Evening star., 1955-05-29

types of Christians. Christianity, he
says, is IAN Essenism," is perhaps
a descendant of quasi-Essene
group or groups. There are amaz-
ing parallels, he says, between the
Christians and the Essences who
had their Messiah called the Teach
er of Righteousness, their un-Jew-
ish New Covenant" with God, their
baptismlike ceremonies. their be-
lief in Last Judgment, their mones-
tary life, their preaching of peni-
tence, poverty. humility. love Of
ones neighbor. chastity. etc.
Equally eminent scholars cry,
Nonsense" There are just as many
differences as similarities between
Essene and Christian philosophy.
For instance, the Essences may have
loved their neighbors, but they
hated their enemies in an enthusi-
astically un-Christian way.
St. John ond Essenism
st. John is in the middle Of an
other Essene controversy. Students
who have puzzled over some of the
difficult philosophy of the Gospel Of
st. John and some of the unknown
references in it. find that a read
ing of the Essene manual of disci-
pline clears up much of the obscur-
ity. Many Of the ideas and much
of the odd terminology is the same.
So they reason that John was q
product of Jewish sectarian think
ing-speciflcally the Essene sect.
At any rate, whether or not there
is direct link, the EsSene docu-
ments will help to clear up some
of the obscure phrases in St. John
and other New Testament books.
Can some sort of common denom-
inator be found in the controversy
over the historical significance Of
the Dead Sea Scrolls? DR.. Lawrence
Warwick, chief of the Hebraic Sec
ton of the Library of Congress, one
of the many scholars doing research
on the scrolls and conservative"
in the controversy over interpreta-
ton. says this much can be said:
Historians have long suspected
that the 200 or so years before
Christ were times of ferment in the
Judaic world. Many reform" groups
must have been organized. Some
must have followed tenets that, on
the surface at least. resembled early
Christianity. These sects must have
had a great influence on the think
ing of many pre-Christian Jews.
Christ's Role
Probably Christ himself, in his
youth, talked to the men of these
sects just as the Bible tells us he
learned from the Elders in the jew
ish temple. Probably the disciples
also were familiar with the new
ideas, as branches of the sects ap-
parently were scattered all through
Palestine.
Exactly what the sects stood for
was unknown, as Jews were not
interested in preserving the "hereti-
cal' literature, and Christians were
interested in preserving only the
orthodox Old Testament and the
teachings of Christ as written down
in the New Testament.
But today, DR.. Warwick believes,
we finally have rather complete
knowledge Of one of the dozens Of
those reform" sects, one of the
sects that Christ or the disciples
could have visited, could have
learned from.
The Essences, who were scattered
by the Romans. probably in TO AID.
were failure in the sense that the
words of their Teacher of Righteous
ness were forgotten for 1000 years.
Yet perhaps some Of the Essene
philosophy did live on. made inn
mortal by that spark in the form Of
Jesus Christ that destined great
new religion to appear on this earth.