Nym-shift from Crunch to Meteorologist; What archaeologists should know about Essenes, be they at Qumran or not

Subject:	Nym-shift from Crunch to Meteorologist; What archaeologists should know about Essenes, be they at Qumran or not
Date:	Sat, 9 Jan 2010 11:05:38 -0800 (PST)

On Jan 5, 2:42 pm, theologynut
wrote:
> On Jan 5, 7:44 am, Weland wrote:
>...
> The beliefs of the Essenes were diametrically opposite to
> Christianity, they would never have had truck with the Christian
> relaxation of kosher and circumcision statutes--they were uber-Jews
> who could not say the divine name aloud, spit, or even defecate on the
> Sabbath. It took years of instruction and giving up your personal
> wealth to be initiated and even then you could fall afoul of the
> community for the slightest infraction and be disowned. Disowned
> Essenes were in danger of starvation. Their sacred meal of wine and
> bread seems reminiscent of the Lord's supper and their mikvaoh or
> purification basins seem to parallel the Christian rite of baptism,
> but water-purification was practised by the Essenes at intervals
> instead of only once. The Teacher of Righteousness was thought to be
> an Essene named Jonathan ca. 150 BCE, who ran afoul of a high priest
> named Janneus and was executed. Most Essene literature predates
> Christianity and emphasizes purity and a righteous priesthood--
> Aaronite (Zadokite) rather than Hasmonean. They believed that temple
> sacrifice had been defiled by usurpers and retired to the Qumran
> wilderness to wait out the final battle between the Sons of Light and
> the Sons of Darkness. They were apocalyptic like many early
> Christians, but most scholars take the phrase Sons of Darkness to
> denote the Romans. Other scholars posit that John the Baptist might
> have been a renegade Essene who practised a one-time-is-sufficient
> baptism for the forgiveness of sins rather than for physical
> purification. Both Christians and Essenes despaired over the temple
> priesthood and sought to establish other forms of worship in
> replacement. After the fall of the temple, sacrificial Judaism itself
> reconfigured into rabbinical Judaism. The Essene, however, were
> pretty much annihilated. None of the Dead Sea Scrolls refer to Jesus
> or the Christians although some of their phraseology was similar to
> that of the New Testament writers.

Please study entire Thiering article in close detail
and comment fully.

Caution - please note carefully Dr. Thiering's references
to Essenes and Qumran. Then consult appropriately
the index to her articles for relevant terms etc. -

Index BT
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/qumran_origin/message/3088

-----

"Blind men groping for the Way"
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/qumran_origin/message/3122

Extract -
When John the Baptist came to maturity in AD 26, gaining the apparent
support of Agrippa, he believed he saw his opportunity of restoring
the Zadokites, with himself as the new Michael- Melchizedek. The
Messiah of Israel his subordinate would be the descendant of the
Davids. They would restore the temple and the country to its former
glory. John saw that some adaptation of Zadokite tradition was
necessary, and his broader interpretation was expressed through his
new name and title, John I. He reformed a moral loosening that had
developed, emphasising the =91righteousness=92 (zedek) element in the name
Melchizedek, so he was called the Teacher of Righteousness. Since he
upheld celibate Gentiles, "John came to you in the Way of
Righteousness" (Mt 21:32).

David Christainsen
Newton, Mass. USA