BASIS: This article has a basis which can be found at the following three links referencing materials from Dr. Ken Johnson of Calvary chapel Johnson County located in Olathe Kansas:
1. Ancient Testaments of the Patriarchs (video)
2. Essene Beliefs Overview (video)
3. Ancient Testaments of the Patriarchs: Autobiographies from the DSS (book)
It was four AM and I could not go back to sleep. A quick glance at my YouTube feed showed a lead suggested-video: "Essene Beliefs Overview" as its first entry. I figured, "Why not?" What I got for my effort was simply astounding.
The Old Testaments
Old Testament!
Allow me to sum this up: The people and Jews of Old Testament times had their very own Old Testament.
Screeeeeech ... Skiiiiiiiid ... BANG! What?!
I will write that again: The people and Jews of our Old Testament times had their very own "Old Testament". It consisted of a number of Patriarchal Testaments (writings) from Adam to Aaron. Specifically (what we have from the DSS):
- Adam (a fragment quote by Josephus)
- Enos
- Lamech
- Noah
- Abraham
- Jacob
- Reuben
- Levi
- Judah
- Issachar
- Zebulun
- Dan
- Naphtali
- Gad
- Asher
- Joseph
- Benjamin
- Kohath
- Amram
- Aaron
Each one is a writing (letter) whose core is being written (and at some point edited and redacted) by a Patriarch (Father) to all of their progeny—right down the line. Like our Old Testament, these letters contain narration, history, and prophecy (i.e., what God said to them and revealed to them).
NOTE: From where I am sitting and viewing all of this at the moment, what I am now seeing is a stream of Testaments held by ancient Jews as their guide to God and him rescuing humanity from the damage of the Watchers and their demon kids—redeeming human beings from the resulting sin and condemnation coming for everyone at the judgement of seat of God. These streams of patriarchal writings lay down layer and layer of revealing and it is all centered on Messiah and human rescue and salvation. Death will not win and the Testaments (writings) unfold the story of how God will rescue his children.
Boiling it down
There is a great deal of history leading up to the time of Jesus that we ultimately need to understand in order to get the gravity of this situation, but allow me to attempt to sum up some of this to gain a birds-eye view.
By the time we get to Jesus, there are three basic sectarian groups in Israel: Sadducees, Pharisees, and Essenes.
It is what these three groups believed and where they came from that has a great deal of relevancy. In about 159-152 BC, there is a religious split that happens in Israel, which results in these three basic sects (with others beneath them). The core issue is (as ever): The Torah and how to view it and interpret it.
- - Sadducees: Wealthy former Essenes (sons of Zadok or Zadokites) who have largely turned their back on Torah and base their authoritative view on human government.
- - Pharisees: Wealthy Jews who base their authoritative view of Torah on how they (as rabbis and leaders) interpret Torah, establishing their own laws and traditions, holding them higher than Torah.
- - Essenes: Not-so-well-to-do Jews who held the Testaments of the Patriarchs as their authoritative basis for interpreting Torah.
In other words—the Sadducees had thrown Torah under the bus and turned to human government (either Jewish or their conquerors) as their basis for how to be "righteous".
The Pharisees made up their own rules for "righteousness" based on their own interpretation of Torah.
Finally, the Essenes held to the old ways of letting the testimonies, thoughts, history, and prophecies of their Fathers (see above) guide them in understanding Torah and what it meant.
To state it another way and more flatly—when one takes in and learns the details of Essene theology, one will see a direct set of agreements, congruent lines, and connected dots from the matrix of Essene theology to what we know as Christian theology. The Sadducees are hardly worth the mention, while Pharisee theology becomes the literal enemy of both Essene and downstream Christian theology stemming from Jesus, himself. And this is the source of Jesus' relentless scolding of both the Sadducees and Pharisees, along with a gracious invitation to cross over, but a resounding condemnation if they do not.
