Abstract

© Dr M D Magee
Contents Updated 28 October

The Essenes as proto-Christians

Ministers preach in their pulpits every Sunday that the religion and morality taught and practised by Jesus Christ was without a parallel or precursor because it was divinely inspired and unique to Jesus. None of these claims is well founded.

Christianity is not unique when compared with Essenism and, though the origin of the Essenes is still not certain, they existed in 150 BC, in the days of Jonathan Maccabaeus, thus pre-dating Christianity by some two hundred years at least. With the Pharisees and Sadducees they made up the three main Jewish sects written about by Josephus. There are differences between the Essenes and Christians but they have arisen because Christianity evolved beyond the point reached by the Essenes of the Scrolls and the classic writers.

Nevertheless so much remained the same that the identity of the two sects at root cannot be denied by rational people. Essenism was the same system in spirit and essence as the Judaean Christianity of the Jerusalem Church which therefore taught the doctrines and moral precepts of the Essenes. Inevitably Christianity growing in a gentile rather than a Jewish medium later came to differ from its parent.

Christian writers said quite clearly that Essenism and Christianity were the same religion, the former name being used at an earlier period. Eusebius, a standard ecclesiastical writer of the fourth century, asserts in his History of the Church:

Those ancient Therapeuts (Essenes) were Christians, and their ancient writings were our gospels.

A father of the church asserts the Essenes originated the Christian religion. Ask why then our modern day clerics vehemently deny it.

In Matthew 18:17, Jesus clearly says, “tell it to the church” before Christians claim there was a church. The Essenes, held assemblies and congregations, words translated as “church”, leaving us to infer that Jesus and his disciples were Essenes. Essenes had not only churches, but bishops, deacons, elders, priests, disciples, scriptures, gospels, epistles, psalms, hymns, mystery, allegory, and so on, long before Christianity. Christ and his apostles had nothing to originate, either with respect to doctrines, precepts, church polity, or ecclesiastical terms—all being established for them long before. The Essenes and Christians could not have existed at the same time as separate institutions—they were too similar. The latter must have emerged from the former.

Josephus says, the Essenes were scattered far and wide, and were in every city, being quite numerous in Judaea in his time, but he makes no reference to any sect or religious order by the title of Christian. Christianity not yet have been called by that name, or Josephus was still unaware of the change.

He and the other classic writers tell us Essenes had a high appreciation of the inspired law of God, an apparent difference from Christianity explained by the transfer of Essenism to gentiles. The highest aim of their lives was to become fit temples of the Holy Ghost (1 Corinthians 6:19), to perform cures especially spiritual cures and to be spiritually qualified as forerunners of the messiah. They strove to be like the angels of heaven. They taught the duty of mortifying the flesh and the lusts thereof. They avoided impure contact with the heathen and the world’s people and lived apart from the world, being in numbers about four thousand. There were no rich and poor or masters and servants amongst them. They lived peaceably with all men, until they became convinced that God wanted them to fight for His kingdom. Total silence was observed while eating. A solemn oath was required on becoming a member of the secret order, whereupon they scrupulously avoided oaths. Admission to the order required three things:

1. Love of God
2. Merciful justice to all Jews, avoidance of the wicked, and assistance to the righteous
3. Purity of character, which implied love of truth, hatred of falsehood, and strict observance of “the mysteries of godliness” to outsiders—heathens and publicans.

They endured suffering for righteousness’ sake, with rejoicings, and even sought it. Josephus says they regarded the body as a prison for the soul and desired the time to come to escape from it. In this Josephus was either wrong or was deliberately misleading or Christian editors had altered the original because the Essenes believed in bodily resurrection into God’s kingdom. However, the body was a purified uncorruptible body and evidently they believed the soul was alive somewhere until it could rejoin its body in the everlasting kingdom. They recognized eight different stages of spiritual growth and perfection:

1. Bodily purity
2. Celibacy
3. Spiritual purity
4. The suppression of anger and malice, and the cultivation of a meek, lowly spirit
5. The attainment of perfect holiness
6. Becoming fit temples for the Holy Ghost
7. The ability to heal physically but especially spiritually and raise the dead, meaning saving the lost sheep of the Jewish people from eternal death outside God’s kingdom
8. Becoming forerunners of the Messiah.

Finally, they took a solemn vow to exercise piety toward God and justice toward all men, to hate the wicked, assist the good to keep clear of theft and unrighteous gains, to conceal none of their mysteries of godliness from each other, or disclose them to others. They were to walk humbly with God, shun bad society, forgive their enemies, sacrifice their passions, and crucify the lusts of the flesh. They disregarded bodily suffering and even gloried in martyrdom, preaching and singing to God amid their sufferings. They wore their clothes until they became ragged. Their food consisted of bread and water, and wild roots and fruits of the palm tree. They enjoined their duty, not only of forgiving their enemies, but of seeking to benefit them, and of even blessing the destroyer who took life and property. Such was the religion, such the moral system, such the devout piety and such the practical lives of the Essenian Jews, a religious sect which flourished in Alexandria and Judaea before the birth of Christ and was plainly replaced in history by Christianity.

