THE ESSENES AND
THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS AT QUMRAN
In 1947 an Arab shepherd boy was throwing stones at the opening of
a cave above him near the shore of the Dead Sea. He heard a jar break and
climbed up the cliff to investigate. What he discovered has revolutionized
the study of the Bible. There, in that cave, stuffed in jars, were scores
of papyrus scrolls covering almost every book of the Old Testament.
While other scrolls have been discovered since, in caves all along the Dead
Sea, the scrolls at Qumran are by far the most important as far as Christians
are concerned because they are the only ones throughout the Dead Sea region
that pre-date or are contemporary with Jesus Christ.
They are, in fact, the only original writings of Hebrew scripture known
to exist that are as old or older than Jesus and John the Baptist. All the
other Dead Sea Scrolls are later works which bear the trademark of the Jewish
Rabbinical School at Jamnia.
These were written well after Christianity had converted great numbers of
followers throughout Judea, the Roman Empire, Greece and the lands around
the Mediterranean Sea.
Unlike the scrolls at Qumran, the later scrolls were written after the Romans
had destroyed Herod's temple in Jerusalem and had either killed or taken
into Roman slavery millions of Jewish citizens. Because these later Dead
Sea Scrolls were all penned after these shattering events had taken place,
one cannot be certain that they were not written with an eye to counter
and block the events and teachings that were swirling about them at the
time.
The scrolls at Qumran, however, because they were written before any of
these events occurred, give us an unbiased picture of the original state
of Jewish scripture at the time of Jesus Christ.
They show us, for instance, that there was not just one rescension of the
Hebrew scripture being used at the time of Christ -- there were dozens;
and they show us that the Greek (Septuagint) Old Testament was used extensively
in Judea, and without the onus that it later received from the Rabbinical
scholars.
It is for these reasons -- and especially because the Qumran scrolls are
the oldest known copies of Jewish scripture in existance -- that Qumran
and the sect that produced these scrolls are so vital to the study of Judaism
and Christianity.
Who wrote them? What kind of people occupied this monastic compound in the
harsh, rocky and barren Judean wilderness that overlooked the Dead Sea?
A widely held theory is that Qumran was inhabited by the Hebrew sect called
'the Essenes.' This was an ascetic Jewish religious community that existed
in Palestine at the time the occupation of the Qumran site flourished, and
which was both contemporary with and pre-dated John the Baptist, Jesus of
Nazareth and the Roman destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 70 A.D.
The Essenes must have been quite important during these times because information
concerning them in the ancient literature is more prevalent than for the
other two major Jewish sects, the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
First hand reports concerning the Essenes comes
to us from the Jewish philosopher of the Egytian dispersion, Philo
of Alexandria, who lived between 30 B.C. and 40 A.D.
Philo's writings about the Essenes comes down to us through two works, 'Quod
omnis probus Fiber sit' and 'Apologia pro Judais.' The second work has been
lost but the information was retained in Eusebius' 'Praeparatio Evangilica.'
Another writer contemporary with the Essenes
was Flavius Josephus, the famous Jewish historian
and priest-general at the time of the Jewish war. His most elaborate description
of this group is contained in 'The Jewish War', followed by an interesting,
but far less detailed account in 'Jewish Antiquities.'
Josephus wrote his first work sometime between 70 and 75 A.D., and the second
somewhat later, but before 100 A.D., the year of his death.
Another first-hand report concerning the Essenes
comes from the Roman writer, Pliny the Elder,
who died in 79 A.D. Pliny incorporated information about the sect in his
work entitled 'Natural History.'
A Greek orator and philosopher, Dio Chrysostom,
also mentioned in passing the existence of an Essene community near the
Dead Sea. His report is dated somewhat later than Pliny. (1.)
Writing two centuries later, Hippolytus of Rome detailed a long account
of the Essenes that, for the most part, is said to have paralleled Josephus'
information, but in a few instances provided unique material, though he
was not an eyewitness of this sect.
