The Way

We saw at our last meeting that both the Qumran community and the early Christians revered the book fo Isaiah, especially in his prophecies of the coming of the Prophet and a journey through the Wilderness. It may be this Path through the Wilderness that led both to call their movement 'the Way.'

... if he [Paul] found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. - Acts 9.2

When some stubbornly refused to believe and spoke evil of the Way before the congregation, he left them, taking the disciples with him. ... About that time no little disturbance broke out concerning the Way. - Acts 19.9, 23

But this I admit to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our ancestors, believing everything laid down according to the law or written in the prophets. - Acts 24.14

In this last, we see that the early Jesus Followers also conceived of themselves as faithful adherents of the Law,as did the Qumran community.

...for twenty years they groped for the Way. And God observed their deeds, for they sought him with a sound heart; and he raised up for them a Teacher of Righteousness to lead them in the Way of his heart. And he acquainted later generations with what he would do in the last generation, in the congregation of traitors, those who resist the Way. - CD 1.9b-13

That is the time for studying the Torah ('clearing the Way') in the wilderness. - 4Q258