Jesus and the Essenes

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Coughenour, Robert A. "The Wisdom Stance of Enoch's Redactor". Brill: 52. {{ cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= ( help)Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman Period

According to Joseph Lightfoot, the Church Father Epiphanius (writing in the 4th century CE) seems to make a distinction between two main groups within the Essenes: [28] "Of those that came before his [Elxai, an Ossaean prophet] time and during it, the Ossaeans and the Nasaraeans." Part 18 [56] Epiphanius describes each group as following: Thomas, Richard (29 January 2016). "The Israelite Origins of the Mandaean People". Studia Antiqua. 5 (2). The Riddle of the Dead Sea Scrolls". YouTube - Discovery Channel documentary. 1990 . Retrieved 4 March 2022.

Some Rights Reserved (2009-2023) under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license unless otherwise noted. Some of this section's listed sources may not be reliable. Please help this article by looking for better, more reliable sources. Unreliable citations may be challenged or deleted. ( June 2018) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Furstenberg, Yair (8 November 2016). "Initiation and the Ritual Purification from Sin: Between Qumran and the Apostolic Tradition". Dead Sea Discoveries. 23 (3): 365–394. doi: 10.1163/15685179-12341409. a b Ellegård, Alvar; Jesus—One Hundred Years Before Christ: A Study in Creative Mythology, (London 1999).

Hachlili, Rachel (1988). Ancient Jewish Art and Archaeology in the Land of Israel. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill. p.101. ISBN 9004081151. Larson, Martin Alfred (1967). The Essene heritage: or, The teacher of the scrolls and the gospel Christ. New York City: Philosophical Library. OCLC 712416. Rituals of the Essenes and Christianity have much in common; the Dead Sea Scrolls describe a meal of bread and wine that will be instituted by the messiah, both the Essenes and Christians were eschatological communities, where judgement on the world would come at any time. [70] The New Testament also possibly quotes writings used by the Qumran community. Luke 1:31-35 states " And now you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the Most High...the son of God" which seems to echo 4Q 246, stating: "He will be called great and he will be called Son of God, and they will call him Son of the Most High...He will judge the earth in righteousness...and every nation will bow down to him". [70] Underneath the scholarly and popular romanticizing, modern and ancient, surrounding "the Essenes", what changes in historians' understanding if there was a strong or weak Jesus connection with Philo's "Essenes"? What is learned that would not otherwise be known in the absence of that assumption? What substantive content underlies this question as distinguished from smoke or free-floating language?But the very fact that Augustine had dabbled in Manicheism made some Christians suspect the purity of his theology. Schonfield, Hugh J. (1984). The Essene Odyssey: The Mystery of the True Teacher and the Essene Impact on the Shaping of Human Destiny. Tisbury: Element Books. ISBN 0-906540-49-6. OCLC 12223220. The beit manda ( beth manda) is described as biniana rab ḏ-srara ("the Great building of Truth") and bit tušlima ("house of Perfection") in Mandaean texts such as the Qolasta, Ginza Rabba, and the Mandaean Book of John. The only known literary parallels are in Essene texts from Qumran such as the Community Rule, which has similar phrases such as the "house of Perfection and Truth in Israel" ( Community Rule 1QS VIII 9) and "house of Truth in Israel." [95] Magarites [ edit ]

The Teacher is extolled as having proper understanding of the Torah, qualified in its accurate instruction, [3] and being the one through whom God would reveal to the community "the hidden things in which Israel had gone astray". [4]

The Essenes and some early Christians espoused a pious, ascetic life, deserting the city and the secular world for a life of solitary or communal prayer and self-denial. BBC - History - Ancient History in depth: Lost and Hidden Christianity". BBC . Retrieved 11 May 2022. In the early church a book called the Odes of Solomon was written. The writer was likely a very early convert from the Essene community into Christianity. The book reflects a mixture of mystical ideas of the Essene community with Christian concepts. [72] Rudolph, Kurt (1977). "Mandaeism". In Moore, Albert C. (ed.). Iconography of Religions: An Introduction. Vol.21. Chris Robertson. ISBN 9780800604882.

To the orthodox Christian community, it may be an understatement to say that Szekely’s books are controversial. 3. To the mystics and esotericists among us, his book has revealed a new way of viewing the early life of Jesus as a member of the Essenes, as were his parents Mary and Joseph, and his experiences with this community that influenced and molded his ministry. This is a great read! I’m trying to determine what host evidence we have, other than the Bible, that Jesus was familiar with the Essenes?

Who Were The Essenes In The Bible

Not many Christians realize that the boy Jesus had awealthy uncle, Joseph of Arimathea. A merchant who owned a sizable fleet of ships, he plied the trade routes and very nearly controlled a monopoly in the trading of tin, which he sourced from the rich mines located in Cornwall, England. Tin was a very prized metal in that era in that it alloys with copper to form bronze weapons and implements. At the conclusion of his book, Joseph determines that the Essenes are “a missing link in the study of early Christian origins” (169). The idiom suggests an “A” and a “C” that are known to us, with the Essenes providing the “B” that explains how history developed from point A to C. The parallels can be understood this way, but I am not persuaded that they should be. Rather than a link in a chain, I find it more useful to borrow an imagery that would resonate with the Essenes: that of shedding light. We know for a fact that Jesus was a Second Temple Jew, and that his ideas were forged and shaped by the circumstances of this tumultuous period. The scrolls help us illuminate the stage when this transpired, but these movements may have existed as independent scenes rather than partners in a direct dialogue. Women and men were equal in God’s sight. This was a most unexpected fact about the Essenes of Jesus’ generation—women were treated as equals! They could become teachers, healers, religious leaders. They were educated on merit not gender. We can relate! In this context, we learn that Jesus had many female disciples. And his Aquarian disciples of today are learning more about the feminine Christ virtues. Goodman, M. (1994), "Sadducees and Essenes after 70 CE", Judaism in the Roman World, Brill, pp.153–162, doi: 10.1163/ej.9789004153097.i-275.38, ISBN 978-90-474-1061-4 , retrieved 2 August 2023