Clearly, Essenism and Christianity are strikingly alike in their essential features. The former system contains nearly every important doctrine and precept of the Christian religion. Ask why these two religions should be of such similar character. Ask why it should not be quite simply that Christianity is an outgrowth of Judaean Essenism. Indeed, ask why we are not driven to that conclusion. Both:

• are alike, and Essenism is much the older system
• religions are an outgrowth of Judaism
• were known and taught in Judaea and in Alexandria.

Neither Josephus living in Judaea nor Philo in Alexandria speak of Christianity, yet both describe a remarkably similar religion in doctrines and moral precepts which they call Essenism. The gospel writers, claiming to describe the events which led to the foundation of Christianity, tell us of two of the three main sects of Judaism, the one which they miss out being the Essenes. Yet they describe a sect which Josephus does not mention called the Nazarenes, the very sect which later became called the Christians.

Does this not suggest that Essenism was another name for Christianity but that it had not yet changed its name—an event which happened, not in Judaea so much as when the sect escaped into the Roman Empire at large? Gibbon in Decline and Fall thought so.

We are driven to the conclusion that Christianity was derived from Essenism. What then was the significant difference? It was that Christianity grew among gentiles while Jewish Christians remained Essenes. Tacitus in 104 AD is the first of the three hundred writers of that era that makes any mention of Christianity, Christ, or a Christian. This was a decade after Josephus’ last book. Until then the name Christianity had not yet been widely recognised as something different from the Jewish original. Around 100 AD the new name, Christianity, which had been coined a few decades earlier, came into widespread use to distinguish gentile Essenes from Jewish Essenes.

We still find Christians desperately denying the obvious:

The Essenes did not believe in the resurrection of the physical body but believed in a spiritual resurrection, and omit from their creed the Trinity and Incarnation doctrine, and therefore they could not have been the originators of the Christian religion.

Philo seemed to be expecting a messiah and he spoke of the incarnate word. As for the doctrine of the Trinity, we have the authority of Eusebius that they taught this doctrine too. So that it is not true that they did not recognise these two prime articles of the Christian faith, the Incarnation and Trinity doctrines.

Some modern Christians assert that the Essenes not only omitted to teach these doctrines, but that, on the other hand, they taught other doctrines not taught in the Christian New Testament. This is not unlikely. The Christian religion frequently changed its doctrines to fit the circumstances throughout its history. How this fits with the doctrine of an infallible word of God, is anybody’s guess but Christians have never been inquisitive types.

Christians followed in the tradition of Judaism, which changed even the name of its God from Elohim to Jehovah. Its leader and founder Abram was changed to Abraham, and his grandson and successor from Jacob to Israel. Jews most often changed their religions doctrines when they came in contact with nations teaching a different religion. They were inclined to imitate and borrow and thus effected important changes in their religion. For example, Israelites never had a doctrine of future punishment till after they were brought in contact with the Persians in Babylon who had long taught these doctrines. Even their national title was afterwards changed from Israelites to Jews.

The name of the Essenes had been changed previously from Hasidim to Essenes. Philo calls them Therapeutae, and Eusebins says the Therapentae were Christians. Doesn’t this settle the matter?

Essenes had their Exoteric and their Esoteric doctrines. The latter, which seems to have included the incarnation, atonement, trinity, and all the other standard eastern doctrines now included in the term Christianity, they never published to the world. Hence only their Exoteric doctrines have been noted. Christianity is merely a continuation of eastern beliefs as taught by the Essenian sect.

In summary, Christianity and the Essene sect have too many features in common for it to be chance.

• They both believe in baptism. Vermes tells us the Community Rule ordained that the initiate “shall be made clean by the humble submission of his soul to all the precepts of God” but only after “his flesh is sprinkled with purifying water and sanctified by cleansing water”.
• The earliest Christians “held all things common”—they were primitive communists. Yet the Community Rule states that all shall bring their “knowledge, powers and possessions” into the Community, that they shall “eat in common and pray in common” and that a new member’s property shall be “merged…to the Community”.
• The early church in Jerusalem was led by the twelve apostles—still twelve even after Judas had died showing that the apostles were not particular persons but positions to be filled when vacant—fourteen or possibly fifteen apostles are mentioned in the gospels—of whom Peter, James and John had special responsibility. The Community was led by a Council of 12 people, apparently with three priests having special responsibility.
• Both the Community and the first Christians were messianic—the Christians regarded Jesus as the Messiah. The Community had their “Teacher of Righteousness” with a similar history.
• Both communities also use the same phraseology. Jesus said, “blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth”, an exact expression of the Community’s beliefs about itself for they called themselves “the Poor” and “the Meek” and they were preparing themselves to inherit the earth when God’s kingdom on Earth was created. Many other instances can be quoted especially from Matthew which was the one closest in language to the Aramaic.
• Both communities originally cleaved rigidly to the Law of Moses and so, evidently did Jesus because he says in the Sermon on the Mount that he has not come to destroy the Law but to fulfil it and that “one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the Law till all things be accomplished”.
• If the confusion of the timing of the Last Supper in the Bible is anything to go by the calendar used by Jesus did not match the official Jewish one. The Community used a solar rather than the official lunar calendar which might have allowed Jesus and his disciples to have had their Passover meal a day earlier so that he was crucified before Passover started.
• Both communities had an identical ritual meal. The Christian one supposedly specially instituted by Jesus at the last supper, the Community one laid down in the Community Rule in which the priest shall “bless the first fruits of the bread and new wine” after which the Messiah, who is present in spirit, or the Nasi, who is really present, extends his hand over the bread that they might begin.
• Both communities referred to their leader as “Master”.
• Both communities held an important gathering at Pentecost.

