I think we're at a point now where we can take a look at Qumran, and with the background we've had so far up to this point about monastic origins, maybe some of the things that we'll see in Qumran will strike bells in our minds and might also do a lot of similarity, and so that's why we'll go to Qumran now and then the next time, or after we finish Qumran, go on to Syria. When we talk about Kumaran, the reason I bring it up is because there's a question of monastic origins. Where did monasticism originate? Now, there are various interpretations of monastic origins. I don't think we've ever really gone much into that. Slightly we've touched upon the various theories, psychological theories, sociological theories, protest movement, etc. And that's really why Qumran comes into play here, because as people study Qumran, there's so many similarities between it and Christian monasticism that people wonder if there's not some direct relationship.

[01:13]

As far as Christian monasticism and Qumran goes, We could question about a direct dependence, for instance, between Qumran and then Syria, as we'll look at later, or, for instance, what I've mentioned to you about the therapeutic in Egypt. I think I mentioned that to you, didn't I? Up in Alexandria, there's a small group of Therapeute, who are Jewish ascetics, and at the time of Christ, and this may have influenced the Egyptian monasticism. Also, the whole question comes in here about what role does John the Baptist play, and is this the link between Christian asceticism and Jewish asceticism? Besides the direct dependence, another question which will confront us is what we would call an indirect dependence. I think what we're going to notice is that there's a similarity of terminology.

[02:16]

For instance, terminology like covenant and congregation, or even a similarity in institutional structures. like the aspect of a penal code, the system of admitting candidates, the liturgical practices, are seen in similarity in spirituality, like sharing of goods, celibacy, and vexio divina, or reading the scriptures and meditation. Thus we are confronted with a question, two questions, I think. First of all, what about external dependence? Is there really some external dependence of Christian monasticism on Kumara? And then the question of internal dependence. Does the spirituality depend somehow upon Kumara? I think, in order to get into this question, we have to first get a background about Qumran.

[03:23]

Now, with regard to Qumran, I'll also speak of the Essenes. Whether or not the people who lived at Qumran were Essenes is disputed, but I'm going to use these terms sort of interchangeably, the people of Qumran, the desert sect, and the Essenes. So, first of all, let's take a look at the discoveries in the Judean desert. Kumaran is at the northwest corner of the Dead Sea, and on this map you see it's sort of off the road between Jerusalem and Jericho. Jerusalem to Jericho is about 15 miles, so it's off the road 3 or 4 miles or so. It was always known to be in existence. I mean, these ruins were noted for years, but they just didn't have any idea what it was. And so, only after the discoveries of the manuscripts in this area, then they began to suspect, well, maybe they ought to dig these ruins and see what it is.

[04:28]

So, it's at the Wadi Qumran. Now, wadi means a deep gorge, which is usually a watershed during the rainy season. And these things are famous in the Near East, those wadis, and they can be very treacherous. You may recall a few years ago, John Steinman was leading a pilgrimage in the Holy Land, and his whole group were drowned in a wadi because of a torrential rainstorm. And it may be, I think some people might suggest that this is what happened to Bishop Pike too. I don't know exactly what happened to him. So this is the place then, at the northwest corner of the Dead Sea, right overlooking the Dead Sea, really on the cliffs there. Manuscripts were discovered in some caves in this area. around Qumran, the Wadi Qumran, and also in another area called the Wadi Marabat.

[05:34]

The first discovery took place in 1947, and the cave in which this first manuscript, these first manuscripts were discovered is called Cave 1. Now eventually, There were 11 kings found, and I think even now there are more kings discovered, but the sources that I'm using speak of just 11 kings. The story is that this Bedouin shepherd lad lost some of his sheep and he was throwing rocks at them to try to get them back or something, and he also then threw a rock into a cave and heard a clunk and something broke. And so he went and there he discovered, in this cave up on the hill, these urns, these jars, and inside were manuscripts. He took these, first of all, to some dealer in... I'm not sure in Jerusalem or where it was, but there's a whole complicated history of how these things finally got on the public market.

[06:43]

There's some very fine works to be read with regard to Qumran. For instance, just the general story, I think the most interesting is Burrows, B-U-R-R-O-W-S. I'm sorry I don't have the... of approach to the thing is a man by the name of Millet, M-I-L-L-E-T, and it's called Ten Years of Discovery in the Judean Desert, and I really like that approach. But there's all sorts of books out there. The book by Frank Cross, The Library of Qumran, is also very fine. After this thing became public knowledge, with all of the intrigue and everything else that went with it, and trying to sell these things and not knowing what they were, then people began investigating the various caves.

[07:50]

You know, the Bedouin stars in Rome, there must be something valuable here, and then archaeologists went out. So for instance, cave 2 and 3 were discovered in December the winter of December 51-52, and then case 4, 5, and 6 were discovered in September 52. and eventually a cave 11 in 1955. Now, cave 4 of these caves is very important because it apparently was the depository of the main library. That's where really a lot of the wealth has come. Now, these caves vary in importance, but they're spread around this general area of the ruins at Qumran. Now, because of these discoveries in the cave and what they found there, what the manuscripts were, people began to say, well, we'd better look into that ruin and see what that ruin is. So they began excavating the ruin then in 1951.

