THIS SECTION is about these events, as they transpired circa 96 - 73 B. C. E., when the Age of Pisces began.
The Teacher's Oak is a story we first came across when we read J. M. Allegro's The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Christian Myth. Because of this, it will undoubtedly be dismissed as spurious, since just about everything this Adept wrote was considered spurious by the lesser ones in the bunco racket of Academia. Well, we care not for such things, ourselves, because we are capable of tying ideas together across space-time, and this, though it may seem like too much braggadoccio, is a sign of Adept-ship.
The basic story runs something like this: A 'supreme act of villainy' was committed upon the Teacher of Righteousness, by the Wicked Priest, on the Day of Atonement, at the location of the Essene Community, in the vicinity of Shechem, by Gilgal, where the Oak of Mamreh was located. The Teacher was waiting for the Wicked Priest.
Well, the Teacher was hung upside down, and died. This was supposedly the end of the affair. The Teacher of Righteousness was the Messiah (i.e., Head) of the Community. The Sacrifice took place at an auspicious time, and, contrary to later revisionist scholarship, there is a good reason to hold to the pre-Common Era dating, rather than to bring everything a hundred years or so later. If we splice together the story, as we shall be running it below, verbatim from Allegro, with the Sepher Toledoth Yeshu, we shall see that the events narrated would have to have been committed earlier than revisionist scholars want to accept. Not only that, it allows for the time required for certain bands of this group to migrate to the places they were going, in order to get away from the people responsible for destroying the Mission, and betraying the principal characters in the story, neutralizing them, and co-opting them to suit their purposes.
Is it out of context, or simply irrelevant, to connect, or attempt to connect, the verse from Liber AL vel Legis, to the subject matter of this chapter? Not at all. We also recommend the interested reader re-read the section on the Yezidis. There are good reasons for this. There are a lot of people who represent Christianity as an opposition to Nature. Yet they condemn certain acts as crimes against nature. But, the original movements, even if they may have misinterpreted the teachings received from the spiritual protectors of the religion, were really what we can call Nature Itself, personified as objective consciousness temporarily formulated as the voice of the silence manifesting in the company of the prophet(s) of the sect.
It is a mistake to assume that there is only one Prophet at a time. That is really a social control mechanism put in place by people who do not possess the Gift, and want to monopolize the Vision for themselves, and probably make money on it as well. This the Christian church has done as long as it has been in business, and other groups do this to this very day. If you possess the Gift, you already know this. I need not tell you.
So, when we speak out against Christianity, we are speaking out against everything that came after the First Family, and the original sect, split the scene. Petrine, Pauline, all the rest, is flawed, contrived, and wholly illegitimate. And Leonardo da Vinci was worried about being a bastard... Even the Jewish Christians, who were the sect of believers attached to the original movement, misunderstood the runes, but they transformed this into the Angel Cults that survived them.
The Natural manifestation of Spirit - that which was able to "Fulfill the Law" was vouchsafed to humankind, but this was not possible to give to everybody all at once, because it was much too risky, what with all the Roman activity taking place! People refuse to accept that a Jewish sect that was Legitimate could accept ideas from foreigners. Since when? It is a practice that has been going on as long as there's been Jews, and it still exists today! Oy vey! This would later be typified in the movement created around the life and activities of Shabbetai Zevi, and his successor, Jakob Frank.
We may have to cross-cut the stories together, between Allegro and the Toledoth Yeshu, and then, perhaps the story discovered and commented upon by Shlomo Pines.
When these stories are cut together, it should no longer seem fanciful OR far-fetched that this could take place. In fact, it makes for quite a mystery.
Consider the following to be another segment of "Readings in the Authentic Tradition" ! And, be sure to save a copy, if you want the text extracts as they are presented, in nearly their entirety, in some cases, for we plan to cut them up and re-arrange them according to a chronological manner.
What we knew of the Essenes before their writings were discovered had led us to expect a highly motivated and exclusive organisation. Early descriptions had stressed their asceticism and piety. They appear not to have been very numerous (Pliny estimates their number as about 4,000), but they were wide-spread, living in their own communities on the outskirts of towns and villages throughout Palestine. The Essenes themselves spoke of these settlements as 'camps', consciously recalling the desert encampments of their forefathers under Moses. They were a secretive and closely knit society, with a well-arranged system of intercommunication, offering hospitality and facilities to brethren whose business took them around the country. This secrecy and ease of movement can hardly have endeared them to the Roman colonial administration, always on the lookout in this rebellious corner of the empire for signs of subversion through underground channels of communication. The Essenes' rejection of the Jewish hierarchy in Jerusalem would have made them no less obnoxious in orthodox circles at a time when the Jews had to be careful not to offend their Roman masters for fear of their religion losing its favoured status as a permitted faith with its own independent cultus.
Essenism may have been a quietist movement, prepared to await with patience God's time for the inauguration of His Kingdom, without actively provoking the war that would herald the event, but one of its scrolls deals in detail with the orfder and events of that awful cataclysm. Then, as the Sons of Light under their princely Messiah, the Essenes would assume a leading role in the struggle against the Children of Darkness led by the Archon of Evil, the devil, or Belial. In the meantime, from at least the beginning of the first century, a more activist group was working behind the scenes with the intention of bringing about that war. These Zealots, as they were called, had identified the cosmic forces of evil with the Roman occupying army, and were preparing an armed insurrection against that mighty Colossus in the expectation that their puny numbers would be supplemented with angelic hosts from on high. It was largely owing to Zealot activities that the disastrous revolt took place, beginning in Caesarea in AD 66, and spreading like wildfire throughout the country. Its end, with the destruction of the Temple in AD 70, turned the tide of human history certainly, but not in the way its instigators intended or could have foreseen.
The precise relationship between the Essenes and their more vigorous and ruthless contemporaries is difficult to determine, since both groups were highly secretive, and no documents specifically related to the Zealot faction have come to light. Both movements had some historical precedent in the Maccabean uprisings of the second century BC, when a comparatively few courageous men had managed to wrest a short-lived independence from a weakened Greek administration. Even then, however, the activities of the militants were challenged by a pious section of the community who grew increasingly alarmed at the degree to which the exigencies of war were allowed to conflict with and override religious principles long established among a theocratic people.
Pious Jews looked back to biblical prophecies proclaimed during the Babylonian exile of the sixth century BC, which declared that Israel's mission to the world was that of a Chosen People, ordained to be spiritual leaders of mankind. Upon this rock of faithful piety, God would found His Kingdom on earth, and restore the world to its primeval state of innocence and glory. Just how this promise was to be fulfilled was variously understood by a succession of charismatic leaders, depending largely on the political conditions obtaining at their time and on their own social status. This constant interplay in Jewish history between religious, social, and political forces was always important, but never more so than during the events leading to the first great revolt of AD 66-70, and in the moulding of Essene-Christian ideas over the turn of the era.
After the Scrolls were discovered and began to be studied in depth, scholars spilt much ink and generated a good deal of heated debate about whether their authors were Essenes or Zealots. In fact, the division between these two parties was probably never so clear-cut. Much the same ideas were cherished by both factions; it was in their interpretation and implementation that they differed most. Their underlying community of purpose would have been increasingly manifested when news of the great revolt reached the Essene communities. Such an act of heroic madness must be the long-awaited sign of the end-time, the necessary preliminary to Armageddon and the inception of the messianic rule on earth. At such a time one might well expect the Essenes to doff their traditional white robes of peace and to don the trappings of the Holy War, to lay aside their quills and march to join the angelic forces of the Lord of Hosts. In any case, as far as their monastery by the Dead Sea was concerned, the appearance of a Roman legion in Jericho in the spring of AD 68 would have left any remaining doubters no option but to fight for their little home, or leave its defence to their more militant cousins . Only such an amalgamation of interests could account for the deposit of a Zealot inventory of Temple treasures in an Essene cave along with sectarian documents.
The Essenes were not strangers to political activism. Their scrolls speak of sharp divisions of opinion with other Jews and even, apparently, within their own movement. Certainly these differences would have been religious in origin, but it has to be remembered that our modern tendency to segregate the religious life from secular affairs had never any counterpart in the Jewish world, and even today complicates vital decision-making in Israel's international relations . [1]
The Essene separatist movement within Judaism was motivated by a concern for the purity of the Faith, but it had political overtones: the pietists believed that in the Jewish Establishment's anxiety to accommodate the cultus and city administration to Roman colonial requirements, it had betrayed its sacred trust. In one respect in particular the quarrel was deep-seated. It is clear from the Scrolls and certain apocryphal works like the books of Jubilees and Enoch, long known but now recognised as having emanated from Essene circles, that the sectarians observed their religious festivals according to a solar-based calendar, whereas the official Temple cultus was regulated according to lunar observations. It has been shown that, in fact, the Essene system was the more ancient and traditional, traceable in literature to the time of the Exile at least, and, as with so much of Essene thinking, having its roots in the very heart of the old agricultural life of ancient Israel. [2] The official adoption of a 'new-fangled' lunar reckoning may have been no older than the later Maccabean leadership, when it seemed more important to integrate Judaism closer into the Hellenistic world than to adhere to outmoded and indeed less exact forms of reckoning time.
If some form of dual-calendar compromise had ever been tried, the Hellenistic lunar arrangement being followed for diplomatic and commercial purposes, and the traditional solar reckoning being maintained for cultic use, it did not apparently satisfy the purist inclinations of the Essenes. [3] Their only alternative was to separate themselves entirely from the Temple rituals and to follow their calling as best they could in a self-imposed exile. In their eyes, such a drastic step could only be a temporary measure until such time as the messianic 'Interpreter of the Law', as they called the expected priestly Anointed (Hebrew Mashiah) , should come and clarify all matters of faith and conduct. In any case, it is easy to see that the motivation for their withdrawal could be reckoned as much political as religious; when the Kingdom of Heaven had been established on earth there would be no more disputes about the closer integration of the secular with the religious, for all would be one, with God ruling every aspect of life for all mankind.
From our point of view, it is a pity that the Essene writers follow a custom shared by the author of the Book of Daniel in referring to persons and events cryptically by pseudonym rather than by their real names. In the eleventh chapter of that book, for example, the carious Ptolemaic and Seleucid rulers of the Greek kingdoms are called simply 'kings of the north' and 'kings of the south', and the Romans are known as the 'Kittim', a term properly applied to the inhabitants of Cyprus . Similarly, the Scrolls call their revered leader the 'Teacher of Righteousness' , or 'Righteous Teacher', his arch-enemy the 'Wicked Priest', along with similar designations of reproach, like 'Man of Lies', 'Scoffer', 'Spouter of Lies', and they refer to one major faction of the opposition as 'Seekers-after-Smooth-Things '. They never refer to themselves by what must have been their popular title, 'Essenes', but as ' Men of the Covenant ', ' Men of the Community ', the 'Children of Light ', and so on.
