Truth of the Essenes
Author Unkowon
It is important to understand the relationships between the co-existing
factions of Jews at the time Yahusha and before. The presentation below,
although a bit lengthy, is not exhaustive, but hopefully not so long as to
detract from the main object overall of this work; and that is the Calendars of
Enoch, and how they are intertwined to make one whole picture. It is my
hope that you will come to understand why the Solar Calendar of Enoch and
the Essenes were roundly rejected by mainstream Jews.
During the time of Yahusha the temple service was greatly perverted and
the false priesthood that was in control did not serve the Israelite people
correctly. This fact can be proven many times by the words of Yahusha
himself. Indeed, this is why Yahusha could say to the Israelites of his day;
"your house is left unto you desolate." (Matthew 23:38) The Jewish people
at the time of Yahusha were parted into three sects; the Pharisees; the
Sadducees, and the least spoken of, Essenes. There were a number of
divisions amongst them as well.
YashaYahu/Isaiah 1:13,14 (1599 Geneva Bible)
13] Bring no more oblations, in vain: incense is an abomination unto me: I
cannot suffer your new moons, nor Sabbaths, nor solemn days, nor solemn
assemblies. 14] My soul hateth your new moons and your appointed feasts:
they are a burden unto me: I am weary to bear them.
YashaYahu/Isaiah 1:13,14 (1964 Jerusalem Bible)
13] Bring me your worthless offerings no more, the smoke of them fills me
with disgust. New Moons, sabbaths, assemblies - I cannot endure festival
and solemnity. 14] Your New Moons and pilgrimages I hate with all my soul.
They lie heavy on me, I am tired of bearing them. (1384 Wycliffe uses
calends, ie, first days of the months)
Apparently the Calendar was already an issue 700+ years before John the
Baptist and Yahusha were born.
The time of priestly power and particularly that of the High Priest had been
in the Persian and early Hellenistic periods from about 500 BCE - 170 BCE.
To limit opposition, the Persians exercised control through the priesthood
which enjoyed political as well as religious power as agents or collaborators.
From 301-201 BCE, Israel was ruled by Egypt. There are few resources on
this period. The most important are the Xenon papyri and what little we do
know comes from this collection. We know that the Ptolemies befriended the
Jews because they wanted loyal allies against Syria. Under the Ptolemies,
the traditional priesthood had been supported by the kings even though they
were Greeks. The Ptolemies had accepted Egyptian ceremonies and
seemed disinclined to interefere with traditional religion. The northern
Greeks, the Seleucids, who took the Levant from the Ptolemies in 200 BCE,
were much more inclined to allow Hellenization to proceed.
The Chasidic Period (175-145 BCE) is best described as the "protoEssenism" period. These thirty years were crucial for the formation of the
ultimate Essene theology. The Chasids (Chasidim, Hasidaeans) came into
existence about 175 BCE and had split away from the more conservative
Zadokites. These Chasids formed a fervent and militant organization
dedicated to the establishment of a purified Judaism. The immediate
objective was the total defeat of the Syrian Hellenizers and the Jewish
apostates who cooperated with and supported them. For some reason, an
extraordinary event seems to have occurred during the first decade of this
period, without which there would probably never have been any Essene
communion; the Chasidim split into two divisions., of which one remained in
Judea while the other exiled itself, or was driven, into the Syrian desert, not
far from Damascus, shortly before or about the year 170 BCE.
When the Jewish priests consolidated their power after the return from
Babylon, they outlawed all prophecy (Zecheriah 13:3-6), since that could
disturb the public tranquillity and discredit the incumbent priesthood. The
purpose of this proscription was to freeze the existing canon. Breaking from
this ban, the thirty years following 175 BCE were prolific in literary
production. The oldest extant writing is the Damascus Document, composed
before 170 BCE. This was followed by the first portion of Enoch, to which is
assigned the date 170-168 BCE. The third scripture consists of Chapters 712 of the canonical Daniel; this was not produced by the Essene movement
proper, but by the more conservative Chasids, who never left Judea; the
date is c. 164 BCE. The fourth scripture is the second portion of Enoch,
composed c. 162-161 BCE. The fifth work, The War of the Sons of Light,
written c. 163 BCE, is quite different. Following this, there seems to be a
literary interruption, for no extant documents reflects a date following 160
BCE and preceding 142 BCE.The Zadokites were split by competing
families who fought bitterly with each other for power. One was descended
from the priestly group. Called the Onaids, they controlled the Temple since
the return from Babylonia. These were the "legitimate" high priests. They
also became Hellenized, even participating in the Olympic games. The
second group was the Tobiads. They were later known as Publicans. As a
non-priestly family they were supported by the Sapientials, wise elder
statesmen. However, they used their wealth to take control of the Temple by
marrying Zadokites, and gaining control of the Temple Treasury. When the
Seleucids took control of the land from the Ptolemies, they supported the
Zadokites (now fully merged with the Tobiads).
The Tobiad family levied taxes through the tax farmer system. A tax farmer
would pay up tax money to the rulers of the country, gaining the right to
collect taxes from the people, turning a public debt into a private debt upon
which they could exact usury; anything over and above the actual taxes
owed that they could swindle out of the people, they were allowed to keep
for themselves. The Publicans were Jewish-brothers after the flesh - but
they were universally despised because they were tax collectors for the
hated Roman government. Philo belonged to this family.
The Publicans and Phaisees were Jews both racially and religiously;
although Yahusha gives a hint of their true lineage when He says that they
are of the father the Devil (John 8:44). Judah's son Shelah by his Canaanite
wife Bathshua is a mamzer, and carries they curse of Canaan. Yahusha
called the Pharisees offspring of snakes. He said they were evil.
Repeatedly, Yahusha described the Pharisees as something inherently
wicked. This indicates that Yahusha and John the Baptist knew something
more about the Pharisees, something that is not clearly mentioned in the
Bible. Even though the Bible does not spell out the details, the Pharisees'
wickedness must have been great.
The Publicans and Pharisees are both wealthy of the same nation and both
dishonest. Some think that the Greek noun pharisaios meant
"separatist"and that it came from the Hebrew word persahin, from the verb
parash which meant to separate. When it comes to the Pharisees and the
word "separate," here is an interesting passage - the point being that the
Pharisees separated themselves and despised others. By this story,
Yahusha is showing that Pharisee are full of false piety - just an act for show
in public. And indeed, the name of their sect may refer to the fact that they
separated themselves, as if they were 'better' that the 'common people.'
