Milwaukee museum produces dead sea scrolls exhibit

Subject:	Milwaukee museum produces dead sea scrolls exhibit
Date:	Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:27:57 -0800 (PST)

http://www.wkbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=3D11856727

"The 2,000-year-old documents were found in caves near the Dead Sea
between 1947 and 1956. They are often cited as sources on the
formation of Christianity."

Why?

For the answer I quote theologynut's post
of Jan 7, 2010 but add some corrections -

> Second-temple apocalyptic is the label for the form of Judaism from
> which both Essenes and Christians sprang. Essenes relied more heavily
> upon Hezekiah and Jeremiah; Christians upon Daniel and Isaiah.

Did Christians rely more heavily upon Daniel
than Essenes?:

Two hundred years
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/qumran_origin/message/2830

"During the three years of the desolation of the temple, from 168 =96
165 BC, [the hopes of the Hasidim-Essenes] were again raised, and they
expressed them in the book of Daniel, a production of solarists using
the 490 year chronology. They were so confident that they revised the
date of creation, in order to put the 8th =91week=92 for the Restoration
in their own time (Dan 9:24-27). The Book of Jubilees, another of
their productions, backed up their revision. This book is recommended
in CD 16:3-5.

Dan 12:2 shows that they believed in resurrection, the belief that is
found in 4Q521. This was a belief of Pharisees, distinguishing them
from the party of Sadducees that was emerging at this time. In 1 Macc
7: 12-18 it is recorded that the Hasideans sought an alliance with
Alcimus, the hellenising high priest of 162-159 BC. They did so on the
grounds that he was =91a true priest of the line of Aaron=92. He swore an
alliance with them but then fell out with them, putting sixty of them
to death in one day. One of the reasons would be that Alcimus was a
pre-Sadducee, having the disrepectful attitude to national tradition
that was later shown by the Sadducee Alexander Jannaeus (1 Macc
9:54-56, Ant. 13,372).

There can be little doubt that the name Hasideans, or Hasidim, =91pious
ones=92, in its Greek translation hosios, gave the word =91Essene=92. Philo
traces the name to hosiotes in Every Good Man 75. As defined in the
2nd century BC, it meant supporters of the Davids and Zadokites,
keeping the solar calendar and its associated chronology, conservative
about Jewish identity, agreeing with mainstream Pharisees on such
matters as resurrection."

Did Christians rely more heavily upon Isaiah
than Essenes?:

The career of Paul
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/qumran_origin/message/3521

Extract -
Paul's account of himself before his conversion to Christianity, in
Gal 1:13-15,
shows that he was a member of an ascetic kind of Judaism such as the
Qumran
community. He had thought of himself as a Suffering Servant - "set
apart before
I was born" (see Isa 44:2). The Scrolls frequently use Suffering
Servant
imagery. In 1QH 16(8): 26-38 the Teacher uses it of himself, dwelling
on his
sufferings, with a direct quotation from Isa 50:4. Their ideal of
suffering to
atone for the sins of other people is at the heart of their
organisation, as
shown in 1QS 8: 1-4, reflecting Isa 53. At Qumran there were annual
promotions
for virtue (1QS 6:24). Paul had "advanced in Judaism beyond many of my
own age
among my people". The DSS frequently use the word " zeal" (q- n- a), a
term that
developed into "zealot". Paul was "extremely zealous for the
traditions of my
fathers." In Acts 26:5 Paul spoke of his kind of Pharisaism as "the
strictest
sect (hairesis) of our religion". Mainstream Pharisaism was not a
sect, but a
viewpoint. In Acts 24:14 Paul spoke of the Way as a "sect", using the
same term.
A sect was one that worshipped separately from the mainstream, as
Qumran did.

> Essenes anticipated a dual messiah, a Davidic king and a Levite high
> priest. Christians conflated the two in the epistle to the Hebrews,
> linking Jesus to the high priesthood in the tradition of Melchizedek.

Did Christians conflate the two in Hebrews or did
Jesus fuse the two offices completely?:

Re: What is the Meaning of Son Of God?
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/qumran_origin/message/2791

"Jesus was following in their tradition, but making a further change.
The
heir of David had long been defined as a layman, leader of the laity,
the
Messiah of Israel subordinate to the Messiah of Aaron (1QSa 2:11-22).
Jesus
fused the two offices completely, becoming both Messiahs. Since within
the
Qumran sect the Messiah of Aaron was the Zadokite, and since John the
Baptist the Zadokite had died the previous year, Jesus in September AD
32
entered the leadership contest, making the unprecedented claim that
the king
could also be the Zadokite. He caused an unseemly scandal when he
appeared
in the 'whiter than white' robes of the Zadokite in the midst of the
solemn
ceremony. It was remembered five years later when 1QpHab 11:4-8 was
written, the event read into some verses from Habakkuk. But the
evangelists
and the writer of Hebrews justified it, and with it the establishment
of the
independent Christian ministry."

> Essene initiation took years, Christian conversion was considered
> almost instantaneous uponbaptism. Paul likened baptism to death and
> resurrection in Christ, a simultaneous, mystical indwelling that
> created a new creature. For the Essenes, the mikvah merely continued
> the Judaic tradition of physical purification practised periodically
> instead of once. Essenes were required to give up all their material
> wealth to the community. Christians were urged to practise charity but
> it wasn't mandatory. The celibate tradition in Christianity wasn't as
> mainstream as it was for the Essenes--Timothy puts married men in the
> ascendancy even though Jesus and Paul were celibate. But it's true
> there are many parallels; the New Jerusalem vision, the final wrathful
> Armegeddon, the sacred meal, the Damascus connection. Essene was a
> word that meant "healer" and the tradition of ascetic, celibate
> healers such as Jesus could have had its root in that uber-pious
> group.

A small point - Essene meant "pious ones".

David Christainsen
Newton, Mass. USA