Only in one document do the Essene writers allow themselves to identify by name characters otherwise known in Jewish history, in a context which shows clearly that the event had some particular relevance for the history of their own movement and the fate of their own people. It is reasonable to assume that this break with custom was intended to convey information deemed of paramount importance to the Essene cause, and which it was essential for all future generations of Covenanters to recall accurately. The names of the sect's enemies were not of lasting importance; there had doubtless been many in the course of their rebellious rejection of the official Jewish hierarchy, and there would be others before they were finally justified before God. But the work and vicarious suffering of their Teacher of Righteousness was of another order, marking a significant development in the history of mankind . According to one of their oldest writings, God had raised him up 'to guide them in the way of His heart', to lead them into a New Covenant in 'the land of Damascus', and they look forward to the coming of a Messiah who bears his titles of 'Priest' and 'Teacher of Righteousness' . If they were not anticipating their own Teacher's return in the flesh, as some commentators believe, at least they had no doubt that the coming 'Interpreter of the Law' would be modelled after their martyred leader, as he himself had been in his day a later counterpart to one who expounded the Law to Israel (See below, Chapter Five). [4]
The historical references occur in a fragmentary commentary on the biblical book of Nahum, reconstructed from scroll fragments recovered from the Partridge Cade, and first published by the present writer in 1956. The crucial lines of text run as follows, the biblical source being printed in italics, and reconstructions of broken passages placed within square brackets, as elsewhere in citations of defective texts:
Whither the lion, [5] the lioness went, there is the lion's cub [with none to disturb it (2:11). Interpreted, this concerns Deme]trius, king of Greece, who sought to enter Jerusalem through the counsel of the Seekers-after-Smooth-Things. [But God did not permit the city to be delivered] into the hands of the kings of Greece, from the time of Antiochus to the appearance of the rulers of the Kittim. But then she will be trodden down [. . .]
The lion tears enough for his cubs, and strangles prey for his lionesses (2:12). [Its interpretation] concerns the Lion of Wrath who smites by means of his nobles and the men of his council.
[And strangles prey for his lionesses; and he fills] his caves [with prey] and his den with torn flesh (2:12). Its interpretation concerns the Lion of Wrath [who executes ven]geance upon the Seekers-after-Smooth-Things when he hangs men up alive, [a thing never done] in Israel before, for it is in respect of a man crucified upon a tree that it goes on : Behold, I am against [you, says the Lord of Hosts. I will burn up in smoke your abundance], and the sword shall devour your young lions. I will [cut off] your prey [from the earth[, and] the voice of your messengers shall no [more be heard] (2:13). Its interpretation: your abundance - they are his warrior bands [who are in Jerusa]lem; and his young lions - they are his nobles [...] and his prey - it is the wealth which the priests of Jerusalem have amassed, which. . .
Despite the strangeness of the sect's methods of biblical exposition, taking passages out of context and even changing them to suit the occasion, the historic references of this commentary are clear. The Jewish king-priests who later represented the Maccabean line on the throne of Israel were more political warlords than leaders of the nation's religious life. Their policy was one of conquest and plunder of their neighbours, and they undoubtedly 'amassed great riches' in the process. But in fairness it has to be appreciated that, however idealistic may be the aims of all holy wars such as those waged by the Maccabees, political independence needs thereafter to be sustained through the same military means that achieved it. The pietists of that age, the so-called Hasidim, from whose stock both Essenes and Pharisees probably derived , saw the danger and urged the men of war to call a halt when it seemed they had secured the nation's religious freedom. However, war is rarely an isolated event; even if the original enemy is defeated, there are usually more antagonists waiting in the wings to seize the fruits of victory, or through envy or sense of deprivation to harass the infant state before it can grow dangerously powerful. So it was with the later Maccabean kingdom and its rulers, of whom the most infamous was Alexander Jannaeus (103 - 76 BC).
There was no doubt of Jannaeus' prowess as a military leader, and his entire reign was spent in almost ceaseless warfare against his Arab neighbours. But it is one thing having a successful general fight your battles, particularly if, as with Jannaeus, he employs foreign mercenaries to do the actual fighting; it is another having this same person return from the wars, his hands still stained with blood, and proceed to perform the sacred duties of High Priest in the Temple. Josephus tells us how, on one such occasion, on the Feast of Tabernacles, outraged pietists screamed abuse at the king, denying his legal right to the office he desecrated, since he was the son of a slave woman and not of pure descent. They began pelting him with the citron fruits they were carrying as part of the celebrations. Jannaeus was not the sort of person to take these insults lightly, and he set his mercenary troops on his own people, massacring several thousands. Perhaps we should see the hands of the Essenes behind this rallying of the faithful, for one of their documents speaks of the time when 'bastards and sons of strangers' should never again set foot in the Temple. In any case, it has seemed to many scholars that it was about this time [6] that the Teacher of Righteousness gathered together some of the faithful priests and fled into the desert to begin their exile from Israel's spiritual centre in Jerusalem until such time as God should see fit to vindicate His sons and inaugurate the Kingdom of Heaven on earth .
It is certainly to this Alexander Jannaeus that the Nahum commentary refers under the pseudonym of 'Lion of Wrath' seeking vengeance upon his foes. He was a terrible enemy, hated and feared by all men. We are told by Josephus that he was known by the nickname 'Thracian'. Many of his mercenaries came from Asia Minor (Thrace), and one suspects that they taught their Jewish master not only the art of ruthless warfare, but something of their own Dionysiac religion, the worship of the God Bacchus, or Dionysus . [7] The divine hero they served, 'the Thracian' par excellence , was famed above all for the strange power he wielded over his devotees, particularly women. These Maenads, or Bacchantes ( Bacchae ), as they are called, were said to run berserk through the coniferous forests, calling on their god and demonstrating a superhuman strength and blinding blood-lust. They seized any animal that crossed their path and tore its living body to pieces, as a 'lion tears its prey'. Whatever their source of religious inspiration, there is little doubt that they owed much of their frenzied strength to some other form of intoxication, including the use of drugs.
The most famous story concerning the Maenads is that which forms the climax of the Euripidean play The Bacchae . Pentheus, king of Thebes, aroused the god's disfavour by declaring him an impostor and his votaries were dupes. The king tried his best to stop their secret revels, but to no avail. The Maenads escaped his restraint and went raging up the sacred Mount Cithaeron, tearing calves to pieces with their bare hands. Dionysus, in disguise, suggested to Pentheus that he should dress himself as a woman and spy on their revels from a tree. This he did, but the frenzied females saw him watching them, spreadeagled upon the branches and helpless, and pulled him down. His own mother, Agave, leading the screaming horde, was the first to lay hands on her son, and, blinded to his identity by her divine madness, tore off his head.
In the terrible sequel to the demonstration by the Jewish dissidents, Alexander Jannaeus showed himself a true follower of 'the Thracian'. After the butchery in Jerusalem, he led his mercenaries off to fight more wars with his neighbours, but this time was heavily defeated by the Arab king Obedas . He barely escaped with his life, and just managed to struggle back to Jerusalem, only to find that the Pharisees had taken this opportunity to make open rebellion against him. So far they might have expected to have had the moral, if not active support of the exiled Teacher and his friends. But after six years of civil war, the rebels took the unwise step of 'seeking the Smooth Thing' , in this case calling in outside help in the shape of the Greek king Demetrius III, Euchaerus. This will be the Demetrius referred to in the Nahum commentary which, incidentally, contributes a new piece of information on the course of events at that time.
Demetrius arrived with his army and met the malcontents at Shechem. Together they dealt a crushing defeat on Alexander, but then Josephus tells us that for some reason many of the rebels changed sides and joined Jannaeus' defeated army. The explanation for this apparent change of heart is now evident from the Essene commentator's note that Demetrius 'had tried to enter Jerusalem'. Naturally enough, the Greek ruler intended to secure the fruits of victory and take over the country. But while it was expedient for the Pharisees having a foreign army help settle their differences with a native tyrant, it was quite intolerable for an alien to assume the vacant throne and tread the sacred courts of the Holy City. So many of Demetrius' supporters deserted him, choosing the lesser of the two evils, and the Greek general was obliged to retire northwards.
Alexander was not one to forget his humiliation, however. Inflamed with lust for revenge no less frenzied and terrible than that which characterised the votaries of the Thracian god, he set about rounding up those who had betrayed him to a foreign enemy. He dragged forth from their places of refuge all who had challenged his priestly legitimacy, and in that state of mind he would have cared little whether they had supported the call to Demetrius or drawn back from that 'Smooth Thing'. It was enough that they should be among those who had deplored his kingship and denied his sacerdotal authority. He determined once for all to make an example of his opponents, whatever their motivation. As many as he could capture he turned over to his Thracian mercenaries to be 'hanged alive upon a tree', that is, crucified. We are told that the stakes were erected on the terrace below the palace in Jerusalem, so that this Jewish king, High Priest of the Israelite God, could enjoy the spectacle of people of his own race being crucified while he caroused with women from his harem . [8] To add further savour to the horrific feast, he had the wives and children of the wretched victims massacred before their dying eyes.
This manner of execution was a foreign punishment, originating in Persia . The Nahum commentary expresses the wave of horror that must have swept through Jewry at the news of Jannaeus' terrible vengeance: 'it was never done before in Israel', that is, a Jew crucifying Jews, for the Law of Moses states that 'a hanged man is accursed of God'. (Deuteronomy 21:22). The punishment, extending even to estrangement from God, inflicted upon pious men whose only fault had been zeal for the proper conduct of Israel's most sacred office, merited the Essene commentator's applying against its instigator, the Lion of Wrath, the biblical imprecation that follows in the Nahum text: 'Behold, I am against thee, says the Lord of Hosts.'
This awful event of about 88 BC must have had some particular significance for the Essenes, or their commentary on Nahum would not have made so pointed a reference to the crucifixion of the faithful, nor gone so far as to name the chief foreign characters in the drama and thus to set the scene firmly into history. Looking back years later, the Essene commentators must have seen the infamous act as marking a turning-point in the affairs of man, a sign of the dawn of that eschatological period they call 'the End of Days' . It cannot be stressed too strongly in our appreciation of the sectarians' point of view of historical events that their importance lay not in any ordered sequence of cause and effect, or in their immediate outcome, nor even in the details of persons and places involved, but in their eschatological significance, that is, in their value as markers to point the way to the end of the present world order . That is why we have found the Scrolls so disappointing as records of history of the sect and its chief personalities; there are no 'gospels' in the New Testament sense of a collection of stories and sayings of an inspired teacher and his friends and kinsfolk. We should not expect to read in the manuscripts descriptions of individuals, the way they looked and spoke, their dress and manner of speech, nor accounts of conjuring tricks performed on water that changed into wine, or fig trees withering at a word, or tales of mouldering corpses springing to life. Indeed, were such to appear we should be rightly suspicious of their purpose and wonder why, in such a serious and esoteric society, their writers should be so free to divulge names and places with such abandon, or to dwell so lovingly on the kind of day-to-day minutiae which so enliven the New Testament narratives, and assure their perennial popularity. The Essene, living in this crucial period of the end-time, was not concerned with such trivia; he looked for 'signs of the times', the better to estimate the approach of the end of his age's agony, and the manifestation of God's new order. Of such signs, the Essene must have counted the crucifixion of the eight hundred as of the greatest significance, and particularly if among the victims he numbered his own beloved Teacher of Righteousness .
