The Way

Author(s): S. Vernon McCasland

Source: Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 77, No. 3 (Sep., 1958), pp. 222-230
Published by: The Society of Biblical Literature
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 "THE WAY"
S. VERNON McCASLAND
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA

N PAUL'S defense before Felix at Caesarea, he admits to the governor

that "according to the Way which they call a sect I worship the God
of our fathers" (Acts 24 14). When Paul had completed his address, the
author of Acts remarks, "But Felix having a more accurate knowledge
of the Way put them off, saying 'When Lysias the tribune comes down
I will decide your case' " (24 22).
With our interest aroused by this use of the term Way, we look back
through Acts for other examples of the idiom. The first is in 9 2, where
Saul "still breathing threats and murder against the disciples, went to
the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues of Damascus,
so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might
bring them bound to Jerusalem." This passage makes it clear that the
Way is a designation of the disciples of the Lord.
The same meaning appears in Acts 19 9, where it is related that Paul
was teaching in a synagogue at Ephesus, "but when some were stubborn
and disbelieved, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he
withdrew from them, taking the disciples with him, and argued daily in
the hall of Tyrannus."
Also in Acts 19 23, this time with reference to the uproar made by the
silversmiths at Ephesus, it is stated, "about that time there arose no
little stir concerning the Way," which refers to the Christian movement
which Paul had been promoting in their city.
Later when Paul was addressing the mob from the steps of the
barracks in Jerusalem, Acts 22 4, he said, "I persecuted this Way to
the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women."
There are thus no less than six passages in Acts in which Way is used
with this technical meaning, that is, as a name for the Christian move-
ment. Acts shows that Way as a name for Christianity is at least as old
as Church. This observation is not new, but neither the origin nor the
exact meaning of the term has been known. The word occurs often in the
Bible in both Hebrew and Greek, but the term is almost always used with
a qualifying adjective or pronoun, or in a context of dependence which
shows its meaning. It is someone's way, the way to some place, or the
222

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 McCASLAND:"THE WAY" 223

way of something. But in the unqualified, absolute sense it appears to

be unique in the Acts of Apostles. English translations usually capitalize
Way in these instances, but nowhere else in the Bible.

II
The uncertainty which prevails about Way in this idiom is illustrated
by reference to commentators who have dealt with it. In the English
edition of Walter Bauer's Lexicon' under the discussion of v 65bs,
paragraph c, it is stated that, "The word refers to the whole way of life
from a moral and religious viewpoint, the Way, teaching in its most
comprehensive sense," and then cites the NT passages in which the word
is applied to Christianity. But this leaves us with no clue as to the origin
of the idiom, why it was used in this connection, or any proof that the
view is correct.
G. H. C. MacGregor2 does no better than to point out that in rabbinic
literature lnT is used to mean customs and manner of life. Hence he
concludes that this name may have been given to Christians by their
enemies, to whom the sect appeared to be a matter of practice rather than
of opinion.
Cadbury and Lake3 observe that the idiom occurs only in connection
with Paul. They conclude that it does not represent an original Aramaic
name, but note its use in rabbinic writings to mean customs, and then
venture the opinion that the word was current in Greek-speaking Jewish
circles to indicate that Christians were heretical.
R. J. Knowling4 thought that the term originated among Jews who
felt that Christians represented a particular mode of life, or special form
of their own national belief.
A. E. Garvies wrote, "The Christian religion was spoken of simply
as the Way, either because Christ claimed to be the Way, or because he
had spoken of the narrow way unto life, or lastly because in him was
fulfilled the prophetic sayings regarding the way (Isa 40 3; Mal 3 i)."
This last remark was closer to the answer than anything we have come
upon from the various scholars who have written since his time. His
intuition was correct, but he could only allow it as a possibility. His
successors appear not to have realized that he pointed toward the right
clue.
1W. F. Arndt and F. W. Gingrich,A Greek-EnglishDictionaryof the New Testament
and OtherEarly ChristianLiterature(Chicago, 1957), p. 557.
2
The Interpreter'sBible, IX (Nashville, 1954), 121-22.
3 F. J. Foakes Jackson and K. Lake, eds., The Beginnings
of Christianity(5 vols.;
London and New York, 1920-33), IV, 100.
4 W. Robertson Nicoll, The Expositor'sGreekTestament(5 vols.; New York, 1917),

II, 230.
s James Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols.; New York, 1898-1904), IV, 899.

