the only one" (20
32); he is "the legislator," that is, "the interpreter of the law" (6 7);
and this interpreter of the law, who came to Damascus, is the star who,
according to Balaam's prophecy, was to issue from Jacob (7 18 f.).(18) He
showed them how to walk in the way of God's heart (1 11); as interpreter
of the law he ordained them statutes to walk in till the end of
wickedness--statutes which shall not be superseded by any others "until
there arise the teacher of righteousness in the last days" (6 11 f.). To
him, therefore, are attributed the distinctive principles and observances
of the sect as they are set forth in this book. "His anointed," through
whom God made known to men his holy spirit, and who is true (2 12 f.), is
in all probability the same person with the teacher, the star, just as the
anointed from Aaron and Israel who is to arise in the future (20 1) is the
same as the teacher of righteousness to whose voice they will then listen
(20 32; see below, p. 343).

Those of the emigrants who accepted the guidance of the teacher of
righteousness, the interpreter of the law, entered into the "new covenant
in the land of Damascus" (6 19, 8 21, 19 33 f., 20 12). The idea of the
"new covenant" was doubtless suggested by Jer. 31 31 ff. (cf. 32 36 ff.;
Ezek. 37 26, etc.), where the establishment of the new covenant, in the
stead of the old covenant which their fathers broke, marks the restoration
of God's favor, the beginning of a new and better time. The same use of
the passage in Jeremiah is made at length by the author of the Epistle to
the Hebrews (8 6 ff.), The substance of the covenant may be gathered from
6 11-7 5:

All who were brought into the covenant are not to enter into the
sanctuary to light its altar, but became closers of the door, as
God said, "Who among you will close its door?" and "Thou shalt not
light my altar in vain" (Mal. 1 10);(19) but shall observe to do
according to the interpretation of the law for the end of
wickedness, and to separate from the children of perdition, and to
keep aloof from unrighteous gain, which is unclean by vow and
ban,(20) and from the property of the sanctuary, and from robbing
the poor of the people and making widows their spoil and murdering
orphans; and to separate between the unclean and the clean, and to
show the difference between the holy and the common; and to
observe the Sabbath day as it is defined, and