Dark Secrets of The Dead Sea Scrolls

This is Ancient, Dec. 25, 2023; Sheldon S., Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Unearthed: Dead Sea Scrolls: The Dark Truth

(This is Ancient) The Dead Sea Scrolls are one of the Middle East's Holy Land's greatest mysteries, but new discoveries might finally reveal the hidden meaning behind the strange texts. And as experts get closer to unmasking their author, they find clues of an ancient apocalypse.

• Recent discovery upends our understanding of ancient Christianity (Savvy Dime via MSN)

Symbolic secrets of Kabbalah

[Palestine/Israel kept these scrolls, now degraded into scattered fragments, in cool caves in a hot desert. Here are the oldest biblical texts ever found, not nearly as the older Sumerian texts (cylinders) they borrow from, but it is the oldest version of the altered Bible the public has today. The scrolls belong to a mysterious breakaway Jewish sect that called themselves the Sons of Light (the monastic Essenes that have no precedent in ancient Palestine/Israel, possibly like the Sons of Zadok). Qumran was a walled settlement, next to burial ground of many skeletons buried alone with nothing in six-foot-deep grave-pits of only males (no women, no children) and all of them over 30 with their heads pointing south. Were these the Keepers of the Scrolls?]

The monastic Essenes

The Essenes (Hebrew אִסִּיִים‎, Isiyim, Greek Ἐσσηνοί, Ἐσσαῖοι, or Ὀσσαῖοι, Essenoi, Essaioi, Ossaioi) were a mystic Jewish sect during the Second Temple period that flourished from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century CE [2].

The Essene movement likely originated as a distinct group among Jews during Jonathan Apphus' time, driven by disputes over Jewish law and the belief that Jonathan's high priesthood was illegitimate [3].

Most scholars think the Essenes seceded from the Zadokite (Sons of Zadok) priests [4]. They saw themselves as the genuine remnant of Israel, upholding the true covenant with the tribal Jewish God [who had a body and was spoken with], and attributed their interpretation of the Torah to their early leader, the Teacher of Righteousness, possibly a legitimate high priest.

Embracing a conservative approach to Jewish law, they observed a strict hierarchy favoring priests (the Sons of Zadok) over laypeople, emphasized ritual purity, and held a dualistic worldview [3].

According to Jewish writers Josephus and Philo, the Essenes numbered around 4,000. They resided in various settlements throughout Judaea.

Conversely, Roman writer Pliny the Elder positioned them somewhere above Ein Gedi, on the west side of the Dead Sea [5, 6].

Pliny relates in a few lines that the Essenes possess no money, had existed for thousands of generations, and that their priestly class ("contemplatives" [like Buddhist wandering ascetics or shramanas, also called "contemplatives") did not marry.

Josephus gave a detailed account of the Essenes in The Jewish War (c. 75 CE), with a shorter description in Antiquities of the Jews (c. 94 CE) and The Life of Flavius Josephus (c. 97 CE).

Claiming firsthand knowledge, he lists the Essenoi as one of the three sects of Jewish philosophy [7] alongside the Pharisees and Sadducees.

He relates the same information concerning celibacy, piety; the absence of personal property and of money; the belief in communality; and commitment to a strict observance of Sabbath [like the Buddhist practice of Uposatha, a special day every week, measured by phases of the moon, for observing Eight Precepts to establish a base of morality for meditation and study].

He further adds that the Essenes ritually immersed in [cold, clean] water every morning (a practice similar to the use of the mikveh for daily immersion found among some contemporary Hasidim), ate together after prayer [like Buddhist monks], devoted themselves to charity and benevolence [like Buddhist monks], forbade the expression of anger [like Buddhist monks], studied the books of the elders [like Buddhist monks, who called these "elders" theras], preserved secrets, and were very mindful [like Buddhist monks] of the names of the angels [Buddhist devas and gandharvas or "messengers of the devas"] kept in their sacred writings.

The Essenes have gained fame in modern times as a result of the discovery of an extensive group of religious documents known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, which are commonly believed to be the Essenes' library.

The scrolls were found at Qumran, an archeological site situated along the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, believed to have been the dwelling place of an Essene community. More