New Testament scholars believed John was the last of the gospels written and was strongly influenced by Persian religion and Platonic philosophy. From the scrolls, however, some scholars now take a different view—John follows the tradition of the Essenes. John has the conflict of Light and Darkness and expressions like, “the light of life”, “children of light”, “walking in darkness”, “the spirit of truth” and “eternal life” all of which occur in the Community Rule. John has:

And all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.

The Community Rule has the following:

And by his knowledge everything has been brought into being. And everything that is, he established for his purpose; and apart from him nothing is done.

The scroll fragments prove to be messianic, make use of the same frequent scriptural quotations used in the New Testament books, have similar concepts of Righteousness, Piety, Truth, Justification, Works, the Poor, the Meek and use similar vocabulary. The Hebrew word “hesed” in the Qumran fragments is translated by traditional Qumran scholars as “Piety” but it can also be rendered as “Grace” which is the translation used in Paul’s epistles. Scroll words are Christian words.

A List of Common Features

1. The Essenes believed and taught it was their first duty to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, according to Philo.

Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all else shall be added.

Matthew 6:33; Luke 12:31

2. They abjured all amusements, all elegances, and all pleasures of the senses, according to Philo.

Love not the world and the things thereof.

1 John 2:15

3. They lay up nothing on earth, but fix their minds solely on heaven (the kingdom of God).

Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth.

Matthew 6:19

4. They, having laid aside all the anxieties of life and leaving society, make their residence in solitary wilds and in gardens, according to Philo.

They wander in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens, and in caves of the earth.

Hebrews 11:38

5. They neither buy nor sell among themselves, but give of what they have to him that wanteth, according to Josephus.

And parted them (their goods) to all men as every man had need.

Acts 2:45

6. They were wont to sell their possessions and their substance, and divide among all according as any one had need so that there was not one among them in want, even as it is related in the Acts of the Apostles, according to Eusebius.

For whoever, of Christ’s disciples, were owners of estates or houses, sold them, and brought the price thereof, and laid them at the apostles’ feet, and distribution was made as every one had need. So Philo relates things exactly similar of the Essenes.

Eusebius

Neither was their any among them that lacked, for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the price of the things that were sold.

Acts 4:34

7. They forsook father, mother, brothers and sisters, houses and lands, for their religion, according to Eusebius, quoting Philo.

Who has left houses, or brothers or sisters, or father or mother, or children, or lands, will have eternal life.

Mark 10:29

8. They being sometimes called monks was owing to their abstraction from the world (Eusebius).

They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

John 17:16

9. They were called Ascetics because of their rigid discipline, their prayers, fasting, self-mortification, as they made themselves eunuchs (that is, remained chaste).

There be eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake.

Matthew 19:12

10. They maintained a perfect community of goods, and an equality of external rank.

Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant.

Matthew 20:27

11. They had all things in common and appointed one of their number to manage the common bag.

And had all things in common.

Acts 2:44; 4:32

12. They detested all ornamental dress.

Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, and putting on of apparel.

1 Peter 3:3

13. They would call no man master.

Be not called Rabbi, for one is your Master.

Matthew 23:8

14. They said the Creator made all mankind equal.

God hath made of one blood all them that dwell upon the earth.

Acts 17:26

15. They renounced oaths, saying, He who cannot be believed with out swearing is condemned already.

Swear not at all.

Matthew 5:34

16. They would not eat anything which had blood in it, or meat which had been offered to idols. Their food was hyssop, and bread, and salt, and water their only drink.

That ye abstain from meat offered to idols, and from blood.

Acts 15:29

17. They took nothing with them, neither meat or drink, nor anything necessary for the wants of the body.

Take nothing for your journey, neither staves nor scrip, neither bread, neither money, neither have two coats apiece.

18. They expounded the literal sense of the Holy Scriptures by allegory.

Which things are an allegory.

Galatians 4:24

19. They abjured the pleasures of the body, not desiring mortal offspring, and they renounced marriage, believing it to be detrimental to a holy life.

