Raz means "mystery" or "secret", and is defined as a type of wisdom or knowledge that is known by God and can only be known by humans by divine revelation.
[3] Lawrence Schiffman believes that the ideology, orthography and language of the texts show that it originates from the same circle as other sectarian works found among the Dead Sea Scrolls.
[4] The tone of the writing reflects an elite group which believes that it alone holds the correct understanding of YHWH's plan for the universe and how to please him so as to be saved from the fate of the ignorant and hypocritical.
The end time described by the author does not manifest itself in the normal culmination of a battle, judgment or catastrophe, but rather as "a steady increase of light, [through which] darkness is made to disappear or in which iniquity dissolves and just as the smoke rising into the air eventually dissipates".
There is no mention of angels, or YHWH's coming, or resurrection of the wise, or any of the typical messianic language that is usually associated with Jewish or Christian eschatological texts.