Allow me one more indulgence: The Orthodox Jews of today are the direct inheritors of the theology of their Pharisee fathers, which puts their minds at war with their ancient nemeses: The Essenes (and now Christians). And in case you are wondering, "What happened to the Essenes?"—the vast majority became followers and disciples of Christ and the remainder evaporated into unsupported historical obscurity.
And I will leave you with this teaser: Paul crossed over, converting from his Pharisaical heresies to his Essenic enemies, but through the fulfilment of it all in Jesus, the Christ, the King, Judge, Son of God, Son of Man, God incarnate! He literally fulfilled the Testament of Benjamin prophecy about himself, written by his very own Patriarchal Father (Testament of Benjamin 11).
Example:
Virgin Birth
Let's lay out some groundwork first:
5 And one portion of them will look on the other, and they will be terrified. They will be downcast of countenance and pain will seize them when they see that Son of Man [cliii][cliii] sitting on the throne of His glory.
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
From our canonical Old Testament, we have Isaiah telling us that Messiah will be miraculously born of a virgin. The Essenes would agree. The Pharisees (both then and now) deny this, even changing the language of the verse in an attempt to paper it over in a demonized deception. But what did the Essenes have beyond 1 Enoch 62:5? They had the Testaments of the Patriarchs—specifically, the Testament of Joseph!
REMEMBER: These are (most likely) copies of older writings that were found in the DSS, penned some 150 years before Jesus was even born!
I saw that from Judah was born a virgin wearing a linen garment, and from her went forth a Lamb, without spot, and on His left hand there was a lion. All the beasts rushed against Him, and the Lamb overcame them, destroyed them, and trampled them under foot. Because of Him, the angels, men, and all the earth rejoiced.
So—imagine that you are an ancient Jew living 150 years before Jesus or that you are an ancient Jew alive at the time of Jesus. From your point of view, you have the writings of both Enoch and Joseph that you use to guide you in interpreting and understanding the writings of Isaiah.
You take the three of these together and come up with the same story: The Messiah will be miraculously born of a virgin woman. Couple this with other prophecies from the Testaments of the Fathers (Patriarchs), which tell you that this will all happen at the end of the Age of Torah. You know this because of the Zadokite calendar that you've been raised on. Like John the Baptist (an Essene theology guy), you're aware that the time is on top of you and you are looking for the Messiah right now.
More than this, you are an Essene disciple of John the Baptist and you are helping him baptize people in the Jordon, when John shouts out pointing at Jesus, "BEHOLD! The Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29). Suddenly, you forget all about John and you go after following the Messiah, but He disappears for a month and half into the deserts. When he finally returns, you find him and join yourself to him as a disciple.
And then you finally meet Mariam, his mother who happily tells you of how Jesus was conceived in her while she was still espoused to Joseph, but a virgin. She and others tell you the story all the way to the birth—the star, the Magi, the manger, the shepherds—the whole thing.
Now—what are you to think? Well, your first desire is simple: You know the prophecies of the Messiah that are contained in the Testaments and how they impact your view of scripture (Torah). Suddenly, you are trying to learn as much as you can about this man named Jesus and see how and if his story and witnesses of it align with the prophecies you are depending on.
Example:
Levitical Rebellion
Consider: In a writing that is 180 years before Jesus begins his public ministry, confronting Pharisees and Levitical enemies who will ultimately have him crucified, the writings found in the trove of documents in the Dead Sea Scrolls tell us about this story before the story even happens! In Levi's letter to his own sons, he warns them and tells them of their own rebellion and murder of the Messiah.