It will be recollected that neither Jesus nor Paul ever married, and that they discouraged the marriage relation. Christ says, They that shall be counted worthy of that world and the resurrection neither marry nor are given in marriage. And Paul says, The unmarried careth for the things of the Lord.

1 Corinthians 7:32

20. They strove to disengage their minds entirely from the world.

If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

21. They provide not for future subsistence, devoting themselves to the Lord.

Take no thought for the morrow, what ye shall eat and drink, etc.

22. They were ashamed to give the body sustenance, Regarding it as a prison.

Who shall change our vile bodies?

Philippians 3:21

23. They spent nearly all their time in silent meditation and inward prayer.

Men ought always to pray.

Luke 18:1

Pray without ceasing.

1 Thessalonians 5:17

24. They vowed perpetual chastity and poverty, believing the poor were the Lord’s favorites.

Blessed be ye poor.

Luke 6:20

Hath not God chosen the poor?

James 2:5

25. They devoted themselves entirely to contemplation in divine things.

Mediate upon these (divine) things. Give thyself wholly to them

1 Timothy 4:15

26. They fasted often, sometimes tasting food but once in three or even six days.

Christ’s disciples were in fastings often.

2 Corinthians 11:27; 5:34

27. They offered no sacrifices, believing that a serious and devout soul was most acceptable.

There is no more offering for sin.

Hebrews 10:18

28. They believed in and practiced baptizing the dead.

Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead.

1 Corinthians 15:29

29. They gave a mystical sense to the Scriptures, disregarding the letter.

The letter killeth, but the spirit maketh alive.

1 Corinthians 3:6

30. They taught by metaphors, symbols, and parables.

Without a parable spake he not unto them.

Matthew 13:34

31. They had many mysteries in their religion which they were sworn to keep secret.

To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom. To them it is not given.

Matthew 13:11

Great is the mystery of godliness.

32. They had in their churches, bishops, elders, deacons, and priests.

Ordain elders in every church.

Acts 14:23

Deacons.

1 Timothy 3:1

33. They would often sing psalms when assembled together.

Teaching and admonishing one another in psalms.

Colossians 3:16

34. They healed and cured the minds and bodies of those who joined them.

Healing all manner of sickness.

Matthew 4:23

35. They practiced certain ceremonial purifications by water.

The accomplishment of the days of purification.

Acts 21:26

36. They assembled at the Sabbath festivals clothed in white garments.

Shall be clothed in white garments.

Revelation 3:4

37. They disbelieved in the resurrection of the external body.

It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

1 Corinthians 15:44

38. They were the only sort of men who lived without money and without women, according to Pliny.

The love of money is the root of all evil.

1 Timothy 6:10

Christ’s disciples travelled without money or scrip and eschew the lusts of the flesh.

39. They practiced the extremist charity to the poor.

Bestow all thy goods to feed the poor.

1 Corinthians 13:3

40. They were skillful in interpreting dreams, and in foretelling future events.

Your sons and daughters shall prophesy and your old men shall dream dreams.

Acts 2:17

41. They believed in a paradise, and in a place of never-ending lamentations.

Life everlasting.

Gal 8:8

Weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 13:42

42. They affirmed, says Josephus, that God foreordained all the events of human life.

Foreordained before the foundation of the world.

1 Peter

43. They believed in Mediators between God and the souls of men.

One Mediator between God and men.1 

Timothy 2:5

44. They practiced the pantomimic representation of the death, burial, and resurrection of God —Christ the Spirit.

With respect to the death, burial, resurrection of Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:4

45. They inculcated the forgiveness of injuries.

Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.

Luke 23:34

46. They disapproved of war between brothers.

If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight.

John 18:36

47. They inculcated obedience to magistrates, and to the civil authorities.

Obey them which have the rule over you.

Hebrews 13:17; 26:65

48. They retired within themselves to receive interior revelations of divine truth.

Every one of you hath a revelation.

1 Corinthians 14:26

49. They were scrupulous in speaking the truth.

Speaking all things in truth.

2 Corinthians 7:14

50. They perform many wonderful miracles.

Many texts teach us that Christ and his apostles did the same.

51. They put all members on the same level, forbidding the exercise of authority of one over another.

Christ did the same.

Matthew 20:25; Mk 9:35

52. They laid the greatest stress on being meek and lowly in spirit.

Matthew 5:5; 9:28

53. They commended the poor in spirit, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, and the merciful, and the pure in heart.

For proof that Christ did the same, see Matthew.

54. They commended the peacemakers.

Blessed are the peacemakers.

55. They performed cures, as signs and proof of their faith.

Christ’s disciples were to cast out devils, heal the sick, and raise the dead as signs and proof of their faith.

Mark 16:17

56. They sacrificed the lusts of the flesh to gain spiritual happiness.

You abstain from fleshly lusts.

1 Peter 2:11

57. They broke bread as a ritual.

He (Jesus) took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it.