[08:53]

And between 1953 and 1956, there were four further campaigns in this area. Now, Joe. I just wanted to ask, what's the relation of distance between the caves and the ruins? I'm not sure, some of them are relatively close, first you see the ruins and the caves are rather close, some of them are further apart. For instance, see if you look on this little outline here, here, they have the ... that's the Qumran And then you see those kings, so they're pretty much clustered all around, some of them are much closer than others. So they're right around the general area. Now, I don't know visually how the effect would be, but I get the impression they're just sort of a stone's throw away, whereas others are further away.

[09:56]

Looks like the manuscript ones, though, are pretty much more or less right near the ruin. Well, you have some manuscript ones up here, too, you see, and there may be more caves, I don't really know. These caves are pretty inaccessible, some of them are. And almost a sheer cliff to get up into them. That's why they'd never been gone into before. I think, why go up there? Now that tells us something about there must be a lot of things on this earth which we have just never considered or overlooked. It's the same way in libraries, manuscripts in libraries. If somebody goes through some of these ancient libraries, they discover all sorts of manuscripts. Every once in a while you find that somebody's just discovered an unpublished piece by Bach. and because it's hidden in some ancient monastery or some ancient library among just tomes of other manuscripts, and to go through all this, and we have more stuff than anybody can get through in their life, you know, even in our small library.

[11:01]

If I start reading right now, I'll probably never finish reading everything in a library. Well, you can imagine over centuries the accumulation, you just never get through it, and it's almost sort of haphazard that people discover things. Are the caves man-made, or...? Some of them are man-made, but most of them are not. And we'll see a little bit more about the caves and what they mean. Now, let's take a look at what was discovered. There are two major categories of the what of discovery. The first major category are manuscripts. And the second major category are the actual ruins at Kiber Kumra. So let's take a look first of all at the manuscripts of the caves, or what people have called the library, which has been hidden in these caves. With regard to the manuscripts, and then what we say what was in their library, you find the following types of literature.

[12:02]

You find biblical manuscripts, biblical commentaries, apocalyptic literature, and sectarian literature. So those main categories. Now, with regard to the biblical manuscripts, and this is an extremely important find. You know, it's hard to say what's the most important thing that's been discovered here, but these biblical manuscripts have just expanded biblical exegesis and interpretation and understanding beyond anything that's really taken place before. It's hard to be over-exaggerated how important these things were, both for the Old Testament and the New Testament. So, did I reach a point where we find that Qumran verified a lot of what we call the Bible? Verified certain traditions in the Bible, in that way, with regard to the manuscripts. Now, if we're just talking about the manuscripts, yes, they verified a certain tradition, or what they also did was give us an insight into the pluralism of tradition.

[13:08]

See, because Qumran was destroyed about the time of the fall of Jerusalem, or a little bit after. What we find is modern Judaism, as it developed, developed on a Pharisaic tradition. And we know what we call the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible. That's the Pharisaic tradition which was established, I think, in around the third century after Christ, the whole age of the Talmud and all of these things, where they were codifying their tradition. But that's one tradition of the Jews. So the other traditions had pretty much been lost. And this may help us explain the difference, the variations, in the Septuagint reading of Jeremiah as compared to the Hebrew reading of Jeremiah. Where did the Septuagint get its tradition of Jeremiah? You know, this has always puzzled people. You know, did the Septuagint just sort of arbitrarily shift around chapters, had different interpretations.

[14:11]

Now we see with Qumran that there was a variant tradition, manuscript tradition, different than the Masoretic text in places. And that's why it just has all sorts of ramifications for biblical studies, just from textual studies. Can you talk about the Hebrew Bible? That's the same thing as the Masoretic Text? The Masoretic Text is sort of the authorized Hebrew text. But it was authorized, I'm not sure, but I think it's about the 3rd century. But there were other texts too, and this is part of the whole problem of textual criticism with regard to the Old Testament. These discoveries, because we've got these manuscripts, have given us a new insight into this whole problem. Now, all of the Hebrew canonical books of the Hebrew Old Testament, which we call 24 books the way it's arranged, all of these are represented with the exception of Esther.

[15:13]

So notice we have some sort of manuscript evidence for all of the books of the Old Testament. Before Qumran, the oldest manuscripts we've had from the Old Testament, most of them dated around the 7th or 8th century after Christ. Here you have actual manuscripts which date from the time of Christ. So they're very ancient. You get into the whole problem of manuscript traditions here. For instance, Deuteronomy, there are 14 manuscripts. Now, this doesn't mean complete manuscripts, but there are indications that they had at least 14 different copies of Deuteronomy. Not different texts, but just the manuscripts. Isaiah has 12 manuscripts. The Minor Prophets have 8 manuscripts, and the Psalms, 10 manuscripts. For instance, in Qumran, if I'm not mistaken, they found a complete manuscript of Isaiah, and I think a second one which is almost complete. This is a phenomenal find for Old Testament studies.

