Discussion of when DSS ToR lived on basis of 4Q171; what archaeologists should know

Subject:	Discussion of when DSS ToR lived on basis of 4Q171; what archaeologists should know
Date:	Sun, 10 Jan 2010 12:30:48 -0800 (PST)

On Jan 5, 2:42 pm, theologynut
wrote:
>...
> The beliefs of theEsseneswere 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.
> DisownedEsseneswere 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 theEssenesat 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 andEssenesdespaired 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.

"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."

Please see -

The pesher on Psalms, 4Q171
http://www.pesherofchrist.infinitesoulutions.com/index_pesher_on_Psalms.html

"This is the famous one which can be shown to have turned the tide for
carbondating. As has been argued in 'Carbondating issues', it is proof
that the Teacher of Righteousness was still alive on the 1st century
AD. He is still living at the time of writing, and is the subject of
the writer's distress. According to the 1995 Tucson carbondating test,
the material on which it was written was not manufactured until AD
29-81, and it is not a copy of an earlier work, for all the pesharim
are originals."

David Christainsen
Newton, Mass. USA