Luke 18:9-14
09] He (Yahusha) spoke also this parable to certain people who were
convinced of their own righteousness, and who despised all others. 10] Two
men went up into the temple to pray; one was a Pharisee, and the other was
a tax collector (Publican). 11] The Pharisee stood and prayed to himself like
this: HaShem, I thank you, that I am not like the rest of men, extortioners,
unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector (Publican). 12] I fast
twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. 13] But the tax collector
(Publican), standing far away, wouldn’t even lift up his eyes to heaven, but
beat his breast, saying, Yahuah, be merciful to me, a sinner! 14] I tell you,
this man (the Publican) went down to his house justified rather than the
other (the Pharisee); for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but
he who humbles himself will be exalted.
Then there is the much misunderstood word hypocrites (Strong's Greek #
5273). Yahusha called the Pharisees, as the Greek text records that,
hupokritai. It is important to understand that the modern English word
hypocrite does not have the same meaning as the old Greek word
hupokrites (hupokritês). Hupokritês meant an actor, a stage player. A
kômikos hupokritês was an amusing actor, or an actor playing a part in a
kômôidia (comedy). In those days, the theatre in Judea was of the Greek
kind. Its actors often played god roles, representing different Greek idols.
Through that, the actor became "one who gives an answer," that is, an
oracle. This has to do with the original meaning of the verb hupokrinomai.
The actors represented deities, and announced the words of these dieties. It
seems that Yahusha referred to that; what the Pharisees did was that they
put on an act, and they also acted as if they somehow were oracles or
representatives of Yahuah. They took to themselves the right to decide what
was right or wrong.
Luke 12:1 (Webtrer's Revised)
01] In the mean time, when there was gathered together an innumerable
multitude of people, so that they trampled one upon another, he began to
say to his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees,
which is hypocrisy.
While the Pharisee is basically greedy for social prominence and status, the
Publican is just plain greedy - lusting after money. What the people did not
understand about the Pharisees as a group was that they were guilty of
underhanded and unethical practices in gaining their wealth. In Matthew
23:14, where Yahusha denounces the Pharisees in scathing terms, He
mentions the fact that they were guilty of devouring widow’s houses - taking
their houses as payment on overdue debts. The Pharisees were also guilty
of declaring as corban funds that should have been used to support their
own parents. The term corban denotes that which has been given to
Yahuah as an offering (Mark 7:11). Therefore, we learn from the lips of
Yahusha Himself that the Pharisees were hypocrites/ hupokritai of the
highest order. When Yahusha called the Pharisees hupokritai, he called
them actors. And when he said that the Pharisees performed hupokrisis,
then he obviously meant that they were like the actors of the Greek theatre
were in those days: They pretended they were something they were not,
and acted as dieties and as oracles of the dieties/hupokrinomai. By
extension, the word hupokritês could also refer to someone who did not
work as an actor but who just pretended to be something that he was not.
That is precisely what the Pharisees did, they acted as if they had right to sit
in the seat of Moses, they manipulated themselves into the position even
though they had no such right.
Matthew 23:1-7 (Grren's Literal Translation)
01] Then Yahusha spoke to the crowd and to His disciples, 02] saying, The
scribes and the Pharisees sat down on Moses' seat. 03] Then all things,
whatever they tell you to keep, keep and do. But do not do according to their
works, for they say, and do not do. 04] For they bind heavy and hard to bear
burdens, and lay them on the shoulders of men, but they do not desire to
move them with their finger. 05] And they do all their works to be seen by
men. And they make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of
their robes. 06] And they love the first couch in the suppers, and the first
seats in the synagogues, 07] and the greetings in the markets, and to be
called by men, Rabbi, Rabbi.
Matthew 16:12 (RSV)
12] Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven
of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
The Onaids and the Tobiads vied for power and sought alliances. The
Tobiads were in favor with the Syrians, the Onaids with the Egyptians. The
struggle began in 175 BCE; some time after the death of the High Priest
Simon II c. 195 BCE; and the succession of his son, Onias III, a strict
Zealot. The High Priest Onias III was opposed by his own Hellenist brother
Yeshua (who adopted the Greek name Jason/Jesus). Josephus said "This
Onias was one of a little soul, and a great lover of money; ..... so sordidly
covetous was Onias, that nothing of things nature made him ashamed. "
(Antiquities 12:4:1). After the split Onias' Persian religious faction of Hasids
was nicknamed the Pharisees. The Priesthood under Jason/Jesus came to
be the Sadducees. It is this very same Jason/Jesus, who is referred to as
the "Wicked Priest," by the Qumran Khasidim Tzedoqim in the Scroll of the
War of the Sons of Light versus the Sons of Darkness.
The fundamental difference between the Sadducees and the Pharisees is
the interpretation of the Torah. The Sadducees maintained that the only way
for truly pious behavior was to live according to the commandments in the
written Law; the Pharisees, on the other hand, taught that the written Law
had been given to the Jews and that they were free to interpret the Law. As
a consequence, the Pharisees said that the 'written Torah' was to be
supplemented with 'the oral Torah' (Talmudism), the interpretation of the
written Law by the Pharisee teachers. The Pharisees' disdain for the
Sadducees is evident, for example, when Pharisee teachers were
discussing whether a good person could become an evil person, the
example of a Pharisee who went over to the Sadducees was quoted as
proof that people could become evil (Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 29a). In
another text, it is stated that the Sadducee sect started as a group of
Pharisee heretics:
[The Pharisee teacher] Antigonus of Sokho had two disciples who used to
study his words. They taught them to their disciples, and their disciples to
their disciples. These proceeded to examine the words closely and
demanded, 'Why did our ancestors see fit to say this thing? Is it possible
that a laborer should do his work all day and not take his reward in the
evening? If our ancestors, forsooth, had known that there is no other world
and that there will be a resurrection of the dead, they would not have
spoken in this manner.' So they arose and withdrew from the [study of the
oral] Torah, and split into two sects, the Sadducees and the Boethusians:
Sadducees named after Zadok, Boethusians after Boethus. ('Avot de rabbi
Nathan, version A, 5; translated by J. Goldin)
Regarding the factors which led to the establishment of the Pharisees as a
distinct party, British historian Paul Johnson writes: In their battle against
Greek education, pious Jews began, from the end of the second century
BCE, to develop a national system of education. To the old scribal schools
were gradually added a network of local schools where, in theory at least, all
Jewish boys were taught the Torah. This development was of great
importance in the spread and consolidation of the synagogue, in the birth of
Pharisaism as a movement rooted in popular education, and eventually in
the rise of the rabbinate. (p. 106, A History Of The Jews) A national system
of education is one of the planks of communism that came out of Jewish
orchestrated Russian Revolution of 1917.
The Sadducees were intent on adapting the temple to the Greek model. The
Sadducees, says Josephus, have none but the rich on their side.