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224 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE

III
Up to the present time the obscurity about Way has remained. This
was inevitable, because no evidence was available on the basis of which
the questions could be answered. The discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls,
however, has provided new data on the subject. This evidence is in the
Manual of Discipline (1QS), and occurs mainly in two passages.
The first is 8.13-16 of the facsimile edition.6 These lines are trans-
lated by Millar Burrows7 as follows: "When these things come to pass
for the community in Israel, by these regulations shall they be separated
from the midst of the men of error to go to the wilderness to prepare there
the way of the Lord (mnmn1' nK n 0 rn u
nv m
~i'); as it is written, 'In
the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord ( .... 'Tn 15 anim); make
straight in the desert a highway for our God.' This is the study of the
law as he commanded through Moses, to do according to all that has
been revealed from time to time, and as the prophets revealed by his
Holy Spirit."
This paragraph provides the following information: 1) righteous men
of Israel are to separate themselves from men of error; 2) they are to go
into the wilderness, 3) to prepare there the way of the Lord, 4) in
fulfilment of Isa 40 3; 5) to prepare the way of the Lord means to
engage in study of the law and prophets.
The passage alone does not answer our questions, but it lays a founda-
tion for an answer on the basis of what follows in 9.16-21, which Burrows
translates,8 "There must be no admonitions or contentions with men of
the pit, for the counsel of the law must be concealed among men of error;
but there must be admonition of true knowledge and righteous judgment
for those who choose the way (n'-T nmni:); each according to his spirit,
according to the regulation of the time, to guide them in knowledge and
so to give them understanding in the marvellous mysteries and truth
among men of the community, that they may conduct themselves blame-
lessly, each with his neighbor, in all that has been revealed to them-
that is the time of clearing the way to the wilderness-- (lnn nlrm ny
n:'D) - to give them understanding of all that has been found to be
done at this time; and to be separated from every man, and not to pervert
his way (i:-n) because of any error.
"These are the regulations of the way ('rnn;) for the wise man in
these times, for his love together with his hate ...."
In this passage Way stands alone three times in the absolute sense

6 Millar Burrows, The Dead Sea Scrolls of St. Mark's Monastery, II, 2: Plates and
Transcription of The Manual of Discipline (New Haven, 1951).
7 Burrows, The Dead Sea Scrolls (New York, 1955), p. 382.
8 Ibid.,
pp. 383-84.

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 McCASLAND: "THE WAY" 225

as it does in Acts. In 9.19 it is stated specifically that this is the time of

clearing the way to the wilderness, so there can be no doubt that the
admonition is to the injunction of Isa 40 3, which is quoted in 8.13-14.
In order to remove all doubt the author in 9.19-20 repeats -rinn niz ny
'=nsT,which are the words used in the former passage.
It is true that ln'T,mnnm (those who choose the way), 9.17-18, con-
tains no definite article. It could be rendered "those who choose a way,"
but both Burrows and Brownlee9 translate it with the definite article.
The choice between the definite and the indefinite article has to be made
on the basis of the unity of the entire passage. The indefinite article does
not make for coherence and intelligibility here, while the definite article
does. 9.20, which is an allusion to Isa 40 3, has the definite article I'mn.
It is clear that this line is inserted as a parenthetical explanation of what
has gone before, and it is on this basis that one selects the definite article
for the clause for the line in 9.18-19: "who choose the way." This is
further supported by 9.21, which begins, "Now these are the rules of
the way," which contains the definite article. 9.20-21, therefore, makes
it evident that 9.18-19 requires the definite article in the translation.
Thus here we have three examples of the way. The unity of the section
also supports Brownlee's rendering of "His way" (lin) in 9.21, as against
Burrows' "his way." There is no clearly expressed antecedent of his,
but 9.20 shows that the implied antecedent is the Lord of Isa 40 3. So
it means the way of the Lord. 9.21 gives the idiom '-lrn unambiguously
just as it occurs in Acts.
A similar problem of syntax occurs in 10.21 In,'nD z1D,which again
both BurrowsTo and Brownlee" translate, "those who turn aside from
he way." The H ebrew has no definite article, but intelligibility requires
it. On the other hand, both translators delete the definite article in
11.11 from 1rrnin ',on, which they render "perfection of way." If they
are correct in this, we must conclude on the basis of 9.17-18, 10.21, and
11.11, that 1QS is not consistent in its use of the definite article.
A survey of all occurrences of In 'way,' in 1QS shows some interesting
patterns. My count (without a concordance) indicates that the word is
used 33 times. Matters of both style and contents make 8.1 a watershed
in the landscape. Here we enter a new country. Before that point 'way'
has been used 12 times, and in every case the form is plural.I2 After 8.1
there are 21 examples of the word, and they are all in the singular
number.'3 The first part of 1QS (1.1-7.25) might be entitled Ways of

