Here is a new enterprise of Brook Farm, of Skeneateles, of Northampton: why so impatient to baptize them
Essenes, or Port-Royalists, or Shakers, or by any known and effete name?
The scrolls have provoked unending controversy by revealing that many practices once thought to be unique to the early Christian church were prefigured by the beliefs and rituals of a Jewish
Essene community near the Dead Sea.
The text--a catalogue and list of hiding places of treasures of the
Essene community--is on three engraved and riveted sheets of fine oxidized copper discovered in Cave Three at Qumran in 1952.
Capper explores the sociological comparisons that may arise between the greater
Essene movement and the Johannine community within Judaism.
Consider the parallels between Pharisaic,
Essene, and Matthean approaches to rebuking someone who has given offense.
"Jesus the Wicked Priest: How Christianity Was Born of an
Essene Schism" takes a hard look at the historical Jesus, referencing the dead sea scrolls that were found in 1947.
And the chapter, "Jesus is not a sadist," is fully refuted by the hunchbacked dwarf's transformation of Gehenna from the
Essene death chamber in which non-Essenes were exterminated, into the Christian Hell in which the Religious Right's detractors, including moderate Christians, are tortured by flamethrowers for all eternity (Mark 9:47-49).
Harvey begins with a basic assumption: "As a work of literature, it [the book of Esther] has always been pleasing, its moral content, however, has often been suspect." He raises questions such as why so many readers have been troubled, both historically (as far back as the
Essene community at Qumram) and especially more recently, by moral issues in the book of Esther?
Visitors will be able to view nine fragments of parchment scrolls which were written by the ultra- religious
Essene sect, who were wiped out by the Romans in 68AD.
Kampen in the light of the Dead Sea texts and in pursuance of a larger programme to identify blocks of Matthean material as responses to
Essene thought; H.-W.
The first contains "The
Essene File: A Forest That Hides a Tree" (pp.
Enochic Literature was highly valued by the
Essene community at Qumran.