[16:15]

But didn't they find also that that manuscript of Isaiah, the one that we have, is very, I mean it's pretty well accurate. It's very similar to what we have, for instance, the Masoretic Texts. But now if you, for instance, if you look at the American Bible, the New American Bible, in little places like readings in Samuel and places like that, there are variants that come up through the Qumran discoveries. Now, I don't know whether they discovered any text of Jeremiah that will really be helpful. But that's the real problem in Old Testament biblical criticism. Because if you look at the Septuagint, it's quite different in arrangement, in length, from the Hebrew. And this has always puzzled people. Now, if we could find an ancient manuscript of Jeremiah that would show us another manuscript besides the Masoretic text, then we may be able to discover where the Septuagint got their approach. What this tells us is that the manuscripts, or the text of the Old Testament, went through a variety of traditions.

[17:25]

It's a developing thing, and it's sort of being purified and then canonized in one particular thread. Now, the thread that the Jews accept is the Masoretic thread. And then the question of the Septuagint, because like the Jerusalem Bible, it likes to look at the Septuagint for trying to take care of problematic areas in the Old Testament. And what basis do they have for that? But that's a whole other problem. Another thing I think that is pointed out by these manuscripts is it's noticed what is important in the Bible for these people. Now, how many manuscripts of certain texts as compared with other texts? So, for instance, something which seems to be very important are the Prophets. Isaiah and the line of Prophets. Also the Psalms. They had a lot of manuscripts of these. Now, besides the Biblical manuscripts, you also have Biblical commentaries.

[18:33]

In other words, they wrote commentaries on these things. You have commentaries, for instance, on the Psalms, on Hosea, Isaiah, Nahum, and Habakkuk. And the commentary on Habakkuk is extremely important, and it's almost, it's rather famous. Now, why these people were interested in especially Habakkuk. But notice what they commented on. Again, the prophets and the Psalms. Another type of literature is what you call apocalyptic literature or pseudoepigrapha. And this would be something like the Book of Jubilees. You may have heard of that. That's what you call an apocalyptic book and apocrypha. It's the story of salvation from creation to the Theophany on Mount Sinai. Now, it's not accepted in the canon. Another one is the Book of Enoch. are the testament of the twelve patriarchs. So these people also had this kind of literature.

[19:34]

And then, for our purpose, we have the category of sectarian literature. They wrote literature which referred to them as a sect or as a group. You have, for instance, The Rule of the Community, The Damascus Document, The Rule for War, Hymns and Psalms of Thanksgiving, and then a number of calendrical works or works on the calendar. Now, The Rule of the Community also known as the Manual of Discipline, is an extremely important document, because in this document we discover how these people live, sort of their philosophy of life and their theology of life, but more important, their practice and their structure of life. This Rule of the Community, as a title and introduction, then it gives the Liturgy for the Renewal of the Covenant, It presents the doctrine on the two spirits which war against each other.

[20:39]

It gives regulations, especially the penal code of the community, and then considerations on appointed times and seasons. Very interesting text or document to read in the light of monastic documents. You see, this is sort of like a monastic rule. Another document which is important is the Damascus document. And it consists of two parts. It's a comment on God's saving plan in history, and secondly, it gives detailed rules for the lives of the members of the New Covenant in their camps in the land of Damascus. So it's sort of theological and practical, spiritual and disciplined. That's the manual of the... That's the Damascus document. And these two documents then are very important for the structure of life of these people, and part of the problem is that these two documents don't always agree in all the details, and this is a problem for interpretation then. The document called the Rule for War expresses the mentality of the Essenes during the last phase of their occupation at Qumran.

[21:49]

They were looking towards the holy war, the return to Jerusalem when the Messiah came, and they would purify Jerusalem, and there would be this great cosmic battle. So we get into this idea of apocalypticism, the cosmic battle of good against evil, in which good will triumph. and the people will be led back to Jerusalem. A book of hymns or psalms of thanksgiving, which are their expressions of belief in religious concepts, and these have been published in a special book, you know, the Hymns and Psalms of Qumran. Now, some of the psalms of the Old Testament are a little different in their psalmody, in their manuscripts, than the psalms we have in the Hebrew Bible. Then you have a series of calendrical works, or works on the calendar, and these relate to the Zodiac, and the calculation of feast days, and to the courses of the priests. Now, hopefully, as we go on, we'll see what all of this means, that this is just the stuff that's been found there.

[22:54]

It's a mass of information. You said the courses of the priests? Remember in Luke chapter 1, where Zechariah had his course in priesthood? according to re-edit, you know, allotment. I think that's what it means. They call it the course of the priest. You know, what turns they have to take. Oh, yes. When do you come up, and how do you... He won that by a lot. Right, right. And I think that that's what this refers to also. In the apocalyptic works, is there a tradition there, or this is just what, I would say, made up, just the way they interpreted say the testament of the patriarchs. Is there a Jewish tradition that they just wrote down? Oh, I'm sure it must be a tradition that is written down and it's probably very similar to the later Talmudic literature which writes down traditions and sayings from the rabbis and interpretations.

