Angels-DEAD SEA SCROLLS

In 1947 a shepherd searching for a lost member of his flock discovered
seven ancient scrolls, dating from 100 B.C. to A.D. 68, that had been
sealed in jars and hidden in caves near the Dead Sea in Israel. This
discovery led to others, and eventually eleven scroll-yielding caves
and a habitation site were uncovered. In all, hundreds of manuscripts
were found, including copies of most of the books of the Old Testament.
The initial discovery of the seven scrolls was greeted by the
general public with excitement because of the scrolls’ mention of a
“teacher of righteousness,” which some early investigators mistakenly
thought might be a reference to Jesus Christ. Most scholars now agree
that the Dead Sea Scrolls, as they came to be called, are the library of
the Essenes, an apocalyptic Jewish sect with their roots in the pietists
(the Hasidim, not to be confused with contemporary Hasidism) of the
Maccabean era. They withdrew from society and in the middle of the
second century B.C. established a monastery on the shores of the Dead
Sea at Qumran, where they had a community until they attacked during
the war with the Romans in A.D. 66–70.
In stark contrast to other forms of Judaism and to early Christianity,
the Essenes believed in the notion of an immortal soul. In their
very un-Jewish antagonism toward the flesh, as well as in certain of
their notions of the soul, they appear to have been influenced by
Gnosticism, or by one of the other Neoplatonic mystery religions of
the Hellenistic period.
Many of the surviving Dead Sea Scrolls are characterized by an
apocalyptic, endtime emphasis that often pictures a supernatural
redemption at the hands of God and his angels, a trait they share with
the roughly contemporaneous writings of the Apocrypha and the
Pseudepigrapha. They also portray the human soul as a battleground
where angels of light and angels of darkness attempt to exert influence
over human action for good or for ill:

Through the Angel of Darkness

, even those who practice
righteousness are made liable to error. . . . All of the spirits
that attend upon him are bent on causing the sons of light to
stumble. Howbeit, the God of Israel and the Angel of His
truth are always there to help the sons of light. (Gaster, pp.
43–44)In this belief, they appear to have been influenced, directly or
indirectly, by Zoroastrianism.