The very thing which is now called the Christian religion existed among the ancients also, nor was it wanting from the inception of the human race until the coming of Christ in the flesh, at which point the true religion which was already in existence began to be called Christian.

S Augustine, Retractationes 1:12:3

From Hugh

Authors of Books on Essenes

Thursday, 01 January 2004

I wonder if you are in a position to help me with a problem which I have been trying unsuccessfully to solve. Back in the 70s I read a fascinating series of articles in the German magazine called Stern. It claimed to be the first instalments of documentary evidence that Jesus was an Essene monk. It was authored by a German Aramaic scholar, and I clearly remember the photos of his Semitic features peering over half-glasses—but I cannot remember his name. The mag gave the impression that he had broken ranks and had gone to press without the blessing of his superiors, but that he had been engaged on the Scrolls since the very beginning. Among the claims he made were:- that the Essenes called themselves “the Poor in Spirit”; that they referred to themselves as “Messengers of Jehovah”, and that the Arch-Messenger of Qumran was called Gabriel; that the “end days” were envisaged as being imminent and dependent upon weaponry and converts to the cause of “the Light” to rid Judea of the Kittim. I have tried to gain access to the Stern archives, but in vain, so I wonder if you can put a name to the author in question. I believe there was a book, but its title escapes me.

I cannot guess who it might have been among German scholars, but it sounds, from the description, that it might have been the British, Hungarian born, scholar Geza Vermes, or perhaps it was the French scholar, Andre Dupont-Sommer. Another English scholar who wrote a lot at the time is John Allegro, though the description does not sound like him. All of these wrote books that were on this subject, and they should be easy to find. You might find in them a reference to the German scholar you mean, but the ground covered would be much the same anyway.

Grateful for your help, Mike. I have been trawling the net for the name of the author involved and it jumped out at me after a couple of hours’ search. Emanuel Tov. I think I’ll be able to retrieve the text—at a hefty price.

Yes, Tov has a good website, and I did not know he was German. The original British iconoclast was John Marco Allegro who wrote The Dead Sea Scrolls in 1956, and got villified by his colleagues. He was one of the original investigators, working at the time for Manchester University, and was involved in cutting open the Copper Scroll. The book mentioned was published as a Penguin paperback, and was popular enough here to be still readily found in second hand bookshops. Penguins are published in Oz and you might be able to find it. It should also be available from a good library. Another good book at the time was The Scrolls from the Dead Sea by Edmund Wilson. Wilson was not an expert but a journalist. The book was written first in 1955, but I have a Fontana Fount paperback issued in 1985 of a new edition published in 1971 and called The Dead Sea Scrolls 1947-1967. These are also published in Oz, so again you might be able to get a copy. More recently (1991) Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls Deception, criticising the 50 years it had taken for these ’scholars’ to do their work (except Allegro). Geza Vermes, whom I mentioned last time has written The Dead Sea Scrolls in English, a good translation with a long introductory commentary. This is still in print also by Penguin, but does not particularly rock any boats.

Anyway, I hope that with a bit of luck, finding any of these will save you a few dollars!