(Antiquities 13:10:6) - 2 Maccabbees 4:7-11 says that Jesus / Jason
obtained the Priesthood by corruption, and that he built a Greek Gymnasium
in Jerusalem. In 4 Maccabees 4:15-20 it says that he had abolished the
Temple Service. Jesus / Jason gained the support of the new Greek king,
Antiochus Epiphanes with the promise of a massive bribe - 440 talents of
silver plus another 150 talents of silver if the king gave him authorization to
build a gymnasium. Antiochus Epiphanes was opposed to the Jewish
religion and wanted to Hellenize it, so he had his own reasons other than
Jesus / Jason's bribe for supporting him as the leader of the Hellenistic
faction of the Jerusalem priesthood. This was the first time the priesthood
was bought and sold. Now the priest and others participate in creating a
gymnasium, in going naked to the athletic games, and in the Greek
homosexual mentorship practices. The name of Jerusalem itself was
changed to Antiochea. It was Antiochus Epiphane's order to burn all copies
of the law of Moses.
Josephus recounts for us: "About this time, upon the death of Onias the
high priest, they gave the high priesthood to Jesus his brother; for that son
which Onias left [or Onias IV.] was yet but an infant; and, in its proper place,
we will inform the reader of all the circumstances that befell this child. But
this Jesus, who was the brother of Onias, was deprived of the high
priesthood by the king, who was angry with him, and gave it to his younger
brother, whose name also was Onias; for Simon had these three sons, to
each of which the priesthood came, as we have already informed the
reader. This Jesus changed his name to Jason, but Onias was called
Menelaus. Now as the former high priest, Jesus, raised a sedition against
Menelaus, who was ordained after him, the multitude were divided between
them both. And the sons of Tobias took the part of Menelaus, but the
greater part of the people assisted Jason; and by that means Menelaus and
the sons of Tobias were distressed, and retired to Antiochus, and informed
him that they were desirous to leave the laws of their country, and the
Jewish way of living according to them, and to follow the king's laws, and
the Grecian way of living. Wherefore they desired his permission to build
them a Gymnasium at Jerusalem. And when he had given them leave, they
also hid the circumcision of their genitals, that even when they were naked
they might appear to be Greeks. Accordingly, they left off all the customs
that belonged to their own country, and imitated the practices of the other
nations." (Josephus Antiqities of the Jews Bk 12:5:1)
To illustrate just how accurate Joseph's statement was that the Sadducees
had none but the rich on their side, here is a little arithmetic to boggle the
senses.
A talent = 3000 sheckels. A sheckel = 2/5 or 0.4 oz. A talent then
is 3000 x 0.4 oz = 1200 oz (75 lbs)
440 talents x 1200 oz = 528,000 oz (33,000 lbs) of silver.
150 talents x 1200 oz = 180,000 oz (11,250 lbs) of silver.
At the conservative price of silver today (09-14-2004) of $6/oz that
combined 708,000 oz (44,250 lbs) of silver would be worth a tiny bit less
than $4 1/4 million. Smacks a bit of buying your way into the White House
nowadays, doesn't it?
Isaac Asimov in his Guide to the Bible, relates that at the gymnasia, the
Greeks were accustomed to exercise in the nude. "This in itself was
horrifying to those Jews who clung to the old ways," writes Asimov. "Worse
still, Jews who exercised in the nude could clearly be seen to be
circumcised; to avoid this embarrassment, the custom arose of wearing
false foreskins, thus making them uncircumcised." The desire to break away
from the severe strictures of what some contemporary Jewish scholars have
characterized as Temple Judaism was very strong among the Jewish
masses, especially among the younger Jews, including even some priests,
who, after the gymnasium was built, abandoned their more decorous
Temple duties and began to exercise with the enthusiasm of converts. They
had removed the marks of circumcision (1 Maccabees 1:15) at first by
donning false foreskins, and then, by a an undocumented process of
stretching the remaining foreskin to appear uncircumcised. The rabbinate
sought to put an end to the practice of youths desiring to appear
uncircumcised, and introduced the painful and debilitating Periah that
obliterates the foreskin completely, such that circumcised Jews could not
disguise their circumcision. Of course, as a man-made edict, this radical
removal of the entire foreskin corrupted the Abrahamic Covenant.
There was another group of progressives, known as the Tobiads, who were
even more virulently opposed to the theocratic traditions of Temple
Judaism, and sought to embrace Hellenism with an even greater passion
than the Sadducees under Jesus / Jason. Since the days of Ezra and
Nehemiah there was opposition to Tobiah, who was married into the high
priestly family (Nehemiah 13:4). For those who judged the Tobiads by
Nehemiah's standards, this would have been confirmation that this family
was to be marked off as outside the bounds of the covenant.
The Tobiads lusted for the power of the high priesthood and waited for an
opportunity to topple Jesus / Jason. Such an opportunity presented itself
when the perpetually cash-poor Antiochus demanded access to the treasury
of the Temple in Jerusalem in 171 BCE. To the more conservative Jews this
was sacrilege of the first order. It was at this point that Jesus / Jason drew
the line. The Tobiads determined to stay on Antiochus' good side. They
decided to get rid of Jesus / Jason. Another Hellenizer who called himself
Menelaus replaced Jesus / Jason. Menelaus had some sort of official
position because Jesus / Jason sent him on a mission to Antiochus. It was
while on that mission that Menelaus gained the office of high priest in
exactly the same way Jesus / Jason had obtained it from Onias III and the
Pharisees; he simply outbid Jesus / Jason by three hundred talents (roughly
$2,160,000.00). However, the merging of the priesthood and the tax
collection function was a fatal mistake, because it was now possible, by
bidding for the job of tax collector, to also bid for the priesthood. Jesus /
Jason refused to abdicate, and a civil war broke out which resulted in his
fleeing to Transjordan. Jesus / Jason's moderate regime thus ended. The
common people, who were acquiescent under Jesus / Jason soon turned
against Tobiad Menelaus and his backers. The people rose up not against
Hellenism, but the tyranny of Menelaus and his Tobiad regime. All of this
villainy was compounded by the systematic theft of gold from the temple
which Menelaus converted to his own use by selling it in the markets of Tyre
and other places. Onias III learned of this thievery and exposed it. It was
then that Menelaus had Onias III murdered by another Jew having the
Greek name Andronicus. The murder of Onias III for daring to expose the
Temple thievery added to the disaffection of the Jewish masses. They came
to realize that the Hellenizing influences that were to liberate them from the
oppression of Temple Judaism were nothing more than a hoax.
