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Answer for yourself: Why did Christianity prosper, and why was Jesus of Nazareth believed to be a divine incarnation and Saviour when no such teachings can be found in the unaltered Hebrew Jewish Masoretic Text of the Tanakh?
This is a long article chocked full of vital information that will explain to you the following things:
There were many causes that created and transformed of a Jewish Rabbi preaching repentance into a god or godman, but as we can devote volumes to the subject, I will try to treat it briefly in this article.
For many centuries before the time of Jesus there lived a sect of religious monks known as Essenes, or Therapeutae. Numerous bodies of ascetics (Therapeutae), especially near Lake Mareotis, devoted themselves to discipline and study, abjuring society and labor, and forgetting it is said, the simplest wans of nature, in contemplating the hidden wisdom of the Scriptures. Eusebius even claimed them as Christians; and some of the forms of monasticism (by Christians) were evidently modeled after the Therapeutae" (Smith's Bible Dictionary, art, "Alexandria").
Answer for yourself: What happened to the Essenes, for after all, we have their existing theological literature from the Dead Sea Scroll?
"An in-depth study of early church history will show you that the Essenes entirely disappeared from history shortly after the time assigned for the crucifixion of Jesus"...Christian Ginsburg, The Essenes: Their History And Doctrines,1864.
Simply said these Essenes became believers and followers of Jesus and entered the Jesus Movement after his crucifixion. One should not forget that what began as a righteous separation from the Temple by the Zadok priests in the early second century B.C.E. would later evolve into the current "Essenes" of Jesus' day. The word "Zadok" in Hebrew means:
6659 Tsadowq- Zadok = "righteous";
Zadok was the high priest, son of Ahitub of the house of Eleazar the son of Aaron, and 11th in descent from Aaron; he joined David after Saul's death and supported him against Absalom and Adonijah; and later anointed Solomon as king
Acts 6:7 7 And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. (KJV)
These priests were not the traditional Sadducees of the day in league with Rome. These were the Essenic residue of the Zadok priesthood which no longer had control or ties with the Temple. There were thousands of them, and their monasteries were to be counted by the score. C.F.D. Moule, of page 13 of his The Birth Of The New Testament, says: "...we have some idea, through the accounts of the Essenes in Philo and Josephus, and recently, through the Qumran writings of how differently a sectarian, but still priestly, group might be behaving at the same time. Evidently the Qumran sect maintained a priesthood and a ritual organization."
Many have asked the question, “What became of these priestly Essenes?”
If we examine the Essenes and their religious beliefs we find:
The origin of the sect known as Essenes is enveloped in mist, and will probably never be revealed fully. To speak of all the different ideas entertained as to their origin would make a volume of itself, we can therefore but glance at the subject. I am indebted to many authors for their informative books on the Essenes who have given us the ability to understand the religious climate of the first century in Palestine; authors like James Charlesworth, Lawrence Schiffman, A. DuPont-Summer, John Allegro, Hugh Schonfield, Millar Burrows, Geza Vermes, Hershel Shanks, and especially Martin Larson for his excellent treatment of the Essenes and their evolution as a sect within Judaism of the Second Temple Period in his many books [The Story Of Christian Origins, The Essene Christian Faith, The Essene Heritage, On The Religion Of The Occident].
What escapes most Christian writers today is that the Essenes contemporary with the Jesus era are completely different in theology and scope from the original Zaddok Priests of Qumran from the early second century B.C.E. which were Torah believers. What began as a righteous "separatist movement" by the Zadok priesthood since being prevented from returning to their rightful priesthood following Israel's victory over Antiochus Epiphanies, they protested the Hasmoneans' control of the Temple and possession of the Priesthood by separating from the Temple cult and beginning a "New Israel" and a "New Covenant" in the desert of Qumran. Sadly, what began as a righteous movement of Judaism will culminate in the days of Jesus and following in a synchronistic Phythagorean-Buddhist-Jewish sect containing a synthesis of religious beliefs built upon astrology and sun-worship mixed with their Jewish heritage; many of these "Essene" beliefs deviated significantly from conservative Torah faith and the traditional Messianic hope. On must look deeper than the superficial accounts of the Essenes provided by Pliny, Philo, and Josephus to acquaint oneself with such facts, as their accounts are somewhat superficial in many aspects and tend to provide only summaries of the sect and their beliefs. In-depth theological analysis of their beliefs is not possible from these accounts; one must be quite familiar with the individual writings to be able to understand the nuances of their theology.
Theophilus Gale, who wrote a work called The Court of the Gentiles, Oxford, 1671, undoubtedly hits upon the truth when he says:
"Now, the origination or rise of these Essenes (Jewish sect of apocalyptic believers) I conceive by the best conjectures I can make from antiquity, to be in or immediately after the Babylonian captivity, though some make them later."
With such an admission one must understand that implied in "Babylonian captivity" is the borrowing of many theological beliefs by the returning Jews from their captors. Needless to say, the Persian victory over the Babylonians only furthered such borrowing of beliefs as these captive Jews were now introduced into the Persian Mysteries and Zoroastrianism. Now it is understandable with the Jewish nation's return by Cyrus to Palestine that another "mixed multitude" was to find its way to Palestine as had once before again possessing a syncretism of beliefs; the irony of the whole story is found that behind the Jewish, Babylonian, and Persian beliefs was an Egyptian religious substrate that had contributed to all of the above as well. The out-working of such beliefs are to be found the the new Apocalyptic of the Jewish faith held by some, but not all. Thus we find in the Judaism that developed after the return from Babylonian captivity the multitude of competing "sects" all with varying religious belief systems.