Luke 22:19

58. They enjoined the loving of enemies, according to Philo.

So did Christ say, Love your enemies.

59. They enjoined, Doing unto others as you would have them do unto you.

The Confucian Golden Rule, as taught by Christ.

Scroll Language in Early Christian Documents

We noted above that Jewish scholar, Geza Vermes, finds no parallels in traditional Jewish literature with the Qumran “Rules” but several with early Christian literature. The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs is a non-canonical work which in its philosophy and expression seems to be a bridge between Christianity and the community of Qumran. Dr R H Charles, who translated the Testaments and dated them as early as 100 BC, thought there were many echoes of the Testaments in the gospels and even more in the Epistles of Paul—over 70 words are common to Paul’s writings and the Testaments which do not appear anywhere else in the New Testament. The words “meekness” and “mercy” occur often.

At one point the Testaments speak of “a man who reneweth the Law in the power of the Most High” being called a deceiver and “not knowing his dignity” slain thereby “taking innocent blood through wickedness”. It goes on to say…

…your holy places shall be laid waste even to the ground because of him. And ye shall have no place that is clean, but ye shall be among the gentiles a curse and a dispersion until he shall again visit you and in pity shall receive you through faith and water.

These sound like references to Jesus, the destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersion of the Jews in 70 AD but it could perhaps refer to the Teacher of Righteousness and the capture of Jerusalem by Pompey in 63 BC. The Testaments repeatedly uses the Greek word “Christos” which, of course, could refer to Jesus but equally could simply mean messiah. Particularly impressive is the similarity of Matthew 25:35-36 with a passage from the Testament of Joseph. The latter has lines like:

I was beset by hunger and the Lord himself nourished me. I was sick and the Lord visited me. I was alone and God comforted me…

While Matthew has:

I was hungry and you gave me food. I was sick and you visited me. I was a stranger and you welcomed me…

Matthew 25:34f

Passages of the Sermon on the Mount are also anticipated. It promises that the poor shall be made rich. The reader is urged to love God and “to love your neighbour as thyself”. This doctrine seems to have become popular around that time. It appears in the Book of Jubilees and in the Zadokite documents—The Damascus Document has:

They shall love each man his brother as himself. They shall succour the poor, the sick and the needy.

And it was was offered by Rabbi Hillel, when challenged to teach the Torah as succinctly as possible, in the form:

What is hateful to thee, do not unto thy fellow. This is the whole Law.

Another early work was the Two Ways which also was not included in the canon and subsequently was lost. Later scholars found a Greek manuscript called the Didache or the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. It began “There are two ways…” and appeared to be the missing document. It was manifestly a Christian work, but portions of a Latin version were also found with scarcely any Christian references. Though Jesus is mentioned there is no indication of atonement indicating its early date. Besides doctrines like the Way of Light and the Way of Darkness and the sacrament of baptism, it refers to the sacred meal of bread and wine and looks very much like a Christian adaptation of an early, presumably Essene, work.

Interestingly, a work that was regarded as canonical in the first few centuries of the Christian era is the Shepherd of Hermas where a Son of God features but is never referred to as Jesus or Christ. Furthermore, the church spoken of by Hermas has a long history before the Son of God was sent to purify it and to recall it to God’s commandments—it was not founded by the Son of God. Hermas also mentions the Didache and the Two Ways confirming our deduction above. Atonement was by baptism. This sounds very much like a Nazarene or an Essene text.

The conclusion from the body of evidence presented here must be that the Nazarenes and the Essenes had almost everything in common. Certainly, there are differences, particularly those indicated in Christian documents. Some are differences that are phony because they have been introduced by the gentile Church. The others are genuine differences because the Nazarenes were a branch of the Essenes. Mainly, these all come to a relaxation of the exclusiveness of the Essenes. Yet even this might have been a part of the Essene philosophy in the sense that it allowed for the recruitment of the Simple of Ephraim to the Elect as described in the Nahum Peshar. When the diviners considered the time right a Nasi was sent out into the community to test the mettle of the Simple. This safeguarded the Essenes as a whole while allowing God to show whether the auguries were correct or not. John the Baptist was one such, Jesus was his heir. Jesus’s success led him to think God was with him but then he failed in the north. He concluded he had not been positive enough and captured Zion itself. He was mistaken or forsaken—but his effort did not pass unnoticed.

The word Christianity was not used until about 50 AD in Antioch (Acts 11:26). Subsequent to then, and during the earlier move from Palestine, the original movement mutated into the Christianity we now know, but the foundations in the manuscripts of Qumran seem clear. The change was from a narrowly Jewish, nationalistic, xenophobic and apocalyptic sect attached to the Mosaic Law, to one which was cosmopolitan, free of legal obligations, dependent only on faith and pacifist. It was not a simple change and required the talents of an exceptional man to effect it. But in the wider Empire the soil was fertile and ready to yield to a vigorous plant. The Nazarene movement became Paulinised.