The first reference to the Essenes comes from
Josephus, writing about the death of Antigonus in 103 B.C. Josephus relates
that the Essenes had an uncanny ability to successfully predict future events,
and that the death of Antigonus at the hands of his brother, Aristobulus,
ruler of Judea, had been accurately forecast by an Essene named Judas. (2.)
Josephus states that 'Judas was an Essene born
and bred, indicating that he had been born into the movement at least a
few decades earlier. (3.)
On this occasion, according to Josephus, Judas was sitting in or near the
Jerusalem temple with a number or his pupils, showing that he was an Essene
teacher of the Law and that he was able to speak his views apparently quite
freely in Jerusalem at the end of the second century B.C.
During the 30 years that followed this event,
another Jewish party that struggled in Jerusalem against Alexander Jannaeus,
grew into great power with the ascendency of his widow, Alexandra in 76
B.C. This, of course was the Pharisees, whom Josephus indicates at that
time was 'a Jewish sect that appeared more pious than the rest and stricter
in the interpretation of the Law.' (4.)
The information that Josephus provides concerning his perception of the
Essenes -- at least his perception of this movement at the time of the destruction
of Jerusalem in the great war circa 70 A.D. -- is undoubtedly reinforced
by personal contact with members of this order.
It would be difficult to assume that Josephus did not actually observe Essene
behavior, talk to Essenes, and discuss with them and others the philosophical
finepoints of their beliefs. Especially growing up as he did in an area
where they abounded and where they obviously would have been a topic of
speculation and controversy -- particularly in such a theocratic society.
As an observer, Josephus is not without scholarly
admirers. According to Benjamine Mazar of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem
and one of the foremost archeologists involved in excavations in Jerusalem,
'The progress of archeological investigation highlights more than ever
the great importance of Josephus as a primary source for the study of the
topography and history of Jerusalem in Herodian times. All his observations
we were able to confirm on repeated occasions through our archeological
investigations.' (5.)
Both Josephus and Philo were impressed with the
Essenes. Philo called them 'athletes of virtue,' (6.)
and Josephus saw them as saintly.' (7.)
There is, recorded in both Josephus and in the
Talmud, the story of one Onias the Righteous, a man who was stoned to death
in about 65 B.C. who was particularly saintly and who is believed to have
been able to bring rain through his prayers. He is, according to Millar
Burrows, thought to have been an Essene. (8.)
There can be little doubt that Essenes were perceived by many in Palestine
at the time of the war to be symbols of righteous behaviour: an ethical
adaptation of Judaism in a land wracked by civil war, opportunism, banditry
and external oppression.
The Essenes thrived in a country and at a time that saw the laws of Moses
adapted to fit a wide range of philosophies. Jewish, Persian, Iranian and
Hellenistic thoughts apparently competed with one another in a quagmire
of Messianic fervor, banditry and zealous terrorism.
Internecine strife and external oppression brought violence almost everywhere
throughout the country. The ruling orthodoxy was losing control and there
was a fierce promotion of new rules by competing schools of thought. Only
the Torah and the Temple itself could be considered universally sacred in
this period. Beyond these, intense and often violent philosphic disagreement
fluorished.
The Sadducees were divided by competing families who fought bitterly with
each other for power. With the flow of Roman governors into Judea, the changing
fortunes in the aristocratic priestly party were frequent and hostile.
During this period the common people were terribly
mistreated and alienated more than ever from the insensitive and competitive
aristocracy that ruled them. The Pharisees, according to Josephus, the popular
party among the Jewish people, (9) were said
to have had seven subdivisions. (10.)