This new Apocalyptic literature consists of those parts of the Jewish Bible and other Jewish and Christian books that embody an apocalypse, or revelation, given through a symbolic vision of the future. Apocalyptic literature concerns the final period of world history, and depicts the final confrontation between God and the powers of evil. The conflict frequently culminates in a world catastrophe; sometimes a messianic figure is responsible for the triumph over evil. It will be here we find the Essenic Angel-Messiah. Frequently the authors recount history up to their own time in symbolic form (as in Dan. 7:1-8) and then give a vision of the future salvation to be brought by God at the end of the present world. Classic examples are the books of Daniel and Revelation. Passages such as Isaiah 24-27, Zechariah 9-14, and Mark 13 belong to this type of literature. Other examples of literature held sacred by the Essenes are Enoch, Jubilees, and the Apocalypse of Baruch today which can be found in the Jewish Pseudepigrapha, as well as the Apocalypse of Peter in the Apocryphal New Testament.
Apocalyptic literature is usually pseudonymous, written under the name of a famous person. Books such as Daniel and Enoch are examples. But St. John, the author of Revelation in the New Testament, apparently wrote in his own name. Sometimes apocalypses, especially the Apocalypse of Adam and others in the literature of Gnosticism, contain elements drawn from Greek Mythology as well as from the Bible and from Jewish tradition. The New Testament contains all of the above.
Many Christian writers trace the origin of the Essenes all the way back to an origin in India (that is where they picked up many of their sun-myths) and were a sort of Buddhist sect. All of these influences will be amalgamated into a complex theological system that found its latest expression among the Essenes of Qumran in the first century A.D. and their literature attests to it.
Gfrorer, who wrote concerning them in 1835, and said that “the Essenes and the Therapeutae (of Egypt) are the same sect, and hold the same views," was undoubtedly another writer who was touching upon historical ground.
The identity of many of the precepts and practices of Essenes and those of the New Testament is unquestionable (T.W. Doane, Bible Myths and Parallels In Other Religions, 1882, p. 420).
Essenism urged on its disciples to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. The Essenes forbade the laying up of treasures upon earth. The Essenes demanded of those who wished to join them to sell all heir possessions, and to divide it among the poor brethren. The Essenes had all things in common, and appointed one of the brethren as steward to manage the common bag. Essenism put all its members on the same level, forbidding the exercise of authority of one over the other, and enjoining mutual service. Essenism commanded its disciples to call no man master upon the earth. Essenism laid the greatest stress upon being meek and lowly in spirit. The Essenes commended the poor in spirit, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemaker. They combined the healing of the body with that of the soul. They declared that the power to cast out evil spirits, to perform miraculous cures, etc. They taught that such power should be possessed by their disciples as signs of their belief. The Essenes did not swear at all; their answer was yea, yea, and nay, nay. When the Essenes started on a mission of mercy, they provided neither gold nor silver, neither took coats, neither shoes, but relied on hospitality for support. The Essenes though repudiating offensive war, yet took weapons with them when they went on a perilous journey. The Essenes abstained from connubial intercourse! The Essenes did not offer animal sacrifices, but strove to present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which they regarded as a reasonable service! It was the great aim of the Essenes to live such a life of purity and holiness as to be the temples of the Holy Spirit, and to be able to prophesy.
Many other comparisons might be made, but these are sufficient to show that there is a great similarity between the two. These similarities have led many Christian writers to believe that Jesus, if he did not belong to this order, was influenced by them. Dr. Ginsburg, an advocate of this theory, says :
"It will hardly be doubted that our Saviour himself belonged to this holy brotherhood. This will especially be apparent when we remember that the whole Jewish community, at the advent of Christ, was divided into three parties, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes, and that every Jew had to belong to one of these sects. Jesus, who, in all things, conformed to the Jewish law, and who was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, would therefore naturally associate himself with that order of Judaism which was most congenial to his holy nature. Moreover, the fact that Christ, with the exception of once, was not heard of in public until his thirtieth year, implying that he lived in seclusion with this fraternity, and that though he frequently rebuked the scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees, he never denounced the Essenes, strongly confirms this conclusion" (Ginsburg, Essenes, p. 24).
We hear very little of the Essenes after A.D. 40, therefore, when we read of the "primitive Christians," we are reading of Essenes, and others (Ginsburg, Essenes, p. 27).
Ginsburg tell us: "We hear very little of them after A.D. 40; and there can hardly be any doubt that, owing to the great similarity existing between their precepts and practices and those of primitive Christians, the Essenes as a body must have embraced Christianity" (Dr. Ginsburg, Essenes, p. 27).
The similarity of the sentiments of the Essenes, or Therapeutae, to those of the Church of Rome, induced the learned Jesuit, Nicolaus Serarius, to seek for them an honorable origin. He contended therefore, that they were Asideans and derived them from the Rechabites, described so circumstantially in the thirty-fifth chapter of Jeremiah; at the same time, he asserted that the first Christians monks Essenes. (Hardy, Eastern Monachism, p. 358).
Mr. King, Gnostics and their Remains, on page 1 speaking of the Christian sect called "Gnostics," says:
"Their chief doctrines had been held for centuries before (their time) in many of the cities of Asia Minor. There, it is probable, they first came into existence as "Mystae," upon the establishment of a direct intercourse with India under the Seleucidae and the Ptolemies (Egypt). The colleges of Essenes and Megabyzae at Ephesus, the Orphics of Thrace, the Curetes of Crete, are all merely branches of one antique and common religion, and that originally Asiatic.
Answer for yourself: Why is the above statement SO VERY IMPORTANT? Because many read the New Testament and especially Paul never knowing that Paul was affiliated with the Essenes and was a Gnostic himself and we read this New Testament materials never knowing that much of it is a serious departure from normative Judaism and what Jesus believed!
Again King says:
" The introduction of Buddhism into Egypt and Palestine affords the only true solution of innumerable difficulties in the history of religion (Ibid., p. 6).
Again:
"That Buddhism had actually been planted in the dominions of the Seleucidae and Ptolemies (Palestine belonging to the former) before the beginning of the third century B.C.E., is proved to demonstration by a passage in the Edicts of Asoka, grandson of the famous Chandragupta, the Sandracottus of the Greeks. These edicts are engraven on a rock at Girnur, in Guzerat.” Again notice the link to Egypt, in particular we will find Alexandria, Egypt to be of importance in this regard (King, Gnostics and their remains, p. 23).