Christian Language in the Scrolls

Some Scroll fragments are of hymns to the poor. The Qumran literature frequently refers to the Community as the Poor, the Meek and the Downtrodden, words all used frequently in the gospels. Like English, Hebrew has different words for them but in the scrolls they seem to be used interchangeably. One of the Community’s names for itself was the “Poor Ones”. The Star prophecy of the War Scroll reads that:

by the hand of the Poor Ones whom you have redeemed by Your Power and the peace of Your Mighty Wonders… by the hand of the Poor Ones and those bent in the dust, You will deliver the enemies of all the lands and humble the mighty of the peoples to bring upon their heads the reward of the Wicked and justify the Judgement of Your Truth on all the sons of men…

Can it be coincidence that the Poor Ones was a name of the followers of James in the Jerusalem Church (Gal 2:10 and Jas 2:3-5)? Paul claims the only condition James imposed upon him in his missions to the gentiles was to remember the poor. It sounds patronising, as though James is reminding Paul that motherhood is a good thing. In fact, he is reminding him to send money for the Poor Ones in Jerusalem, the Nazarenes who still had a lot of widows to support.

In his Ecclesiastical History written in the fourth century, Eusebius describes a deviant Christian sect, the Ebionites, who held the brother of Jesus, James the Just, in special regard. They refused to accept that Jesus was divine but thought of him as an ordinary man, naturally conceived and notable for his righteousness but having no divine aspects. They did not accept that faith was sufficient to save and were therefore careful to observe the Law in addition—”…they evinced great zeal to observe the literal sense of the Law”. They had no regard at all for Paul. Eusebius thought their name came from their “low and mean opinions” of Christ—Ebionites comes from the word Ebionim meaning the Poor Ones. They could have been none other than the remnants of the Jerusalem Church of James the Just perpetuating the name used by the Nazarenes, the Essenes and James himself.

The Scrolls also use the same curious expression that Jesus the Nazarene uses in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:3) but has never before been found in any ancient work and was long thought to have been a mistranslation—”the poor in spirit”. It appears in the War Scroll and in the Community Rule.

Other Scroll fragments are replete with Christian imagery. One focuses on the Righteous, the Pious, the Meek and the Faithful, all synonyms for those who follow the Way of the Community. Echoing the Damascus Document, it says God visits the Meek and calls the Righteous by name. God’s spirit hovers over the Meek announcing to them “Glad tidings” and He makes the Root of Planting grow. The messiah “shepherds the holy ones” and he commands the “heavens and the earth” including the “Heavenly Host”. The fragments contain references to “making the blind see”, “raising up the downtrodden” and “resurrecting the dead”. The Pious (Hasidim) are glorified on the Throne of the Eternal Kingdom. In some of the fragments the bones passage of Ezekiel is used to promise resurrection for the Pious and the Righteous.

Jesus taught “love thy neighbour as thyself” (cf James 2:8) and “love the Lord thy God”. Josephus in Antiquities says John the Baptist taught “Righteousness toward men and Piety towards God” and also notes this as Essene practice. Scroll fragments tell us the Community’s notion of Piety meant “loving God’s name”. Thus Essene teaching and the teaching of Jesus amount to the same thing. Both the Epistle of James and the Qumran texts associate piety with poorness and meekness and they and the gospels declare that wealth is not compatible with righteousness.

Isaiah 11.2 has:

The Spirit of the Lord would settle on him

the origin of the imagery at Jesus’s baptism. The scrolls have the same but expressed even more explicitly:

The Holy Spirit settled on His Messiah.

Here the Spirit of the Lord becomes the Holy Spirit and the recipient of it, His Messiah, is explicit.

Other fragmentary texts convey to us that “Perfection” language is important to the Community. Thus the scrolls and fragments have “the Perfect of the Way”, “Perfection of the Way”, “walking in Perfection” and “perfect Holiness” (cf 2 Corinthians 7:1). This may be compared with the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:48):

Be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect.

”The Way” terminology also illustrated in these expressions and very common in the scrolls is similarly echoed in Acts (see 16:16, 18:24f, 24:22). The Epistle of Barnabas is a second century Christian but non-canonical work full of Qumran expressions such as The Way of Light, the Way of Darkness, the Way of Holiness, the Way of Death, keeping the Law, Righteousness, the Last Judgement, Uncircumcised Heart, Dark Lord and such.

Paul is very fond of Essene words. 2 Corinthians 6:14-15 is purely Essene even to the use of the word Belial, the Essene word for Satan, the only place it ever appears in the New Testament.

The “many” or the “majority” are common New Testament expressions usually for groups of Christians. An equivalent expression occurs in the sectarian documents and is often translated “congregation”. Equally the Essene documents refer to people in some sort of official role translated as “overseer” or “guardian”. It is the word which was rendered into Greek as “bishop”.