SEE: Levites crucify the Messiah (L4,16; Aa4,6; B9)
4. Levi Forgiven, and the Messiah’s Coming
Understand that the Lord will execute judgment upon the sons of men; because when the rocks are rent, [xviii] the sun quenched, the waters dried up, the fire trembling, all creation troubled, the invisible spirits melting away, and the grave spoiled in the suffering of the Most High, unbelieving men will continue in their iniquity. Therefore, they will be judged. The Most High has heard your prayer. Your sins are forgiven, and you will become a son to Him, a servant and minister of His presence. You will shine the light of knowledge to Jacob, a sun to the seed of Israel. You and all your seed will be blessed until the Lord visits all the heathen in the tender mercies of His Son, even forever. Nevertheless, your sons will lay hands upon Him to crucify Him. Therefore, you have been given counsel and understanding to instruct your sons about Him, because he who blesses Him will be blessed, but they that curse Him will perish.” [xix]
And again—we find Levi prophesying in chapter 16 of his testament:
16. Enoch’s Prophecy
I have also learned in the book of Enoch that for seventy weeks you will go astray, will profane the priesthood, pollute the sacrifices, corrupt the law, and ignore the words of the prophets. In perverseness, you will persecute righteous men, hate the godly, and abhor the words of the faithful. The man who renews the law in the power of the Most High you will call a deceiver. [xxviii] At last, as you suppose, you will slay Him, not understanding His resurrection, wickedly taking upon your own heads the innocent blood. [xxix] Because of Him will your holy places be desolate, polluted even to the ground, and you will have no place that is clean; but you will be among the Gentiles a curse and a dispersion, until He will again look on you, and in pity will take you to Himself through faith and water.[xxx]
REMEMBER: You are an Essene living sometime between 150 BC and 33 AD. You are lining up these writings (Enoch, Levi, and others) with the Torah as you are looking for the Messiah. When Jesus happens on the scene, what do you do? What do you think? How do you respond? As reality and history would have it: You fold Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the Living God into your heart in absolute submission and allegiance (faith). You follow him. You learn of him. You preach him to every Jew and then every Gentile.
Yet, this is not the end of the matter in the scrolls of the Testaments of the Patriarchs. Aaron and Benjamin have a voice in the matter as well with regard to the rebellious Levites: The Testament of Aaron 4 and 6 as well as Benjamin 9 relate a sobering story.
Aaron is a Levitical son . The Lord gives him a dream and from that dream pours a potent message: If you want to live, have nothing to do with the nails!
Column 6
“God will right all the errors... He will reveal and judge sins... Learn fully why Jonah wept. …will not destroy the weak by wasting away or by crucifixion... Let not the nail touch him. Then you will raise up for your father a name of rejoicing and for all your brothers a firm foundation. You will understand and rejoice in the eternal light and you will not be one whom God hates.”
The Testament of Benjamin rounds out the series of Patriarchal writings that informed the ancient Essenic Jew of the Levitical (and Pharisaical) rebellion.
9. Rebellion Against the Messiah
“The words of the righteous Enoch teach that even your descendants will practice evil. They will commit fornication like the fornication of Sodom, and all but a few will perish, and will multiply inordinate lusts with women; and the kingdom of the Lord will not be among you, for immediately He will take it away. Nevertheless, the temple of God will be built in your portion, and will be glorious among you. For He will take it, and the twelve tribes will be gathered together there , and all the Gentiles, until the Most High will send forth His salvation in the visitation of His only-begotten One. He will enter into the front of the temple, and there will the Lord be treated with outrage , and He will be lifted up on a tree. The veil of the temple will be rent, and the Spirit of God will descend upon the Gentiles as fire poured forth. He will rise from the grave, and will ascend from earth into heaven. I know how lowly He will be upon the earth, and how glorious in the heaven.
Wrap-up
What is written above is just a preview of the material that drove the theology of the Essene Jews. I can well imagine that you are left with a host of questions and matters that you will over time need to sort out in your own mind from all of this. For his part, Dr. Johnson has put a great deal of effort into this study already. I invite you to explore his videos, books, and website(s).
For my part, I will do my best to study this material along with you and try to put it all together in a way that makes sense; especially in light of the work of Dr. Michael S. Heiser and Dr. Matthew Bates and others. There is a powerful view of our Lord that has formed because of all this wonderful work that has poured forth from the caves of Qumran to shed light on our ancient brothers and sisters!