Pliny the Elder said the Essenes existed for "thousands
of ages."
The Essenes claim they go back to the time of Shem,
Noah's son.
The Hindu Sabean Lineage of Noah is Obvious.
Edgar Cayce, like Pliny and the Essenes themselves,
Affirms that the Essenes existed in the early days
of Judaism.
Why the Christian Orthodoxy Downplayed
the Significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls
and Nag Hammadi documents.
Vegetarianism is a Taboo Subject for Orthodox Scholars.
Though it is admitted that the Vegetarian Covenant
in Genesis
was God's original Dietary Covenant,
orthodox scholars refused to admit the possibility
of a renunciate vegetarian tradition such as the Essenes
having existed since the earliest days of Judaism.
The majority of people understand that the victors
write
both history and scriptures, and that the original
message of Jesus was
perverted by Paul and by Constantine's bishops at
Nicea,
in order to produce a New Testament that was conformable
to Rome.
Suspicions Regarding the treatment by orthodox scholars of the
Dead Sea Scrolls of the Essenes and the Nag Hammadi documents are
justified.
A Brief List of Facts Demonstrating the Vegetarian Origins of Christianity.
1. The Nag Hammadi documents name James the Brother of Jesus
as the Heir to Jesus' authority.
2. James is well documented as a vegetarian, even a vegan,
in Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History.
3. Matthew is described as eating no flesh in "The Pedagogue" (The
Teacher)
by Clement of Alexandria.
4. Peter is described as vegetarian in the Clementine literature.
5. The Panarion by Epiphanius says the Ebionite Gospel portrayed John the Baptist, Jesus and his disciples as eating no flesh and condemning the Pentateuch's sanction of animal sacrifices as false scriptures.
6. Roman histories confirm that the earliest Christians rejected animal sacrifices.
7. The "Gospel of Philip" in the Nag Hammadi documents states directly that "this world eats corpses" and that Jesus did not.
The discoveries of the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran in 1947 and the scriptures found at Nag Hammadi in Egypt at about the same time resulted in a number of publications regarding them both. but except for the studies and publications by Edmund Bordeaux Sziekley on the Essenes in which vegetarianism, and, apparently, lacto-vegetarianism are promoted--works which are summarily ignored by the orthodox--I have not found any orthodox scholars of the Dead Sea Scrolls who are conversant with the Hindu/Jain origins of Judaism. And only Robert Eisenman's work such as in James the Brother of Jesus and that of Hugh Schonfield in The Jesus Party and Those Incredible Christians, both of which are quite witty and intentionally sarcastic titles, that affirmed the validity of vegetarianism as the diet of the earliest Christians. Schonfield in The Essene Odyssey shows how the vegetarian Nazarenes and Essenes were denounced by the growing Pauline Christian orthodoxy. Abegg Wise and Cook, in their edition of the Scrolls also affirm that vegetarianism was the diet of the earliest Christians.
The "Gospel of Thomas" in the Nag Hammadi documents names James the brother of Jesus as the heir to Jesus' authority, and James was recognized as a vegetarian, even a vegan, in Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History. Matthew is described as vegetarian by Clement of Alexandria in his work "The Pedagogue," ("The Teacher"). Peter is described as vegetarian and as denouncing the animals sacrifices in the Clementine literature. And the "Ebionite Gospel" as discussed by Epiphanius in his Panarion portrays Jesus and his disciples as vegetarians stating that the Pentateuch was rewritten in order to sanction animal sacrifices.
The Panarion also states that the original followers of Jesus are described as Nazarenes and Jessenes or Ossaenes, both of which refer to the Essenes. Both Essenes and Nazarenes were vegetarians, and it is known by most people who have had a Christian education, as I have, having gone to a Catholic grade school, and the Jesuit University of Detroit for three years, that the Nazarenes are, or at least were, seldom mentioned, and vegetarianism was a taboo subject, for the scriptures say that Jesus said "all foods are clean," and that was that. To bring up the possibility that Jesus was an Essene or Nazarene, or was strongly influenced by them, is to open a Pandora's Box holding numerous facts that show Christian orthodoxy is false.
So vegetarianism, and vegetarian groups such as the Nazarenes and Essenes went unmentioned by orthodox scholars precisely because such knowledge contradicts the doctrines of the carnivorous orthodoxies of Judaism and Christianity. Islamic scholars clearly understood that the original message of Jesus and his disciples was overthrown by Paul, and I have no doubt that vegetarian Shiite Muslim scholars have studies regarding the origins of Islam that are parallel to the one you are now reading regarding early Christianity. The Muslim majority comprise the Sunni sect who have values essentially the same--regarding women, homosexuals, slavery, and animal sacrifices--as the Christian orthodoxy and Jewish orthodoxy, except that they regard Muhammad as the last of the prophets. Other pages of this study deal with the vegetarian origins of Islam.