[23:57]

But no, I don't think they just made these things up, because these apocalyptic books have been found elsewhere than at Qumran. These are not specifically Qumran documents, but they also had them, that's the point, and they had manuscripts of them. The sectarian works are strictly Qumran. The sectarian are strictly Qumran, right. See, all of this other information, these other types of works were found elsewhere. But the value of Qumran is that now we have other manuscripts to check and print, and to see who else used this kind of literature. The other one that we're looking at is the Qumran monastery, or the ruins at Hebert Qumran. There is what we would call a monastery complex. And if you look at the floor plan, you know, you get the impression of a medieval monastery, you know, with a big quadrangle and all the things that are necessary in it. Archaeological indications show that there were three periods of inhabitation.

[25:03]

Now, the way they discover this is by finding the coins and the pottery. and things of that nature. And if there's a heavy accumulation of pottery in a certain age or a certain era, they figured people lived there more at that time. This is a practical question. Was this strictly men or was it a community? We'll get into that. This is part of the dispute. Most people think it was a celibate community of men, although there's a problem there too because of the cemetery. So this was inhabited from 134 BC to 68 AD. Notice 134 B.C. is the time of the Hasmoneans, and this is the time that this thing began. Now this may tell us something about the origins, that Qumran began in the Hasmonean period, and what people are suggesting is probably around the time of Jonathan and Simon Maccabeus, and we'll see why they would have begun at that time.

[26:10]

lasted till 68 A.D., so right before the fall of Jerusalem. So it has a long, sort of an intertestamental period there. There's also evidence that there was an earthquake around 31 B.C., around the time of the beginnings of Herod the Great, and at that time it seems as though the place was left vacant for a while and then was re-inhabited and rebuilt up. What we see in existence here is a big quadrangular complex. There's a community kitchen, large storerooms, a great hall used for sacred meals and maybe for gatherings of reading and prayer. A scriptorium, they've actually found in the scriptorium the table of writing and the stools, and also little ink pots. And that's why they think it was a scriptoria, because it's obvious that people were never seen there to be written with. There's an elaborate water supply system, and of course this is going to cause a lot of interpretation which is disputable.

[27:21]

There were silos for grain, there was a bakery, a forge, a pottery kiln. But what is noticeable is that there is no area which we could really say would be a dormitory or a place where actually people lived all the time. Now, there were eating places, there were gathering places, but it doesn't seem that there was any living quarters or sleeping quarters. Nearby were the caves, and these caves are both natural and man-made. Now, what is suggested is that the members of this community probably lived in the caves. and came into this big complex for common gatherings. Another interpretation is that some of them lived in the quadrangle, but they had such things as hammocks or mats that they just spread out, for instance, in what would be the refectory or the common room, and then they would roll them up during the day. Well, age and weather has deteriorated these, so there's no

[28:23]

evidence of this. Now in the caves there is evidence of actually people having lived in there. I mean, I don't know how the archaeologists always figure this out, but maybe I think one of them is like a little fireplace where people cooked, and you can get information about even sometimes what they cooked there, and all sorts of different things. Besides this main complex, and notice here all of these big water cisterns here, I think it's 17, the water was either important ritually, this is what is disputed, or it was merely enough water to support a huge complex of people. There's also an agricultural complex besides this living complex. Ein Feska, which is down below the cage itself, sort of on the lake itself.

[29:27]

And this was an agricultural annex of a settlement. They must have grown the food there to ship up to the community. It had a spring-fed irrigation system and enclosures for cattle. And besides that, what has also been discovered is a cemetery with over 1,200 tombs. And all of the bodies are lying in one direction. I think it's their face in peace, but I don't remember the details of it. In the cemetery there are some women skeletons and also some children. And this is what then puzzles people. If this was a celibate community, how did the women get there? Now, one of the things that was suggested by the people who say it was a celibate community is that these may have been oblates or terciaries who wanted to be buried in the monastery cemetery. Or it may have been pilgrims who came and died on the spot and so were buried in the cemetery.

[30:28]

But this has caused a bit of dispute. Now, the male skeletons by far outnumber the female skeletons. So there's no proportion there. We kind of have that set up here. And we have women buried in Iceland. You know, before the sisters were removed, if somebody, 2,000 years from now, somebody come here and dig up our cemetery and say, well, these people mustn't have been celibate, because there are women buried here. Historical information are allusion to a people called the Assyrians. There's no definite proof that the inhabitants of Qumran were the Essenes. Now, very little is known about the Essenes, but they are referred to by three ancient writers, three writers of antiquity referred to people called Essenes. For instance, Pliny the Elder, who was born in

[31:34]

Italy around 6162 and died around 114. That's wrong, isn't it? That's Pliny the Younger. Pliny the Elder was born in A.D. 23 and died in 79 A.D. He was probably the one who's... I've never really checked on this for sure which one it is, but it must be Pliny the Elder who wrote a book called Natural History. And he mentions a settlement on the Dead Sea. And here's his text. So he's writing around the same time that these people would have existed. This is a Roman, he's writing this. On the west coast of Lake Asphaltitis, that is the Dead Sea, are settled the Assyrians, at some distance from the noisome odors that are experienced on the shore itself. So they're not right on the shore, but there's some distance from that. They are lonely people, the most extraordinary in the world.

