage final battle.

## Who Are the Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness?

The Sons of Light are the righteous people of God. In this scroll they include the faithful in Israel, and the community at Qumran read the text as describing itself. Angels fight on their side. The Prince of Light and the angel Michael appear as leaders in the battle.

The Sons of Darkness are the enemies of God. They stand under Belial, and column 13 curses him and “all the spirits of his lot.” The scroll also names the Kittim as an enemy. Most scholars read the Kittim in the War Scroll as the Romans.

## Who Are the “Gods” in the Passage?

The passage says gods and men make noise in the war. The word is commonly read as divine beings, meaning angels and other spirit beings. The reading fits the rest of the scroll, which names Michael and the Prince of Light as leaders of heavenly forces and which curses Belial and his spirits. The war in this text is not fought by men alone.

## Does the Scroll Use the Term Great Tribulation?

Not as a technical term. The English words come from the translation. The wording of column 1 resembles Daniel 12:1, which speaks of a time of distress such as the world has never seen, and Matthew 24:21 speaks of a great tribulation. The scroll shows that some Jews in the last decades before the New Testament expected a final time of unmatched distress, a war that involved heavenly beings, and redemption at its end.

The scroll does not prove how the New Testament reads those events. It shows that the idea was already present in Jewish writing.

## Was the War Scroll a Battle Plan or a Vision?

Scholars have not settled the question. Yigael Yadin read the scroll as a practical plan for a future war against Rome, with tactics drawn from Roman practice. Others point to elements that no real army could follow: enemies who fall on cue, priests who direct battle with trumpets, and God who intervenes directly. Those features tie the text to Old Testament traditions of holy war.

The scroll also has a complex history. The Cave 4 copies preserve different versions. An early fragment studied by Hunzinger looked less sectarian and more nationalistic than the Cave 1 text. Scholars still debate which layers are oldest.

## What Do the Labels 1QM and 4Q496 Mean?

The label 1QM names the War Scroll from Cave 1 at Qumran. The 1 is the cave number, Q stands for Qumran, and M stands for the Hebrew word for war. The label 4Q496 names a different manuscript, a fragmentary copy of the War Scroll from Cave 4. A citation that joins them into “1QM496” blends two separate manuscripts. For column 1, cite 1QM, column 1.

## My View

I read the “gods” in this passage as spirit beings, the same class of divine beings I read in Psalm 82. I believe the war the scroll describes involves heavenly forces and men together.

## Sources

The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation, Michael Wise, Martin Abegg Jr., and Edward Cook (HarperSanFrancisco, 1996), as presented by PBS Frontline. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/portrait/scrolltranslation.html

Philip R. Davies, “War Rule (1QM),” Anchor Bible Dictionary, ed. David Noel Freedman (Doubleday, 1992), reprinted at the Center for Online Judaic Studies. https://cojs.org/war_rule_-1qm-_reprinted_with_permission_from_philip_r-_davies-_anchor_bible_dictionary_-ed-_david_noel_freedman-_doubleday-_new_york_1992/

Daniel 12:1; Matthew 24:21; Psalm 82.

Further reading: Fallen Angels & Malaterrestrials by CK Quarterman. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HMSHNLD7