Christ Conspiracy_ The Greatest Story Ever Sold - Acharya S [181]
In fact, the forger of 1 Timothy, alleging to be "Paul," makes a scathing attack on individuals who seem very much like the Palestinian Essenes:
Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, through the pretensions of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and enjoin abstinence from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving ...
In assailing those who prohibit marriage and preach what is apparently vegetarianism, "Paul" is referring to the Buddhistic, monastic fraternity that proliferated around the known world and included the Essenes.
Moreover, the Essenes studied the writings of the ancients and, being widespread around Palestine, certainly would have known its geography and topography. However, as noted, the New Testament writers do not, making numerous mistakes in their geographical descriptions.
Yet, despite all these disparities, many people still wish to label the Essenes as the earliest Christians, because, according to the Christian tale, the church grew far too rapidly than was possible, with its hierarchy and organization shooting up all around the Mediterranean within a few years and decades, demonstrating pre-existence. No doubt certain aspects of the New Testament were modeled after the white-robed monkishness of the Essenes, who were eventually swallowed up by the newly created religion, as well as by Judaism and any number of cults. However, the Jewish aspects of the Christ character are mainly Pharisaic, not Essenic. As Massey asserts:
In proving that Joshua or Jesus was an Essene, there would be no more rest here than anywhere else for the sole of your foot upon the ground of historic fact. You could not make him to be the Founder of the Essene, Nazarite or Gnostic Brotherhoods, and communities of the genuine primitive Christians that were extant in various countries a very long while before the Era called Christian.... Philo-Judaeus ... was one of the Essenesbut does not seem to have met with the Gospel Jesus amongst them, or heard of him . . . 7
Furthermore, Josephus was himself an Essene a few decades after the purported advent of the great Essene master who allegedly made such a splash, yet the historian never heard of the "historical" Jesus. In other words, the Essenes themselves never recorded the gospel Jesus as one of their own; nor did they create him. Nor did Josephus once mention the numerous Christian churches and well-established hierarchies that had purportedly sprung up all over the place.
Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls
The idea of a monolithic Essene community from which Christianity issued was nonetheless given fuel with the discovery in 1947 of the caches of scrolls in caves near the ruined site of Qumran along the Dead Sea in present-day Jordan. However, there is yet another debate as to whether or not Qumran was indeed an Essene community. In fact, Josephus and Philo reported that the Essenes had no centralized location but dwelled in many cities and villages in Judea. Pliny asserted that some Essenes did reside by the Dead Sea, but their settlement was near En Gedi, dozens of kilometers south of Qumran. Also, Pliny stated that there was not a woman among the Essenes, whereas at Qumran were found the graves of women and children.
In reality, the archaeological finds indicate Qumran was not an Essene community but a waystation for travelers and merchants crossing the Dead Sea. In Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?, Norman Golb evinced that Qumran was a fortress, not a monastery, as the site contains a large tower and a forge for weapons, both