[32:39]

They live without women, without love, without money. with the palm trees for their only companions. The Yassins and Asir then were sort of celibates. But they maintain their numbers, for recruits come to them in abundance, men who are wearied of life or driven by the changes of fortune to adopt their way of living. And so through countless ages, hard though it is to believe, this people, among which no children are born, has survived. Others who feel repentance for their lives become their children. Lower down than the Essenes was the town of Engadi, which in the fertility of its soil and its palm groves was surpassed only by Jericho, but which today is reduced by it, Jericho, to a heap of ashes. Then comes the fortress of Masada in the mountains, it too at some distance from the lake Asphaltitis." So noticing he is giving us positioning here, and down the line from

[33:43]

Qumran is Ein Gedi, and then on down the line is Masada. So it may be he's referring to this settlement at Qumran. Another ancient is Josephus, who was born in Jerusalem in 37 A.D. and died in A.D. 101. Josephus wrote The Antiquities, The War of Antiquities Among the Jews. His works are translated into English. He describes Essene communities scattered in the villages of Palestine. So when he talks about the Essenes, he says they're scattered throughout Palestine. And he regularly describes the Essenes as one of the three orders of the Jews along with the Pharisees and Sadducees. So we have the Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes. He says that they shun marriage but do not reject the institution as such. And elsewhere he says that the Essenes do in fact marry.

[34:44]

while otherwise keeping the rule of the Essenes. So he seems to say that they're both celibate, some of them are, and some of them are married, and that they're scattered throughout Palestine. Then there's a man by the name of Philo of Alexandria, born in 13 BC and died in 40 to 50 AD. He speaks of the Egyptian Therapeute, these people that are living up near Alexandria. He says, besides the Syro-Palestinian branches of the Essene movement, mention should be made of the Therapeute. This is a quotation from Millet, known to us from Philo, in his day, Vita Contemplativa, and also referred to by a Christian historian by the name of Eusebius. But Philo is saying that besides the Essenes in Syro-Palestine, we also ought to talk about the Therapeutae in Egypt.

[35:50]

Their way of life was analogous to that of the Essenes, being Jewish solitaries who lived in the region of Lake Mariotis near Alexandria. Now, in Qumran, in cave 4, some fragments of the Septuagint have been found. Notice, in Judah, in Palestine, fragments of the Septuagint are found in the caves of Qumran. This is a Greek translation of the Old Testament and is a work of Alexandrian origin. Now, where did this Greek text come from in Palestine? Why would they have had this Greek text? Perhaps these fragments are a sign that a relation existed between the two groups, namely the Essenes, or the Qumran monks, and the people, the Therapeutae, who were from Alexandria. Another parallel between the two groups deserves notice. According to Philo, the Therapeute had a religious feast of an unspecified type every 50 days. And in reconstructing the calendar from cave 4, Millik has noticed that there was also a division of the year into seven 50-day periods, each beginning with a feast of an agricultural character.

[37:04]

So there's also a comparison in their feast day, in their calendars. So, from its very modest beginnings in the 2nd century B.C., before Christ, that is, the Essene movement, spread widely throughout the Jewish world. And Lilic says at least four different branches are known to us. He says we have the celibates at Qumran, who were solitaries and cenobites. Some are living in a cave, some are living in a community. Then you had the married Essenes, living in the isolated Jewish villages of southern Syria and Palestine. They were sort of tertiaries, or oblates. And then you had the therapeutic, the Egyptian Jewish hermits. See what he is concluding to, that there are a variety of these people. You have the two types who live at Qumran, solitaries and cenobites. Then you have people living throughout the villages. who probably were married in some sort of relation, what we would call operands, and you had this Egyptian branch of the therapeutic.

[38:08]

And this may be the explanation for the divergence between the... the rule of the community, and the Damascus Document. Because the Damascus Document gives more of an impression of married people, whereas the rule of the community gives the impression of non-married people. So the Damascus Document may have been for the people living outside of the community. Now, modern archaeological and pediographical findings all point to identifying these as scenes mentioned by Pliny, Josephus, and Philo, with the people at Qumran. Of course, this is just a conclusion that is made. The ruins, location, and the disposition fit into Pliny's description, and the sectarian writings portray a sect within Judaism that is comparable to the Pharisees. Any questions up to this point? It seems like You know, I could see where the whole system would work.

[39:15]

I mean, you look at, you know, the scene would be the general sect. Now, just like Christianity, I mean, you know, take it the way we fit into Christianity, monasticism fits into Christianity, you know, it's a way of living. within a larger group. And it would seem like, you know, you have the hermit, the cenobite, and then the person, the layman, if you want to use that terminology, that all three categories are there within this scene. Well, from the sociological point of view, you know, sociology of religion, you have subgroupings in almost any religious community. And the question is, you know, whether there is a more perfect way of life to which people are always leading. See, one of the things that is suggested that the tertiaries, the Essene tertiaries, couldn't go the whole route on this perfect asceticism of the people of Qumran. Now that's what I was wanting to ask.