9 W. H. Brownlee, The Dead Sea Manual of Discipline, BASOR Supplementary

Studies, Nos. 10-12 (New Haven, 1951), p. 36.
'" Burrows, The Dead Sea Scrolls,p. 386. "Ibid., p. 42.
l2 1QS 1.13, 3.3, 3.6, 3.20, 3.21, 3.26(2), 4.1, 4.2(2), 4.17, 5.7.
'3 1QS 8.10, 8.13, 8.14, 8.18, 8.21, 9.2, 9.5, 9.6, 9.9(2), 9.18, 9.20(2), 9.21, 10.21(2),
11.2, 11.10, 11.11, 11.13, 11.17.

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226 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE

Light and Ways of Darkness. It appears to be based on an older homily

along this line which has obvious affinities with such early Christian
writings as De Doctrina Apostolorum'4and the Didache. The second part
of 1QS, on the other hand, deals with the theme of The Perfect Way.
The tone of this section is set in 8.1 by o,i,n, the absolute perfection to
be manifested by the twelve laymen and three priests of the Council of
the community, which is introduced at this point. aDon,or a variant of
it, is associated with 'nrr 'way,' some 10 times in this part of 1QS.'s Its
mood is pervasive to the end of the section. High points are attained in
8.13-14 and 9.18-21, in which Isa 40 3 is used. This Scripture inspires
the faith and provides the philosophy of the Qumran movement. The
Perfect Way is the Way of the Lord, or, more simply and briefly,
the Way.

IV
Turning back now to the NT, how does the situation stand with
reference to these data from 1QS? First of all, we discover that the very
Scripture, Isa 40 3, which is central in these two passages of 1QS, and
from which its idiom the Way is derived, is also regarded by the authors
of the Gospels as the prophetic source of the Christian movement. This
is true of all four Gospels. Mark, the earliest, opens with the words,
"The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God. As it is
written in Isaiah the prophet, 'Behold I send my messenger before thy
face, who shall prepare thy way; the voice of one crying in the wilderness:
Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.' " (1 i-3)
Mark or a reviser has brought together two passages here: Mal 3 1
and Isa 40 3, the reason being that they are both believed to be prophetic
of John. Matt 3 3 gives the same words from Isa 40 3 and says that they
speak of John. Luke 3 4-5 quotes the words of Isaiah, but extends the
quotation somewhat, also indicating that they refer to John. Matthew
and Luke are parallel at this point. The parallel in John occurs in
1 19-25 in the course of an interview between John the Baptist and
priests and Levites from Jerusalem, in which he first denies that he is
the Christ, then that he is Elijah or the Prophet, but when pressed for
an answer as to his identity John replies, "I am the voice of one crying
in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord,' as the prophet
Isaiah said."
These passages from the four Gospels present a fourfold textual
problem. First is that of the variations between the texts of the Gospels
at this point and of their relations to one another; second is the relation-

14 Cf. E. J. Goodspeed, The Apostolic Fathers (New York, 1950), pp. 285-310.
's 1QS 8.10, 8.18, 8.21, 9.2, 9.5, 9.9, 10.21, 11.2, 11.11, 11.17.