It has been contended that the Maccabean revolt came in protest to the
process of Hellenization in Judaea, but this was not the case. The
Maccabees revolted in response to the persecutions imposed by king
Antiochus, and at the instigation of radical Tobiad Jewish Hellenizers. It was
the imposition of a tyranny under the guise of a Hellenizing liberalism,
coupled with the religious transgressions of the Hellenizing Tobiad party of
Menelaus that triggered the Maccabean revolt. Mainline partisan historians
would rather have you believe that the cause of the Maccebean Revolt lay
outside of Judaism with Antiochus Epiphane's dedication of the Temple to
Zeus and sacrificing swine on the alter. The Maccabean revolt was not a
fight for freedom or liberation. It was purely a civil war created by the
Maccabean family to take control of the high priesthood.
A further stage in the Hellenization process took place in the ensuing period.
The fact is that the Hasmonaeans themselves quickly adapted Hellenistic
mores; they instituted holidays, and celebrated military victories, as did the
Greeks. Under Judas Maccabeus the Temple was, eventually, purified and
rededicated, and it is from this purification and rededication that the Jews
instituted their holiday observance of Hanukkah. And beginning with the
second generation, the Hasmonaeans began adopting Greek names in
addition to their Hebrew names: John Hyrcanus I (134 - 104 BCE),
Aristobulus I (104 -103 BCE), Alexander Jannaeus (103 -76 BCE), Salomé
Alexandra (76 -67 BCE), Aristobulus II (67 - 63 BCE), Hyrcanus II (63 - 40
BCE), and, finally, Antigonus (40 - 37 BCE).
The Hellenization of the Jews in Judaea did not end with the demise of the
Seleucid Empire. Not only did it not end, it increased and continued to grow
even stronger down to the time of Yahusha and beyond. If the Maccabean
Revolt was all about banishing the darkness of the Greeks, why is it that
Greek art, culture, language, dress, eating habits, and, even religion, in
some cases, became so popular throughout Palestine and the Judaean
diaspora for centuries after the Temple was rededicated and the Jews were
free to practice their religion once more? Hellenism was never the problem.
The problem was the tedium of plots and counterplots and treacheries of
Jews amongst themselves, motivated by the all-too-human lust for riches
and power. The never-ending back-biting and eye-gouging has been a
recurring pattern. They have turned on one another through the ages time
and again with an indescribable savagery unique in the history of mankind.
The Essenes objected to the debasement of the temple and the venality of
the Sadducees. They scorned the illegal/ Tobiad priests of Jerusalem. After
the Maccabean Revolt ended the Jewish people became divided into three
groups: the Essenes, the Sadducees and the Pharisees. The Scrolls tell us
that the Qumran community had a priestly head. The priests of the Dead
Sea community are called either the "Sons of Aaron" (Manual of Discipline
9:7) or the "Sons of Zadok" (Messianic Rule 1:24). In post-exilic times,
membership in the house of Zadok was a necessary prerequisite for holding
a legitimate priestly office, as recorded in Ezekiel's vision of the new
Temple, only the Sons of Zadok are to have the right to make sacrifices.
(Ezekiel 40:46) In the lists of priests in I Chronicles 6, the name of Zadok
occurs in the same dominant position in the ancestral line, which was
absolutely necessary for legitimate priesthood. The Sadducees formed the
Temple hierarchy all through the time of the First and Second Temples
down to the days of the Sons of Zadok (2 Chronicles 31:10; Ezekiel 40:46;
44:15; 48:11), but who degenerated under the influence of Hellenism. The
Sadducee movement was made up of the priests and the aristocrats of
Jewish society.
The power struggle between the Sadducees and Pharisees continued
through the years. The kings were usually supported by the Sadducees,
who had great influence on royal policy. It was only under the reign of
Queen Alexandra Salome (76 - 67 BCE), that the Pharisees with their
leader, prince Simeon ben Shetah, were influential enough that they
formally threw the Sadducees out of the Sanhedrin/high court. By 67 BCE
the Sadducees would regain their former influence in the Sanhedrin, but it
was after the time when the Pharisees gained control of the calendar;
transmitting their calendar dating to the Diaspora. These Pharisees used
evening reckoning for days, as opposed to the morning reckoning of the
Sadducees. The signal flares announcing Rosh Chodesh may have been
the Pharisees' attempt to enforce their calendar reckoning over that of the
Sadducees and Essenes. (see S. Zeitlin, The Political Synedrion and the
Religious Sanhedrin, JQR NS 36 (1945), 122-125)
Jubilees 2:8,9
08] ..... And on the fourth day He created the sun and the moon and the
stars, and set them in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon all the
earth, and to rule over the day and the night, and divide the light from the
darkness. 09] And Yahuah appointed the sun to be a great sign on the earth
for days and for sabbaths and for months and for feasts and for years and
for sabbaths of years and for jubilees and for all seasons of the years.
Jubilees 4:16-18, 21
16] ..... he called his name Enoch. 17] And he was the first among men that
are born on earth who learnt writing and knowledge and wisdom and who
wrote down the signs of heaven according to the order of their months in a
book, that men might know the seasons of the years according to the order
of their separate months. 18] And he was the first to write a testimony and
he testified to the sons of men among the generations of the earth, and
recounted the weeks of the jubilees, and made known to them the days of
the years, and set in order the months and recounted the Sabbaths of the
years as we made (them), known to him. 21] And he was moreover with the
angels of Yahuah these six jubilees of years, and they showed him
everything which is on earth and in the heavens, the rule of the sun, and he
wrote down everything.
The groups who used the Book of Jubilees, which teaches a solar calendar
and sunrise reckoning of the day, were persecuted by those who "Sat in the
Seat of Moses." The Essenes of the Dead Sea community were persecuted
by the Pharisee sect of Yahudism (Judaism), who rejected Jubilees from
their version of the Bible. Those of early Messianic faith used Jubilees, but
they were persecuted by the Roman bishops appointed by Constantine,
who chose to reject Jubilees as a scriptural book.
One DSS fragment is a short poem dedicated to a King Jonathan.
Alexander Jannaeus (d 76 BCE) aka King Jonathan spent time in the
wilderness in guerrilla warfare against the Syrian Hellenistic King Demetrius,
who had been invited into the country by the Pharisees. In 88 BCE
Alexander Jannaeus crucified 800 Pharisees. The Essenes seemed to
admire him for this, afterward the Pharisees and Essenes were no longer
fond of each other.