According to Burrows, L. Ginzberg was able to
prove that there were both conservative and liberal wings in Pharisaism,
(11) and Marcus has argued that the Essenes
formed a third (left wing) Pharisaitic sect, just a shade less liberal than
the Zealots. (12)
During this time there is information regarding
the existance of numerous groups in Palestine: The Qumran 'Covenanteers,'
(13) Zealots, the followers of Judas the Galilean
and Saddoch the Pharisee, Sicarii, Bandits, Self-proclaimed Messiah's, Magharians,
or cave dwellers, (14) the Baptists, Genistae,
Meristae, Hellenists and Nasaraioi. (15)
Almost nothing is known about some of these groups;
others were quite prominent. The Galileans who rallied to Judas and Saddoch
were termed 'a sect of their own' in Jewish politics by Josephus. (16)
It is not within the scope of this paper to investigate the interrelationships
between all these parties and sects, but they are mentioned to show that
the situation in Palestine during the time of the Essenes was immensly complex
and confused.
The Essenes appeared historically in Judea during the Hasmonean dynasty
and continued through Herodian times, disappearing abruptly shortly after
the great war (circa 70 A.D.).
Further complicating the picture, into this proliferation
of Mosaic parties was born Jesus of Nazareth, preceded by John the Baptist
and setting forth in Palestine and spreading throughout all the middle east,
a potpourri of sects, each with their own adherents and literature. Among
these, of course, were the Gnostics and the Judeo-Christian Ebionites. (17)
It is safe to assume, therefore, that the theocratic
politics of Judea leading up to the time of the war, the environmental timeframe
of the Essenes, was by no means simplistic. In fact, the Essenes themselves
were divided. Josephus indicates that there was a sect of Essenes different
from the other, which tolerated a kind of marriage between men and women.
(18.)
Where the Essenes came from is not known. It is most probable that they
descended from the Hasidim of pre-Hasmonean times who aligned with Judas
Maccabbee against Antiochus Epiphanies IV about 170 B.C.
A rather remote possibility is that they might
be a part of the priesthood, having broken away from the Sadducees. Josephus
indicates that the Essenes 'live in no way different from, but as much as
possible like those [Sadducees] who are called 'The Many'. (19.)
Their teaching freed them from offering sacrifices
in the Temple, but they sacrificed among themselves. (20)
Thus their relationship with the Jerusalem Temple is not at all clear.
The meaning of the name 'Essene' is another mystery.
We have, coming down to us no Hebrew word for these people, only the Greek.
Dupont-Sommers suggests that the word 'Essene' may come from Hebrew words
'Essenoi' or 'Essaioi', with his interpretation being the expression 'Men
of Council.' (21.)
Through the development of this possible etymology, Dupont-Sommer was able
to establish additional correlation for his theory tying the Essenes to
the community at Qumran. Until a Hebrew document surfaces which specifically
names this group, the mystery will continue.
Philo suggests that they 'merited the title 'Essenes'
because of their holiness', (22) implying that
the name may be related in some way to 'saintliness'. In this regard, Dupont-Sommers
suggests that 'Philo seems here to play on the similarity between the Greek
words 'Essaioi', (Essaeans), and 'Osioi', 'holy' or 'pure'. (23.)
The philosophy and ideology of the Essenes as described in the contemporary
literature of their time is presented below.
Philo's first account of the Essenes: (24.)
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"They do not offer animal sacrifice, judging it more fitting
to render their minds truly holy. They flee the cities and live in villages
where clean air and clean social life abound. They either work in the fields
or in crafts that countribute to peace. They do not hoard silver and gold
and do not acquire great landholdings; procuring for themselves only what
is necessary for life. Thus they live without goods and without property,
not by missfortune, but out of preference. They do not make armaments of
any kind. They do not keep slaves and detest slavery. They avoid wholesale
and retail commerce, believing that such activity excites one to cupidity.
