Evidence from... the synagogue

Fifty years before the discovery of the Qumran Scrolls, Solomon Shekhter, a scholar from Oxford, visited Egyptian Jewish elders. Obtaining permission to examine the genizah (a room in a synagogue where damaged liturgical texts are collected before being buried) of the thousand-year-old Bez Ezra Synagogue in Cairo, he began the arduous task. Among the many ancient scrolls, he discovered the Damascus Document—the history of a previously unknown sect led by an equally mysterious (beware, beware!) Teacher of Righteousness. Descriptions consistent with Christian records resurfaced. The document recorded that the Teacher of Righteousness's disciples journeyed to the promised land, where they forged a new covenant. The Teacher of Righteousness had died (or been assumed to heaven), but his followers awaited his return in the end times.

Szechter left the similarities between the notes uncommented. He stated only that the sect had its own liturgical texts, distinct canons, and a cohesive organizational structure. He assumed that future research would solve the mystery.

Time has shown that he was right...