Scholarly Reflections
Daly, Robert J. "Part 2: From the Old Testament to the New. Chapter Three: Qumran." Christian Sacrifice: The Judaeo-Christian Background Before Origen. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1978, 157-174.
In the Qumran scrolls, Daly finds consistent symbolism of the community as the embodiment of the temple (Daly 1978, 157). Sacrifice then is the life of the community at prayer. The similarity of this view to the New Testament view of the gathered Church asan embodiment of God's presence strikes Daly as significant, suggesting that the Qumran culture influenced early Christianity in this regard (Daly 1978, 158).
The Qumran documents show a spiritualization of sacrificial concepts (Daly 1978, 160). Though this was not an innovation of the Qumran community, it was common in the Qumran literature to understand the inner life of the community as central to sacrifice.
Daly proceeds to evaluate a number of texts in order. 1QS, The Manual of Discipline, shows a high degree of spiritualization as regards sacrifice (Daly 1978, 161). Daly reviews a number of instances in the text, indicating that atonement comes not through the sacrifice itself but through the attitude of the one making an offering, including offerings such as prayer or receiving teaching. Daly briefly notes the same conception in 4Qflor, the Florilegium, as well as in CD, the Damascus Document (Daly 1978, 169). Counter to these examples, Daly notes 1QM, "the War Scroll, where sacrifice is considered entirely realistic" (Daly 1978, 170).
The Qumran texts contain a pervasive "idea of heavenly liturgy and the theme of union with the angels" (Daly 1978, 171). Again, Daly considers this to have influenced Christian thought. He provides a number of passages in which the members of the community are required to be holy due to their standing in the presence of angels.
In sum, Daly finds in Qumran a spiritualized view of offering and atonement in which the worship of the community celebrated a heavenly liturgy and served as the atoning sacrifice (Daly 1978, 174).