In Daniel 2:44 (possibly related to Luke 21:20) Daniel prophesies that God will set up a kingdom which will last forever. Qumran scroll fragments speak of an Eternal Kingdom ruled by a messiah, the Son of God or the Son of the Most High, whose “rule will be an eternal rule”. Compare this with Luke 1:32-35:

He will be great and will be called the son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give him the Throne of his father David… for that reason the Holy offspring will be called the Son of God.

We have seen that, in the bible, Son of God is a designation of a great king like David (Ps 2:7, Ps 89:27 and 2 Sam 7:14 and also Heb 1:5 and 5:5). From some scroll fragments, we find the Eternal Kingdom will be an earthly one and that the Son of God will judge the earth and bring peace by subjugating all other kingdom’s and peoples. The people of God will make “everyone to rest from the sword” so there will be peace on earth. The “sword of God” is a phrase met in the War Scroll. This imagery recalls that of Matthew,

I come not to send peace but a sword.

Besides the sword of war there is also the sword of judgement but here its contrast with peace makes the meaning clear. The sword of war is necessary to initiate the kingdom which then brings the sword of judgement and finally peace.

In parts of another document, there is a set of beatitudes like those of the Sermon on the Mount. Indeed, the Sermon on the Mount is remarkably reminiscent of Qumran. Some similarities have been noted. Remarkable also is the set of assertions in the Sermon on the Mount introduced by “You have heard it was said—” and linked to their rebuttal by “…but I say to you…” One Qumran document, apparently a letter, lays out a set of 22 false interpretations of Law and their rebuttal. The interesting thing about it is that it uses almost the same language as the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. A series of assertions are prefaced “You say…” and are answered by arguments preceded by “But we think—” in essence the same as Jesus does on the Mount.

We have seen the concern of the community for truth. Jesus teaches that oaths are unnecessary because no one should ever tell lies (Matthew 5:33-37). The Community Rule calls the group “the community of Truth”. They rail against “The lie”. Josephus says they refused to swear on oath and were excused from taking the oath of loyalty to Herod. The Sermon on the Mount includes the duty to turn the other cheek towards an aggressor and this too is an Essene precept, as we have noted.

These are not cranky or irreligious observations. James C Vanderkam, a Catholic scholar, has seen these similarities too in The Dead Sea Scrolls Today, where he writes almost identically:

Another section that offers several Qumran-sounding words and phrases is the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. One of these expressions is “poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:3; War Rule 14.7). Among the attitudes encouraged in the Sermon are avoiding the use of oaths (5:33-37), which, according to Josephus in Antiquities was an Essene trait, and the duty to turn the other cheek (5:38-39, Manual of Discipline 10.17-18). Moreover, the antitheses in the Sermon (“you have heard that it was said… but I say to you…”) remind one of the way in which the still-unpublished legal “letter” (Some of the Works of the Torah = 4QMMT) introduces disagreements between the sect and its opponents—“you know… we think/say”.

Jesus and the Righteous One

Jesus was a highly repected man whose prophecy that the kingdom of God was nigh kept his followers agog and expectant for many years after his death. As the immediacy of the kingdom receded, a corpus of teaching and narrative lore was needed to retain the interest of those who were still loyal and to attract new converts. Where did this all come from? Jesus the Nazarene has remarkable similarities with the Essene Teacher of Righteousness. Did some confusion arise between the two?

The Teacher of Righteousness is referred to in the Manual of Discipline and the Damascus Document. In the Manual of Discipline the Teacher is associated with “the time of the preparation of the Way in the wilderness” by “the teaching of the miraculous Mysteries” (cf Isa 40:1-3 which is used in the description of John the Baptist). He is commanded to be “zealous for the Law and the day of vengeance” conjuring up explicit images of the Zealots. In John 2:27, Jesus has “zeal” and, in Acts 21:20, James’ followers are “zealous for the Law”. In the Damascus Document, the Teacher is to “walk in the Laws” until the “standing up of the messiah of Aaron and Israel in the Last days” where standing up can be synonymous with coming, return, rising or even resurrection. In the Damascus Document the messiah (singular) of Aaron and Israel will (or did) “atone for their sins” (cf Hebrews).

There is a reference in a scroll fragment to the “putting to death of the Righteous One”. Compare this with the passage in James 5:6 which says:

Ye condemned the Righteous One. Ye put him to death though he doth not resist you.

This fragment echoes other themes of, and the style of, James’s epistle calling for patience and restraint. Even the language including the use of words like tongue and vipers are closely similar. Indeed, the “tongue” imagery of James 3 is used to attack lying adversaries and the tongue is described by the identical, though common enough, expression, “the stumbling block”, both in James and in the scroll fragment. This is beyond coincidence. In James 2:20-24 the “Man of Emptiness” knows not that “a man was justified by his works” and “faith without works is dead”, a plain contradiction of Paul’s message that faith alone brings salvation, now considered to be the essence of Christianity. James is an Essene document only slightly edited by a Christian.

