Christ Conspiracy_ The Greatest Story Ever Sold - Acharya S [191]
In their many internecine battles, the Zadokites were deposed in Jerusalem by the Hasids/Hasmoneans/Pharisees, driven to Syria/Samaria and Egypt. With the destruction of Palestine, another wave of both Jewish and Samaritan refugees entered into the "foreign" brotherhood branches, especially that of Alexandria, one of the most important cities in the ancient world.
1. Massey, GHC.
2. Pagels, AES, 52.
3. Fox, 300.
4. Fox, 300.
5. Massey, GHC, 5.
6. Baigent & Leigh, xvi.
7. Massey, GHC, 6-7.
8. Golb, 58.
9. Leedom, 63-4.
10. Leedom, 63-4.
11. Waite, 517.
12. Baigent & Leigh, xv.
13. Jackson, 143.
14. Lockhart, 53.
15. Lockhart, 62.
16. Lockhart, 205.
17. Mead, DJL, p. 363.
18. Lockhart, 53.
19. Golb, 83.
20. Gaster, 316.
21. Gaster, 346.
22. Gaster, 108.
23. Vermes, 82.
24. Gaster, 76.
25. Wells, WWJ, 161.
26. Vermes, 22.
27. Gaster, 390.
28. Vermes, 301.
29. Gaster, 435.
30. Gaster, 97.
31. Gaster, 443.
32. Gaster, 470.
33. Gaster, 393.
34. Higgins, I, 329.
35. Gaster, 8.
36. Josephus, Antiquities, I, iii, 9.
37. Gaster, 71.
38. Gaster, 394.
39. Golb, 335.
40. Gaster, 79.
41. Gaster, 39.
42. Gaster, 61.
43. Gaster, 63.
44. Gaster, 40.
45. Baigent & Leigh, 65.
Alexandria: Crucible of Christianity
The confusion regarding the Essenes and early Christianity is understandable, because there was in fact a well-established organization, or "church," long prior to the Christian era, as has been demonstrated repeatedly with references to the numerous brotherhoods, priesthoods, sects and cults around the globe but also concentrated in the area in which the Christian drama is alleged to have taken place, i.e., Syria, Galilee, Samaria and Judea. In reality, as we have seen, like its savior and doctrine, Christianity's hierarchy was based on a variety of "Pagan" predecessors, such as the Mithraic and Brahmanical priesthoods, as well as on the Hellenistic-Jewish Zadokite/Sadducean model outlined in the Dead Sea scrolls.
Although such brotherhood and organization are pretended by Christians not to have existed, they are also revealed throughout the New Testament, in which the nascent Christian church is already presented as having, in the words of Taylor, "the full ripe arrogance of an already established hierarchy; bishops disputing for their prerogatives, and throne-enseated prelates demanding and receiving more than the honours of temporal sovereignty, from their cringing vassals, and denouncing worse than inflictions of temporal punishment against the heretics who should presume to resist their decrees, or dispute their authority.", Obviously, such an established institution could not have appeared overnight out of nowhere but was, in fact, preChristian. Concerning this pre-existing organization, Massey says:
The existence of primitive and pre-historic Christians is acknowledged in the Gospel according to Mark when John says, "Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us." . . . According to the account in Matthew, before ever a disciple had gone forth or could have begun to preach historic Christianity, there was a widespread secret organization ready to receive and bound to succour those who were sent out in every city of Israel. Who, then are these? They are called "The Worthy." That is, as with the Essenes, those who have stood the tests, proved faithful, and been found worthy. According to the canonical account these were the pre-historic Christians, whether called Essenes or Nazarenes; the worthy, the faithful, or the Brethren of the Lord.2
And Doherty states:
Within a handful of years of Jesus' supposed death, we find Christian communities all over the eastern Mediterranean, their founders