Vegetarianism: the Taboo Subject for Orthodox Scholars
Though it is acknowledged that vegetarianism was God's original dietary
covenant
with creation, scholars refuse to admit the possibility
that a renunciate vegetarian tradition existed from the earliest
days of Judaism.
The point made in this study is this: these vegetarians,
the Essenes and Nazarenes and Jesus and the Ebionites, all regarded themselves
as the pure remnant of Judaism. And one of the great ironies of so-called
religious scholarship is this: though the vegetarian covenant of Genesis
1: 29-30 stares the orthodoxies of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in
the face, none of these orthodoxies wish to acknowledge the possibility
that a renunciate and vegetarian tradition could have existed from the
earliest days of Judaism.
Orthodox Jewish and Christian Scholars Ignore the Heart of the Matter:
The Egalitarianism and Vegetarianism of the Essenes and first Christians.
Glenn Kittler summarizes the attitude of many
by quoting John Allegro's article in Harper's Magazine: "The very scholars
who should be most capable of working on the documents and interpreting
them have displayed a not altogether surprising, but nonetheless curious,
reluctance to go to the heart of their matter. The scholars appear
to have held back from making discoveries which, there is evidence to believe,
may upset a great many basic teachings of the Christian church. This
in turn would greatly upset many Christian theologians and believers.
The heart of the matter is, in fact, the source and originality of Christian
doctrine." [Aug. 66]
Orthodoxy's Suppression of the Panarion
Kittler no doubt understood that if
Allegro did not specify the specific orthodox doctrines that are challenged
by the Dead Sea Scrolls, Allegro nonetheless understood that the
orthodox Christian churches especially would deny that the values of the
Essenes were the the values of the earliest Christians. [Allegro's
study, The Magic Mushroom and the Cross, though scorned by the Christian
orthodoxy, should none the less be read by all those who understand that
orthodox Christian scholars are more apt at putting up smokescreens, than
they are at revealing the truth about Christian origins.] The Roman
Catholic Epiphanius of Salamis in the fourth century in his Panarion
would however make just such a startling assertion, namely, that the earliest
followers of Jesus were called Jessenes (Essenes) and Nazarenes, we know
that these groups were vegetarian. Never heard of the Panarion?
The Christian orthodoxy is not about to saw off the very slim limb it is
tottering on, and that is what would occur if students of Christianity
were to study the documents of early Christianity. They would realize
that they have been bamboozled by the orthodoxy. Most sincere students
of Christianity have such a realization already, because of the fact that
the New Testament, which is supposedly divinely inspired, promotes
sexism, slavery, elitist class structures, bigotry towards homosexuals,
and the disease-promoting diet of carnivorism.
The Antiquity of the Essenes
The Essenes Admit the Influence of India
and trace their lineage to Shem, son of Noah.
The Essenes in the Dead Sea Scrolls in a word on medicine
credit the wise men of India. And they also trace their lineage back
to Noah's son Shem, thus affirming what Pliny the Elder stated of the Essenes,
that they had lived "for thousands of ages," meaning, we may infer, thousands
of years, a claim predictably denied by the carnivorous orthodoxies of
Judaism and Christianity. One may not see the above facts as related,
but they are. Shem was probably named after Sambu, a name given to
Shiva, which became the root of Samuel. [Samuel = a contraction of Sambu-El].
Shem alone of Noah's sons is described as having an immense longevity,
which Pliny and Philo both describe as characteristic of the Essenes, who
had centenarians commonly living among them, living on a diet free of animal
sacrifices.
The "Hinduism" of Noah and his sons
is more than obvious.
Noah's Name is a Hebrew form of Nu, meaning spirit in Sanskrit.
The lineage of Noah names their children after Hindu Deities.
Noah's name, which means comforter in Hebrew, and comforter may be seen as an attribute of divinity, is related to Nu in Sanskrit, which means spirit. Vish means pervasive, and thus we see the logic in the name of Vishnu, the pervasive Spirit. The deity Vishnu is regarded as a sea serpent incarnation of Krishna, and is related to the primal serpent that we see in the pantheon of Egypt. Noah is the Manu of the Jews. Manu to the Hindus is the survivor of the deluge. His name may be seen as a combination of Ma(ha) and Nu. Nu refers to the divine spirit in Sanskrit (and is the root of noumena and phenomena). Ma means great or mighty. The name Manu is not seen in the literature of Judaism or Christianity except in the name of Immanuel, which may be seen as a three-part compound name:
Immanuel = Im-Manu-El
Im = with
Manu = the lawgiver, as Noah was
El = God.