Eusebius, in quoting from Philo concerning the Essenes, seems to take it for granted that they [the Essenes] and the Christians were one and the same, and from the manner in which he writes, it would appear that it was generally understood so. He says that Philo called them "Worshipers," and concludes by saying:
“But whether he himself gave them this name, or whether at the beginning they were so called, when as yet the name of Christians was not everywhere published, I think it not needful curiosity to sift out" (Ecc. History, lib. 2, ch. xvii).
This celebrated ecclesiastical historian (Eusebius) considered it very probable that the writings of the Essenic Therapeuts in Egypt had been incorporated into the gospels of the New Testament, and into some Pauline epistles.
His words are:
“It is very likely that the commentaries (Scriptures) which were among them (the Essenes) were the Gospels, and the works of the apostles, and certain expositions of the ancient prophets, such as partly that epistle unto the Hebrews, and also the other epistles of Paul do contain” (Ecc. Hist., lib. 2, ch. xvii).
You need to stop and think about what was just said. The key word was "incorporated"! These Essene Therapeuts did not possess the Gospels in Egypt "after their writing;" but had before their writing much that would be incorporated into these "gospels" when they would be written....this would come from their existing theologies long before Jesus ever lived. In other words, stories and doctrines from these Pythagorean-Buddhist Essenes were later to be ascribed to Jesus which had no historical value or relationship to the real man from Galilee. The synthesis of their Egyptian, Babylonian, and Persian religious beliefs would be filtered through Biblical Judaism and like as before "out jumped this golden-calf" which we call the Christian Jesus today. Instead of understanding Jesus as a Jew we attach to him the theologies of pagan nations never knowing that when reading the New Testament today we are reading a lot of Pythagorean-Buddhist theology from their sun-myths and we think we are reading the truth about the Jesus who really lived. Nothing could be further from the truth!
It would be a serious mistake on your part to assume that the above reference to the "Gospels" included the Four Gospels which most are familiar with today since it can be shown that at the destruction of Qumran and the Essenic library and community in 68 A.D. that these particular "Four Gospels" did not yet exist and that no quotes from them can be found prior to roughly 200 A.D. in the early Church Fathers. You should consider this amazing if they yet existed. Yet understand, many such references in the writings of these Church Fathers came from nothing more than oral tradition or possibly some of the hundreds of conflicting "gospels" possessed by competing sects which were in circulation after the death of Jesus as we are informed by the writer of the Gospel today called by the name of Luke.
"The principal doctrines and rites of the Essenes can be connected with the East, with Parsism, and especially with Buddhism. Among the doctrines which Essenes and Buddhists had in common was that of the Angel-Messiah" (Bunsen, The Angel-Messiah, p. vii).
"The New Testament is the Essene-Nazarene Glad Tidings!" (S.F. Dunlap, The Son of Man, p. iii).
Godfrey Higgins says:
"The Essenes were called physicians of the soul, or Therapeutae; being resident both in Judea and Egypt. they probably spoke or had their sacred books in Chaldee (Babylon)." He goes on to say:
"These Essenes were Pythagoreans, as is proved by all their forms, ceremonies, and doctrines, and they called themselves the "sons of Jesse." If the Pythagoreans or Conobitae, as they are called by Jamblicus, were Buddhists, the Essenes then held many beliefs of Buddhism mixed among their own. Many of the Essenes lived in Egypt on the lake of Parembole or Maria, in monasteries. These are the very places in which we formerly found the Gymnosophists, or Samaneans, or Buddhist priests to have lived ; which Gymnosophistae are placed also by Ptolemy in north-eastern India." Let us stop just a minute to focus on the links we have seen so far that affect the assimilation by the Essenes of other world religions: Egypt, Babylon, Persian, India, and Judaism. The syncretism of religious beliefs is being formed and will find its full expression in the New Testament." He goes on to say:
"Their (the Essenes) parishes, churches, bishops, priests, deacons, festivals are all identically the same (as the Christians). They had apostolic founders ; the manners which distinguished the immediate apostles of Christ; Scriptures divinely inspired; the same allegorical mode of interpreting them, which has since obtained among Christians, and the same order of performing public worship. They had missionary stations or colonies of their community established in Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Phillippi, Colosse, and Thessalonica, precisely such, and in the same circumstances, as were those to whom St. Paul addressed his letters in those places. All the fine moral doctrines which are attributed to the Samaritan Nazarite, and I doubt not justly attributed to him, are to be found among the doctrines of these ascetics" (Higgins, Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 747).
And Arthur Lillie says in Buddha and Early Buddhism, p. vi:
"It is asserted by calm thinkers like Dean Mansel that within two generations of the time of Alexander the Great, the missionaries of Buddha made their appearance at Alexandria. "In this he was supported by philosophers of the calibre of Schilling and Schopenhauer, and the great Sanscrit authority, Lassen. Renan also sees traces of Buddhist propagandism in Palestine before the Christian era. Hilgenfeld, Muter, Bohlen, King, all admit the Buddhist influence. Colebrooke saw a striking similarity between the Buddhist philosophy and the Pythagoreans. Dean Milman was convinced that the Therapeuts sprung from the "contemplative and indolent fraternities" of India. And, he might have added, the Rev. Robert Taylor in his Diegesis, and Godfrey Higgins in his Anacalypsis have brought strongest arguments to bear in support of this theory"
This is confirmed in the east by the Asoka monuments-in the west by Philo.
Lillie expressly maintains the identity in creed of the higher Judaism and that of the Gymnosophists of India who abstained from the 'sacrifice of living animals', in a word, the Buddhists. It would follow from this that the priestly religion of Babylonia, Palestine, Egypt, and Greece were undermined by certain kindred mystical societies organized by Buddha's missionaries under the various names of Therapeutae, Essenes, Neo- Pythagoreans, Neo-Zoroastrians etc. Thus Buddhism prepared the ground work and the way of Christianity and its interpretation of the Messiah of Israel. (Arthur Lillie, Buddha and Early Buddhism, p. vi).
