It is generally accepted that the secret dead sea scrolls (DSS) which SEELE possesses prophesize the order and time in which the angels will arrive. I think they are lying about this, or at least lying about the extent to which it is true.
Think about the implications of the DSS as a completely reliable document--the First Ancestral Race must have some kind of foresight/time travel/premonition technology in order to create such a manuscript. Now consider that the entire premise of Evangelion is that two seeds of life wound up on the same planet--the single thing the FAR didn't want to happen (thus the reason they included spears of longinus as a contingency for this very outcome.) If they had the ability to see the future, you would think they would have done something to prevent this, no? Predicting the arrival of the angels is the same as conceding that they knew that this very outcome would happen.
Furthermore, think about how SEELE has to question Gendoh about Iruel and whether or not it attacked at all. If they had the DSS, surely they wouldn't have to refer to him to learn about the eleventh angel. That being said, if the DSS are accurate as SEELE says they are, the reason they are doing this might be to learn more about how Gendoh lies and how NERV conceals their true operations.
The reason I came up with this theory is that the ability to create the DSS and the subsequent implication of foresight opens a sort of plothole with the FAR. An easy explanation is that SEELE is lying about them, which would very much be in line with their incredibly manipulative tendencies as an organization.
I'm not 100% convinced of this though, of course, so I want to explore some other possible explanations.
The first alternative explanation I can think of is that the DSS are very general in nature, and far less precise than SEELE is letting on. They may predict the number of angels and the approximate time they arrive, but nothing exact enough to disrupt the plot or necessitate time travel technology.
Another possibility is that the FAR didn't create the DSS, but instead they were created by Adam, Lilith, or some other entity after the seeds had already landed. This accounts for the plothole of two seeds landing on the same planet, and is more consistent with the overall story in regards to the fact that, as far as we know, only one copy of these manuscripts exists (if the FAR created them, they could have only come from one of the moons, and it doesn't make sense that one of the moons just did';t have a copy.)
A lot of the information we know about the DSS comes from the classified information files. This except is particularly revealing and aids my theory. (it is worth nothing that this sentence in particular was described as "convoluted" and difficult to translate)
The First Ancestral Race recorded a manual or implementation plan regarding the use of the Seed of Life (Progenitor Entity) and Spear of Longinus security device. This was in turn transcribed by a religious group and adapted to fit their own doctrines, and the Secret Dead Sea Scrolls were the result.
Note the language "use of" and "transcribed... ...adapted to fit their own doctrines." This implies that the meanings of the DSS were appropriated to fit SEELE's existing plans, (there is also the problem of the reliability of translating a completely alien language to begin with) and that the FAR created them more as "instructions" rather than prophecies.
So what can we make of all of this? Is SEELE actually lying about the dead sea scrolls? They seem to talk about them as if they were a reliable document all the time, even (or rather, especially) when Gendoh isn't there. On the other hand, if they truly are an accurate prophecy for the arrival of the angels, why isn't NERV more prepared whenever the angels arrive, and why do they have to question Gendoh about Iruel before eventually discovering the truth? (confirmed by its inclusion in the episode 14 report) I think the answer is somewhere in the middle, they explain the function and purpose of the moons and their contents (i.e. spears and seeds of life) but don't necessarily predict the future. They are specifically described as an "implementation plan," and since we know that there was very much a deliberate element to the second impact and scattering of Adam's soul, such a plan can predict the angels, but only so accurately as couldn't have had actual prophesizing technology.
I want to know what you all think about this, as the DSS seem to be the key reason that SEELE went from being an underground organization of religious fanatics to the puppetmasters of the united nations and effectively the global economy. They have every reason to lie about their capabilities, especially to Gendoh, which is where the vast majority of exposition involving SEELE occurs. I think that the discrepancy between what they claim the DSS to foretell and the actual events that unfold (i.e., closer to Gendoh's version of instrumentality than SEELE's) is accounted for by this theory, but I'm far from done doing analysis on this part of the literal Evangelion story (the conditions for third impact occuring are, in my opinion, the most difficult part of the literal story to pin down for sure) essay over