The name Immanuel, Im-manu-el, in Isaias is a reference
to Manu, the lawgiver. Im means with; Manu is the lawgiver; and El means
God. So too was Noah a lawgiver in the Torah but his laws convey values
that are the opposite of those conveyed in the majority of laws in the
Hindu Laws of Manu, which, to the reader in comparative religions, may
be seen as a kind of inverted Torah. Whereas a majority of scriptures
in the Torah sanction animal sacrifices, and a lesser number condemn them,
in the Laws of Manu it is different: the vast majority of scriptures condemn
animal sacrifices and the ill-treatment of animals, and for that matter,
the bad treatment even of plants, and a few scriptures, no doubt revisions,
sanction animal sacrifices.
The Hindu, Jewish and Ethiopic Noahs
The most compassionate Noah, the Noah who is more compassionate than the Noah of the Torah and the Manu of the Hindus, is the Noah in the Ethiopic Book of Enoch. This Book of Enoch is a record of the Jews before the Deluge, and it is referred to throughout the Old and New Testament and Koran. The Noah in the Book of Enoch forbids all bloodshed, and all interference with nature, be it mining, the making of weapons, or cosmetics. This Noah also forbids writing. One is to live directly with creation and no interfere with it, and not create intellectual abstractions about it in writing. In other words, excavating the ground, creating monuments and roads and cities, which are essential to industrial civilization, are all forbidden. The Sumerian version of Noah is not directly relevant here.
Hindu Concepts and Deities in Noah's Lineage:
1. Ham's name is a form of Aum, the Sacred Sound of the Hindus.
2. Ham names his sons Rama and Sheva, after the Hindu/Ethiopian Deities.
3, The grandson of Noah though Ham, Kush, founded Ethiopia, a Sabean nation worshipping Shiva, and keepers of the Ethiopic Book of Enoch. The Sabeans of Ethiopia like the Shaivites and Vaishnavas of India and the original Jews worshiped Shiva, Kanneh, and Ramman. Shiva among the Hebrews and Ethiopians was known as Seba, Sheba, and Saba. The Sabbath, the Sabaoth, and the pillars erected to God, the masseva, are all derived from the name of Shiva. Kanneh and Cainan of the Ethiopians is the same deity as El Kana or El Chanan. Kannan is the Tamil Hindu name for Vishnu or Krishna. And the Ethiopian Ramman is none other than Rama of the Hindus and Jews. Studies demonstrating that the Vedic religion had spread throughout the world may be found at Viewzone.com, Sword of Truth, and Hinduism Today, all on the net.
4. Kush named one of his sons Seba, a transliteration of Siva.
5. Seba (ceba), the son of Kush, founded the nation of Sheba, which is also a transliteration of the name of Shiva.
So, looking at the above facts, that the name of Ham, Noah's son, is a form of Aum, the sacred sound of the Hindus; that Ham names two of his sons after the Hindu vegetarian personalities and deities, Ramah and Sheva; and that Kush continues the Sabean tradition--all these facts would have been interpreted as an absolute act of defiance towards the orthodox patriarchy claiming that Jehovah was the one and only true deity.
(The antiquity of the Essenes has also been asserted by psychic Edgar Cayce, who affirms they went all the way back to Elijah and the school of prophets raised by him; thereby Cayce, though carnivorous himself, in his trance state also allied the way of the Essenes with Elijah, and Cayce thereby indirectly attacked the Old Testament's version of Elijah as carnivorous.) 2 Ezra also sees early Judaism's patriarchs as aligned with the later prophets of Judaism, most of whom denounced the animal sacrifices.
Let us look at Edgar Cayce's assertions that the Essenes were indeed a tradition which we may call renunciate, and that they existed during the time of Elijah, Ellish (Elisha) and Samuel.
Edgar Cayce, like Philo and the Essenes themselves,
Affirms that the Essenes existed in the early days
of Judaism.
From Edgar Cayce on the Essenes
254-109 Essenes: When there were the activities in which there were
to be the cleansings through which bodies were to become channels for the
new race, or the new preparation, these then were restricted - of course
- as to certain associations, developmeents in associations, activities
and the like. We are speaking here of the twelve women, you see - and all
of the women from the very beginning who were dedicated as channels for
the new race, see?
Hence the group we refer to here as the Essenes, which was
the outgrowth of the periods of preparations from the teachings by Melchizedek,
as propagated by Elijah and Ilisha and Samuel.
These were set aside for preserving themselves in direct line of
choice for the offering of themselves as channels through which there might
come the new or the divine origin, see?
Their life and work during such periods of preparation were given
to alms, good deeds, missionary activities - as would be termed today.
1158-6 9.
Did not John come as the voice of one crying in the wilderness
and in the spirit of Elijah? Yet he WAS Elijah.