With respect to philosophy, they dismiss logic but have an extremely high
regard for virtue. They honor the Sabbath with great respect over the other
days of the week. They have an internal rule which all learn, together with
rules on piety, holiness, justice and the knowledge of good and bad. These
they make use of in the form of triple definitions, rules regarding the
love of God, the love of virtue, and the love of men. They believe God causes
all good but cannot be the cause of any evil. They honor virtue by foregoing
all riches, glory and pleasure. Further, they are convinced they must be
modest, quiet, obedient to the rule, simple, frugal and without mirth. Their
life style is communal. They have a common purse. Their salaries they deposit
before them all, in the midst of them, to be put to the common employment
of those who wish to make use of it. They do not neglect the sick on the
pretext that they can produce nothing. With the common purse there is plenty
from which to treat all illnesses. They lavish great respect on the elderly.
With them they are very generous and surround them with a thousand attentions.
They practice virtue like a gymnastic exercise, seeing the accomplishment
of praiseworthy deeds as the means by which a man ensures absolute freedom
for himself."
Philo's second account of the Essenes: (25.)
"The Essenes live in a number of towns in Judea, and also
in many villages and in large groups. They do not enlist by race, but by
volunteers who have a zeal for righteousness and an ardent love of men.
For this reason there are no young children among the Essenes. Not even
adolescents or young men. Instead they are men of old or ripe years who
have learned how to control their bodily passions. They possess nothing
of their own, not house, field, slave nor flocks, nor anything which feeds
and procures wealth. They live together in brotherhoods, and eat in common
together. Everything they do is for the common good of the group. They work
at many different jobs and attack their work with amazing zeal and dedication,
working from before sunrise to almost sunset without complaint, but in obvious
exhilaration. Their exercise is their work. Indeed, they believe their own
training to be more agreeable to body and soul, and more lasting, than athletic
games, since their exercises remain fitted to their age, even when the body
no longer possesses its full strength. They are farmers and shepherds and
beekeepers and craftsmen in diverse trades. They share the same way of life,
the same table, even the same tastes; all of them loving frugality and hating
luxury as a plague for both body and soul. Not only do they share a common
table, but common clothes as well. What belongs to one belongs to all. Available
to all of them are thick coats for winter and inexpensive light tunics for
summer. Seeing it as an obstacle to communal life, they have banned marriage.
They view women as selfish, excessively jealous, skillful in seduction and
armed, like actors with all sorts of masks designed to flatter and ensnare
men, bewitching and capturing their attention and finally leading them astray.
They believe that where children are involved, women become audacious, arrogant,
swollen with pride, shamelessly violent and employ attitudes dangerous to
the good of the common life. The husband, bound by his wife's spells, or
anxious for his children from natural necessity, is no more the same to
the others, but becomes a different man; instead of a freeman, he becomes
a slave."
Flavius Josephus' first account of the Essene
philosophy: (26.)
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"The Essenes are Jews by race, but are more closely united
among themselves by mutual affection, and by their efforts to cultivate
a particularly saintly life. They renounce pleasure as an evil, and regard
continence and resistance to passions as a virtue. They disdain marriage
for themselves, being content to adopt the children of others at a tender
age in order to instruct them. They do not abolish marriage, but are convinced
women are all licentious and incapable of fidelity to one man. They despise
riches. When they enter the sect, they must surrender all of their money
and possessions into the common fund, to be put at the disposal of everyone;
one single property for the whole group. Therefore neither the humiliation
of poverty nor the pride of possession is to be seen anywhere among them.
They regard oil as a defilement, and should any of them be involuntarily
anointed, he wipes his body clean. They make a point of having their skin
dry and of always being clothed in white garments. In their various communal
offices, the administrators are elected and appointed without distinction
offices. They are not just in one town only, but in every town several of
them form a colony. They welcome members from out of town as coequal brothers,
and even though perfect strangers, as though they were intimate friends.