For if their own leader had not been involved in the tragic sequel to the folly of the Seekers-after-Smooth-Things, the events would not have been recalled so pointedly in the Essene commentary . There had been other attacks upon dissident religious groups in that turbulent period; the relationship between the Maccabean house and the nation's spiritual leaders had always been strained. Even the bestiality of Jannaeus in his treatment of his own subjects was sadly not unparalleled in the post-Maccabean era; yet nowhere else in the Scrolls so far recovered is there such deliberate reference to an identifiable act of vicious tyranny.
Another Essene biblical commentary refers to the onslaught upon the Teacher of Righteousness in the 'place of his exile'. It comes in a similar treatment - or mistreatment - of passages in the book of Habakkuk:
Traitors! Why do you merely look on and remain silent when a wicked person attacks one who is more righteous than he? (1:13) Its interpretation concerns the House of Absalom and the men of their council who remained dumb when the Teacher of Righteousness was chastised, and gave him no help against the Man of Lies who flouted the Law in the midst of the whole congregation . . . [9]
Woe to him who makes his companions drink the outpouring of his venom, intoxicating them so that he may gaze upon their solemnities! (2:15). Its interpretation concerns the Wicked Priest who pursued after the Teacher of Righteousness to the place of his exile, to make him drink of the cup of his venom. And at the time appointed for rest, the Day of Atonement, he appeared suddenly before them to attack them, and make them stumble on the Day of Fasting, their Sabbath of rest . [10]
Yet another reference to the Teacher's persecution appears in a commentary on Psalm 37, first published by the present writer in 1954 and 1956:
The wicked watches for the righteous and seeks [to slay him. The Lord will not abandon him in his hand and will not] condemn him when he is tried . (vv. 32 - 33). Its interpretation concerns the Wicked Priest who [rose up against the Teacher of Righteousness] to put him to death [. . .] and the teaching he delivered to him. But God will not abandon him and will not [condemn him when] he is brought to Judgement. But [God will] pay [him, (i.e. the Wicked Priest)] his due when he gives him into the power of terrible nations for the execution upon him [of judgement].
This theme of the Teacher's passion and of his betrayal has a corollary that those who believe in him and suffer on his account may hope to reap the reward of the righteous. Like the Teacher himself, they will not be abandoned by God on the Day of Judgement that must face all men. Thus another passage in the Habakkuk commentary reads:
[ But the righteous shall live by faith (2:4)]. Its interpretation concerns all who observe the Law in the House of Judah, whom God will deliver from the Hall of Judgement because of their suffering and because of their faith in the Teacher of Righteousness. [11]
(See also Chapter Ten).
1. The Essenes left, circa 68 c.e., for Pella and other towns North and East of the Community, became identified with various groups, including Ebionites, Elkesaites, Sampsaeans, the Therapeutae in Egypt, the Qadosh Fathers, and ultimately some of them became Christianized under the term Desert Fathers, in both SYRIA and EGYPT. The Zealots probably inherited the Community after the Essenes proper, and their Upper Management level, split.
2. And the Nippur Calendar.
3. There are completely functional reasons for this.
4. This is very suggestive of the idea of renewing Avatars of "John" -- i.e., Dustan, Dostai, Dositheos, Jonathan, etc.
5. Lion? Any relation to Panthers, like Yeshu ben Pandiru or Panther?
6. c. 96 BCE.
7. But... see DaCosta, the Dionysian Artificers .
8. Compare the story of Spartacus. Never mind the oysters and snails reference!
9. This is similar to the "Impostor" in the NHL .
10. Perhaps, too, he was prevented from invoking the Name, which goes back to most ancient times. PERHAPS HE REFUSED, like HIRAM ABIF, to offer up the WORD OF A MASTER MASON, and his refusal brought about his sacrifice, and the cursing of those who tried to steal it. We can see many parallels between the III° Legend and this story, as we also see much in the Teacher's Oak, which would end up in both the Hekhalot period and the Book Bahir .
11. I.e., the Righteous of the Community; the partisans of the Teacher of Righteousness, shall live by faith, in the knowledge that they would receive their reward, for putting good faith in their Leader. Not the Christian usage of the term. This is one of the most controversial of all the Scrolls, the Habakkuk Pesher, and it finally was issued by Eisenmann and Wise in 1992. Our disagreements with their conclusions aside, this was an embarrassment to all forms of the Church, and for this reason Allegro was fired from the team, ended up dying, so the story goes. We are convinced Allegro was THE ONLY competent scholar in the bunch, for what he writes makes perfect sense, linguistically, liturgically, theologically, historically.
On one occasion, during the filming for a television programme on the Dead Sea Scrolls, one of our cameramen was being driven down the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. He was making his first acquaintance with the Rift Valley, and as the journey progressed and the road plunged ever deeper into the wilderness, he became unusually silent and morose. At length, with all the heartfelt disillusion of an exiled Englishman, he exclaimed, 'Lord, what a god-forsaken hole!'
One could see his point. In the parched heat of summer this desert scene has a certain grandeur, certainly, and in the past it has inspired prophets of doom, but it is not a pretty sight. Nevertheless, the pious sojourner of the Essene settlement would not have echoed our friend's sentiments in quite those terms. He had, after all, come to this scene of desolation specifically to seek his God, and to await His further revelation. But why there, of all places, in the Holy Land?
We have already seen that the Essenes built their monastery upon a much earlier structure, probably identifiable with one of the biblical 'cities of the wilderness', Secacah. While the name is reminiscent of the Hebrew word for 'tabernacle' (sukkah), the desert sanctuary of God during the Exodus, and thus of some special interest to these latter-day pilgrims, this alone would not have persuaded them to site their temporal dwelling on this spot. The reason for their choice must lie, as with almost every other aspect of Essene thought and practice, in their philosophy of history.
Pious Jews believed that everything that had befallen their people was part of God's master-plan for mankind. He had chosen Israel to serve Him before even the world had been made. She was to be the instrument of His salvation. In the beginning the world had been created in perfect harmony, but the disobedience of Adam and Eve had brought sin and suffering into Eden. Feeding upon itself, this first disobedience had bred more corruption until at length it became necessary to destroy nearly all human life and start afresh with the one remaining nucleus of righteous piety that remained, Noah and his immediate family. When, alas, this new brave world also strayed into rebellion and depravity, God called forth Abraham from Mesopotamia to found a more faithful lineage. Thereafter He nurtured the patriarchal ancestors of Israel with love and discipline through a series of vicissitudes and victories until He could reveal to them the nature of their divine calling and responsibilities.
During the desert wandering under Moses, following their providential escape from Egypt, the Israelites were welded into a nation, allowed to know the secret name of God , and given the inestimable gift of the Torah , or Law. During those forty years they were made aware of the duties and privileges that must accompany their status of a Chosen People. Israel had been favoured above all the other nations with knowledge of the Law, since through this self-revelation on the part of God she alone could know His will perfectly, and in obedience to its demands could achieve a harmony with the divine master-plan hidden from lesser men. At the same time, more was required of her than could be expected from less enlightened peoples. Disobedience would be punished more harshly, and, above all, to serve other gods would estrange her from the love and protection of her God, leaving her open to the envy and hostility of stronger nations.
The desert wandering was thus a school of discipline to prepare Israel for her entry into the Promised Land, when she would fulfil her missionising role of bringing all mankind to the throne of the one true God. Her first great leader Moses was not himself to see that day, but she was granted another law-giver, no less favoured in wisdom and miraculous power, Joshua, son of Nun.
[1] This pattern of events - election, recurrent rebellion, chastisement, repentance, and salvation - was to be repeated throughout the following centuries of Israel's history. In every age, her people would go astray and reject their high calling, only to be called back to their responsibilities by a new charismatic leader, priest, king, or prophet. The message was always the same: a reminder of Israel's election to divine favour, her past apostasies, her punishment, and her restoration through unmerited grace. As God spoke once through Moses, so He speaks again; as He punished the nation's sins by withdrawing His love and protection, and condemning her to further periods of enslavement and humiliation, so He will do again. But repentance will be met with renewed promise and a restoration to the fold of His exclusive service.
In the fulness of time, this repeated pattern of apostasy and restoration would reach a climax in the final holocaust which would engulf all mankind, grown too corrupt to respond to Israel's evangelistic mission. As in the days of Noah and the Flood, the wicked would be swept from the face of the earth, renegade Jew and gentile alike, leaving only the Sons of Light under their messianic leadership to inaugurate the new order and usher in the Kingdom of God. There would then follow the millennium, a thousand-year period of peace and harmony with the divine will, until the final dissolution of all things .
There was, then, in Essene understanding a repetitiveness in human history which was basic to their philosophy. What had happened before would happen again, not through some automatic process triggered by a mindless fate, but through the fluctuating nature of man's response to God. Given that Adam had been granted - or had recklessly seized - the gift of knowledge and self-determination, God could only effect His plan through persuasion and correction. It was therefore inevitable that the record of human affairs should be marked by successive periods of waywardness and reconciliation, of rebellion and repentance, and that the ideal state of grace and harmony should at times be disrupted by wars and natural disasters .
The record of these cycles in human affairs could be seen in the Scriptures, and their interpretation in the words of the prophets. The Essenes paid more attention to these prophetic books of the Bible than was customary among more orthodox Jews of their time, for they sought there clues to the course of future events. These prophecies were not the vague predictions of a fortune-teller peering into a crystal ball, but the inspired utterances of men of God, well versed in the Law. They could estimate Israel's future by measuring the quality of her previous responses to God's demands. The art of prognostication lay in understanding the past .
We have already noted a few examples of biblical exegesis in the Scrolls, and may have wondered at the freedom with which the commentators manipulated the text to suit their purpose, and at the strained, even at times bizarre, meaning they wrested from the plain words of Scripture. But it has to be remembered that the Essene exegete considered himself as inspired by the spirit of prophecy as the original writer, and thus had been granted no less a divine authority for his interpretation. We shall only understand these strange people and their ways if we try to enter into their time and place, suspend our more 'scientific' approach to documentary traditions, and above all free ourselves from our insistence upon a logical progression of events and an exact chronology .
We must adopt the Essene cyclical view of history and pore with those extreme 'fundamentalists' over the sacred text, word for word, letter for letter, seeking with them some clue to their expectations of the future and appreciation of the past . With them we must regard every syllable of Scripture as inspired, and every meaning we can extract from each word, however offensive the process to our philological training, must be accepted if it seems to help in the task of discerning with the Essene prognosticators the 'signs of the times'.