What is alarming to those who study enough to see this is that many of the doctrines of Paul can, with more or less certainty, be connected with the Essenes and their Phythagorean-Buddhist-Iranian sun-myths and seem less than a "unique revelation from God." Sad but true in the final analysis for Christians who study enough to see this. It has taken me over 15 years of comprehensive and extensive research to put the puzzle pieces together to see this clearly for myself. Today I see what those courageous men of old tried to tell the masses about the truth of the Christian faith as it has been passed down to us by the Roman juggernaut called the "church."
Instead of the faith of Jesus we have a faith derived from sun-myths moulded around him. Instead of "the" faith of Jesus we were given a "faith about Jesus" which is not the truth
With the later creation of falsified documents bearing the Apostle's names it is a small miracle that anyone could find the truth about such a matter when the deception has been so extensive. It becomes almost a certainty that Eusebius was right in surmising that Essenic writings have been used by Paul and others who would later write the "gospels" and later apply the Apostle's names to them. The sun-myths were later applied to a Jewish Rabbi and authority was given to them through various writings proposing such beliefs by competing sects to which final authority was later to be given by attaching the names of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John to them.
Now is should be getting very clear to you that is was not Jesus, but Paul who would be the cause of the separation of the Jews from the Christians (Bunsen, Angel-Messiah, p. 240). The later "Gospels," written under such a Pauline and an Essenic influence thereby attesting to the Angel-Messiah instead of a Davidic human Messiah would be the last straw to break the camel's back along with the repudiation of the Torah by the evolving Gentile Christian community. The Jews had their Palestinian Jewish Scriptures preserved that read completely different from the corrupted Greek translation and they looked yet for the Davidic Messiah and not a cosmic sun-godman as taught in the doctrine of the Angel-Messiah. One only needs to read the Gospel of John and compare it with the Jesus of the Synoptic Gospels to see we are talking about two very different persons!
The probability, then, that that sect of vagrant quack-doctors, the Therapeutae, who were established in Egypt and its neighborhood many ages before the period assigned by later theologians as that of the birth of Jesus, were the original fabricators of the writings contained in the New Testament, becomes a certainty on the basis of evidence and the positive statement of the historian Eusebius, that “those ancient Therapeutae were Christians, and that their ancient writings were our gospels and epistles."
The Essenes, the Therapeuts, the Ascetics, the Monks, the Ecclesiastics, and the Eclectics, are but different names for one and the self-same sect.
The word“Essene" is nothing more than the Egyptian word for that of which Therapeutae is the Greek, each of them signifying “healer " or “doctor," and designating the character of the sect as professing to be endued with the miraculous gift of healing; and more especially so with respect to diseases of the mind.
Their name of "Ascetics" indicated the severe discipline and exercise of self-mortification, long fastings, prayers, contemplation, and even making of themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake, as did Origen, Melito, and others who derived their Christianity from the same school; Jesus himself is represented to have recognized and approved their practice.
Their name of "Monks" indicated their delight in solitude, their contemplative life, and their entire segregation and abstraction from the world, which Jesus, in the Gospel, is in like manner represented as describing, as characteristic of the community of which he was a member.
Their name of "Eccleastics" was of the same sense, and indicated their being called out, elected, separated from the general fraternity of mankind, and set apart to the more immediate service and honor of God.
Answer for yourself: Did you catch the unique name above for the Essenes, Therapeutae, and their Monks? There were called "Ecclesiastics." On the surface this is rather boring until you understand that "ecclesia" is the term from which we get the English translation "church." The name translated from the Greek means "CHURCH". This give a whole new meaning to the passage supposedly where Jesus said he was to build his "Essenic Community." The follow of such an interpolation to the New Testament is readily seen in the fact that Jesus never envisioned a movement of any great length or duration as he expected the appearance imminently of the Kingdom of God well before 70 C.E. He had no 2000 year plan. He was made to have one after the crucifixion by these Ecclesiastics who considered themselves the "New Israel."
These Essenes had a flourishing university, or corporate body, established upon these principles, at Alexandria in Egypt, long before the period assigned for the birth of Christ Jesus. The Essenes abounded in Egypt, especially about Alexandria (Eusebius, Eccl. Hist., lib. 2, ch. xvii). They esteemed this "corporate body" to such a degree that went so far as to mistranslate on purpose much of the Hebrew Scriptures to promote their theological agenda in Alexandria, Egypt.
C.D.F. Moule, in The Birth Of The New Testament, records for us on page 59 that the Greek translation of the Jewish Scriptures is "a wildly inaccurate translation." Likewise, Lucetta Mowry, in The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Early Church, again tells us on page 11-12: "...the Qumran authors....altered the stories of the Pentateuch by pious and frequently fanciful embellishments. A more serious purpose of alteration was the attempt to use the stories as authoritative expression of the tenants of the Sect....rewriting familiar events of Israel's history and by inserting legendary details to make the Law of Moses correspond with Qumran thought. These documents, together with the commentaries, testify to the Sect's interest in supplementing biblical authority by adapting canonical works to its own purpose. The community desired in particular to prove that its members were the true heirs of Israel's tradition and that the promise of redemption revealed by God to the patriarchs and to Moses now belonged to their brotherhood." This is just the tip of the iceberg and you should understand that many Greek Fathers of the church, men like Clement of Alexandria, who grew up and was schooled in Alexandria, not only heard this Essene theology and their teachings on the Angel-Messiah, but their documents, even the Greek translation of the Jewish Bible had such tenants of the group included within it. This explains the natural tendency for these early Greek Fathers to accept and promote a theology that was in opposition to what the conservative Jews of Palestine believed as preserved in their Jewish Scriptures, which now read quite differently from the Greek translation of the Essenes in Alexandria.
There are literally hundreds of embellishments, but let me give you one such example as I have dealt with hundreds of examples of the corruption of the Jewish Scriptures when then were translated on another website that you might wish to examine to see the evidence for yourself: http://faithofyeshua.faithweb.com.