Other fragments also suggest that the Nasi, the Prince, of the Community was put to death, though it could be interpreted that the Nasi put someone else to death. The context is that of that revered quotation from Isaiah—”a rod shall rise from the stem of Jesse and a branch shall grow from his roots” referring to the Messiah. Elsewhere a messianic figure will overthrow the evil generation. This fragment possibly refers to a crucifixion. Though the word is not complete the meaning seems to be confirmed by a subsequent command “Let not the nail touch him”. If these fragments are not referring to Jesus but to a leader of the Essenes who was crucified on an earlier occasion the whole of the gospel story is cast into doubt as a rehash of the earlier event.

The Scroll scholar, A Dupont-Sommer, has summarised the remarkable similarities between the Teacher of Righteousness and Jesus Christ.

• Both were martyred prophets subsequently revered by their followers as the Suffering Servant.
• Both preached penitence, poverty, humility, love of one’s neighbour and chastity.
• Both prescribed observance of the Law of Moses.
• Both were the Elect of God and the Messiah, the redeemer of the world.
• Both were opposed by the priests, the Sadducees; were condemned and murdered.
• Both seemed to found a church whose believers thought he would return in glory, whose central rite was a sacred meal presided over by priests and whose members held goods in common and believed in brotherhood.
• Both will be the supreme judge at the Last Judgement.
• Both apparently predicted the fall of Jerusalem.

Did the Essene Teacher of Righteousness who died over a hundred years earlier become the model for Jesus Christ after the crucifixion of Barabbas?

Dupont-Sommer examines the second part of Isaiah, often termed Deutero-Isaiah, which was long believed to have been written during the Babylonian exile 200 years after the first part. Here appears the account of the “Suffering Servant despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows” who has “been wounded for our transgressions” yet by whose “stripes we are healed”. Christians have taken this as prophesying Jesus, but Dupont-Sommer argues that it is a direct reference to the Teacher of Righteousness added to Isaiah as late as the intertestamental period. Dupont-Sommer urges a re-examination of other Old Testament passages in Daniel, Zechariah, Psalms and the Songs of the Servant of Yahweh in Deutero-Isaiah believing them to be all possibly inserted references to the Teacher of Righteousness.

If this is true it is easy to see how the followers of Barabbas transformed him into a reflection of the Teacher of Righteousness after his crucifixion.

Epilogue

Theodor H Gaster, one of the original editors of the Dead Sea Scrolls offers us this warning:

In order to get this whole question into the right perspective, it should be observed that just as many ideas and phrases in the Dead Sea Scrolls as can be paralleled from the New Testament can be paralleled equally well from the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament—that is, from the non-canonical Jewish “scriptures” that were circulating between 200 BC and 100 AD—and from the earlier strata of the Talmud. Moreover, many of them find place also in the ancient doctrines of such sects as the Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran and the Samaritans, so that even if they have not come down to us through Jewish channels, we can still recognize in them part of the common Palestinian thought and folklore of the time. Accordingly, to draw from the New Testament parallels any inference of special relationship is misleading.

Now Gaster might have been a leading scroll scholar but this warning is baloney. He is trying to do what Jews and Christians usually do—deflect attention from the huge similarities between the Essenes and the Nazarenes, that are unquestionable for any objective viewer. He is hoping to give the impression that there are no special common features between the Essenes and the Nazarenes, by suggesting that these features were common everywhere, so the Christians were no different from the rest and had nothing unusual in common with the Essenes.

Many particular examples have been given here and there are more. If we were to take Gaster literally, the Jews of the time were much more Christian than Jewish, and modern Judaism is not Judaism. If that is indeed the case—and it might be—the conclusion must be that the Essenes were much more typical of the Judaism of the time than the Rabbis have subsequently cared to admit, and they were instrumental in spinning off much of the Apocrypha, Pseudepigraphy, and the beliefs of the Mandaeans, Samaritans and the early Talmudists. It is far from impossible that much of this is true.

The Essenes had a much greater influence on the world than has ever been acknowledged because they were forced to spallate into many factions that went under different names and evolved on different routes until their common origins were lost, the original sect having gone extinct. Gaster’s warning actually highlights the remarkable truth. The Essenes made an astonishing impact on the world, and they were the direct inheritors of the religion given to the Jews by the Persians in the fifth century BC!

See also: Jesus Christ and the Essenes: Similarities and Differences

Skeptical Resources—Internet infidels | Jesus Never Existed | Steven Carr’s Website | Christianism | Early Christian Writings | God is Imaginary | “Religion Detoxification” | Our Judaio-Christian Heritage | Archaeoastronomy | No Deity | No Beliefs | Evil Bible | Bible God | ex-Christians | Jesus Police | Islamic Faith Freedom | Atheist Experience | American Atheists | Jovial Atheist | Askwhy! books
Other Resources—Early Christian Docs | Resources for Study | Traditional Bible-History | Traditional Bible World History | Traditional Bible History | about.com biblical history | Apologetics web sites | Advent Ch Fathers | Orion center links | Wikipedia | Traditional Jewish History