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The revelation concerning the Son of Man had as yet been made only to the Elect; the congregation of the righteous was gradually being created; on the Great Day, these would be glorified and their oppressors, "the kings and the mighty . . . who rule the earth" would be delivered up to vengeance, "because they have oppressed his children and his elect . . . and they shall be a spectacle for the righteous," who "shall rejoice . . . because" the sword of the "Lord of Spirits . . . is drunk with their blood.
The Sons of Light are the Elect Ones, predestined to glory.
The second apocalypse is also comparatively primitive, but reveals a distinct development. Like The War, it is very belligerent and intensely Judaic. God Himself is still called The Holy Great One, who again conducts the last judgment. The destruction of the earth is foretold, according to Zoroastrian prophecy, and there is to be a new and glorious Jerusalem.
The vision consists largely of allegory relating the events of Genesis and Jewish history down to Judas Maccabaeus, at which point the end of Time and the last judgment are to occur. Under a transparent veneer, the dramatic personae of Old Testament history parade before us as bulls, heifers, wolves, asses, eagles, kites, ravens, etc.
There is a long passage devoted to the seventy shepherds who slew and destroyed more sheep (Jews) than they were commanded by the Lord. These are the kings and high priests who misruled Israel between Solomon and the Maccabees. The Essenes could relate to such persecution from corrupt rulers as they lived out their existence in the desert in protest to their denial of the Priesthood.
After the Babylonian exile, "I saw until that 23 had undertaken the pasturing and completed in their several periods 58 times." Now, if a time is a seven-year period, we subtract 416 from 586 (year of Babylonian captivity); and this brings us of course to the year 170 B.C.E. At this time, a new era of righteousness began, because "behold, lambs [Chasids] were borne by these white sheep [Jews], and they began to open their eyes and to see, and to cry to these sheep. Yea, they cried to them, but they did not harken to what they said" (Enoch, xxv, xc).
This reminds us of a passage in the Damascus Document in which we read "they were like blind men and groping for the way for twenty years." But God "raised up for them a teacher of righteousness to lead them in they way of their heart." The wicked Jews, however, "banded together against the life of the righteous, and all who walked uprightly their soul abhorred."
If you have never read the Damascus Document you should. In it we find the earliest of the Dead Sea Scroll writings. Absent in it is any reference to damnation and catacylsmic judgment. But owing to the fact that these displaced Essenic priests were continually rejected from their rightful Priesthood by the Hasmonean powers that ruled following the Maccabean war and victory, we find that this Essene sentiment would change. Under the influence of the Teacher of Righteousness the anger will come through in their writings. Above you saw how the Essenes' pleas for acceptance and reinstatement was continually refused. Over time the writings of these Essences, in their distancing from the Temple and the Priesthood, and Judaism in general, will take upon a revengeful attitude and gravitate to an apocalyptic mindset and one was not far away...one only needed to look East to Iran and Zoroastrianism and their apocalyptic theologies. This will become the backbone of this desert Zadok movement in a short time. We find it in the beginning of the Enoch document which was the new "Bible" for the Essenes.
Returning to Enoch, we read: "I saw in the vision how the ravens [Syrians] flew upon those lambs and took one of those lambs [Mattathias], and dashed those sheep [the Chasids] in pieces and devoured them. And I saw . . . till there sprouted a great horn [Judas Maccabaeus] from one of those sheep, and their eyes were opened.... And those ravens fought and battled with it and sought to lay its horn low, but they had no power over it." History now passes into prophecy; the battle continues without decision until the God of the sheep destroys all their enemies, who "were swallowed up in the earth" (Enoch, cx). God now sets up His throne "in the pleasant land," (Palestine); the archangel who has kept the record opens the sealed books; and the Last Judgment supervenes (Ibid.). The fallen angels known as the Watchers, the wicked Jewish rulers called shepherds, and the apostates known as "blinded sheep" are cast into the fiery abyss. The supernaturally constructed Jerusalem appears; and the Messianic kingdom in which the Chasid saints are the rulers is established by the Holy Great One. The Gentiles are now transformed into "white bulls," that is, they become regenerate, and submit to the universal dominion of the Chasidim. From the bosom of this enlightened world-community, the Messiah emerges at last, who is, presumably, to rule forever; "the first among them became a lamb, and that lamb became a great animal . . . and the Lord of the sheep rejoiced over it and over all the oxen" (Ibid.).
Thus, for the first time, the Messiah is called a lamb.
One last thought to consider. At this early date the theology is a mixture of both Judaism and Zoroastrianism. You should take note in your further reading and study how Judaism fades into the distance and the Essenes evolve into a Pythagorean-Zoroastrian-Buddhist sect which promoted the religious beliefs of such prior religions.