The Covenanters were, then, a People of the Book, studying the Law and the Prophets day and night. But they were not just observers; they believed they were required to play an active role in the establishment of the new Kingdom, and had thus to use their predictive powers to fit themselves for their special calling. It was not enough that they should be able to apprehend the divine plan; they must conform to its design in all that they thought, said, and did. They must become the perfect instruments of God, completely at one with the divine purpose, and totally dedicated to His cause . Only by appreciating this high resolve can we begin to enter into the Essene mind, or to comprehend the nature and purpose of their existence by the barren shores of the Dead Sea.
Going back, then, to our search for the answer to 'why Qumran/Secacah?', we shall expect to find the clue in the history of Israel and in biblical prophecy concerning the Last Days.
As to the past, we need to look no further than a few miles to the north, to Jericho and the fords across the Jordan. It was there that Joshua, son of Nun, in his role of Moses' successor, led the Israelites across to the Promised Land (Joshua 3). As the Red Sea had parted before Moses and the tribes fleeing from their Egyptian oppressors, so now the waters of the Jordan piled themselves in a heap upstream to leave the river-bed dry to the feet of priests and people (v. 14 ff). In this repetition of history was a sure sign of God's intentions towards Israel, and of His confirmation of Joshua's prophetic office. Before the Israelites lay many generations of continual struggle against the inhabitants of the land they had come to possess, and of even more perilous contacts with the seductive cults of the local gods. It was fitting, therefore, that Joshua should immediately lead the people into a renewal of their covenant with their God, in preparation for the times of trial that awaited them and their descendants.
So now, a millennium and a half later, when the Essenes faced the most exacting challenge of all time, they gathered in the vicinity of the first crossing [2] to renew their vows before God. They called themselves the 'men of the New Covenant, or New Testament', and prepared themselves under their Teacher, another 'Joshua' (in its Greek form, Jesus), to enter the Promised Land of the new era. They speak of their exile as a token 'forty years' of trial, or temptation, in the desert. It was for them, as for their forefathers, a time of great privation and self-imposed discipline, to fit them for their glorious mission and high office in the messianic Kingdom . Later we shall look at other associations of the Jericho area which seemed to the Essenes to confirm their belief that they were following in the footsteps of history .
As to their fulfilling biblical prophecy in their choice of home, we need to bear in mind one important feature of the messianic age. It was to be marked by a restoration of harmony in nature, lost, as it was believed, since the expulsion of man's first parents from Paradise. We see this hope expressed in a number of very familiar passages in the Bible. For example, Isaiah's description of the future rule of the Messiah, a scion of the house of David, includes this highly idealistic, if improbable, ecological situation:
" The wolf
shall dwell with the lamb ,
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
and the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall feed,
their young shall lie down together ;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The sucking child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain ;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
As the waters cover the sea."
(Isaiah 11:6-9)
A similar transformation would take place in the distribution of natural resources, bringing water to the desert, and fertility where all had previously been barren:
When the poor and needy
seek water,
and there is none,
and their tongue is parched with thirst,
I, the Lord, will answer them,
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
I will open rivers on the bare heights,
and fountains in the midst of the valleys;
I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
and the dry land springs of water.
I will put in the wilderness the cedar,
the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive;
I will set in the desert the cypress,
the plane and the pine together;
that men may see and know,
may consider and understand together,
that the hand of the Lord has done this,
the Holy One of Israel has created it.
(Isaiah 41:17-20)
Among such miraculous manifestations of God's healing power, bringing life where there was none, was the transformation of the Dead Sea to a lake teeming with fish, where fishermen might fill their nets to bursting. Furthermore, on its shores there would grow many kinds of trees bearing continual crops of fruit. The stream of life-giving water that would bring about this wonderful change would spring from the threshold of the Temple in Jerusalem and flow into the eastern 'Galilee', or 'region', in the Arabah, the name given to the Rift Valley. This was the vision recorded by the prophet Ezekiel in far-off Babylon during the Exile:
"Then he brought me back to the door of the Temple; and behold, water was issuing from beneath the threshold of the Temple toward the east (for the Temple faced east); and the water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the Temple, south of the altar...
"And he said to me, 'This water flows towards eastern Galilee and goes down into the Arabah; and when it enters the stagnant waters of the Sea, the water will become fresh. And wherever the river goes every living creature which swarms will live, and there will be very many fish; for this water goes there, that the waters of the Sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes. Fishermen will stand beside the Sea; from En-gedi to En-eglaim it will be a place for the spreading of nets; its fish will be of very many kinds, like the fish of the Mediterranean. But its swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they are to be left for salt. And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the Sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing...'" (Ezekiel 47:1-12)
Another prophet of the Exile, Zechariah, whose words seem to have had a very special significance for the Essenes in the formulation of their messianic ideas, writes similarly of the miraculous stream of living water:
"On that day, living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern Sea [i.e. the Dead Sea] and half of them to the western Sea [i.e. the Mediterranean]; it shall continue in summer as in winter." (Zechariah 14:8)
It seems reasonable to assume that whatever freshwater spring Ezekiel had in mind when he set the northern limit of the new Galilean fishing grounds at 'En-eglaim', the Essenes would have interpreted it as referring to the little freshwater stream to the south of their monastery, called today by the Arabic name of 'Ain Feshkha. They made much of its welcome waters for their plantations and small cattle, as we know from excavated traces of their installations in the area around the spring, but it must have needed all their faith to conceive of this comparative trickle as growing suddenly to a mighty river 'deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be crossed' (Ezekiel 14:5)
Zechariah's vision extended to the means by which this life-giving stream should be able to flow unhindered from the Temple eastward to the Dead Sea. Blocking its way, beyond the Kidron valley outside the eastern wall of the Sanctuary, stands the Mount of Olives. But on the Day of Judgement God would stand upon the Mount, 'and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley; so that one half of the Mount shall withdraw northward, and the other half southward' (14:4).
Among the apocryphal works that have come down to us in Jewish-Christian literature, but which never achieved canonical status, are those attributed to the patriarch Enoch, recording a series of visions he was supposed to have experienced after his translation to heaven. Many fragmentary copies of these works have been found among the Scrolls, indicating at least a strong Essene interest in the Enoch traditions, if not actual Essene origin. It is therefore of particular significance that Enoch also refers to the miraculous stream running eastward from the Temple (26:3), changing the desert into a plantation of 'aromatic trees, exhaling the fragrance of frankincense and myrrh' (29:1).
In such prophetic visions the Essenes clearly recognised not only references to their own place of exile, in the 'eastern Galilee', one day to be so marvellously transformed into a veritable Garden of Eden, but to themselves as the 'fishers of men', spreading their nets upon the waters. Thus writes the author of their Thanksgiving Hymns, probably their own Teacher of Righteousness:
"Thou hast given me
a dwelling with many fishers
who spread a net upon the face of the waters,
and with those who hunt down children of iniquity;
there Thou hast established me for judgement."
(Hymns, Col. V)
"I [thank Thee, O Lord,
for] Thou hast lodged me beside
a fountain of running waters in a waterless land,
and by a spring in a parched land,
and by channels that irrigate a garden [of delight in the
wilderness]."
(Col. VIII: see below, Chapter Eleven, p. 175)]
This idea of a holy stream as a fount of inspiration, bringing life and healing into the souls of men, found particular favour among these ascetics for whom the parched heat of the desert was no mere figure of speech. The desolate landscape of the Dead Sea shores must have made them more than ever aware of the contrasts between their exile and the luxuriant herbage of more favoured areas. The only trees they saw were gnarled branches lying bleached by the sun on the salt-encrusted shores, whence they had been swept from ravines on the other side of the Dead Sea. On the far shore there were, indeed, palm trees and groves surrounding the famous hot springs; but they merely accentuated the desolation of this western shore whose only sign of verdure, south of Jericho, would have been in the Essenes' own kitchen gardens about the spring of En-eglaim. Thus the prophets' visions of fruit and aromatic trees, whose leaves were 'for healing', would have had particular appeal. Hear again the words of the psalmist Teacher:
"[that they may grow]
together, a plantation
of cypress, pine, and cedar, for Thy glory,
trees of life besire a fountain of mystery,
hidden among all the other trees by the water's edge;
so that they may put forth a Shoot [3]
for an eternal Planting ;
And before that, establish their own roots,
extending them to the watercourse,
that its cutting might be open to the living waters
and refresh them from the everlasting spring....
" And the Shoot
of holiness grows up
into a Planting of truth, hidden and not esteemed;
and being unrecognized,
its mystery remained sealed.
Thou didst hedge about its fruit, [O God],
with the mystery of the warrior Hosts,
and the Spirits of holiness ,
and the whirling flame of fire;
that no [man should approach] the fountain of life
or drink the waters of holiness
with the everlasting trees,
or swell his fruit through [the bounty] of clouds,
who, seeing, has not recognized,
and, considering, has not believed
in the fountain of life;
who has put [his hand against] the everlasting [ Shoot ] .
(Col. VIII.)
The Teacher identified himself with this 'fountain of living waters' in whom his followers might find the secrets of eternal life :
"But Thou, O my God,
hast put into my mouth
as showers of early rain for all [those who thirst]
and a spring of living waters....
Suddenly they shall gush forth
from the secret hiding places ....
" But the fruitful
Planting
[by the] everlasting spring [4]
shall be] an Eden of glory...."
(Col. VIII; see below, Chapter Eleven, p. 176)
The 'trees' that were nourished from this life-giving source were, of course, the Essenes themselves . This figure of the Elect as trees is common enough elsewhere in Jewish thought. Thus, for instance, Isaiah cites God's promise to His people:
"You people shall all
be righteous;
they shall possess the land for ever,
the shoot of my Planting ,
the work of my hands,
that I might be glorified...." (60:21)
and in the prophet's gospel of 'good tidings to the afflicted':
"to grant to those
who mourn in Zion,
to give them a garland instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
the Planting of the Lord,
that He may be glorified..." (61:3)
But the Essenes of Secacah could make an even closer identification with themselves of the visionary trees by the sacred stream. Among the varieties mentioned by Isaiah was the myrtle (41:19), and of the unidentified fruit trees he says that their leaves will be 'for healing'. The most probable Semitic origin for the name 'Essenes' is, as we have said earlier, the Aramaic word ' asayya ', ' healers ', of the root 'sy, 'heal'. The Aramaic word for 'myrtles; is almost exactly similar, ' asayya . The curative powers of this aromatic tree were well known and widely applied in ancient pharmacy, and the myrtle wreath has a special place in many religions, not least in Judaism. It is specified among the branches required to make booths in the Feast of Tabernacles (Nehemiah 8:15), with all the relevance for that word for the name of the Essenes' home, Secacah, already noted .