Now for example... Christian Ginsburg details for us on page 32 of his monumental work The Essenes, Their History and Doctrines, when these Greek-Jews of Alexandria were employed to translate the Prophet and the Psalms into Greek, that they availed themselves of the opportunity to introduce their tenants and rites into their version of the translation. This version is called the Septuagint and is a grossly mistranslated version of the Jewish Scriptures. Millions of Christians are not aware of this and many of the Christian scholars stop short to examine the evidence for themselves; simply they just don't know it happened. Not being able to read Hebrew for themselves, they accept the Greek translation bequeathed to them as if it came for God. Your evaluation of the facts concerning this translation will show you otherwise. One example should suffice to begin your curiosity into the matter. Thus, for instance, when David said "Sacrifice and burn offering thou didst not desire, mine ears has thou opened" (Psalm 40:6) was changed by the Essenes translators of Alexandria to: "Sacrifice and burnt offering thou didst not desire, but a body hast thou prepared me." The Essenes, by changing this verse and taking away and adding to the Word of God introduced three of their tenets:
1. They made the Prophets speak absolutely as if God had entirely rejected sacrifices because they themselves would offer none
2. By dropping my the words, "mine ears has thou opened," they showed disapproval of slavery:
Exod 21:6 6 Then his master shall bring him (his slave) unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever. (KJV)
3. By substituting "a body has thou prepared me," the were promoting their college of devout Essenes in Alexandria who met together as a body, and whom they believed God had appointed instead of the corrupt Priesthood. This body of Essenes was to be the now corporate "body" of Israel; the New Israel. Along with this the Torah and the Tanakh had been replaced with the religious and Apocalyptic writings of the community.
From this Essene corporate body of the "New Israel" they sent out missionaries promoting their theologies, and had established colonies, auxiliary branches, and affiliated communities, in various cities of Asia Minor, which colonies were in a flourishing condition before the preaching of St. Paul. Now you can understand that when Paul went on his journeys preaching "Christ crucified" that this was not a new message to his recipients. Jesus was just another name in a long line of crucified sun-god saviors that had come before. Chrishna crucified was now Christ crucified. There had been a long line of "personified sun-godmen" who were crucified; first in the heavens due to the blending of astrology and religion, and later personified in human terms reflecting the "heroes" of various Indo-Germanic nations since the beginning of time.
Col 1:23 23 If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister; (KJV) Notice please Paul used the "past tense" indicating that "his gospel" had already gone into all the world. A little study in comparative religion verifies the truth to his statement.
Answer for yourself: Have you ever wondered what was "the gospel" preached all over the world before Paul took the Christian message? These nations had already received the cosmic sun-myths from these Buddhist-Essene missionaries which covered according to their own testimony the whole of the known world. So Christ crucified was not a new message, but the personification of sun-myths long held by primitive mankind. Paul was only reiterating what they already knew and this explains the rapid spread of the Christian message...he had to give them nothing new...only a new name for their crucified godman. This also explains why the Jews continually followed Paul on his travels troubling him in their efforts to "undo" his preaching as the men from Jerusalem knew the distortions Paul was preaching about the Jesus that had personally known! Sadly, the New Testament blasts these men as "Judaizers." Redactionist history at its best!
The very ancient and Eastern doctrine of an Angel-Messiah had been applied to Gautama-Buddha, and so it was applied to Jesus Christ by the Essenes of Egypt and of Palestine, who introduced this new Messianic doctrine into Essenic Judaism and Essenic Christianity (Bunsen, Angel-Messiah, p. 255).
In the Pali and Sanscrit texts the word Buddha is always used as a title, not as a name. It means "The Enlightened One." Gautama Buddha is represented to have taught that he was only one of a long series of Buddhas, who appear at intervals in the world, and who all teach the same system. After the death of each Buddha his religion flourishes for a time, but finally wickedness and vice again rule over the land. Then a new Buddha appears, who again preaches the lost Dharma or truth. The names of twenty-four of these Buddhas who appeared previous to Gautama have been handed down to us. The Buddhavansa, or “History of the Buddhas," the last book of the Khuddaka Nikaya in the second Pitca, gives the lives of all the previous Buddhas before commencing its account of Gautama himself ; and the Pali commentary on the Jatakas gives certain details regarding each of the twenty-four (Rhys David, Buddhism, p. 179).
An Avatar (one descended from Heaven as an incarnated deity ...from Oriental and Iranian religious beliefs) was expected about every six hundred years. This interval is clearly shown by Mr. Higgins in his Anacalypsis. It should be remembered that Gautama Buddha, the "Angel-Messiah," and Cyrus, the "Anointed" of the Lord, are placed about six hundred years before Jesus, the "Anointed." This cycle of six hundred years was called the "great year." Josephus, the Jewish historian, alludes to it when speaking of the patriarchs that lived to a great age (Josephus, Antiq., bk. i. c. iii.). "From this cycle of six hundred," says Col. Valliancey, "came the name of the bird Phoenix, called by the Egyptians Phenu, with the well-known story of its going to Egypt to burn itself on the altar of the Sun (at Heliopolis) and rise again from its ashes, at the end of a certain period."
At the time of Jesus of Nazareth an Avatar was expected, not by some of the Jews alone, but by most every eastern nation.
"Philo's writings prove the probability, almost rising to a certainty, that already in his time the Essenes did expect an Angel-Messiah as one of a series of divine incarnations. Within about fifty years after Philo's death, Elkesai the Essene applied this doctrine to Jesus, and it was promulgated in Rome about the same time, if not earlier, by the Pseudo-Clementines" (Bunsen, The Angel-Messiah, p. 118).
Many persons were thought at that time to be, and undoubtedly thought themselves to be, the Christ, and the only reason why the name of Jesus of Nazareth was connected with crucifixion and salvation above all others, is because the Essenes, who were expecting an Angel-Messiah, espoused it after identifying Jesus with their killed "Teacher of Righeousness" who was their Avatar. Following the crucifixion and death of Jesus these Essenes made the connection with their "crucified-sun-god man" and made conversion to the Jesus Movement. Had it not been for this almost indisputable fact, the name of Jesus of Nazareth would undoubtedly not be known at the present day as connected with the pagan doctrines which it has been. In place of this would be the truth concerning the Davidic Messiah and the Torah instead of a paganized New Testament which originated from a strong Essenic influence and Alexandrian philosophy of religion which influence the Greeks as well and their writings which today we call "Early Church Fathers." Without such perversion of truth the Jerusalem church's legacy would have succeeded instead of the one of Rome.