For this reason they carry nothing with them ashen they travel: they are,
however, armed against brigands. They do not change their garments or shoes
until they have completely worn out. They neither buy nor sell anything
among themselves. They give to each other freely and feel no need to repay
anything in exchange. Before sunrise they recite certain ancestral prayers
to the sun as though entreating it to rise. They work until about 11 A.M.
when they put on ritual loincloths and bathe for purification. Then they
enter a communal hall,where no one else is allowed,and eat only one bowlful
of food for each man, ! together with their loaves of bread. They eat in
silence. Afterwards they lay aside their sacred garment and go back to work
until the evening. At evening they partake dinner in the same manner. During
meals they are sober and quiet and their silence seems a great mystery to
people outside. Their food and drink are so measured out that they are satisfied
but no more. They see bodily pleasure as sinful. On the whole they do nothing
unless ordered by their superiors, but two things they are allowed to do
on their own discretion: to help those 'worthy of help', and to offer food
to the needy. They are not allowed, however, to help members of their own
families without permission from superiors. They are very careful not to
exhibit their anger, carefully controlling such outbursts. They are very
loyal and are peacemakers. They refuse to swear oaths, believing every word
they speak to be stronger than an oath. They are scrupulous students of
the ancient literature. They are ardent students in the healing of diseases,
of the roots offering protection, and of the properties of stones. Those
desiring to enter the sect are not allowed immediate entrance. They are
made to wait outside for a period of one year. During this time each postulant
is given a hatchet, a loincloth and a white garment. The hatchet is used
for cleanliness in stooling for digging and covering up the hole. Having
proved his constinence during the first year he draws closer to the way
of life and participates in the purificatory baths at a higher degree, but
he is not yet admitted into intimacy. His character is tested another two
years and if 'ne proves worthy he is received into the company permanently.
They are sworn to love truth and to pursue liars. They must never steal.
They are not allowed to keep any secrets from other members of the sect;
but they are warned to reveal nothing to outsiders, even under the pain
of death. They are not allowed to alter the 'books of the sect, and must
keep all the information secret, especially the names of the angels. The
name of the Lawgiver, after God, is a matter of great veneration to them;
if anyone blasphemed the name of the Lawgiver he was sentenced to death.
Those members convicted of grave faults are expelled from the order. In
matters of judgement Essene leaders are very exact and impartial. Their
decisions are irrevocable. They are so scrupulous in matters pertaining
to the Sabbath day that they refuse even to go to stool on that day, They
always give way to the opinion of the majority, and they make it their duty
to obey their elders. They are divided into four lots according to the duration
of thier discipline, and the juniors are so inferior to their elders that
if the latter touch them, they wash themselves as though they had been in
contact with a stranger. They despise danger: they triumph over pain by
the heroism of their convictions, and consider death, if it comes with glory,
to be better than the preservation of life. They died in great glory amidst
terrible torture in the war against the Romans. They believe that their
souls are immortal, but that their bodies are corruptible. They believe
the soul is trapped in the body and is freed with death. They believe that
there is a place 'across the ocean' where just souls gather, a place reserved
for the immortal souls of the just. The souls of the wicked, however, are
relegated to a dark pit, shaken by storms and full of unending chastisement.
Some of the Essenes became expert in forecasting the future."
Josephus' second account of the Essenes:
(27.)
"The Essenes declare that souls are immortal and consider it necessary
to struggle to obtain the reward of righteousness. They send offerings to
the Temple, but offer no sacrifices since the purifications to which they
are accustomed are different. For this reason, they refrain from entering
into the common enclosure, but offer sacrifice among themselves. They are
holy men and completely given up to agricultural labor."
Pliny the Elder's account of the Essenes
(28.)
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"To the west (of the Dead Sea) the Essenes have put the
necessary distance between themselves and the insalubrious shore. They are
a people unique of its kind and admirable beyond all others in the whole
world; without women and renouncing love entirely, without money and having
for company only palm trees. Owing to the throng of newcomers, this people
is daily reborn in equal number; indeed, those whom, wearied by the fluctuations
of fortune, life leads to adopt their customs, stream in in great numbers.
Thus, unbeleivable though this may seem, for thousands of centuries a people
has existed which is eternal yet into which no one is born: so fruitful
for them is the repentance which others feel for their past lives!"
