Customer Reviews

The Prophet of the Dead Sea Scrolls: The Essenes and the Early Christians-One and the Same Holy People. Their Seven Devout Practices

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This book is an eye-opener for anyone who considers him or herself a Christian. It shows how the early Church sprang from the sect Jesus was raised in, the Essenes, who had prepared for generations for His coming. As St. Augustine wrote, "what is now called the Christian religion existed even among the ancients, and was not lacking from the beginning of the human race until Christ came."
As a Christian one has to feel a pang of conscience to read how this unique Essene community was morally and spiritually so far ahead of us, even before Christ's mission. Indeed, their way of life would be the perfect prescription for today. Its exemplary humanity, non-violence, sharing of wealth, love of freedom, respect for womankind, kindness to animals, and the modesty of their demands on ecology and society, puts modern thinking in an atavistic shade by comparison. Yet, these idealists were able to maintain a large community for centuries, while surrounded by a world of warfare and slavery.
The author's unorthodox findings are carefully buttressed by solid research from the Dead Sea Scrolls, classical authors like Pliny and Philo, and early Church writers. He also cites from chapters of the Bible with an Essene perspective, such as the books of Isaiah and of James, brother of Jesus.
As the "Jews of conscience" of their times - like Jeremiah, who had cried out against "the false pen of the scribes" - the Essenes condemned the inhumane parts of the Old Testament. They had kept the true law, passed down by a chain of "Teachers of Righteousness," culminating in the mission of Jesus.
The author shows how the first New Testament was an Essene text, which the temptations of power and ambition corrupted in the following generations. Inevitable, perhaps, once the decision had been made to create a mass movement. Blind faith replaced the Essene standard of practical knowledge and deeds.

The name Essene is a Greek spelling of Hasidim, the mystics of Judaism. (They were - or are? - also known as the Meek, the Poor, the Worthy, the People of the Way, Gnostics or Knowers, Nazarenes, the Sons of Peace, and by many other names.) "Peace be upon you" was their greeting.
The great practical value this book offers today is a touchstone to rediscover real Christianity, and help distinguish the truth or essence of every religion.

This is the only book on the Essenes in which I have found so much information, written so clearly.

This book makes perfect sense and I couldn't put it down. The pieces especially fit together given political Roman emperor Constantine's history as murderer of his wife and son, a blood-thirsty invader and conquerer of nations, who burned +100 biblical books, omitted parts and changed parts of others to create what people know today as the King James Version, essentially telling "Christians" (the earliest of Christ's pupils, the Essenes, never called themselves this) what they would and wouldn't believe about God and God's nature. Yeshua was an animal liberator, scientist, herbal healer and strict vegetarian: a true teacher of peace whose teachings were radically different than the Pharisees and Sadduccees way, whose customs of religion included animal sacrifice, treating women and animals as property and a lower hierarchy, and not living at one with nature. Read it! It will change your life forever!!

It was a good description of the sect of the scrolls. The author suggests that the Essenes were the people who kept the scriptures that Jesus read and fulfilled. There was plenty to think about after reading this work. I recommend it

Upton Clary Ewing's theory is that the Essene Teacher was an imaginary messiah, a dream that the historical Jesus fulfills. In his mind, the theory saves Christianity from the hypothesis that Jesus was not a historical figure. Ewing developed his ideas at a time when the Dead Sea Scrolls had shown many similarities between Essene and nascent Christianity. It was also the time when scholar Dupont-Sommer announced that Jesus was an astonishing reincarnation of the Teacher (although with many differences). Still others, in the line of J Allegro, considered that the Gospels were the prophetic books of the Teacher disguised as Jesus. Ewing's theory came as an answer to support fundamental Christian beliefs.
Can we still credit his view that the Teacher was no more than an imaginary creation?
We don't know much about the Teacher, only attested by sectarian texts. There are no contemporary (105-65 BC) texts written by outside observers to attest historicity. Well known first century AD writers refer to him as the Legislator of the Law and founder of the Essene scroll community.
The Teacher and Jesus are at least here on par.
However, the pages by Philo and Josephus on the Essene and their ways of life are very structured and documented, not just a few notes slipped into unrelated verses as we find about Jesus in Antiquities, Suetonius and Tacitus.
Very few people would support today that the Teacher was not a real person.

In recent years, a lot of rubbish has been written attempting to link Jesus to the Essenes. This book is a prime example of that rubbish. Efforts to link Jesus to the Essenes are almost entirely based upon speculation and wishful thinking. Not only do these books create unsubstantiated links between Jesus and the Essenes, they present a false, New Age caricature of the Essenes themselves. The Essenes were a strict, ascetic Jewish cult, steeped in the Old Testament and their own apocalyptic, sectarian writings. Few, if any, modern people could reasonably expect to identify sympathetically with their worldview.

But, yes, it's POSSIBLE that Jesus may have had contact with the Essenes, and may have drawn some of his followers from that group; he may even have lived with the Essenes for some time. But there is no firm evidence to support any of these claims. Legitimate authorities such as the Benedictine archaelogist Bargil Pixner have speculated that Jesus had contact with urban Essenes living in Jerusalem, and these Essenes may have provided him with the room for the Last Supper. Speculation is fine, even necessary, not to mention fun; but we must not confuse speculation with fact.