[40:16]

I mean, excuse me, Qumran was here, and then other things developed around it, or whether the Assim movement was there and then Qumran came as a striving for, you know, lead the general group and strive for stronger or more... No, and that's where we get into the origin of this. What's going on here? Maybe we ought to go into that now, it'll come up as we go into the ... because the next point is to go into their theology and their doctrine, and I better stop and give you some of the idea of now, why are these people there in the desert? What's their whole purpose? What is suggested? See, it began about the time of the Maccabees, the later Maccabees, Jonathan and Simeon Maccabeus. What happened in the Hasmonean dynasty is that these Hasmoneans, the Maccabeans, who were not of the priestly line of Aaron or the Zadokites, they, when they became sort of king, took on priestly roles, and so Jonathan and Simon became sort of high priests of the Jewish people.

[41:31]

Now, this is against the Mosaic law. that a person whose non-Aaronic line should assume priestly order. But these men did that, and it was a whole part of their reform. What is suggested is that a group of purists, traditionalists within Judaism, said, this is a horrible thing that you're doing. You are desecrating the sanctity of the priesthood, and in desecrating the sanctity of the priesthood, you're desecrating the temple, you are no longer offering legitimate sacrifices. Because only the Aaronic priest could do that. And here you have this new intruder into the priestly mind, offering sacrifices in the temple. You are desecrating the temple. And therefore, they said, we withdraw from this contamination.

[42:34]

And we withdraw into the desert, sort of in protest against this, against Jonathan and that whole group of people in Jerusalem. Why? You withdraw to the desert, which is the place of Israel's covenant relationship with God, a place of purification, and you wait in the desert in the expectation that Yahweh God will come back and drive out these intruders from the temple. And so that now, you see, they could no longer participate in the sacrifices in the temple, because they were impure, they were unclean. And so they just rejected all of that. Their hope was to go back to Jerusalem, clean the temple, purify it, and set up the proper reign of Yahweh again in His holy city, Jerusalem. Now, in withdrawing to the desert in opposition to the community, and so they're really schismatics, then their mentality began with the whole mentality of the desert.

[43:44]

And so their whole structure is a desert structure, you know, their sociological structures, their tens and their hundreds, the way they were divided up, is all divided up in imitation of Israel in the desert. And so remember that as we go through some of their characteristics. Their whole organization reflects Israel in the desert. Their mentality reflects Israel in the desert. And so what is extremely important for them is a covenant mentality. And they were the ones who were safeguarding the purity of the law. and keeping the covenant. And thus you get that whole theme of sons and daughters of the covenant, the pure Israel, the Eilat. And they were keeping the covenant in its purity in order to be ready, when Yahweh came to purify Jerusalem, to continue the new covenant that would be re-established but which be a continuity with the old covenant. And so this also then develops later on their theology of the holy war.

[44:50]

In order to overcome this, bad thing that's happened in Jerusalem, Yahweh would come, raise up a Messiah, and here's the problem, whether it was one or two messiahs, an Aaronic Messiah in the priestly line, and also one in the line of the kings, two different messiahs, who would go back and lead his people back into Jerusalem, destroy the evil forces, and then the reign of salvation would come. So you have the whole theme of the Holy War. Now the Holy War's theme in The Old Testament is such that when you're fighting the holy war, there are all sorts of taboos, and I don't use that in a pejorative sense, but just in the sense of things which are restricted. For instance, sexual purity. You may recall with regard to David and Bathsheba, the son Uriah, her husband Uriah, the Hittite, was brought back by David so that he would have intercourse with Bathsheba and sort of cover up David's sin.

[45:54]

And the Hittite refused to do it. Why? Because he was engaged in a holy war, and if he had had sexual intercourse he could not have gone back to war. And so, throughout the Old Testament we find that part of the requirements for entering into the Holy War was to refrain from sexual activity. Now, this may explain their celibacy. They were waiting for at any moment Yahweh would come, the Holy War would be begun, and they would have to go to purify the temple. Therefore, they remained continent, sexually continent, ready at a moment's notice to go into the Holy War. You see how all of this fits together? Reminds me, right off the bat, what we saw in some of the other colleagues, that monasticism was battle against ... Oh yeah, it was a battle. Now, see, there are many things, and the whole ... well, take another thing, not so much monastic, but Paul's idea of virginity, which is much disputed, but he gives the impression that one is continent

[46:57]

because of the coming of the Lord. And one must be ready at any moment for the return of the Lord, and therefore don't get involved with marriage, because it's not going to last very long. You know, this whole imminence of the parousia. And so this enters into the question of celibacy as an eschatological sign. See, it certainly is, I think, for the Essene. It's an eschatological witness that Yahweh will come at any moment. We've got to be ready to move out and go into the Holy War. Now, as you read the text, there are all sorts of interpretations. Who is the teacher of righteousness, who seems to be the founder of the sect, and who may be the one who's also coming back, the Messiah? Who is this person? Is he a historical person? Who is the wicked prince that they talk about? And people identify these with various people. The one that makes the most sense to me is the identification of the wicked priest with Jonathan and Simon Maccabeus, or the Hasmoneans, who have usurped the right for the priesthood.