Before 104 BCE the Qumran site was unoccupied or inactive. The Essenes
had been around about a hundred years, though, by the time John the
Baptist and Yahusha were born. One of the terms of self-definition used by
the Qumran community was 'Keepers of the Covenant', in Hebrew, Nozrei
ha-Brit. This is the origin of the term Nozrim, which was one of the first
Hebrew names for Messianics. From the same source comes the term
Nazorean or Nazarene, the term of self-definition used by the first
Messianics in the Gospels and the Book of Acts. Anciently, there were two
branches of Essenes - the branch to the north, the Nasaraeans/Nazarenes,
who practiced marriage and the branch to the south, the Ossaeans, who did
not. The Qumran use of the word fornication is relevant to the question of
foreigners. It was applied to those who married outside Jewry, especially
priests. The essential aim was to keep Israel, a Holy People, separate from
others. The command in the Manual of Discipline was to 'separate
yourselves' to prepare a way in the wilderness. This was also notably said
by John the Baptist. The southern branch Ossaeans were the all male Order
who left us the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Qumran Monastery. It may be that
within the Essenes that John the Baptist was an Ossaen and Yahusha was
a Nazarene judging by information we have of their personal lives. Paul,
being celibate, may also have been associated with the Ossaeans.
Josephus employed the analogy of kinship/brotherhood for the Essenes
(Jewish War 2.120, 122, 127). The analogy of kinship and its importance
can be seen in the Community Rule Scroll [1QS], vi, 10, 22) and in the early
Assembly, where addressing his 'brethren' is a regular feature of Paul.
The Essenes literally abandoned Jerusalem in protest against the way the
Temple was being run. They continued to flourish in Palestine to late in the
first century.
Lawrence Schiffman, a respected Jewish scholar writes:
We know that the sectarians, especially in the Zadokite
Fragments, often spoke in code words. We find all kinds of
pseudonyms for actual personages, yet almost never a personal
name that would allow a definite identification. The Jewish sects
of the day are never mentioned by name even though we see
numerous references to them designated with code words in the
sectarian texts. Why then should we fall into the trap of taking
place names literally? Rather it is more likely that "Damascus" is a
code word for Qumran.
"Damascus" seems to be Qumran, the name of Qumran at that time being
otherwise unknown to us. With this knowledge, Paul's trip to Damascus
(Qumran) in the New Testament takes on a whole new meaning and several
problems can be explained. The New Covenanters called it Damascus after
a staging post of the Jews "returning" from "exile" in Harran in
Mesopotamia. The Damascus Document tells us of those who had returned
from exile in "the land of Damascus" having gone "out of the land of Judah"
and with whom:
Yahuah established his Covenant with Israel forever, revealing to
them the hidden things in which all Israel had strayed.
"All Israel" means the whole nation whereas "Israel" means the select - the
sectarians themselves. Here the reference to the "Land of Damascus"
cannot be to Qumran because the Damascus Document clearly says it was
"out of the land of Judah" whereas Qumran is only a few miles from
Jerusalem. The Damascus Document explicitly quotes, apparently by way
of explanation Amos 5:26-27 which describes the place of exile as beyond
Damascus. Babylon of course, is beyond Damascus, but Babylon had been
destroyed 300 years earlier by the Persian King, Xerxes. It seems quite
likely, that having settled at Qumran the former exiles nick-named it
Damascus after their place of origin. The exilic origin of the group is
supported by many rules which pertain to life among the gentiles, a situation
that scarcely applied in Judaea despite it being under foreign rule, but
obviously would apply to those living in a foreign country.
The Secret Testament 1:7-9 (An Essene reconstruction of the Gospel of
Mark 1999)
05] And John announced: After me one who is mightier than me will come,
and I am not fit to stoop and untie the latchet of his sandals. ..... 07] Now it
came to pass in those days that a man of repute, a Nazarene, being thirty
years old, was baptized by John in the Jordan, and Zadokite priests came
from Damascus by the Dead Sea. One was the Angel of Yahuah and one
was the Satan and John was Joshua, the High Priest. And the Angel spake:
Be silent, all ye flesh, before Yahuah, for he is raised up out of his holy
habitation. 08] And the Zadokites asked: Where is he who shall be the
prince of the congregation, a sceptre who shall smite all the children of
Seth, for it is written: a star shall come out of Jacob and a sceptre shall rise
out of Israel. 09] And straightway the Nazarene rose up from the water.
(Remember that it was the family line of Zadok that were the Temple
Priests.)
Herod ruled from 37 BCE - 4 BCE and brought changing fortunes for both
Sadducees and Pharisees. One of Herod's initial political goals was to
reduce the power of the Pharisees, who held enormous sway with the
people. As the Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels states, Herod's "first
adversaries, the people and the Pharisees, objected both to his being
Idumean, a half-Jew, as well as his friendship with the Romans. Those who
opposed him were punished, and those who took his side were rewarded
with favors and honors" (p. 319, "Herodian Dynasty"). One of the first things
Herod did upon becoming king in 37 BCE was to order the execution of
forty-five Sadducean members of the Sanhedrin for their support of
Antigonus, his rival for the kingship; in addition, he confiscated their property
to pay Marc Antony, the Roman who had appointed him king. He also
turned the Sanhedrin into a religious court only, taking away its power in
secular matters. Since he was only half Jewish, Herod knew the people
would not tolerate him serving as high priest in addition to being king, as
some of the Hasmoneans had. So he separated the two positions and
began appointing high priests at his pleasure. This broke the custom of the
high priesthood being attached to a particular family. Herod also abolished
the practice of the high priest holding the position for life. According to
Josephus, in the 107 years from the beginning of Herod's reign to the fall of
Jerusalem, there were 28 high priests.
A note regarding the word "Herodians" in Mark 3:6: That referred to a
priestly party (sect, grouping, clique). Here is an excerpt from the Jewish
Encyclopedia (1901-1906) and the entry "Herodians": "Priestly party under
the reign of King Herod and his successors; called by the Rabbis
'Boethusians,' as adherents of the family of Boethus, whose daughter
Mariamne was one of the wives of King Herod, and whose sons were
successively made high priests by him. They followed the Sadducees in
their opposition to the Pharisees, and were therefore often identified with the
former."
In the Herodian period the Sadducees wanted complete political control; at
the same time the Pharisees desired to dominate all aspects of Jewish
religion. Control over the calendar was THE legitimizing power and both
groups sought it. The Pharisees, who used sunset reckoning, strongly
disputed the sunrise reckoning of the Sadducees. The difference between
sunrise and sunset reckoning often caused the required festivals to fall on
different days. After the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE the Pharisees
began to record their oral traditions. In their Mishna and Talmud sunrise
reckoning was suppressed and eventually eliminated. The calendar system
of Scripture and the Temple disappeared. When Yahusha was crucified in
30 CE the calculation of Passover by the Pharisees fell one day after the
celebration of the Temple Passover. Thus we find the synoptic Gospels
reporting the crucifixion of Yahusha after the Passover, while John suggests
the Passover is yet future. The use of sunrise reckoning also helps to
establish that there are no other possible years for the crucifixion of
Yahusha.