As in the present, here, proceed - but remember that given
- each must know his OWN book of remembbrance, and read same. 1472-3 4.
Some four and twenty years before the advent of that entity,
that soul-entrance into material plane called Jesus, we find Phinehas (?)
and Elkatma (?) making those activities among those of the depleted group
of the prophets in Mt. Carmel; that begun by Samuel, Elisha, Elijah, Saul,
and those during those early experiences.
Essenes that had cherished not merely the conditions that had come
as word of mouth but had kept the records of the periods when individuals
had been visited with the supernatural or out of the ordinary experiences;
whether in dreams, visions, voices, or what not - they brought the life
of their child, Judy, and dedicated it to the study and the application
of self to the study of those things that had been handed down as a part
of the EXPERIENCES of those who had received visitations from the unseen,
the unknown - or that worshiped as the Divine Spirit moving into the activities
of man. 1472-3 12.
So there was the setting about to seek means and manners for
the preservation, and for the making of records of that which had been
handed down as word of mouth, as tradition. Such channels and ways were
sought out. And eventually the manner was chosen in which records were
being kept in Egypt rather than in Persia, from which much of the tradition
arose - of course - because of the very indwelling of the peoples in that
land. 13.
Hence not only the manners of the recording but also the traditions
of Egypt, the traditions from India, the conditions and traditions from
many of the Persian lands and from many of the borders about same, became
a part of the studies and the seeking of the entity Judy early in the attempts
to make, keep and preserve such records. until there were those visitations
by what ye call the Wise Men of the East - one from Persia, one from India,
one from the Egyptian land. 15.
These reasoned with the Brethren, but more was sought from
the studies of the entity Judy at that experience. EACH and every soul
MUST BECOME, MUST BE, the SAVIOR of some soul! to even COMPREHEND the purpose
of the entrance of the Son INTO the earth - that man might have the closer
walk with, yea the open door to, the very heart of the living God! 29.
And the entity, as would be termed, was hounded, yea was persecuted
the more and more; yet remaining until what ye would call the sixty-seventh
year AFTER the Crucifixion; or until Time itself began to be counted from
same. 30.
For the records as were borne by the entity, it will be found,
were BEGUN by the activities of the entity during what ye would term a
period sixty years AFTER the Crucifixion. 31.
And then they were reckoned first by the peoples of Carmel,
and then by the brethren in Antioch, then a portion of Jerusalem, then
to Smyrna, Philadelphia, and those places where these were becoming more
active. 32.
The entity [Judy]- though receiving rebuffs, yea even stripes
in the body - died a natural death in that experience; at the age then
of ninety-one. 262-61
In no land in which JESUS presented Himself was He accepted;
I have left in some material which helps to elucidate the concerns of Edgar Cayce in his trance state. In any case, we see that he states that there was a school of prophets going all the way back to Elijah, Samuel, Illisha, and even Melchizadek. The numbers of these prophets declined, we may infer, because of the rise of what we call Jewish orthodoxy, which suppressed the pure vegetarian remnant represented by the Essenes. Some of my readers are no doubt familiar with Edgar Cayce's readings on "Revelations," which affirm that the dynamic of the chakra system of the Hindus underlies much of the book.
So, now that we have cleared away some of the illusions of the orthodox, understand that even rabbinical scholars admit the first dietary covenant was vegetarianism, and understand that the religion of the earliest Jews and the Hindus sprang from the same source, then it is not hard to understand that the term Essene also came from a name, or possibly even two names of Shiva, Asani and Isana. We can also comprehend that Ossaens or Osseans came from the name Oseo or Osseo, which is also a name of Shiva. And we can also comprehend that Jessenes has its root in Jesse, which comes through as Isa, or Issa, which is also a name of Shiva. The following page on the Essenes elaborates on these facts.
Islamic scholars clearly understood that the original
message of Jesus and his disciples was overthrown by Paul. Sunni
Muslims are thereby caught in their own Catch 22 situation. On the one
hand Muslim tradition clearly denounces Paul as an apostate, just as did
the now non extant "Ascents of James" by James the brother of Jesus.
On the other hand, the teachings of Paul regarding slavery, sexism, bigotry
towards homosexuals, and animal sacrifices, are all found in the Quran
we now have! This, I will show in other chapters, proves that the
Quran, like the Torah and the New Testament, is a
revised document.
The point made in this study is this: these vegetarians,
the Essenes and Nazarenes and
Jesus and the Ebionites, all regarded themselves as the pure remnant
of Judaism. And
there is an abundance of material proving that they in fact were
that pure remnant. There
are excellent contemporary Essene web sites on line, as well as
Mandean sites, that
confirm the vegetarian/egalitarian origins of Christianity.