Furthermore, they were able to apply to themselves one of those enigmatic visions so beloved of biblical apocalyptists, vivid in their imagery, but darkly mysterious and pregnant with esoteric meaning for those inspired to interpret them. It appears at the beginning of the prophecy of Zechariah:
"I saw in the night, and behold, a man riding upon a red horse! He was standing among the myrtle trees in the Shady Place [so the Greek version, reading the Hebrew word as mesillah; the traditional reading, 'glen, deep place', Hebrew mesullah, prefers a slightly different vowelling]; and behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses. Then I said, 'What are these, my lord?' The angel who talked with me said to me, 'I will show you what they are.' So the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered, 'These are they whom the Lord has sent to patrol the earth .'" (1:3-10)
Elsewhere in Jewish tradition, the 'myrtle trees' of this passage are identified as the Righteous Ones, or Saints, so the Essenes were not alone in interpreting the visionary's trees as men, and themselves in particular .
Of greater interest and significance is the Hebrew name of the place where these 'myrtles' were located, Mesillah, the Shady Place, similar in meaning to Secacah, and philologically not very different from the place 'Asel, to which the same prophet's miraculously opened valley through the Mount of Olives was to extend. That is, he saw the end of the gorge from Jerusalem reaching the Dead Sea at Secacah / Mesillah.
If, then, ancient Secacah was known later also by the synonymous Mesillah, 'Shady Place', we may locate with fair certainty the place to which Alexander Jannaeus pursued the rebels who had so humiliated him before King Demetrius . It will be remembered that in 88 BC, following the change of heart of many of the Jewish dissidents, leaving Demetrius and the 'Seekers-after-Smooth-Things' to face Jannaeus alone, the Jewish priest-king was able to drive the alien from his territory and turn his attention to teaching the rebels a lesson Jewry would never forget. Josephus, in one account, says that the fugitives were driven to take refuge in 'the city of Bemeselis', a Greek approximation to the Hebrew Beth ('House of') Mesillah ('Shade'). From that place of concealment Jannaeus dragged them forth to be crucified .
That the worsted rebels should have sought sanctuary in the Essene stronghold by the shores of the Dead Sea is reasonable enough; they had, after all, received earlier support from the Teacher and his friends. However, they could hardly have expected the settlement to offer a safe hiding-place for long, although the watch-tower would have given them an advance warning of the approach of the enemy from the north. Perhaps the fugitives hoped to move on when occasion offered, crossing the Dead Sea and landing on the otherside in Transjordan. THERE THEY MIGHT HAVE HOPED TO SEEK HELP FROM JANNAEUS'S ARAB ENEMIES, THE NABATEANS BASED IN PETRA, AND FOUND A SAFE PASSAGE ONWARD TO EGYPT .
In any event, the terse references in the Essene commentaries already noted, recalling the attack upon the Teacher 'in the place of his exile' by the Wicked Priest, the 'lion of Wrath', who 'tears enough for his cubs, and strangles prey for his lionesses', begins now to make excellent sense, and to throw the Essene involvement in the terrible events of those days in a new light. The first reaction of the monastery's survivors must have been one of numbed shock. It was, perhaps, only later when they contemplated the death of their revered leader, and particularly the dreadful curse of estrangement from God that befell 'him who is hanged upon a tree', that the propitiatory nature of the sacrifice that had been made on their behalf would have been borne upon them. For the time being, at least, the crucifixion of the Master was not a matter for mystical speculation, but rather of hushed and fearful whispers, and a sense of disillusionment that God should have allowed such a tragedy to overtake His servant, the spiritual mentor and guide of His Elect .
[Most of Chapter 3, Secacah in Galilee, pp. 44-61.]
We found the following illustration in Mackey's History of Freemasonry by Robert Ingham Clegg, 33° (1921 edition), Volume VII, Chap. 115: Legends and Symbols in the Several Degrees, p. 2140, Figure 11; and the description on pp. 2142 - 2143.
Figure 11, Plate II, represents Succoth Benoth, and is a companion to the Deity Nergal; which the Babylonians selected as their favorite object of worship (2 Kings xvii, 30).
This representation is evidently Venus rising from the sea, attended by Tritons, who regard her with veneration and triumph united; but this is not the original Venus; it is the story poetically treated, varied by the looser imagination of the Greeks, from the ancient emblem; retaining the idea, but changing the figures, etc., as they did in Dagon, and as they were accustomed to do in all their Deities; from whence the Egyptians, etc., thought them impious; and indeed their images became thereby altogether desecrated . To this incident of Venus rising from the Sea ought to be referred all that the poets have written on the birth of the goddess of beauty from the briny wave, from the froth or foam of the sea, etc., of which much may easily be met with among the classic writers, Greek and Latin.
The Hebrew word Succoth is usually rendered booths , temporary residences, as tents, etc. The Rabbins translate it 'tents of the young women': it is literally 'the tabernacles of the daughters, or young women ,' that is, 'if benoth be taken as the name of a female idol, from Beneh to build up, or to procreate children, then the words will express, The tabernacles sacred to the productive powers feminine .'
The dove, when used as an insignia or as a token, referred primarily to the dove at the deluge; and the double-faced Janus referred primarily to Noah; who looked backward on one world, ended, and forward on another, beginning. In the illustrations connected with Succoth Benoth the head of Venus on one side of a medal with a dove for its reverse, and a head of Janus with a dove also for its reverse, must originally have referred to the same event. This event was what the figure of Derketos, who was the Syrian goddess, commemorated; in other words, Venus rising from the Sea. Derketos issuing from a fish; first, Noah, as the great progenitor of mankind, restored to light and life; second, the prolific powers again in exercise, to third, the revival of human posterity, etc., after a temporary residence in that floating womb of mankind, the ark of preservation.
The composition of a woman with the form of a fish is seen in a medal of Marseilles representing Atargatis- Derketos, the Syrian goddess Venus. Marseilles was settled by a colony of Phoenicians from Syria. They, like the Men of Babylon, carried their country worship and gods with them to their distant settlement.
In another place, a work entitled, The Inscrutable Palace , by bishop , a compilation of materials on the XI° OTO, we find the following in a commentary upon the Legend of Set and Horus:
"The part of the conflict that most interests us here takes place after Seth has gouged out the eyes of Horus. Hathor restored sight to Horus and the two youths were brought back before the council to be judged.
"This part of the myth intrigues me. Can we see this as evidence of prior sexual activity, given that the Eye of Horus rules the anus? Hathor is the Egyptian Aphrodite [1], and her presence as mediator in the relationship between the two male gods suggests an important place for feminine divinity within the homosexual formula. We see this again in the next episode, where Isis is the mediator. Diotima, a priestess of the Mysteries in Plato's Symposium -- again, a single feminine presence in what is primarily a homoerotic setting -- says that the goddess Aphrodite Ourania (Aphrodite in her manifestation as 'Queen of Heaven') is the patroness of same-sex union. I have absolutely found this to be the case in personal workings. [2] ..." -- p. 37.
1. Actually, Aphrodite is the Graeco-Roman Hathor: Hathor being far more ancient.
2. So have we.
1. Key material in the next six paragraphs.
2. Crossings are important in this Tradition, going back to the Celestial Battle between Marduk and Tiamat, in which NIBIRU crossed into what became Earth's orbit at the place where TIAMAT was; TIAMAT smashed into two; half became Earth, the rest became the Asteroid Belt or Hammered Bracelet at the Place of Crossing. Nibiru, Nippur, Habiru, Hebrew, all contain this reference to Crossing in their etymologies. In fact, the original significance of the Cross as a symbol was this Celestial Event.
3. cf. the Scottish Rite word "Stolkin", as well as the name "Plantard".
4. In all this we see, too, the idea of the Underground Stream, that is written of in HBHG . Cf. the phrase "Mystery of mighty heroes" with the Merovingian legends.
A single parchment sheet from the Partridge Cave, published by the present writer first in 1956, contains a collection of prophetic blessings culled from the Bible, relating to the coming Messiah in his capacity as Prophet, King, and Priest . The blessings are ascribed to Joshua, and followed by a curse against 'the man who rebuilds this city [Jericho]' (Joshua 6:26), with an appended expansion which is as cryptic in its references to historic characters as most of the Essene Bible commentaries, but which we may assume was directed against the Teacher's arch-enemy, the Wicked Priest. It appears, therefore, that the Essenes believed that when Joshua pronounced the blessings and curses on the slopes of Gerizim and Ebal, as his master had commanded, he directed them prophetically towards the sect's own situation: the benediction upon their Teacher, as the prefiguration of the Messiah, and the malediction upon the Wicked Priest, as the epitome of evil in their time, and precursor of the satanic opposition to the establishment of the Kingdom of God in the Last Days .
Furthermore, the involvement of the Wicked Priest in the Jericho curse make us look again at the place and circumstances of the dramatic confrontation between the Teacher and his arch-enemy, so often alluded to in the Scrolls. First, it is worth recalling that the city overlooked by the twin mountains, Shechem, was one of the 'cities of refuge' appointed by Joshua to serve as temporary sanctuaries for those who had unwittingly shed blood and were being pursued by the victim's avenger. The fugitive could find refuge in one of these places until his friends had had time to muster support for his defence before the local judges (Joshua 20:7, 21:21).
Again, Shechem had long been a royal city and credited with special sanctity. It was there, by the so-called 'Teacher's Oak', elsewhere called the 'Diviner's Oak' (Judges 9:37), that Abimelech was anointed king (Judges 9:6). The similarly named 'Teacher's Oak' by Gilgal, 'near Jericho' (Deuteronomy 11:30), where Joshua received his vision of the angel, would doubtless have confirmed to the Essenes their location of Shechem in the Jericho area .
The angelic commander of the Lord's hosts, who confronted Joshua with a drawn sword in his hand, ordered him to remove his shoes, 'for the place where you stand is holy' (Joshua 5:15). The Israelites made their first encampment in the Promised Land at Gilgal and there observed the Passover, after which the supply of desert manna ceased and they began to eat the produce of the land 'flowing with milk and honey' (Joshua 5:10-12).
Thus biblical tradition, as interpreted by the Essenes, linked the miraculous crossing of the Jordan, the establishment of the first shrine in the Promised Land, and the renewal of the covenant, with a 'city of refuge' and a local oracle called the Teacher's Oak. Well might they connect the place and its traditions with their own situation and experience. They had sought refuge in this area from the persecution of the world, and they had been pursued here by their enemies, for Jericho would have certainly been on the route of Alexander Jannaeus's punitive expedition from Jerusalem in his search for the rebels. One wishes that an Essene commentary on the book of Hosea could have been preserved in a less fragmentary form. Some estimate of its possible significance for Essene interpretation of history can however be judged from its inclusion of the verse which reads:
" As robbers lie in wait for a man, a company of priests, on the way to Shechem they murder, they commit villainy ." (v 9; see also below, Chapter Thirteen, p. 197)
Was the supreme act of 'villainy' committed at the Essene 'Shechem', by Gilgal, upon the Teacher's Tree? The dramatic irony of the situation would not have been lost upon Jannaeus, certainly, as he had his old enemy scourged and crucified upon the sacred 'pillar' (Judges 9:6). The other rebels who had been more directly responsible for inviting the Greek forces to join their cause he dragged away to Jerusalem to pay the penalty of betrayal before the horrified gaze of its citizens; the broken body of this other 'Joshua / Jesus' he left exposed to humiliation and contempt until his chastened followers could crawl from their cave refuges to retrieve his remains.