In the accounts of Philo and Josephus above, I have paraphrased many of
the quotations, having tried to screen out duplicate material, and leave
intact the skeletal framework of the Essene beliefs as related by these
authors. As can be seen on a few points they seem to be in some disagreement.
Josephus was born and raised in Judea where the Essenes actually dwelled.
Philo, on the other hand lived in Alexandria Egypt. Philo's somewhat more
idealized report may reflect his distance, but the close similarities between
both reports suggests that much of the material they relate must have been
common knowledge.
The fact of the existance of the Essenes and their major beliefs was probably
not a great secret among the people of Judea during this time period.
The relationship between the Essenes and the
Temple in Jerusalem is not well understood, but they appear to have doted
on the ancient writings and on the prophets, '...trained as they are in
the study of the holy books and the [sacred] writings, and the sayings of
the prophets...' (29.)
'On (the Sabbath) they proceed to
the holy places called synagogues, where they sit attentive and well-behaved.
One of them then takes up the books and reads, and another from among the
more learned steps forward and explains whatever is not easy to understand
in these books. Most of the time, and in accordance with an ancient method
of inquiry, instruction is given them by means of symbols.' (30.)
Both Josephus and Philo give the number of Essenes in Judea as around 4000
members; a modest size to be sure, but certainly large enough to have been
quite visible and compelling, spread out as they were said to have been
into every village.
For all practical purposes, the great war silenced
most of the dissident Jewish voices and this included, apparently, the Essenes.
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 who had participated hostilly against the Remans. Josephus
specifically mentions the heroic death of the Essenes at the hands of the
Romans. (31.)
In his expansive account of the Essenes in 'The Jewish War', Josephus seems
to imply a continuing major role for the Essenes in postwar Judea, but the
fact that he mentions them only briefly in a later work may indicate their
rapidly declining numbers and importance just a few decades later.
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 A.D., to go
to Jamnia and there set up a Rabbinical school.
The rabbinical school in Jamnia instrumented sweeping changes in Judean
theology and literature, creating what is called 'Rabbinic Judaism', the
forerunner of 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 simply disappeared as if they had
never existed. All literature that did not reflect the Jamnia party line
was destroyed or abolished. This included the exilic Septuagint version
of the scriptures.
The oral tradition was codified in writing and became an essential part
of a new document in Jewish literature called the Talmud.
As we have already mentioned, what makes the Qumran documents so important
to us is that it consists of pre-Jamnian material. It presents us with a
picture of Judaism as it existed at, and before the days of Christ.
From this material and using historical information, scholars have been
able to reconstruct a picture of Judea in the messianic age that is far
more dimensional than that stemming from the monolithic voice that arose
a century later.
The question of whether or not the community of Qumran or the scrolls found
in the caves there were products of the Essenes is a topic of debate. The
similarities between the two are striking and the weight of scholarship
leans heavily to the idea that they are one and the same.
But for most Christians, the scrolls at Qumran are living proof that the
scriptures we have today stem from documents that have changed little, if
at all, over two thousand years of copying and recopying by numberless unknown
scribes.
The 'Isaiah Scroll' which comes from Qumran and is displayed in its entirety
at the very center of the The
Israel Museum in Jerusalem is at least 100 years older than Jesus. Its
very age absolute proof that Isaiah's words of prophecy ring out a truth
that Christians could not possibly have made up, or altered, during the
course of their ministry.
Bibliography
Books
1. Burrows, Millar, The Dead Sea Scrolls. The Viking Press; New York, N.Y.,
1955.
2. Burrows, Millar, More Light on the Dead Sea Scrolls The Viking Press,
New York, N.Y., 1958.
3. DupontSommer, A., The Essene Writings From Qumran. World Publishing Company;
New York, N.Y. 1962.
4. Josephus, Flavius, The Jewish War. Penguin Books Ltd.; Harmondsworth,
Middlesex, England, 1959.