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 McCASLAND:"THE WAY" 227

ship between the Greek texts of the Gospels and the LXX; third is the
relationship of the texts of the Gospels to that of 1QS; and fourth, to MT.
A glance at the Synoptic Gospels in a Greek harmony shows that
while Mark 1 2-3 contains Mal 3 1 and Isa 40 3, both Matt 3 3 and
Luke 3 4 contain Isa 40 3 in exact agreement with Mark. They neverthe-
less omit Mal 3 i. Yet Mal 3 1 appears in Matt 11 10 and Luke 7 27 in a
long passage about John, and the quotations from Malachi here in the two
Gospels agree but for &y&c.Moreover, they agree with the quotation from
Malachi in Mark 1 2b, except that both Matthew and Luke include at
the end t.z7rpooOevoov. Furthermore, we note that in the critical text
of Mark 1 2a both passages are erroneously ascribed to Isaiah, but that a
late corrector has changed rCo'H-aalt to roiS 7rpoo^racL. The problem
therefore of the interrelations of the texts of the Synoptic Gospels appears
to be fairly simple. Originally Mark 1 2-3 contained only the quotation
from Isa 40 3, which it properly attributed to Isaiah. The quotation
from Mal 3 1 is original only in Q. A late corrector has transferred this
quotation from Mal 3 1 in Q to Mark, and in order to eliminate the error
of ascribing both passages to Isaiah, either this corrector or a later has
changed rT 'Haaiq to rots 7rpoqTrats. Luke in reproducing the quota-
tion of Isa 40 3 from Q has looked up a Greek text of Isaiah and extended
his quotation somewhat. Probably Matthew inserted eycb.
The quotation of Isa 40 3 in John 1 23 omits the second line entirely;
and for irotdiaoare reads evOvvare. Apparently John was quoting
from a different Greek text of Isaiah. Whether he had before him the
Synoptic texts is a matter of conjecture, but apparently he did not
Furthermore, a glance at the LXX text of Mal 3 1 in comparison with its
quotation in Q shows that the author of Q either did not have the LXX
before him or that he has taken considerable liberties with it.
Further uncertainty is introduced since the LXX of Isa 40 3 has no
word to reproduce rmny: of MT. But not too much weight can be
allowed to this as to MT itself, because the oldest complete MSS of the
LXX are from the 4th century A. D., and only fragments of it go back
to the 2nd and 3rd centuries A. D.'6 On the other hand the quotation of
Isa 40 3 in 1QS 8.14 agrees exactly with the Masora, which, save for
minor variants, is substantially true of the entire lQIsaa,I7 so that we
know that the MT of Isaiah was essentially established by the 1st
century B. c. But, as we have seen, the text of no one of the Gospels
agrees verbatim with the MT of Isa 40 3 or Mal 3 1. That is to say, no
quotation of Isa 40 3 in the Gospels can be regarded as an exact repro-
duction of the Hebrew of 1QS 8.14.
The uncertainty of the textual situation with reference to quotations

i6 Cf. Ernst
Wiirthwein, The Text of the Old Testament(New York, 1957), p. 8.
z7Cf. Burrows,BASOR, No. 111 (1948), p. 16; Wiirthwein, op. cit., pp. 23-24.

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228 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE

of Isa 40 3 in the Gospels will probably remain for some time, as no evi-
dence is at present available to solve the problems. But this uncertainty
does not affect the thesis of the present paper. Such uncertainties as
remain cast no doubt on the fact that all four of the Gospels and 1QS
8.14 and 9.19-20 are quotations from Isa 40 3. This establishes that both
early Christians and the Qumran community traced themselves back to
the same prophetic source.

