Community Rule (1QS)
Copied at Qumran, 2nd–1st century BCE
The handbook of a Jewish sect that withdrew to the desert to live as children of light. Their seriousness about holiness, shared goods, and scripture is the air of Jesus’ century. Jesus does not copy them; he often walks the opposite direction — toward towns, tables, and enemies.
Community Rule 1QS 1
Teach the children of light to love all the children of light… to seek God with a whole heart and a whole soul, and to do what is good and upright before him.
Related readings
Community Rule 1QS 1
The Instructor is to teach all the children of light to love all the children of light, each according to his lot in God’s design, and to hate every way of darkness. They are to seek God with a whole heart and a whole soul, and to do what is good and upright before him.
4Q525 Beatitudes
Blessed is the one who speaks truth with a pure heart and does not slander with the tongue. Blessed are those who hold to her ways and do not hold to the ways of injustice. Blessed is the one who seeks Wisdom and walks in the law of the Most High.
Thanksgiving Hymns 1QH
I thank you, O Lord, for you have placed me in the bundle of the living, and you have sheltered me from all the snares of the pit. You have given me insight, and your mercy is toward me without end.