We find some echo of the event in another apocryphal work called the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, a collection of oracles supposedly left by the twelve sons of the patriarch Jacob. Again, some fragmentary parts of this work have turned up among the Scrolls, and it appears likely that in their final form they were modelled on the pattern of an Essene composition, the Testament of Levi. There were later interpolations, often assumed to be 'Christian'. but, as we shall see, this designation must now be deemed of little value; one should speak rather chronologically, of time, rather than diverse sectarian associations. In any case, the fourteenth chapter of Testament Levi is certainly well represented in extant Essene writings from the caves, and it is in this section of the work that we find the following admonition against the Temple hierarchy, and their Wicked High Priest in particular:
"The offerings of the Lord ye rob, and from His portion shall ye steal choice portions, eating them (contemptuously) with harlots. And out of covetousness ye shall teach the commandments of the Lord, wedded women shall ye pollute, and the virgins of Jerusalem shall ye defile; and with harlots and adulteresses shall ye be joined, and the daughters of gentiles shall ye take to wife, purifying them with unlawful purification; and your union shall be like unto Sodom and Gomorrah. And ye shall be puffed up because of your priesthood, lifting yourselves up against men, and not only so, but also against the commandments of God. For ye shall contemn the holy things with jests and laughter..." (14:5-8)
" And a man who reneweth the Law, in the power of the Most High, ye shall call a deceiver; and at last ye shall rush [upon him] to slay him, not knowing his dignity, taking innocent blood through wickedness upon your heads. And your holy places shall be laid waste because of him ....." (16:3-4)
This last passage is strongly reminiscent of the Essene commentary on Psalm 37, referred to earlier:
" The wicked watches for the righteous and seeks to slay him ... This refers to the Wicked Priest who watched for the Teacher of Righteousness and sought to slay him."
Even more pointedly, we find among a collection of cryptic oracles called the Sibylline Books, the earliest of which date from about the first or second century BC, a reference which clearly links the Teacher's great predecessor, Joshua, son of Nun, with his own tragic death :
"Then there shall come from the sky a certain exalted man who spreads his hands on the many-fruited tree, the noblest of Hebrews, who one day caused the sun to stand still, when he cried with fair speech and pure lips." (Book V 257-9)
The allusion to the sun standing still is, of course, a reference to the miraculous lengthening of the day in order that Joshua might complete the destruction of Israel's enemies (Joshua 10:12-14). There is, therefore, no doubt that in the eyes of the faithful the crucified Teacher, the 'exalted man', was a reincarnation of Joshua, son of Nun, known in the Greek texts as Jesus .
The meaning of the 'many-fruited tree' is of particular interest, for it clearly links the Tree of the Master's crucifixion with the life-giving stream which was to flow from the threshold of the Temple and bring life to the Dead Sea at Secacah / Mesillah:
"And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing." (Ezekiel 47:12)
This conception of the Tree of the Teacher's sacrifice as being the Tree of Life of the Garden of Eden was capable of considerable theological development, as the New Testament apocalyptist appreciated :
"Then he showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, through the middle of the street of the city; also on either side of the river, the Tree of Life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." (Revelation 22:1-2)
By then we have come the full circle, linking the Essenes' Tree of Life with the fateful tree in the Garden of Eden by which men fell: 'as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive' (I Corinthians 15:22). But in those early days, immediately following the chastening shock of the Teacher's martyrdom, the Essene philosophers still had far to go before the Tree, or Cross, of death should seem to them a sign and instrument of divine redemption .
To understand something of the reasoning that must have underlain this doctrine, we should look, as always, for the scriptural models on which the Essenes would have based their appreciation of their present experience. Even before [1] the Israelites entered the Promised Land, they had flirted with local cults encountered on their journey. They usually had strong sexual associations and were blamed for the plagues that beset those who indulged in their rituals. In expiation Moses had the tribal chiefs, as representatives of the nation, executed by exposure to the sun's heat, 'that the fierce anger of the Lord might turn away from Israel' (Numbers 25:4).
Such 'hanging before the Lord' seems to have been regarded as offering to the deity some propitiation for incurring his displeasure, evident through a natural calamity or otherwise unaccountable affliction . So, at a later date, when in the days of King David the country suffered a prolonged famine, inquiry was made of God for the reasons that had prompted the divine rebuke. On learning that they were suffering because King Saul had treacherously shed the blood of some Gibeonites, then under a treaty of protection, David asked the victims' kinsfolk how the blood-guilt might be lifted. The Gibeonites suggested that Saul's seven sons 'be given to us, so that we may hang them up before the Lord at Gibeon, on the mountain of the Lord'. The myth originally had an agricultural origin, to judge from the detail that 'they were put to death in the first days of the harvest, at the beginning of the barley harvest' (II Samuel 21). (Verse 9)
The Hebrew word used in these passages to describe this particularly barbaric form of ritual execution means properly ' dislocate, be torn away ', and is variously translated in the ancient versions as 'impale'; 'expose (in the sun)'; 'make an example of, put to shame'; or 'crucify' . Essentially, the limbs were broken in some way to incapacitate the victim, and he was then pegged out on the ground, or hanged from gallows or a tree, so that death was the result of exposure to the elements. It was, of course, a cruel fate, but clearly in its religious context the idea was not so much to inflict suffering in vengeance as to make an act of propitiation to the deity through exposure and public humiliation. The victim was the scapegoat for the people; his alienation and rejection was the means for their redemption . [Our NOTE: cf. 9° - 11° AASR.]
The Essene commentary on the book of Habakkuk makes the point that it was on the Day of Atonement [2] that the Wicked Priest suddenly appeared at the place of the Teacher's exile in pursuit of his enemy, to make him 'swallow the cup' . Writing probably long after the event, the commentator still shrinks from openly acknowledging the manner of the Lawgiver's death. Even the otherwise surprisingly direct Nahum commentator will go no further than to speak of ' the man hanged alive upon a tree ', [3] and to emphasise the gravity of the crime as perpetrated by a Jew against one of his own people. Nevertheless, the sacrificial nature of the Teacher's death is implicit in the Essene writings, and was further developed as the socio-religious situation affecting Judaism, and Essenism in particular, changed . [4]
Looking back on the Teacher's hymns of thanksgiving, it appears that even in his own lifetime his eventual martyrdom was not entirely unexpected. He suffered on more than one occasion from the persecution of his enemies, and even from schismatic groups within his own movement. Some of this sense of disappointment and isolation finds expression in the hymns :
"And Thou hast made
me a reproach and a derision to traitors,
but a counsel of truth and insight for the upright of way.
And because of the deviousness of wicked men,
I am become a slander on the lips of the violent,
and scorners bare their teeth.
Yea, I am become a taunt for rebels,
and a gathering of the wicked rage against me,
and roar like storms at sea;
when curling breakers crash, they shower me with mire and
mud.
But to those who are
chosen for righteousness, Thou hast made
me a banner,
and an interpreter of knowledge in wonderful mysteries,
to test [men of] truth,
and to try those who make correction their friend....
And I am become a zealous spirit against the Seekers-after-
Smooth-Things,
[and all] deceivers roar against me,
like the sound of mighty waters,
and [all] their thoughts were devilish devices.
They have cast towards the Pit the life of the man
whose mouth Thou hast confirmed,
and into whose heart Thou hast put teaching and under-
standing,
that he might open a fount of knowledge
to all men of insight...
(Col. II)
Violent men have sought
my life
because I have clung to Thy covenant.
For they, a council of deceit,
and a devil's crew,
know not that my confidence is based on Thee,
and that through Thy pledged love Thou wilt save my soul
since my steps are directed by Thee.
From Thee it is [permitted]
that they threaten my life,
that Thou mayest be glorified
by the judgement of the wicked,
and demonstrat Thy might through me
in the presence of the sons of men;
for it is by Thy pledged love that I stand.
(Col. II)
I thank Thee, O Lord,
for Thou hast [fastened] Thine eye upon me,
Thou hast saved me from the zeal of lying interpreters,
and from the party of Seekers-after-Smooth-Things.
Thou hast redeemed the life of the Poor One
whom they planned to destroy,
spilling his blood because he served Thee.
Because [they were unaware]
that my steps were directed by Thee,
they made me a mockery and an object of shame
in the mouth of all who seek deceit.
But Thou, O my God, hast rescued
the soul of the oppressed and poor,
from the power of one stronger than he;
Thou hast redeemed my soul
from the hand of the powerful.
Thou hast not permitted their insults to dismay me
so that I forsook Thy service
for fear of the corrupting influence of the [ungodly],
or exchanged my steadfast resolve for folly.....
(Col. II)
[Teachers of lies]
have smoothed Thy people [with words],
and deceitful interpreters [have led them astray];
they perish without understanding,
for their works are foolishness.
For I am despised by them,
and they account me as nothing,
that Thou mayest demonstrate Thy might through me.
They have thrust me from my country
like a bird from its nest;
all my friends and kinsmen are driven from me,
and regard me as a broken vessel.
And they, lying interpreters and false prophets,
have schemed against me a devilry,
to exchange the Law impressed on my heart by Thee
for the smooth things [they urge on] Thy people.
And they withhold from the thirsty the drink of Knowledge,
and relieve their thirst with vinegar,
that they may witness the misdirection of their ways,
their reckless behaviour at their feast-days,
and their falling foul of their own snares....
(Col. IV)
As for me, shaking
and trembling seize me
and all my bones are broken;
my heart dissolves like wax before the fire
and my knees are like a stream
tumbling down a waterfall.
For I remember my sins and the faithlessness of my forefathers.
When the wicked rose against Thy covenant
and the vicious against Thy word,
I said in my obstinacy,
'I am forsaken by Thy covenant.'
But when I remembered the power of Thy hand
and the many examples of Thy compassion,
I drew myself erect
and my spirit found new strength in the face of the scourge....
(Col. IV)
But I have become [.....]
a cause of dispute and quarrelling to
my friends,
indignation and anger to the members of my Covenant,
a growling and grumbling to all my companions.
Even those [who have ea]ten my bread
have lifted their heel against me,
and all those who have bound themselves to my counsel,
have mocked me with perverse speech.
The members of my [Covenant] have rebelled
and have complained on every side;
they have gone about spreading slander
among a brood of mischief-makers
about the mystery which Thou hast hidden in me.
