Before the birth of Jesus Christ there lived a secluded Jewish sect, on the shores of the Dead Sea in Palestine. The sect lived an ascetic communal life. The adherents were known as the Essenes. They referred to themselves as the ‘Sons of Light’. They placed great emphasis for the coming of an 'anointed one' - a Messiah, in their Holy Land. Essenes were known for wearing white garments and practicing the art of body healing. Some scholars are of the opinion that a man sitting near the empty tomb of Jesus “wearing a white robe” (Mark 16:5), or two men “in dazzling apparel” (Luke 24:4), or “two angels in white” in the spiritualized forth Gospel of John, belonged to this sect. It is also suggested that an unknown man who requested Pilate for the body of Jesus and took it with him could be a healer from this group. 

               Notwithstanding the veracity of such opinions, writers of the chronicles and scholars do agree that the greatest known discovery of manuscripts in our times - the Dead Sea Scrolls, belonged to the community of Essenes. The recovered manuscripts reflect the dualistic theology (the on going struggle between the forces of Light and of Darkness), upheld by the Essenes. No doubt, it is one of the most exiting archeological finds. These Scrolls contain Books from the Old Testaments that were written more than a thousand years before the oldest known text of the Torah. These documents (the biblical texts and the commentaries) were written during one of the most crucial period of the Jewish history. These were the times of turbulence for the Jews of the Holy Land. The anointed one was relentlessly persecuted by the Pharisees. The Romans tried this man and issued a death sentence although he posed no threat to their might and glory. Jews thought they had silenced the voice of Messiah but their acts gave rise to a new sect of Judaism called – Christianity. The voice Jesus became immortal. 

               Envisaging a foreign threat the Essenes living on the shores of the Dead Sea hid the jars containing their precious manuscripts in the mountain Caves, located in a valley known as Qumran. In all about 400 manuscripts have been discovered from the caves, surrounding the Dead Sea. The scholars have dated these manuscripts of the Dead Sea Scrolls, ranging from 10 B.C. to 68 A.D. The Scrolls have proved valuable tools in the reconstruction of history of the advent of early Christianity. It records the power struggle between a righteous, an evil and a liar, the hint of this conflict is to be found in the Book of Acts . 

           From the jars discovered at Qumran (Cave Number 1) scholars have discovered an important commentary on the Book of Habakkuk (‘Habakkuk Pesher’). The commentary records the defiling of the God’s sanctuary (cf. Acts 21: 28-29), and details of a historical dispute between the leaders of the early Christians (cf. Acts 21:17-26). In addition to the ‘Habakkuk Commentary’ the reference to this individual who was being accused of falsity and preaching his own doctrine is also found in the commentary to the Psalm 37 within the Qumran texts.
 

THE DEAD SEA SCROLL DECEPTION….

Below are the excerpts from the above book. It is a book that tells you; 

"WHY A HANDFUL OF RELIGIOUS SCHOLARS CONSPIRED TO SUPPRESS THE REVOLUTIONARY CONTENTS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS."

"From the Acts of the Apostles, from Josephus and from early Christian historians, there emerges a coherent, if still incomplete, portrait of James,’ the Lord’s brother’. He appears as an exemplar of  ‘righteousness’ – so much so that ‘the Just’, or ‘the Righteous’, is appended as a sobriquet to his name. He is the acknowledged leader of a ‘sectarian’ religious community whose members are ‘zealous for the Law’. He must contend with two quite separate and distinct adversaries. One of these is Paul, an outsider who, having first persecuted the community, then converts and is admitted into it, only to turn renegade, prevaricate and quarrel with his superiors, hijack the image of Jesus and begin preaching his own doctrine – a doctrine which draws on that of the community, but distorts it. James’s second adversary is from outside the community – the high priest Ananas, head of the Sadducee priesthood. Ananas is a notoriously corrupt and widely hated man. He has also betrayed both the God and the people of Israel by collaborating with the Roman administration and their Herodian puppet-kings. James publicly challenges Ananas and eventually meets his death at the hands of Ananas’ minions; but Ananas will shortly be assassinated in turn. All of this takes place against a backdrop of increasing social and political unrest and the impending invasion of a foreign army. 