Epiphanius, a Christian bishop and writer of the fourth century, says, in speaking of the Essenes:
“They who believed on Christ were called Jessaei (or Essenes), before they were called Christians. These derived their constitution from the signification of the name Jesus, which in Hebrew signifies the same as Therapeutes, that is, a saviour or physician."
Thus we see that, according to Christian authority, the Essenes and Therapeutes are one, and that the Essenes espoused the cause of Jesus of Nazareth, accepted him as an Angel-Messiah, and became known to history as Christians, or believers in the Anointed Angel.
This ascetic Buddhist sect called Essenes were therefore expecting the Angel-Messiah, because Gautama announced to his disciples that another Buddha, and therefore another angel in human form, another organ or advocate of the wisdom from above, would descend from heaven to earth, and would be called the "Son of Love."
The learned Thomas Maurice says:
"From the earliest post-diluvian age, to that in which the Messiah appeared, together with the traditions which so expressly recorded the fall of the human race from a state of original rectitude and felicity, there appears, from an infinite variety of hieroglyphic monuments and of written documents, to have prevailed, from generation to generation, throughout all the regions of the higher Asia, a uniform belief that, in the course of revolving ages, there should arise a sacred personage, a mighty deliverer of mankind from the thraldom, of sin and of death. In fact, the memory of the grand original promise, that the seed of the woman should eventually crush the serpent, was carefully preserved in the breasts of the Asiatics; it entered deeply into their symbolic superstitions, and was engraved aloft amidst their mythologic sculptures."' (Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 273).
That an Angel-Messiah was generally expected at this time may be inferred from the following facts: Some of the Gnostic sects of Christians, who believed that Jesus was an emanation from God, likewise supposed that there were several AEons, or emanations from the Eternal Father.
Among those who taught this doctrine was Basilides and his followers! (Lardner's Works, vol. viii. p 352).
Simon Magus was believed to be “He who should come." Simon was worshiped in Samaria and other countries, as the expected Angel-Messiah, as a God.
Justin Martyr says:
" After the ascension of our Lord into heaven, certain men were suborned by demons as their agents, who said that they were gods (i.e., the Angel Messiah). Among these was Simon, a certain Samaritan, whom nearly all the Samaritans and a few also of other nations, worshiped, confessing him as a Supreme God" (Apol. 1, ch. xxvi).
His miracles were notorious, and admitted by all. His followers became so numerous that they were to be found in all countries. In Rome, in the reign of Claudius, a statue was erected in his honor.
Clement of Rome, speaking of Simon Magus, says that:
"He wishes to be considered an exalted person, and to be considered 'the Christ.' He claims that he can never be dissolved, asserting that he will endure to eternity. "
Montanus was another person who evidently believed himself to be an Angel-Messiah. He was called by himself and his followers the "Paraclete," or “Holy Spirit" (Lardner's Works, vol. viii. p 593)
Socrates, in his Ecclesiastical History, tells us of one Buddhas (who lived after Jesus):
"Who afore that time was called Terebynthus, which went to the coasts of Babylon, inhabited by Persians, and there published of himself many false wonders : that he was born of a virgin, that he was bred and brought up in the mountains, etc."
He was evidently one of the many fanatics who believed themselves to be the Paraclete or Comforter, the "Expected One."
Another one of these Christ was Apollonius. This remarkable man was born a few years before the commencement of the Christian era, and during his career, sustained the role of a philosopher, religious teacher and reformer, and a worker of miracles. He is said to have lived to be a hundred years old. From the history of his life, written by the learned sophist and scholar, Philostratus, we glean the following:
Before his birth a god appeared to his mother and informed her that he himself should he born of her. At the time of her delivery, the most wonderful things happened.' All the people of the country acknowledged that he was the “Son of God." As he grew in stature, his wonderful powers, greatness of memory, and marvelous beauty attracted the attention of all. A great part of his time was spent, when a youth, among the learned doctors; the disciples of Plato, Chrysippus and Aristotle. When he came to man's estate, he became an enthusiastic admirer and devoted follower of Pythagoras. His fame soon spread far and near, and wherever he went he reformed the religious worship of the day. He went to Ephesus, like Christ Jesus to Jerusalem, where the people flocked about him. While at Athens, in Greece, he cast out an evil spirit from a youth. As soon as Apollonius fixed his eyes upon him, the demon broke out into the most angry and horrid expressions, and then swore he would depart out of the youth. He put an end to a plague which was raging at Ephesus, and at Corinth he raised a dead maiden to life, by simply taking her by the hand and bidding her arise. The miracles of Apollonius were extensively believed, by Christians as well as others, for centuries after his time. In the fourth century Hierocles drew a parallel between the two Christs -Apollonius, and Jesus - which was answered by Eusebius, the great champion of the Christian church.
In it he admits the miracles of Apollonius, but attributes them to sorcery.
Apollonius was worshiped as a god, in different countries, as late as the fourth century. A beautiful temple was built in honor of him, and be was held in high esteem by many of the Pagan emperors. Eunapius, who wrote concerning him in the fifth century, says that his history should have been entitled "The Descent of a God upon Earth."
It is as Albert Reville says:
“The universal respect in which Apollonius was held by the whole pagan world, testified to the deep impression which the life of this Supernatural Being had left indelibly fixed in their minds; an expression which caused one of his contemporaries to exclaim, We have a God living among us."
A Samaritan, by name Menander, who was contemporary, with the apostles of Jesus, was another of these fanatics who believed himself to be the Christ. He went about performing miracles, claiming that be was a Savior, "sent down from above from the invisible worlds, for the salvation of mankind" (Eusebius, Eccl. Hist., lib. 3, ch. xxiii). He baptized his followers in his own name. His influence was great, and continued for several centuries.