Josephus consistently dated his months from Nisan (Abib). A Jewish
calendar that begins the new year in the spring and the day at sunrise is the
calendar used in Scripture. Religious observances at the Temple were
according to this calendar. During this same period it is also known that
many early Pharasaic Jews used the Diaspora calendar (c. 722 BCE). This
calendar was similar to the Syro-Macedonian calendar, with a fall new year
and evening reckoning for days. This became the calendar generally used
by the Pharisees, and many of the common people, with the day measured
from sunset. The use of this unofficial reckoning was widespread and
became the basis of the current Jewish civil calendar. In the later Diaspora
there developed the tradition of observing some festivals two days in a row.
The double observance was supposed to compensate for differences in
calendars and locations. With the destruction of the Second Temple in 70
CE and the disappearance of the Temple rites, the ecclesiastical Second
Temple calendar was soon lost almost forever. The Pharsaic/Rabbinic shift
to exclusive use of the luni-solar Diaspora calendar was almost immediate.
The Pharisees as supporters of Herod were lackeys of the Roman Empire.
During Herod's rule it would have only been a natural desire to appoint the
Kohen Haggadhol (High Priest) from among his Pharisee supporters; but it
was the Sadducees who served as high priests through 70 CE. Both
Sadducees and Pharisees denounced John the Baptist (Matthew 3:7-8) and
Yahusha (Matthew 16:6,11,12). Both actively opposed Yahusha (Matthew
21:12ff; Mark 11:15ff; Luke 19:47) and the apostolic Assembly. (Acts
5:17,33) It was the Pharisees who were denounced by Yahusha (Matthew
23). It was the Pharisees who plotted Yahusha's death (Matthew 12:14).
The Sadducees, supplemented by leading priests, dominated the
Sanhedrin, and in doing so kept the Pharisees at bay.
Every book of the Jewish scriptures except for Esther and Nehemiah have
been found at the caves of Qumran; parts of eleven copies of the Book of
Enoch; and slightly more copies of the Book of Jubilees have been found.
The Damascus Document, copies of which were found in a Cairo
synagogue in 1897, was plainly important to the Essenes because portions
of as many as nine copies of it were found in the caves at Qumran. In part it
tells the story of a "Teacher of Righteousness" who led a group of Jews into
the wilderness where they would practice and uphold Torah / the Law. This
Teacher of Righteousness was none other than John the Baptist. He is
usually called the last of the Old Testament prophets because he was the
first prophet among the Jews for 400 years prior to the New Testament.
The Qumran sectarian documents refer to some of their enemies as
Ephraim, builders of the wall and spouters of false things, the latter a play
on the words halakhot (religious laws) and halaqot (false things or
falsehoods). These are the Pharisees who according to the Talmud held
dominance under the Maccabees when they refused to allow the priesthood
to return to the Sons of Zadok.
The Sanhedrin followed a luni-solar calendar. The Essenes adhered to a
strictly solar calendar. The celebration of the Passover of the Jews on the
calendar of the priests and Pharisees, the traditional Jewish calendar, was
always at the end of Nisan / Abib 14 into the evening of Nisan / Abib 15.
This coupled with the Essene reckoning of the new day from sunrise meant
that the two groups always kept the Passover at different times. In 30 CE,
however, the two calendars overlapped resulting in the two Passover
celebrations occurring in the same week of April resulting in their two
respective Nisan / Abib 14 Passover celebrations one day apart.
The DSS Halakhic Letter (4QMMT) was released in 1985. The letter begins
with a calendar based on the Sun. This would mean that the Holy Days
would fall on different days than the rest of Judaism, which observed the
Lunar Calendar. In the time of Yahusha it is clearly evident that there were
already at least two conflicting and opposing calendar systems operating.
This becomes clear when you attempt to harmonize the gospel accounts of
the events of the passion week. It has to be asked why was the Passover
during Yahusha's time repeatedly called the "Jews" Passover (John 2:13;
6:4;11:55), and not Yahuah’s Passover (Exodus 12:11,27; Leviticus 23:5;
Numbers 28:16)? Why did Yahusha eat the Passover supper the night
before the Passover of the Jews? (Luke 22:7-11) According to Leviticus
23:5-7 the 'first day of unleavened bread' was the day after the Passover
was killed, however according to the gospel accounts this day occurred
before Yahusha was slain. (Matthew 26:17; Mark 14:1,12; Luke 22:1,7)
Again, the Pharisees, who used sunset reckoning, disputed the sunrise
reckoning of the Sadducees. The difference between sunrise and sunset
reckoning most often caused the required festivals to fall on different days.
This calendar conflict has been around for quite a few centuries. This also
explains the Jews crucifying Yahusha on their preparation day of their lunar
calendar. If, as many advocate, that the weekly sabbaths are determined by
the moon, and that the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th days of the lunar months
are sabbaths, then the Jews preparation day would have been; the day after
Yahusha ate Yahuah's Passover with the disciples; preparing for their lunar
sabbath on the 15th. At this point we must again recall what Yahuah said in
Isaiah:
YashaYahu/Isaiah 1:13,14 (1599 Geneva Bible)
13] Bring no more oblations, in vain: incense is an abomination unto me: I
cannot suffer your new moons, nor Sabbaths, nor solemn days, nor solemn
assemblies. 14] My soul hateth your new moons and your appointed feasts:
they are a burden unto me: I am weary to bear them.
Yahusha's origins, while graphically described in the Gospels are not so
well documented elsewhere. There is a convincing argument based on the
belief systems he preached that he did not originate in Galilee at all but in
Qumran. There is also a fundamental Gnosticism about his teachings and
there are similarities between his sayings and those found in the Dead Sea
scrolls. The Gospel of Thomas has been dismissed by many as Gnostic, but
better than 75% of the sayings attributed to Yahusha in the Gospel of
Thomas can be found in the New Testament. When Yahusha and His
disciples arrived at that predestined gate to the Holy City and entered the
residential areas, they entered the area to the west of the Temple near the
Hasmonean palace in Jerusalem called the Essene Quarter. Yahusha was
not received by the Sadducees or Pharisee, but by His own people where
they cried YashaNa! Blessed is he that comes in the name of Yahuah!
Aquarian Gospel 1:11,12
(full title: The Aquarian Age Gospel of Jesus, the Christ of the Piscean Age
(c. 1884))
11] When Mary reached the age of womanhood she was betrothed to
Joseph, son of Jacob, and a carpenter of Nazareth. 12] And Joseph was an
upright man, and a devoted Essene.