5. Mazar, Benjamine, The Mountain of the Lord. Doubleday and Company, Garden
City, 1975.
6. MurphyO'Connor, J., Paul and Qumran. The Priory Press; Chicago, Ill.,
1968.
7. Rowley, H.H., From Moses to Qumran. Association Press; New York, N.Y.,
1975, pp. 211279.
8. Tyson, Joseph B., A Study of Early Christianity. Macmillan Publishing
Co.; New York, N.Y., 1973, pp. 112119.
9. Yadin, Yagael, The Message of the Scrolls. Grosset and Dunlap; New York,
N.Y., 1957.
Periodicals
1. Tushingham, A.Douglas, 'The Men Who Hid the Dead Sea Scrolls'. National
Geographic Magazine, December 1958. 784808.
Footnotes
1. DupontSommer, A., The Essene Writings From
Qumran. World Publishing Co., New York, 1962. 38. (Return)
2. Josephus, Flavius, The Jewish War. Penguin
Books Ltd., Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England, 1959. 3233. (Return)
3. Ibid., 32. (Return)
4. Ibid., 36. (Return)
5. Mazar, Benjamine, The Mountain of the Lord.
Doubleday and Company, Garden City, 1975. 15. (Return)
6. DupontSommer, A., The Essene Writings From
Qumran. World Publishing Co., New York, 1962. 23. (Return)
7. Ibid., 27. (Return)
8. Burrows, Millar, The Dead Sea Scrolls. The
Viking Press, New York, 1955. 180. (Return)
9. Josephus, Flavius, The Jewish War. Penguin
Books Ltd., Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England, 1959. 129. (Return)
10. Burrows, Millar, The Dead Sea Scrolls. The
Viking Press, New York, 1955. 278. (Return)
11. Ibid., 294. (Return)
12. Ibid., 293. (Return)
13. Burrows, Millar, More Light on the Dead Sea
Scrolls. The Viking Press, New York, 1958. 256. (Return)
14. Burrows, Millar, The Dead Sea Scrolls. The
Viking Press, New York, 1955. 117, 295. (Return)
15. Tyson, Joseph B., A Study of Early Christianity.
Macmillan Publishing Co., New York, 1973. 118. (Return)
16. Josephus, Flavius, The Jewish War. Penguin
Books Ltd., Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England, 1959. 125. (Return)
17. Yadin, Yagael, The Message of the Scrolls.
Grosset and Dunlap, New York, 1957. 186. (Return)
18. Josephus, Flavius, The Jewish War. Penguin
Books Ltd., Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England, 1959. 129. (Return)
19. DupontSummer, A., The Essene Writings From
Qumran. World Publishing Co., New York, 1962. 36. (Return)
20. Ibid., 36. (Return)
21. Ibid., 43. (Return)
22. Ibid., 21. (Return)
23. Ibid., 21, Footnote 3. (Return)
24. Ibid., 21-24. (Return)
25. Ibid., 2426. (Return)
26. Josephus, Flavius, The Jewish War. Penguin
Books Ltd., Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England, 1959. 125129. (Return)
27. DupontSummer, A., The Essene Writings From
Qumran. World Publishing Co., New York, 1962. 36. (Return)
28. Ibid., 37. (Return)
29. Ibid., 3435. (Return)
30. Ibid., 22. (Return)
31. Josephus, Flavius, The Jewish War. Penguin
Books Ltd., Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England, 1959. 128. (Return)
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Goodnews Christian Ministry
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1995 E.C.S.Leavenworth; Goodnews Christian Ministry.
To find out more about Goodnews Christian Ministry,
send E-mail to:
ecsl@aol.com
or write to us at:
P.O. Box 11053, Torrance, California 90510-1053
World Wide Web Home Page:
http://members.aol.com/ecsl/goodnews.htm
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For Archived Chapters and Additional Manuscripts
Access our Complete Library Catalog at:
http://members.aol.com/ecsl/
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