Isaiah 40:3

All four Gospels introduce the ministry of John the Baptist, Jesus’ precursor, by quoting from Isa 40:3: “A voice cries, ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God’ ” (Matt 3:3; Mark 1:3; Luke 3:4–6; John 1:23). This same text was foundational for the Qumran community, who withdrew to the wilderness in separation from the perceived uncleannesses of other Jews to prepare to meet their God (1QS 8.14).

“Kingdom of God”

A phrase often ascribed to Jesus in the Gospels, forming the keynote of His proclamation, is “the kingdom of God/heaven” (e.g., Matt 4:17; Mark 1:15). While this exact phrase has no parallel at Qumran, fragments of 4QSongs of the Sabbath Sacrifice speak frequently of God and His Kingdom:

This shows that Jesus used language that was familiar to other Jews of His day.

Beatitudes

Jesus sometimes opened His sermons with a set of blessings or of blessings and woes (Matt 5:3–10; Luke 6:20–26). One fragment from Qumran, warning people of divine wrath and summoning them to learn wisdom, contains at least one woe and two blessings (4Q185 = 4QSapiential Work). Another pronounces a string of four blessings on the person who is devoted to wisdom (4Q525 = 4QBeatitudes, Frags. 2, col. II + 3). This shows that the device of beatitudes was not unique to Jesus (Evans, “Jesus and Qumran Cave 4,” 95–96; George J. Brooke, Qumran and Jesus, 23–24).

According to Jesus, the first quality of those to whom the kingdom of heaven belongs is that they are “poor in spirit” (Matt 5:3). The Qumran community regarded themselves as the “poor in spirit” (1QM = 1QWar Scroll 14.7; 1QHoyadota 6.3).