     With this scenario in mind, Eisenman turned to the Dead Sea Scrolls, and particularly the ‘Habakkuk Commentary’. When the fragmentary details of the Qumran texts had been assembled into a coherent sequence, what emerged was something extraordinarily similar to the chronicle of Acts, Josephus and early Christian historians. The scrolls told their own story, at the centre of which was a single protagonist, the ‘Teacher of Righteousness’- an exemplar of the same virtues associated with James. Like James, the ‘Teacher’ was the acknowledged leader of a ‘sectarian’ religious community whose members were ‘zealous for the Law’. And like James, the ‘Teacher’ had to contend with two quite separate and distinct adversaries. 

     One of these was dubbed the ‘Liar’ an outsider who was admitted to the community, then turned renegade, quarrelled with the ‘Teacher’ and hijacked part of the community’s doctrine and membership. According to the ‘Habakkuk Commentary’, the ‘Liar’ ‘did not listen to the word received by the Teacher of the Righteousness from the mouth of God’.22 Instead, he appealed to ‘the unfaithful of the New Covenant in that they have not believed in the Covenant of God and have profaned His holy name’.23 The text states explicitly that ‘the Liar . . . flouted the Law in the midst of their whole congregation’.24 He ‘led many astray’ and raised ‘a congregation on deceit’.25 He himself is said to be ‘pregnant with [works] of deceit’.26 These, of course, are precisely the transgressions of which Paul is accused in Acts – transgressions which lead, at the end of Acts, to the attempt on his life. And Eisenman stresses Paul’s striking hypersensitivity to charges of prevarication and perjury.27 In 1 Timothy 2:7, for example, he asserts indignantly, as if defending himself, that ‘I am telling the truth and not lie’. In II Corinthians 11:31, he swears that: ‘The God and Father of the Lord Jesus . . . knows that I am not lying.’ These are but two instances; Paul’s letters reveal an almost obsessive desire to exculpate himself from implied accusations of falsity."  (Pp. 194-195, The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, Summit Books, New York, N.Y., 1991, ISBN: 0671734547)

• 22  The Habakkuk Commentary, II, 2 (Vermes, p. 284).
• 23 Ibid., II, 3-4 (Vermes, p. 284).
• 24 Ibid., V. 11-12 (Vermes, p. 285).
• 25 Ibid., X, 9-10 (Vermes, p. 288).
• 26 Ibid., X, 11-12 (Vermes, p. 288).
• 27 For a comprehensive review of Paul’s sensitivity to the charges of lying, see Eisenman, op. cit., p. 39, n. 24. 

‘Maccabees, Zadokites, Christians and Qumran’ (1983, E. J. Brill of Leiden, Holland)
‘James the Just in the Habakkuk Pesher’ (1986, E. J. Brill of Leiden, Holland)

Robert Eisenman is Professor of Middle East Religions and Archaeology and Director of the Institute for the Study of Judeo-Christian Origins at California State University, Long Beach. He is is consultant for the Huntington Library in the struggle to free the Scrolls.

Also suggested for reading:

The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered: The First Complete Translation and Interpretation of 50 Key Documents Withheld for over 35 Years
Robert H. Eisenman and Michael O. Wise

Compiled by scholars Robert Eisenman and Michael Wise, these fifty documents cast a startling light on events in Palestine at the dawn of Christianity. They portray not a family of peaceful Essenes but a fiercely militant religious sect whose members awaited an apocalyptic Day of Vengeance. The authors speak of a messiah and the resurrection of the dead. They allude not only to doctrines we now recognize as Christian but also to the precursors of Islam and Jewish Kabbalism. Providing precise transliterations into modern Hebrew characters and English translations, and accompanied by detailed commentaries, The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered represents a quantum leap in our knowledge of 1the ancient origins of modern faith.
 

To purchase this book click

http://www.centuryone.com/3250-8.html