The Secret Testament 1:1,4,21 (An Essene reconstruction of the Gospel of
Mark 1999)
01] The beginning of the gospel of Yahusha, which is Yahuah's saviour,
whom they called Barabbas, which is the son of my father, for he was the
Son of Yahuah, the messiah, a prince of Israel. 04] John was the nasi,
which is prince of the congregation, the Master of the Nazarenes, ...... 21]
Now Herod the tetrarch feared John as a disturber of the multitudes, which
counted him a prophet and were ready to do anything he should advise, and
went out to lay hold on him, and would have him killed. He took him and
bound him, and held him in prison in the fortress of Machaerus. But Herod
feared John knowing he was a righteous one and a holy one for he was an
Essene, and kept him safe.
According to a manuscript at Jesus College Oxford, Joseph de Marmore
from Arimathaea, was brother to Bianca (Yahusha's maternal great-aunt)
and Ann (Yahusha's maternal grandmother); he was uncle to Yahusha's
mother, Mary, and great-uncle to Yahusha himself. It was Joseph of
Arimathaea who claimed the body of Yahusha at Calvary from Pontius
Pilate, something that by law only a family member could do.
The Secret Testament 6:102 (An Essene reconstruction of the Gospel of
Mark 1999)
102] ..... Joseph of Arimathaea, which also waiteth for the kingdom of
Yahuah, being an Essene, an honourable counsellor of the council of the
congregation, came and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of
Yahusha, since he was the next of kin.
John's cousin Yahusha our Messiah, Yahusha's father Joseph, and their
great uncle, Joseph of Arimathaea were all devout Essenes. The Vatican
Manuscript quoted by Baronius in his "Ecclesiastical Annals A.D. 35,"
records that in 35 CE Lazarus, Mary Magdalene, Martha, her handmaiden
Marcella, Maximin a disciple, and Joseph of Arimathaea, against all of
whom the Jewish people had special reasons for hatred, were exposed to
the sea in a vessel without sails or oars. The vessel drifted finally to
Marseilles, where they were rescued. From Marseilles Joseph and his
company passed into Britain, and after preaching the Gospel there for some
time, he died and was buried there. The Essenes must have been a
particular thorn in the sides of the Pharisees and Sadducees; exemplified by
the circumstances surrounding the imprisonment and ultimate decapitation
of John the Baptist; for this group of Essenes to be put to drift at sea to die
in a boat with no sails.
If coins found at Qumran are anything to go by, the longest period of
occupation was from 4 BCE to 44 CE, the very period of the gospels. For all
practical purposes, the great war silenced most of the dissident Jewish
voices which included the Essenes. The Pharisees encouraged passive
resistance to the Romans in favour of a much more cosmopolitan approach
based on the Hellenistic traditions of the area. This led to difficulty in the
Jewish attempts to free themselves from Roman rule (66-70 CE). In his
book, The Jewish War, Josephus specifically mentions the heroic death of
the Essenes at the hands of the Romans. While there is no mention in
history or scripture of the Pharisees exacting revenge on the Essenes for
their taking pleasure in Alexander Jannaeus' crucifixion of 800 Pharisees in
88 BCE, one has to wonder if the Pharisees didn't incite the Romans to
exact revenge upon the Essenes for them, as may have been the case with
Judas of Gamala and the Zealot Essenes when they put up armed
resistance against the Romans in 6 CE. The revolt failed, Judas was killed
and thousands of his followers were crucified. The Pharisaic victors, after
the Great Revolt and at the time of Emperor Hadrian re-wrote history
making themselves into anti-Roman nationalists and changing the
Sadducees into the collaborators which in truth, was the other way around.
Many people labor under the assumption that the Pharisees were the "Party
of the People" attracting the masses. This is simply not true. Josephus, born
in Jerusalem in 37 CE the son of Matthias, a man from Sadducee priestly
descent, chose to become a Pharisee. Josephus confesses that the
Pharisees added to the Torah, laws that had not been handed down by
Yahuah to Moshe and the Children of Yisrael. "What I would now explain is
this, that the Pharisees have delivered to the people a great many
observances by succession from their fathers, which are not written in the
laws of Moses; and for that reason it is that the Sadducees reject them, and
say that we are to esteem those observances to be obligatory which are in
the written word, but are not to observe what are derived from the tradition
of our forefathers." (Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 13:10:6)
Roman forces led by Titus were finally victorious, razing Jerusalem to the
ground and defeating the last Jewish outpost at Masada (73 CE). Jews
committed suicide rather than submit to capture and slavery at the hands of
the Romans. The supreme legislative and judicial body, the Sanhedrin
(successor of the Knesset Hagedolah) was reconvened in Yavneh (70 CE)
and later in Tiberias. Through the destruction of the temple, the war brought
to a cataclysmic end the aristocratic priesthood, together with either the
death or enslavement of almost every Jew opposed to the Romans. The
only wing of Judean politics to survive the great war was a Pharisaitic
branch built largely under the auspices of Johanan ben Zakkai who obtained
permission from Titus, the Roman conqueror of Jerusalem in 70 CE, to go
to Jamnia and there set up a Rabbinical school. Priests were replaced by
rabbis. Early on rabbinic Judaism rejected Messianism as heretical. At the
council at Jamnia was made the proclamation of the birkat ha-minim. This
was a benediction pronouncing a curse on Nazarenes/Essenes, the
qehal’el, in effect excluding any Jew from the emerging Pharistic
synagogues if they became a Nazarene/Essene.
By 85 CE the Messianic and Pharistic communities were very far apart in
their basic teachings. Messianism had become a serious threat to
embryonic Pharistic Judaism. The birkat ha-minim was a prophylactic
measure to insulate and protect emerging Pharistic Judaism. If any Jew
turned Messianic they then became minim and subject to the daily curse by
rabbinical Jews. The underlying policy was to produce a chilling effect on
Messianic conversions by anathematizing converts in the eyes of other
Jews and by creating conflict and division even within the convert’s
immediate family. With the remnant of the Priesthood of little account and
the Sadducees scattered, Pharisaic Judaism, ie, false religion/Talmudism,
could reestablish itself and continue to develop and evolve into the rabbinic
Judaism of modern times. Through their reconstituted rabbinic Sanhedrin
they seized power over determining the calendar.
