Dead Sea Scrolls

File:SecretDeadSeaScrolls.jpg

Image of a page from the Secret Dead Sea Scrolls which flashes during the opening credits

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of ancient Hebrew religious manuscripts found in 1947 in caves near the Dead Sea. Unknown to the public, there are one or more sets of scrolls found along with the collection whose existence was never revealed to the world at large: the "Secret Dead Sea Scrolls". The original, complete Dead Sea Scrolls came into the possession of the mysterious Seele organization, who hid the important knowledge from the secret sections and released the rest (which they deemed to be just trivial religious information) to the world at large as the "Dead Sea Scrolls". It's not even clear if the artifact Seele found was actually "scrolls" or if this was just a cover story. The Secret Dead Sea Scrolls predict the events of the entire series: the coming of the Angels (including information about specific ones), the Evangelions, Adam, Lilith, the Spear of Longinus and Third Impact.

The "Dead Sea Scrolls" were, in truth, written by the god-like progenitor aliens known as the "First Ancestral Race". This is how they possess the power of prophesy. The "scrolls" (or whatever form they were really recorded on) are essentially a manual the First Ancestral Race sent along with each Seed of Life, detailing how Seeds of Life and the Spears of Longinus work, as well as predictions about the future in the event that a Seed is awakened. The information was included in White or Black Moon transport vessels containing the Seeds as a safeguard, along the Spears of Longinus. The idea was that if ever two Seeds landed on one planet, the inhabitants (most likely the progeny of Lilith-type Seeds due to their intelligence use of science) would eventually find the manual-artifact that came along with a Seed, and use the instructions to put one of them back into dormancy (in the event that even the Spears of Longinus of both Seeds were disabled).

However, due to the violent crash of Lilith into Earth or simply 4 billion years worth of tectonic plate movement, the manual on Earth got separated from which ever Seed it came with (possibly Adam), until it ultimately came into the possession of the Seele power cabal. Adam's Spear of Longinus had survived and reduced it to a dormant state, so the manual of the "Dead Sea Scrolls" was not really needed by humans. However, the Seele councilmen abused the knowledge contained in the Scrolls, and using what they learned embarked upon a plan to use Earth's unique possession of two Seeds of Life to their own advantage. Using the knowledge from the Scrolls about Seeds of Life, how to use the Spear, and that the Angels would appear if Adam was awakened, Seele began their ultimate goal to create a forbidden union between Adam and Lilith, thus forcibly elevating mankind to a state of godhood on-par with the First Ancestral Race, with themselves in control of this new world.

Thus Seele uses the information found in the Dead Sea Scrolls to try to ultimately harness Third Impact and the Instrumentality process for their own ends: first to ward off the threat of an Angel-initiated Third Impact, and then once all of the Angels are defeated, to use the Evangelion series to bring about Instrumentality. Although Adam would never have awoken if Seele hadn't sent the Katsuragi Expedition to release it from its dormancy, the Scrolls predicted that Adam would begin to spread its progeny, the Angels, if it was activated. Seele nonetheless took the risk, and woke Adam (intentionally causing Second Impact, in order to reduce Adam to a controllable form). The Scrolls predicted that the Angels would eventually mature and try to return to Adam to release it, thus Seele backed Gehirn and later Nerv's creation of the Evangelions in the early 2000's to combat the Angels when they eventually returned, which they finally did in 2015.

Notes

• The Dead Sea Scrolls never actually appear on-screen in any episode, so it is not clear if they were actually "scrolls" or if that is just Seele's cover story for the alien manual they found. A single page from the Secret Dead Sea Scrolls actually does appear in the opening credits of every episode, as the final shot before the episode begins. This page appears to be written in vaguely proto-Hebraic, "Angelic letters". During Instrumentality, the Mass Production Evangelions generate a giant Tree of Sephiroth made out of energy, made out of images of giant Hebrew letters and circles floating in the sky. It is possible that this implies that ancient Judaism and the mysticism of the Kabbalah were actually influenced by the alien knowledge of the "Dead Sea Scrolls". Although the Seele power cabal eventually acquired the Scrolls, their exact history from when they arrived on Earth up until the present day is not revealed. It is possible that ancient Jewish mystics or cults found the manual-artifact the First Ancestral Race left with one of the Seeds of Life (but which got separated from a Seed and due to tectonic shifts ended up in the Dead Sea area). These mystic cults then decoded much of the manual, and the knowledge of the universe which it imparted onto them greatly affected their beliefs and rituals, i.e. that the "Tree of Sephiroth" is actually a real energy pattern. Ultimately, after hundreds of years Seele acquired it in 1947, but realized that it was actually literally true and of extraterrestrial origin.