But to demonstrate Thy greatness through me,
and because of their guilt,
Thou hast concealed the fount of understanding
and the counsel of truth.
They consider but the mischief of their hearts;
with devilish [schemings] they unsheathe
a perfidious tongue,
like the periodic injection of a basilisk's poison,
and like serpents which creep in the dust,
so they aim [their poisonous darts],
the [venom] of vipers that are deaf to charming;
and this has brought incurable pain
and a malignant sickness
within the body of Thy servant,
causing [his spirit] to fail
and his strength to falter,
so that he can no longer maintain his confidence....
(Col. V)
For Thou, O God, didst
open wide my heart,
but they persist in constraining it,
and surround me about with deep darkness.
I eat the bread of sighing
and drink tears unceasingly;
truly, my eyes are dimmed with grief
and my soul with each day's bitterness...
(Col. V)
[I am] at home with
disease,
[I am acquainted] with scourges,
I am like a man forsaken in [....]
lacking inner resources.
For my sore breaks out in bitterness,
and in incurable pain that knows no relief;
[....] over me, as upon them that go down to Hell.
My spirit burrows its way below with the deat
for [my life] has reached the Pit;
my soul suffocates [....]
day and night without rest....]
And the tongue which
Thou didst make
powerfully unrestrained in my mouth
can no longer give voice.
{I have no word] for my disciples
to revive the spirit of those who stumble
and to offer a word of support to the weary...
For the breakers of
death [overwhelm me]
and Hell is upon my bed.
My couch wails in lamentation
[and my pallet] in sighing.
My eyes burn like a furnace
and my tears flow like water brooks;
my eyes grow dim for want of rest
[for my salvation] is yet afar off
and my life stands apart from me.
(Col. VIII - IX.)
Of particular interest in these hymns is the idea that God achieves His purpose by permitting the persecution of His faithful servant in order that through his sufferings He may redeem the world: [5]
From Thee it is [permitted]
that they threaten my life,
that Thou mayest be glorified
by the judgement of the wicked,
and demonstrate Thy might through me...
(Col. II)
For I am despised by
them,
and they account me as nothing,
that Thou mayest demonstrate Thy might through me.
(Col. IV)
The theme has good Old Testament precedence, of course, in the idea of Israel personified as the Suffering Servant whose affliction will atone for the sins of the world :
For he grew before
him like a young plant,
and like a root out of a dry ground;
he had no form or comeliness that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected of men,
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
as one from whom men hide their faces,
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that made us whole,
and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned every one to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb,
so he opened not his mouth....
(Isaiah 53:2-7)
These sentiments, at times even the actual words, find an echo throughout the Teacher's hymns, and we cannot doubt that in his own disappointments and spiritual torment, combined with a strong conviction of his divine calling, he identified himself with this Suffering Servant of the Lord. He cannot have been a young man when he took his followers into the desert ; there are allusions in the Scrolls which have seemed to many observers to relate to the time of Jannaeus's predecessor, John Hyrcanus (135-104 BC), who had aroused the opposition of pious Pharisees. By the time of the Teacher's death in about 88 BC he was probably an old man . [6]
[....]
There is no reason to suppose that the Teacher's own followers fully appreciated the implications of the nature and likely outcome of his mission while he lived, but a later reconsideration of the Master's words, so carefully preserved in their Scrolls, would have laid bare their theological significance in the light of his tragic martyrdom . When Josephus speaks of the Essenes' 'reverence for their Lawgiver' - 'after God they hold most in awe the name of their Lawgiver, any blasphemer of whom is punished with death ' (War II viii 9 sec. 145) - we may reasonably assume that he speaks of their Teacher, the 'Joshua/Jesus' of the Last Days. By the first century, therefore, it seems that he was being accorded semi-divine status, and that his role of Messiah, or Christ, was fully appreciated .
-- The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Christian Myth, Chapter 5, Joshua, Son of Nun, and the Teacher of Righteousness; pp. 79 - 93.
1. But see Raphael Patai, THE HEBREW GODDESS .
2. Yom ha-Kippurim, 9/10 Tishri (i.e., 9/10 day of Libra). This is the time of year that the Sacrifice takes place. The date of the Day of Atonement is suspiciously close to the Date of Osiris' murder, 17 Hathor. Tishri in the old Babylonian calendars being the Month of the Sacred Place! The Word being Intoned on Yom Kippur, in a month named Hathor, is suggestive of certain things known only to Initiates.
3. The Hanged Man of the Tarot. Also, cf., the story of Azazel, some say, of Samyaza, who was hung upside down from the Tree, aka the belt of Orion. There may be parallels to this, as odd as it may seem. Samyaza's name in the literature of the period was Shem-Haza, and one of the root words for Essene, according to the Jewish Encyclopedia (1906 edition), was Haza, which meant "to see," like that which a Seer sees. Interestingly, this would be The Name of the Seer, translated. Strange, when people syncretize Samyaza with Samael, they miss certain things, namely, that Samael or Sammael, or Sammane, was blind, and could not see. Or, if they don't miss it, they certainly do not go all out to explain it!
4. This is when the Temple Ritual transformed to Inner Alchemy, Gnosis.
5. This lesson in suffering is also taught by the Nusairi, according to Walter Birks' account of them.
6. 100 BCE, a prophet/priest from Samaria founds a sect, al-Ilfaniyya. An offshoot of this was al-Dustaniyya, a Dosithean Sect. The Dosithean Tradition goes back at least to the exchange period in the 8th Century BCE.
THIS would be the first series of events in this story. From the days of the Maccabean Kings to the murder of the Teacher of Righteousness, and the years which led to the development of the sect of the Essenes, this constitutes the first period. Coming next, we can see what happened, in the two sections that follow. In the first, the Sepher Toledoth Yeshu , we are given what is regarded as a 'biassed' accounting. Perhaps the text was written later than originally assumed. Yet, there are things in there that we see have a derivation from the next series of quotes, that text on Jewish Christians that Shlomo Pines commented upon.
Toledoth Yeshu
[This is a derogatory version of the life of Jesus, growing out of the response of the Jewish community to Christianity. The tradition presented here is most commonly dated to approximately the 6th century CE. The text it self is closer to the 14th c. There is no scholarly consensus on to what extent the text might be a direct parody of a now lost gospel. H.J. Schonfield argued that it was so closely connected to the Gospel of the Hebrews that he attempted to reconstruct that lost work from the Toledoth.]
In the year 3671[1] in the days of King Jannaeus, a great misfortune befell Israel, when there arose a certain disreputable man of the tribe of Judah, whose name was Joseph Pandera. He lived at Bethlehem, in Judah.
Near his house dwelt a widow and her lovely and chaste daughter named Miriam. Miriam was betrothed to Yohanan, of the royal house of David, a man learned in the Torah and God-fearing.
At the close of a certain Sabbath, Joseph Pandera, attractive and like a warrior in appearance, having gazed lustfully upon Miriam, knocked upon the door of her room and betrayed her by pretending that he was her betrothed husband, Yohanan. Even so, she was amazed at this improper conduct and submitted only against her will.
Thereafter, when Yohanan came to her, Miriam expressed astonishment at behavior so foreign to his character. It was thus that they both came to know the crime of Joseph Pandera and the terrible mistake on the part of Miriam. Whereupon Yohanan went to Rabban Shimeon ben Shetah and related to him the tragic seduction. Lacking witnesses required for the punishment of Joseph Pandera, and Miriam being with child, Yohanan left for Babylonia.[2]
Miriam gave birth to a son and named him Yehoshua, after her brother. This name later deteriorated to Yeshu. On the eighth day he was circumcised. When he was old enough the lad was taken by Miriam to the house of study to be instructed in the Jewish tradition.
One day Yeshu walked in front of the Sages with his head uncovered, showing shameful disrespect. At this, the discussion arose as to whether this behavior did not truly indicate that Yeshu was an illegitimate child and the son of a niddah[3]. Moreover, the story tells that while the rabbis were discussing the Tractate Nezikin, he gave his own impudent interpretation of the law and in an ensuing debate he held that Moses could not be the greatest of the prophets if he had to receive counsel from Jethro. This led to further inquiry as to the antecedents of Yeshu, and it was discovered through Rabban Shimeon ben Shetah that he was the illegitimate son of Joseph Pandera. Miriam admitted it.[4]
After this became known, it was necessary for Yeshu to flee to Upper Galilee.
After King Jannaeus, his wife Helene[5] ruled over all Israel. In the Temple was to be found the Foundation Stone on which were engraven the letters of God's Ineffable Name.
Whoever learned the secret of the Name and its use would be able to do whatever he wished. Therefore, the Sages took measures so that no one should gain this knowledge.
Lions of brass were bound to two iron pillars at the gate of the place of burnt offerings.
Should anyone enter and learn the Name, when he left the lions would roar at him and immediately the valuable secret would be forgotten.
Yeshu came and learned the letters of the Name; he wrote them upon the parchment which he placed in an open cut on his thigh and then drew the flesh over the parchment.
As he left, the lions roared and he forgot the secret. But when he came to his house he reopened the cut in his flesh with a knife an lifted out the writing. Then he remembered and obtained the use of the letters.[6]
He gathered about himself three hundred and ten young men of Israel and accused those who spoke ill of his birth of being people who desired greatness and power for themselves. Yeshu proclaimed, "I am the Messiah; and concerning me Isaiah prophesied and said, 'Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.'" He quoted other messianic texts, insisting, "David my ancestor prophesied concerning me: 'The Lord said to me, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee.'"
The insurgents with him replied that if Yeshu was the Messiah he should give them a convincing sign. They therefore, brought to him a lame man, who had never walked.
Yeshu spoke over the man the letters of the Ineffable Name, and the leper was healed.
Thereupon, they worshipped him as the Messiah, Son of the Highest.
When word of these happenings came to Jerusalem, the Sanhedrin decided to bring about the capture of Yeshu. They sent messengers, Annanui and Ahaziah, who, pretending to be his disciples, said that they brought him an invitation from the leaders of Jerusalem to visit them. Yeshu consented on condition the members of the Sanhedrin receive him as a lord. He started out toward Jerusalem and, arriving at Knob, acquired an ass on which he rode into Jerusalem, as a fulfillment of the prophecy of Zechariah.
The Sages bound him and led him before Queen Helene, with the accusation: "This man is a sorcerer and entices everyone." Yeshu replied, "The prophets long ago prophesied my coming: 'And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse,' and I am he; but as for them, Scripture says 'Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly.'"
Queen Helene asked the Sages: "What he says, is it in your Torah?" They replied: "It is in our Torah, but it is not applicable to him, for it is in Scripture: 'And that prophet which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.' He has not fulfilled the signs and conditions of the Messiah."
Yeshu spoke up: "Madam, I am the Messiah and I revive the dead." A dead body was brought in; he pronounced the letters of the Ineffable Name and the corpse came to life.
