Texts in Conversation
The Dead Sea Scrolls speak of a house of truth or holiness. In Galatians, Paul similarly calls the community a household of faith. Both use family language to describe a group united by collective identity and common belief.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1QS 5:6
Community Rule
Dead Sea Scrolls, Sectarian and Community Texts
3 the community who hold fast to the covenant. At their word the decision of the lot shall go out for every matter, for Torah and for property and for judgment, to practice truth together, and humility, 4 righteousness and justice and loving kindness, and walking modestly in all their ways, so that no one shall walk in the stubbornness of his heart, to stray after his heart 5 and his eyes and the intent of his inclination, but rather to circumcise in the community the foreskin of the inclination and the stiff neck, to lay a foundation of truth for Israel, for a community of an eternal 6 covenant, to atone for all who volunteer for holiness in Aaron and for the house of truth in Israel, and for those who join them for community and for dispute and for judgment, 7 to declare guilty all who transgress the statute. And this is the rule of their ways concerning all these statutes when they are gathered into the community: everyone who enters the council of the community
Date: 160–100 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Galatians 6:10
New Testament
4 Let each one examine his own work. Then he can take pride in himself and not compare himself with someone else. 5 For each one will carry his own load. 6 Now the one who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with the one who teaches it. 7 Do not be deceived. God will not be made a fool. For a person will reap what he sows, 8 because the person who sows to his own flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit. 9 So we must not grow weary in doing good, for in due time we will reap, if we do not give up. 10 So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who belong to the family of faith.
Date: 54–55 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The phrase 'household of faith' is a significant, and probably a sectarian phrase referring to those who are bound together in a spiritual family by their shared Christian faith and life. 'The phrase is presumably constructed in conscious contrast to the typical Old Testament house of Israel' (e.g., Numbers 20:29; 2 Samuel 1:12; Ezekiel 3:4; Judith 4:15; Psalms of Solomon 17:42), or some such sectarian variant as we find in the DSS - the house of truth in Israel' (1QS 5.6), 'the house of holiness for Israel' (1QS 8.5) ...and 'the house of the Law' (CD 20.10, 13). In which case it will be significant once again that the bonding characteristic of this household is faith, and not membership of ethnic Israel, and not the Torah.' This specific phrase is only found elsewhere at Ephesians 2:19, and in neither case does the context suggest either that there is a particular focus on the fact that the church met in houses at this stage of their existence or a particular focus on some specific group of Christians in a particular location, such as the Jerusalem church ..."
Ben Witherington, Grace in Galatia: A Commentary on St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1998), 434.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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