There is abundant data in the Talmudic sources that the Pharisees
commencemed their months by observation of the crescent moon, and the
date of the Passover was tied in with ripening of barley. The actual
witnessing of the crescent moon and observing of the stand of crops in
Judaea were required for the functioning of the religious calendar. The Jews
of the Diaspora generally used the civil calendar of their respective
countries, they were informed by messengers from Palestine about the
coming festivals. This practice is attested for 143 BCE. After the destruction
of the Temple in 70 CE, rabbinic leaders took over from the priests the fixing
of the religious calendar. Visual observation of the crescent moon was
supplemented and was in fact supplanted by secret astronomical
calculation. But the Diaspora, or Dispersion, was often reluctant to wait for
the arbitrary decision of the calendar makers in the Holy Land.
The rabbinical school in Jamnia instrumented sweeping changes in Judean
theology and literature, creating what is called 'Rabbinic Judaism', Talmudic
Judaism as it is known today. All avenues of thought and teaching that
proliferated in Judea before the great war were abolished by the Jamnia
school in favor of this one Pharisaitic interpretation. Only a single Hebrew
rescension of the Holy Scriptures survived. The Sadducean priesthood and
the Essenes and their writings simply disappeared as if they had never
existed. All literature that did not reflect the Jamnia party line was destroyed
or abolished. This included such writings as the exilic Septuagint version of
the scriptures, along with books such as Enoch and Jubilees. It may have
been at this time that hundreds of ancient sacred books were destroyed by
these Talmudic Pharisees leaving us to wonder, what happened to the 300+
books written by Enoch or the other books mentioned in the bible that we
only know by name?
Gospel of Thomas v 39, 102
39] Yahusha said, "The Pharisees and learned have taken the Keys of
Knowledge and concealed them. They have not opened that door and
entered into Knowledge, and those who wish to enter they will not allow the
Keys. So you must be as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves."
102] Yahusha said, "Woe to the Pharisees for they are like a dog sleeping in
a barn with the oxen, for they do not eat of the hay, nor do the allow the
oxen to eat."
What makes the Qumran documents so important to us is that it consists of
pre-Jamnian material. It presents us with a scriptural picture at, and before
the days of Yahusha.
Sixty-two years after the destruction of Jerusalem (132 CE) Messianics,
who were pacifists in the tradition of Yahusha, opposed the messianic
claims of Bar-Kokhba and the Second Jewish Rebellion. It was the
endorsement of this false messiah that was the last straw between the
Messianic community with rabbinic Judaism. And it was from this false claim
of messiahship that the Pharisaic Jews maufactured a calendar to fit their
claim. They subtracted 240 years from the calendar to force it to fit the
arrival of their counterfeit messiah Bar-Kokhba. This fraudulent Hillel II
Calendar is a memorial to the apostacy of the Pharisees. To this day it is
still reflects 240 missing years.
In Syrian Antioch in 328-342 CE, Passover was always celebrated in March
(Julian Calendar), the month of the spring equinox, without regard to the
Palestinian rules and rulings. That and the persecution of Byzantine
emperor Theodosius I (379-395 CE) in the aftermath of the First Council of
Constantinople, held in 381 CE, threatened the very existence of the revived
Sanhedrin and rabbinic Judaism.
To preserve the unity of Israel, the patriarch Hillel II, in 358/359 CE,
published the closely guarded secrets of making the Rabbinic Calculated
Calendar, which essentially consisted of the use of the Babylonian 19-year
Metonic cycle with some modifications required by Rabbinic ritual. He took
this extraordinary step to preserve the fragile unity of Rabbinic Judaism, and
prevent Rabbinic Jews that were scattered all over the surface of the earth
from celebrating new moons, festivals, and annual Sabbaths at times of
their own choosing.
The censorship and hoarding, if not the actual destruction, of all writings and
documents that challenged the authority of the Roman Catholic Church /
Vatican continued in the legacy of the Rabbinic school in Jamnia. An
understanding of the roots of the Church and its links and union with the
state - wherever the Church existed - is of extreme importance in the
understanding of how the cover-up was begun. That the concepts of Church
and State became interdependant is historical fact.
The Church of Rome proclaimed itself infallible. It also proclaimed itself the
supreme arbiter in matters of law, science and philosophy. Its
pronouncement in favor of Aristotlean science over the science of Plato is of
supreme importance. Aristotle described the world as being perfect and in
the centre of a perfect universe. Plato on the other hand described the world
as spinning upon its own axis, in orbit around the sun. He also fairly
accurately plotted the orbits of the planets and surmised that the stars were
suns like our own. Importantly, he argued that the universe was not perfect,
but unstable, and it, like the Earth was prone to disaster and upheaval from
time to time. The Church proclaimed Aristotle's theory as a dogmatic fact.
Plato's was heresy.
There were problems with the "perfect world" dogma. As the influence of the
Church spread and it began to dominate and develop educational systems,
its scholars and researchers gained access to and control over the
repositories of writings and documents within its sphere of influence. When
maps were discovered showing lands hitherto beyond the known ends of
the world, the Church faced a dichotomy. If the lands existed then they were
beyond the "boiling seas" and were therefore beyond the reach of the
"infallible" Church. They were therefore heresy and should be burned or
hidden in secret libraries. Any books or documents which contravened
Catholicized scripture suffered similar fate. This included works of historical
records (described by the Church as Pagan) which contravened Biblical and
Traditional dogma.
A prime example of this is the Book of Enoch - part of which rightfully
belongs in the book of Genesis. It is also a book which is of great interest to
researchers into the UFO phenomenon. In Genesis 6:4, there is a glimpse
of prehistory: "The Nephilim were on the Earth in those days - and also
afterward - when the Sons of Elohim went to the daughters of men and had
children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown." Genesis
then leaps forward without further explanation into how Yahuah was
displeased with man's wickedness and decided to wipe man from the face
of the Earth. The missing / censored text is contained within the Book of
Enoch. The Book of Enoch is thought to have originated in Galilee (where
the Essenes lived before departing for Qumran). Despite the efforts of the
Pharisees and the later Church of Rome, Ethiopian translations survived
outside their control.
When the scholars of the Church and their Jesuit stormtroopers came upon
fragments of evidence of a highly technological civilization which existed
before the great flood, they did one thing with it - covered it up. Also of vast
importance is the fact that the Dead Sea Scrolls when discovered in 1947
were immediately handed over to the Jesuit order of the Roman Catholic
Church and jealously guarded by them until finally handed over to the
Israelis - whether or not they handed over all of the material is questionable
and many of the documents still remain unpublished. Much evidence was
either destroyed by the early Roman Church - for example the burning down
of the Great Library of Alexandria which destroyed over half a million
collections of writings - or is held by them in secret as part of their collection
of "forbidden texts."
One amazing coincidence that seems to have escaped the attention of the
world is that the Dead Sea Scrolls came to light the very same year that
Israel gained statehood in the middle east. It is these very scrolls that testify
against the apostacy of Judaism.