V
There is, however, an important difference between the use of this
Isaiah passage in the Gospels and that in 1QS. The latter does not
include the line, "The voice of one crying," but begins with "In the
wilderness." The inclusion of this line by the Gospels gives this quotation
a greater urgency. In 1QS the Scripture refers to the entire community,
but in the Gospels a man appears who believes himself to be this "voice
crying." In other words, John is inspired by the belief that both of the
ancient prophets are pointing to him in person, and that he is now en-
gaged in "preparing the way of the Lord in the wilderness" of which these
prophets spoke. In Mark, Matthew, and Luke, it is the evangelists who
make the identification, but in the Fourth Gospel John himself makes
it; and it seems probable that this is the way the identification was
originally made.'8 In Q, as indicated above, it was Jesus who identified
John with the messenger or angel of Mal 3 i, but it may be that he also
first learned this by his contact with John. At any rate, this element of
personal identification with "the voice" or the "messenger" is lacking
in 1QS.
In this particular connection, there are four elements of affinity
between Qumran and early Christians: the use of Isa 40 3; the belief that
they were preparing the way of the Lord in the wilderness; that their
piety was this way of the Lord; and to shorten the way of the Lord to
the Way. That is not to say that the Way as used at Qumran meant
exactly what it did for Christians. While there were common elements,
there were also sharp differences between the faiths of the two commu-
nities. Qumran was expecting the Messiah, but Christians believed that
he had come. It is probably true that John selected the Jordan valley
as the place of his preaching, like the Qumran community, in the belief
that he was fulfilling the injunction of Isa 40 3 "in the wilderness"
(nnra) and in the Jordan valley (rnnya), for the Jordan valley was
called the 'Arabah,'9 and the area near Qumran was known as the
18 Cf.
J. A. T. Robinson, "The Baptism of John and the Qumran Community,"
HTR, July, 1957, pp. 175-92.
I9 Cf. Brown, Driver, Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon, s. v., p. 787; Brownlee,
Interpretation, January, 1955, pp. 72 f.

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 McCASLAND: "THE WAY" 229

Wilderness (n:D2n), 2 but this idea was not retained by the followers of
John, in particular, by Jesus and his disciples.
That John was out in the wilderness is reflected even in the story of
his infancy. The psalm of Zechariah in Luke 1 76 states that John would
be called "a prophet of the Most High and go before the Lord to prepare
his ways," an allusion to Mal 3 i and 4 5. In Luke 1 80 it is said that
John "was in the wilderness" (raZs Cpi'OLos) until his appearance to
Israel. I am not assuming, however, that John read these Scriptures in a
Greek text. It is more probable that as the son of a Jerusalem priest he
read the Hebrew, and had essentially the MT as we know it.
Inevitably the question arises whether the parallels between Qumran
and early Christians indicate a dependence of one on the other. It is of
course possible that both were dependent on some earlier unknown source,
and that their usages arose independently. But this seems improbable.
It appears that there was a real contact in ideas and persons between
Qumran and early Christianity, and that John was an important means
of that contact. Various allusions to his residence in the desert fit into
that view. It is not impossible that he was at one time a member of the
Qumran community and that his use of Isa 40 3 was acquired there.
This would explain how Jesus and his disciples who began their movement
as followers of John came to think of their community as the way of the
Lord, and to agree with Qumran again in shortening this expression to
the Way. It is also possible that John recruited some of his own disciples
from the Qumran settlement and that they found their way finally into
Christianity. That might be alluded to in Acts 6 7, which says that many
priests became "obedient to the faith."
The role which we have assigned to John is confirmed by the account
of Apollos, one of his ardent disciples, in Acts 18 24-28, who went to
Ephesus and began to preach Jesus boldly. It is said that he had been
instructed "in the way of the Lord," but when the Christians Priscilla
and Aquila heard him they took him aside and expounded "the way of
God" more accurately. Apollos was probably still using "the way of the
Lord" as it was understood at Qumran. He had to learn the different
meaning it had among Christians. In the saying of Jesus in Matt 21 32
that "John came to you with a way of righteousness" (iv 6oc, aLKaLo-
appears to be used as a metonym for God. That is,
aovrls), &LKaCLoavv?r
"John presented you with the way of the Lord." This saying may be
compared with 1QS 4.2, "ways of true righteousness" (nnr pim :'r).
In Matt 22 16 the Pharisees say to Jesus, "Teacher, we know that you
are true, and that you teach the way of God in truth." This saying is
close to that of 1QS 4.2.

20
Cf. F. M. Cross, Jr., and G. E. Wright, "The Boundary and Province List of the
Kingdom of Judah," JBL, LXXV (1956), 202-26.

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230 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE

We conclude therefore that the Way ( o66s, 1nrn) as a designation

of Christianity was derived from Isa 40 3 and that it is an abbreviated
form of "the way of the Lord"; that the idiom 'lnrr was used in a similar
sense by Qumran as a designation of its life; that Christians probably
derived the idiom ultimately from Qumran; and that the agent of the
transmission was John the Baptist.21

21 I
am deeply indebted to W. H. Brownlee for friendly consultation, but all views
expressedin the paper are my own.

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