[48:08]

And what these people are doing then, it's a protest movement, it's a sectarian movement. It's not a movement within all of Judaism, like, for instance, Phariseeism and Sadduceeism. See, these were just sort of various theologies within the bigger picture. But these people are really sectarians. They have rejected the main body of Judaism. They have set up an elite body, which is the pure, authentic Israel. and they cannot be contaminated with contact with the other people. Was a sacrificial cult then kind of suspended in their... This is the amazing thing because they, you know, holding on to the law, surely would have had the sacrificial cult, but they couldn't. Why? Because they were not in the temple. Yeah, that's what I was... All of this, you know, this is how any sort of a purist gets into problems.

[49:09]

You've got to have the pure sacrifice in the temple. You're not having the pure sacrifice in the temple, then leave the temple and then you have no sacrifice. uh... jurist catholics and other people who will leave the catholic church because it is wrong then you've left everything. Are there any, at that time, are there any priests of the line of error? They maintain that they have the direct line with the Zadok and the Aaronic line. That's what I was wondering. You know, I could see where they could get hold of an Aaronic priest, you know, and then they could offer a legal sacrifice, but then again, the stipulation also, you know, is that that sacrifice can only be offered in the temple. Right, it can only be offered, but see, they maintain the lines. Now, this probably also may give us a clue to the origins. The origins may be the Zadokite priestly a reaction to somebody usurping their role.

[50:15]

So they must have had an influence in it. Well, that's another question about Kunan. Maybe this tells you that they have to be married and celibate. You know, this is part of a complication. And that's why, if you read the different books, there's all sorts of interpretations about it. Now, another aspect that plays into the role here is the whole problem of the calendar. From New Testament studies, it seems as though the Synoptics have a deeper Paschal calendar than John. And what we discovered at Qumran is that they have a different calendar than Judaism. They have the ancient calendar. One of the things that the Hasmoneans did was change the calendar. And of course, this is another reason for schism. Something, you know, in our own day. The Romanian churches in Canada are having a terrible problem about the new calendar, and they are actually going into season.

[51:22]

Some of the churches holding on to the old calendar, and the more progressive churches accepting the new calendar. See, a calendar can be the cause of season. Calendar, Arno? The way feasts are celebrated. So, for instance, the problem of the Passover. Was it celebrated or not? I'm not sure exactly what the details are, but for instance, there's a problem whether it's celebrated on the 14th day of Nisan, no matter what day of the week it falls on, or whether it's celebrated on the Sabbath day within a particular month of the moon. So it's a difference of, you know, what day of the week or stabilize it on the same day of the week. Now, what we see in the synoptics is that Jesus apparently celebrates the Passover, or the Last Supper, on the day that the Jews celebrate the Passover. But we get the impression from John that he celebrates it the day before the Passover.

[52:26]

Now, this may be because there are two calendars, in effect, on this particular year. So that what Jesus is doing is celebrating the Passover, but not on the day of the official Judaist calendar, but on the ancient calendar, which would be the calendar of Qumran. Now, I may be complicating this too much, but that's the type of things that we're working with in the problem. and I'm not sure if I got my details right, but there is this difference in the calendar, and it's reflected in the New Testament. There's a woman who's done a doctoral thesis study on this problem of the calendar in John and in the Synoptics, and Raymond Brown has something on it in his commentary on John. But that's part of the problem of the Qumranites, or the Essenes. They didn't like this imposition of an unlegal calendar. See, because they were purists all the way, with regard to the priesthood, with regard to the calendar, everything, keeping the law.

[53:33]

And so they couldn't be contaminated. Are there any other questions about this? We will come back to this as we go into the next section, which will be trying to look a little bit at their doctrine and their way of life, so that later on then we can make a comparison between the Essenes and the monastic institute. Now, as we go through, there's going to be a bit of repetition in this, trying to make a statement and then relating to something, so you have to repeat the statement to show what you're relating it to. Do you understand the facts though of Kumara, what's been discovered and the people involved in it? And then from that point then we can go into the thought of these people and how they actually lived their lives and then make a comparison. Joel. How did the Jars in the caves What has been suggested is that when the people realized that they were going to be destroyed, because, see, the Roman occupation began before the destruction of Jerusalem, and because, I mean, it took really over a period of a few years, like Masada was destroyed a few years before, maybe a year after Jerusalem, but there's destruction all over.