Justin Martyr and other Christian Fathers wrote against him.
Manes evidently believed himself to be "the Christ," or "he who was to come." His followers also believed the same concerning him. Eusebius, speaking of him, says:
”He presumed to represent the person of Christ; he proclaimed himself to be the Comforter and the Holy Ghost, and being puffed up with this frantic pride, chose, as if he were Christ, twelve partners of his new-found doctrine, patching into one heap false and detestable doctrines of old, rotten, and rooted out heresies, the which he brought out of Persia" (Eusebius, Eccl. Hist., lib. 7, ch. xxx).
The word Manes, says Usher in his Annals, has the meaning of Paraclete or Comforter or Saviour. This at once lets us into the secret, a new incarnation, an Angel-Messiah, a Christ, born from the side of his mother, and put to a violent death, flayed alive, and lung up, or crucified, by a king of Persia. This is the teacher with his twelve apostles on the rock of Gualior.
Du Perron, in his Life of Zoroaster, gives an account of certain prophecies to be found in the sacred books of the Persians. One of these is to the effect that, at successive periods of time, there will appear on earth certain "Sons of Zoroaster," who are to be the result of immaculate conceptions. These virgin-born gods will come upon earth for the purpose of establishing the law of God. It its also asserted that Zoroaster, when on earth, declared that in the “latter days" a pure virgin would conceive, and bear a son, and that as soon as the child was born a star would appear, blazing even at noonday, with undiminished splendor. This Christ is to be called Sosiosh. He will redeem mankind, and subdue the Devs, who have been tempting and leading men astray ever since the fall of our first parents.
Among the Greeks the same prophecy was found. The Oracle of Delphi was the depository, according to Plato, of an ancient and secret prophecy of the birth of a "Son of Apollo," who was to restore the reign of justice and virtue on the earth (Plato in Apolog. Anac., ii. p. 189)
Those who believed in successive emanations of AEons from the Throne of Light, pointed to the passage in the Gospels where Jesus is made to say that he will be succeeded by the Paraclete or Comforter. Mohammed was believed by many to be this Paraclete, and it is said that he too told his disciples that another Paraclete would succeed him. From present appearances, however, there is some reason for believing, that the Mohammedans are to have their ancient prophecy set at naught by the multiplicity of those who pretend to be divinely appointed to fulfill it. The present year was designated as the period at which this great reformer was to arise, who should be almost, if not quite, the equal of Mohommed. His mission was to be to purify the religion from its corruptions; to overthrow those who had usurped its control, and to rule, as a great spiritual caliph, over the faithful. According to accepted tradition, the prophet himself designated the line of descent in which his most important successor would be found, and even indicated his personal appearance. The time having arrived, it is not strange that the man is forthcoming, only in this instance there is more than one claimant. There is a “holy man" in Morocco who has allowed it to be announced that he is the designated reformer, while cable reports show that a rival pretender has appeared in Yemen, in southern Arabia, and his supporters, sword in hand, are now advancing upon Mecca, for the purpose of proclaiming their leader as caliph within the sacred city itself.
History then relates to us the indisputable fact that at the time of Jesus of Nazareth an Angel-Messiah was expected, that many persons claimed, and were believed to be, the “Expected One," and that the reason why Jesus was accepted above all others was because the Essenes - a very numerous sect - believed him to be the true Messiah, and came over to be his followers in a body.
It was because there were so many of these Christs in existence that some follower of Jesus ,but no one knows who, wrote as follows:
"If any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ, or, lo, he is here; believe him not; for false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall show signs and wonders to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect" (Mark, xiii. 21-22).
Tacitus, the Roman historian, says
" The generality had a strong persuasion that it was contained in the ancient writings of the priests, that at that very time the east should prevail : and that some one, who should come out of Judea, should obtain the empire of the world ; which ambiguities foretold Vespasian and Titus. But the common people (of the Jews), according to the influence of human wishes, appropriated to themselves, by their interpretation, this vast grandeur foretold by the fates, nor could be brought to change their opinion for the true, by all their adversities."
Suetonius, another Roman historian, says:
" There had been for a long time all over the east a constant persuasion that it was recorded in the fates (books of the fates, or foretellings), that at that time some one who should come out of Judea should obtain universal dominion. It appears by the event, that this prediction referred to the Roman emperor ; but the Jews, referring it to themselves, rebelled."
This is corroborated by Josephus, the Jewish historian, who says:
"That which chiefly excited them (the Jews) to war, was an ambiguous prophecy, which was also found in the sacred books, that at that time some one, within their country, should arise. that should obtain the empire of the whole world. For this they had received by tradition, that it was spoken of one of their nation; and many wise men were deceived with the interpretation. But, in truth, Vespasian's empire was designed in this prophecy, who was created emperor (of Rome) in Judea."
As the Rev. Dr. Geikie remarks, the central and dominant characteristic of the teaching of the rabbis, was the certain advent of a great national Deliverer - the Messiah - but not a God from heaven.
For a time Cyrus appeared to realize the promised Deliverer, or, at least, to be the chosen instrument to prepare the way for him, and, in his turn, Zerubabel became the center of Messianic hopes. In fact, the national mind had become so inflammable, by constant brooding on this one theme, that any bold spirit, rising in revolt against the Roman power, could find an army of fierce disciples who trusted that it should be he who would redeem Israel (Geikie, The Life Of Christ, vol. i. p. 79).
The "taxing " which took place under Cyrenius, Governor of Syria (A. D. 7), excited the wildest uproar against the Roman power. The Hebrew spirit was stung into exasperation; the puritans of the nation, the enthusiasts, fanatics, the zealots of the law, the literal constructionists of prophecy, appealed to the national temper, revived the national faith, and fanned into flame the combustible elements that smoldered in the bosom of the race. The Messianic hope was strong in these people; all the stronger on account. of their political degradation. Born in sorrow, the anticipation grew keen in bitter hours. That Jehovah would abandon them could not be believed.