The Queen was greatly
moved and said: "This is a true sign." She reprimanded the Sages and sent them
humiliated from her presence. Yeshu's dissident followers increased and there
was controversy in Israel.
Yeshu went to Upper Galilee. the Sages came before the Queen, complaining that
Yeshu practiced sorcery and was leading everyone astray. Therefore she sent
Annanui and Ahaziah to fetch him.
They found him in Upper Galilee, proclaiming himself the Son of God. When they tried to take him there was a struggle, but Yeshu said to the men of Upper Galilee: "Wage no battle." He would prove himself by the power which came to him from his Father in heaven. He spoke the Ineffable Name over the birds of clay and they flew into the air. He spoke the same letters over a millstone that had been placed upon the waters. He sat in it and it floated like a boat. When they saw this the people marveled. At the behest of Yeshu, the emissaries departed and reported these wonders to the Queen. She trembled with astonishment.
Then the Sages selected a man named Judah Iskarioto and brought him to the Sanctuary where he learned the letters of the Ineffable Name as Yeshu had done.
When Yeshu was summoned before the queen, this time there were present also the Sages and Judah Iskarioto. Yeshu said: "It is spoken of me, 'I will ascend into heaven.'"
He lifted his arms like the wings of an eagle and he flew between heaven and earth, to the amazement of everyone.
The elders asked Iskarioto to do likewise. He did, and flew toward heaven. Iskarioto attempted to force Yeshu down to earth but neither one of the two could prevail against the other for both had the use of the Ineffable Name. However, Iskarioto defiled Yeshu, so that they both lost their power and fell down to the earth, and in their condition of defilement the letters of the Ineffable Name escaped from them. Because of this deed of Judah they weep on the eve of the birth of Yeshu.
Yeshu was seized. His head was covered with a garment and he was smitten with pomegranate staves; but he could do nothing, for he no longer had the Ineffable Name.
Yeshu was taken prisoner to the synagogue of Tiberias, and they bound him to a pillar.
To allay his thirst they gave him vinegar to drink. On his head they set a crown of thorns.
There was strife and wrangling between the elders and the unrestrained followers of Yeshu, as a result of which the followers escaped with Yeshu to the region of Antioch[7]; there Yeshu remained until the eve of the Passover.[8]
Yeshu then resolved to go the Temple to acquire again the secret of the Name. Thatyear the Passover came on a Sabbath day. On the eve of the Passover, Yeshu, accompanied by his disciples, came to Jerusalem riding upon an ass. Many bowed down before him. He entered the Temple with his three hundred and ten followers. One of them, Judah Iskarioto[9] apprised the Sages that Yeshu was to be found in the Temple, that the disciples had taken a vow by the Ten Commandments not to reveal his identity but that he would point him out by bowing to him. So it was done and Yeshu was seized.
Asked his name, he replied to the question by several times giving the names Mattai, Nakki, Buni, Netzer, each time with a verse quoted by him and a counter-verse by the Sages.
Yeshu was put to death on the sixth hour on the eve of the Passover and of the Sabbath.
When they tried to hang him on a tree it broke, for when he had possessed the power he had pronounced by the Ineffable Name that no tree should hold him. He had failed to pronounce the prohibition over the carob-stalk[10], for it was a plant more than a tree, and on it he was hanged until the hour for afternoon prayer, for it is written in Scripture,
"His body shall not remain all night upon the tree." They buried him outside the city.
On the first day of the week his bold followers came to Queen Helene with the report that he who was slain was truly the Messiah and that he was not in his grave; he had ascended to heaven as he prophesied. Diligent search was made and he was not found in the grave where he had been buried. A gardener had taken him from the grave and had brought him into his garden and buried him in the sand over which the waters flowed into the garden.
Queen Helene demanded, on threat of a severe penalty, that the body of Yeshu be shown to her within a period of three days. There was a great distress. When the keeper of the garden saw Rabbi Tanhuma walking in the field and lamenting over the ultimatum of the Queen, the gardener related what he had done, in order that Yeshu's followers should not steal the body and then claim that he had ascended into heaven. The Sages removed the body, tied it to the tail of a horse and transported it to the Queen, with the words, "This is Yeshu who is said to have ascended to heaven." Realizing that Yeshu was a false prophet who enticed the people and led them astray, she mocked the followers but praised the Sages.
The disciples went out among the nations--three went to the mountains of Ararat, three to Armenia, three to Rome and three to the kingdoms buy the sea, They deluded the people, but ultimately they were slain.
The erring followers amongst Israel said: "You have slain the Messiah of the Lord." The Israelites answered: "You have believed in a false prophet." There was endless strife and discord for thirty years. The Sages desired to separate from Israel those who continued to claim Yeshu as the Messiah, and they called upon a greatly learned man, Simeon Kepha, for help. Simeon went to Antioch, main city of the Nazarenes and proclaimed toe them: "I am the disciple of Yeshu. He has sent me to show you the way. I will give you a sign as Yeshu has done." Simeon, having gained the secret of the Ineffable Name, healed a leper and a lame man by means of it and thus found acceptance as a true disciple. He told them that Yeshu was in heaven, at the right hand of his Father, in fulfillment of Psalm 110:1. He added that Yeshu desired that they separate themselves from the Jews and no longer follow their practices, as Isaiah had said, "Your new moons and your feasts my soul abhorreth." They were now to observe the first day of the week instead of the seventh, the Resurrection instead of the Passover, the Ascension into Heaven instead of the Feast of Weeks, the finding of the Cross instead of the New Year, the Feast of the Circumcision instead of the Day of Atonement, the New Year instead of Chanukah; they were to be indifferent with regard to circumcision and the dietary laws. Also they were to follow the teaching of turning the right if smitten on the left and the meek acceptance of suffering. All these new ordinances which Simeon Kepha (or Paul, as he was known to the Nazarenes) taught them were really meant to separate these Nazarenes from the people of Israel and to bring the internal strife to an end.
[1] About 90, BC. [G]
[2] Some traditions say 'Egypt'. [AH]
[3] Sexual impurity (incest, adultery, prostitution, etc.). [AH]
[4] In one version of this admission, she confesses that not only is Yeshu the product of an illicit union, but she was ritually unclean from menstruation at the time as well (Sexual contact even with a woman's husband is not lawful during, or, in Rabbinic law, for some time after, menstruation). [AH]
[5] Salome Alexandra. [G]
[6] Consistent, apparently, with the general tenor of Jewish criticism of Jesus' miracles going at least as far back as Celsus (2nd c.) this tradition does not deny Jesus' ability to perform miracles, accusing him instead of practicing magic. This version even accepts the divine origin of the miracles, attributing them to his misuse of the divine name, with its inherent powers. In the Alphabet of Ben Sira, Lilith is accused of the same crime, using the power of the name to escape from the Garden of Eden. [AH]
[7] Some traditions say 'Egypt'. [G]
[8] In a variation on the story, Judah is able to out-miracle Yeshu in the sign contest without defiling him. Yeshu is discredited and arrested, and, as in this story, his followers are able to break him free, but he still remembers the Ineffable Name. He escapes to Egypt in hopes of learning Egyptian magic as well (regarded as the best magic in the world). Judah comes to Egypt and infiltrates the disciples, posing as one himself. It is from this vantage point that he is able to cause Yeshu to forget the magical Name, resulting in the later's desire to return to Jerusalem and relearn it. Judah sends warning to the Sages, along with his plan to arrest him. [AH]
[9] Aramaic: Ga'isa. [G]
[10] Or cabbage stalk. [AH]
We present the text that Pines commented upon. We do not include his own writings or footnotes.
(47a) 'They say: When John (Yuhanna) baptized him in the Jordan the gates of heaven were opened and the Father cried out: "This is my son and my beloved (habibi) in whom my soul rejoices." '
(56b) 'Both the Christians and the Jews assert that Pilate (Filat.s) the Roman, king of the Romans, seized Christ, because the Jews had maligned him, and delivered him up to them. They led him away upon an ass, with his face turned towards the ass' hind quarters, put upon his head a crown of thorns and went around in order to [58] make an example out of his punishment. They beat him from behind, attacked him from before and said to him in mockery: "King of the Children of Israel, who has done this to you?" Being thirsty because of the fatigue and the distress which afflicted him, he humbled himself and said to them: "Give me water to drink." And they took a bitter tree, pressed out its juice, put into it vinegar and gave this to him to drink. He took it (57a), thinking that it was water, tasted it, and when he perceived that it was bitter, spat it out. They for their part, made him inhale this drink (or according to another possible interpretation: "forced him to drink it") and tortured him one whole day and one whole night. When the next day came---it was a Friday, the one which they call Good Friday they asked Pilate to have him whipped; which he did. Thereupon, they got hold of him, crucified him and pierced him with lances, while he, being crucified upon a piece of wood, did not cease from crying: "My God, why did you abandon me? My God, why did you forsake me?" until he died. (Then) they brought him down and buried him.'
(65a) .... If the Christians would refer to the information (they have) and to what is written in their Gospels, they would know, as they give credence to the latter, that it was not Christ who was killed and crucified.'
(65a) 'When the Gospels speak of him who was killed and crucifiec and of the crucifixion they say: On the Thursday of Passover, the Jews went to Herod (Hayridh.s), a companion of Pilate (Filat.s) the king of the Romans, and said to him: "There is a man here, one of us, who has corrupted and led astray our brethren. We stipulate accordingly with regard to you that you should give us power over (the man) whose way is (as described) so that we should carry out our judgment on him." Accordingly, Herod said to his auxiliaries: "Go with them, and bring their opponent (here)." Thereupon the auxiliaries went forth with the Jews and came to the gate of that government house. The Jews turned to the auxiliaries an asked them: "Do you know our opponent?" They said: "No. The Jews said: "Neither do we know him. However, come with us. We shall not fail to find somebody who will show him to us." Accordingly they went, and Judas Iscariot met them. He was one [53] of the intimates and followers of Christ, one of his greatest disciples, one of the Twelve. He said to them: "Do you search for Jesus the Nazarene (Ishu` al-nasiri)?" They said: "Yes." He said:
"What shall I get from you, if I show him to you?" One of the Jews wanted to give him monies which he had with him, counted thirty pieces and said: "They are yours." Judas said to them: "As you know, he is my friend, and I would be ashamed to say: that one, that's he. However, be with me and look at (the man) to whom I shall give my hand and whose head I shall kiss. Take hold of him as soon as my hand will let go his and lead him away."
There was a great (crowd) of people in Jerusalem where, (coming) from all places, they gathered to celebrate that feast. Judas Iscariot took the hand of a man, kissed his head, (65b) and as soon as his band let go that of (the other), he plunged into the crowd. Then the Jews and the auxiliaries seized (the man). He said to them: "What do you want from me?" and felt a poignant anguish. They answered him: "The government wants you." He said: "What have I to do with the government?" And they led him away and made him come before Herod. But the man's r