[54:56]

The Romans are destroying the Jewish state. When there was fear of this destruction, then these people hid in the caves these manuscripts so that they could come back and pick them up. Or it may be that these were the places where they kept them, sort of in a sacred way, to be preserved. You know, out of of constant contact, because these caves are sort of out of the way. Yeah, that's the theory of the destruction, and to say that from destruction is one I've always been familiar with. I read a book, I think it was that Theodore Boris, Boris? Whatever his name is. Boro. Boro. I think it's in his Brown book. It's a big, ready Brown book. Yes. He has the theory that since they were so conservative and traditionalist that the sacred books couldn't be destroyed. Right.

[55:57]

So that they would deposit them in this cave to keep from destroying them. I mean, as they wore out. As they wore out. Right. Yes, that's another theory, that you just put them away somewhere and let them out of contact, but you You couldn't bury them, really, or you couldn't burn them. You just hid them somewhere. Yes. Then that's a possibility. Father Stu Mueller at the Institute for Continuing Education of Greece the other night brought this up, this possibility. You know, you relate it more to the Orthodox Jews. They simply did not say, or destroy, or burn, or anything else that didn't have a sacred name on it. Right. In some ways, this may make a better explanation, because you can imagine all of a sudden these people being a tent, or destroyed, and then running through the hills, putting these things there. Or if they had some sort of a vision that this was going to happen, you know, it might have been two-tenths of a situation.

[56:57]

So I sort of like to think that they were either depositories for old manuscripts, or else they were the place where they normally kept them. And then when they needed them, they would bring them out. Well, it seems, though, that they would be a prime target of the Romans, that they could have known that this was coming. You know, they were a very messianic sect. Right. And very, you know, war, you know, battle. And at that time, you know, this whole feeling in Judaism, you know, of revolt that was building up, that they could have been, you know, kind of a core center for that. Because they weren't zealots, Mike. And not in the same sense, because by the time of the writing of the Holy War thing, they are this sort of zealot type of thing. And that may be true. The Romans recognized this and said, well, we better get rid of those people because they were willing to fight at the drop of a hat. And you look at this one, you know, I was noticing that there's many different cisterns and how large they are and, you know, build up the location.

[58:05]

I mean, these people are prepared for war and to hold out, you know, if necessary. Right. That's a very good point. And that's sort of the enigma of who they are and why they are there where they are. But the Arabs are kind of out of the way. You remember that Festus wasn't too interested, I believe that Festus wasn't too interested in the fallen Jewish problem. What am I trying to get at? No, what are you trying to say? I don't know why the Romans would be too interested in Kumara. I mean, it was just a little sec, and, you know, the Romans attacked this portrait, you remember, that was... There was the same thing with Masada. You know, why would they attack Masada? Why not just leave those people up there on that... There's a beautiful portrait you've got to take a look at, at least the pictures, in the Seminary Library, by Hugo D'Aquin. on Masada. Just beautiful and the story of it and Masada is another interesting place where there was a holdout of people and you know Masada is the

[59:11]

the Alamo of the Jews today. That's where they committed suicide? Well, 130 of them, whatever, committed suicide rather than surrender to the Romans. And now, if you recall, after the Six-Day War, I think it was, I don't know if it was after this last war, the people had a service on Masada. Oh, it's, you know, to get the spirit of Judaism today and of Zionism, you have to read something about Masada. So I highly recommend you go, just take a look at that book. But, you know, like I was saying, that build-up though, Qumran itself may not have been, you know, zealots, but that whole build-up that was going on in Judaism, which the Romans saw as a definite threat, that any kind of organization of this sort that looked forward to... Of Asai. Asai. That book you gave me to read, it makes me... relatives of Jesus, you know, all the line of David, the Romans killed for that particular fact, you know, to completely try to wipe out this messianism, which they saw as a threat to the empire.

[60:15]

And you know, it certainly comes up, because later on, even in 132 or whatever it is, you have, I think that's the date of the Bar Kokhba revolution. And so, you know, it was still going on then, it was never really wiped out, and when you see today, it's never been wiped out. And that's why I think they would have been concerned about something like this. Because here you have this group of people, and in a stronghold like that, with sort of a fanatical approach to things and messianism, you'd better get rid of them. But you know, as a monastery too, you know, you look at the prime targets of any kind of trying to spoil something, you know, like the history of the church, and then Buddhists also. When somebody comes in and they're wanting to change the order, the monastery and the is a prime target, because it's kind of a citadel. Culadasa And it's a moral support, it really builds the morale of the people. And that's an amazing point from the social impact of monasteries throughout history and their political influence, and they have had

[61:19]

a lot of political influence, especially in the Orient. And then, well, Monica Zunover dominated the church, really, for a number of centuries. The Cistercians that I had in Dallas, I was talking with one of them once, and he said that was the first thing that they did in Hungary, was their monastery was abolished. The diocesan clergy and the diocesan setup wasn't touched, but the monasteries were completely just like that, overnight, they had to pack up and leave. You find that with Napoleon, you find it with Franz Josef in Austria, and all the suppression of religious orders and monarchy, which is an interesting phenomenon, I think, which is why this is always... So it seems like this would provide an even stronger threat than Masada would have. Because of the spiritual power, the moral...

[62:13]

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