The thought would be atheism. The hope kept the eastern Jews in a perpetual state of insurrection. The cry “Lo here, lo there! " was incessant. Claimant after claimant of the dangerous supremacy of the Messiah appeared, pitched a camp in the wilderness, raised the banner, gathered a force, was attacked, defeated, banished, or crucified; but the frenzy did not abate.
The last insurrection among the Jews, that of Bar-Cochba, "Son of the Star," revealed an astonishing frenzy of zeal. It was purely a Messianic uprising. Judaism had excited the fears of the Emperor Hadrian, and induced him to inflict unusual severities on the people. The effect of the violence was to stimulate that conviction to fury. The night of their despair was once more illumined by the star of the east. The banner of the Messiah was raised. Potents, as of old, were seen in the sky; the clouds were watched for the glory that should appear. Bar-Cochba seemed to fill all the popular idea of the deliverer. Miracles were ascribed to him; flames issued from his mouth. The vulgar imagination made haste to transform the audacious fanatic into a child of David. Multitudes flocked to his standard. The whole Jewish race throughout the world was in commotion. The insurrection gained head. The heights about Jerusalem were seized and occupied, and fortifications were erected; nothing but the “host of angels" was needed to insure victory.
The angels did not appear; the Roman legions did. The " Messiah," not proving himself a conqueror, was held to have proved himself an impostor, the "son of a lie" (Frothingham, Cradle of the Christ).
The impetuous zeal with which the Jews rushed to the standard of this Messianic impostor, in the 130th year of the Christian era, demonstrates the true Jewish character, and shows how readily any one who made the claim, was believed to be " He who should come." Even the celebrated Rabbi Akiba sanctioned this daring fraud. Akiba declared that the so-called prophecy of Balaam: "a star shall rise out of Jacob, "was accomplished. Hence the impostor took his title of Bar-Cockabas, or Son of the Star; and Akiba not only publicly anointed him " KING OF THE JEWS," and placed an imperial diadem upon his head, but followed him to the field at the head of four-and-twenty thousand of his disciples, and acted in the capacity of master of his horse.
In the absence of the fulfillment of the Jewish prophecies in the Jewish Scriptures, faith in Jesus as the Messiah waned, especially in the failure of him to reappear before the destruction of the Temple as well as the war of 135 A.D. Those who yet believed on the meek and benevolent Jesus, and whose number was very small, were of that class who believed in the doctrine of the Angel-Messiah, first heard of among them when taken captives to Babylon. The Davidic Messiah did not appear. Hopes were split between the yet coming of the Biblical Messiah with those of the Angel-Messiah of the Essene-Christians. These believed that just as Buddha appeared at different intervals, and as Vishnu appeared at different intervals, the avatars appeared among the Jews. Adam, and Enoch, and Noah, and Elijah or Elias, might in outward appearance be different men, but they were really the self-same divine person successively animating various human bodies! This is clearly seen from the statement made by the writer of the Gospel of Matthew (xvii:9-13) that the disciples of Jesus supposed John the Baptist was Elias.
The prevailing opinion of the Rabbis and the people alike, in Jesus' day, was, that the Messiah would simply be a great prince, who should found a kingdom of matchless splendor. With a few, however, like the Essene-Christians, the conception of the Messiah's kingdom was pure and lofty...Daniel, and all who wrote after him, painted the "Expected One," as a heavenly being. He was the "messenger," the "Elect of God," appointed from eternity, to appear in due time, and redeem his people (Geike, Life of Christ, vol. 1, pp. 80-81). In the book of Daniel, by some supposed to have been written during the captivity, by others as late as Antiochus Epiphanies (B.C.E. 175), the restoration of the Jews is described in tremendous language, and the Messiah is portrayed as a supernatural personage, in close relation with Jehovah himself. In the book of Enoch, supposed to have been written at various intervals between 144 and 120 B.C.E., and to have been completed in its present form in the first half of the second century that preceded the advent of Jesus, the figure of the Messiah is invested with supernatural abilities. He is called "The Son of God," "whose name was spoken before the Sun was made;" "who existed from the beginning in the presence of God," that is, was pre-existent. At the same time his human characteristics are insisted on. He is called "Son of Man," even "Son of Woman," "The Anointed," or "The Christ," "The Righteous One" (Frothingham,The Cradle of the Christ, p. 20).
Christ Jesus was the avatar of the ninth age, Christ Cyrus was the avatar of the eighth. Of the hero of the eighth age it is said: “Thus said the Lord to his Anointed (i.e., His Christ), his Messiah, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden to subdue nations.'" The eighth period began about the Babylonish captivity, about six hundred years before Christ Jesus.
The ninth began with Christ Jesus, making in all eight cycles before Jesus.
"What was known in Judea more than a century before the birth of Jesus Christ cannot have been introduced among Buddhists by Christian missionaries. It will become equally certain that the bishop and church-historian, Eusebius, was right when be wrote, that he considered it highly probable that the writings of the Essenic Therapeuts in Egypt had been incorporated into our Gospels, and into some Pauline epistles" (Bunsen, The Angel-Messiah, p. 17).
Well there you have it in summary form: How the Jewish Messiah, thought by many to be Jesus, was later interpreted as a Phythagorean-Buddhist-Iranian sun-godman and how the concepts were later blurred as we find today in the writings of the New Testament as quoted from a forged and adulterated Old Testament which was purposefully mistranslated by the Greek-Jewish Essenes of Alexandria to further their authority for their corporate religious body. With the crucifixion of Jesus these "beliefs" were applied to him following his death and with the conversion of this corporate Essene body into the early Jewish Messianic Movement these "Essenic beliefs" would later divide the conservative Pharisees from the Essenes. The separatist movement would gather steam as the documents of this sect and their teachings highly influenced the Greeks who were coming to the faith as well as their intellectuals which were again influenced by the Alexandrian religious thought. For further information on the subject of the connection between Essenism and Christianity, the reader is referred to Taylor's Diegesis, Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, and the works of S. F. Dunlap.