This is a five-part Lesson wherein Student(s) will explore how to synthesize current scholarly understanding of The Dead Sea Scrolls, the Qumran Community, John the Baptist, the Zadok Calendar and Ezekiel the Zadok Priest. It highlights what the scroll manuscripts are, what they reveal about a distinct sectarian group at Qumran, the strengths and limits of arguments linking John to that group and the evidence for a solar 364‑day ritual calendar used by some authors in the many Dead Sea Scrolls. Students will examine primary and secondary evidence about the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Qumran community and the Prophet Ezekiel who was a Zadok Priest. Through close reading, source comparison and group analysis, Students will learn how historians reconstruct religious communities and evaluate competing interpretations. This Lesson is designed to help understand what it takes to explore the truth behind the findings happening currently, and how those in the First Century got it all wrong about the Messiah’s First appearance.  
The goal is to develop Students’ abilities to analyze primary sources, weigh competing scholarly arguments and understand how material culture and texts inform historical reconstruction. The material will open more historical information about the life and times of Yahshua, as The Son of YHVH and The Lamb of YAH. Skills targeted in this Lesson include: critical reading of ancient texts, source criticism, synthesis of archaeological and textual evidence, historical argumentation and clear written and oral communication. The topic presented illuminates religious diversity in late Second Temple Judaism, models interdisciplinary historical methods and connects to themes of how communities define identity and time.