[Coco] So far OT I'm in the Twilight Zone

[Neil Morrison]

Michael Baigent accepts Dr Robert Eisenman's proposition and I find
this attractive. This is from "The Messianic Legacy" (p89):-

... there appeared a new study of the issue by Dr Robert Eisenman,
Chairman of the Department Religious Studies at the University of
California, Long Beach. Eisenman’s work bears an unwieldy title
"Maccabees, Zadokites, Christians and Qumran". But it does much to
dispel the prevailing confusion and, in our opinion constitutes one
of the most import treatments of the subject to date. Although the
specific evidence is complex, the conclusions are not only
impressively convincing, but also beautifully simple. Indeed,
Eisenman seems to have focused a searchlight on the underlying
simplicity of what has hitherto seemed a complicated situation.

Working from original documents, and questioning the reliability of
second-hand commentators such Josephus, Eisenman traces the various
names by which the members of the Qumran community — the authors of
the Dead Sea Scrolls — referred to themselves. This leads him to
conclude that the Sons of Light, the Sons of Truth, the Sons of
Zadok, or Zaddikim (Zadokites) the Men of Melchizedek (the z-d-k
ending reflecting variation of Zadok), the Ebionim (the Poor), the
Hassidim (the Essenes) and the Nozrim (the Nazareans) are ultimately
one and the same — not different groups but different metaphors or
appellations for essentially the same group, or the same movement.
The primary objective of this movement seems to have been oriented
towards the dynastic legitimacy of the high priest-hood. In the Old
Testament the High Priest of both David and Solomon is called Zadok,
either as a personal name or as an official title. He is
traditionally associated, very closely, with the Messiah, the
anointed one, the rightful king. More specifically, he is associated
with the Davidic Messiah.

As Eisenman demonstrates, the legitimacy of the high priesthood — of
Zadok or of the Zadok — was  resuscitated by the Maccabeans, the last
dynasty of Judaic kings, who ruled Israel from the second century
B.C. until Herodian times and the Roman occupation....

NM

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <jdaggett at gate.net>


> Correction
>
> The Dead Sea scrolls by default are property of the Jordanian
Office of Antiquities.
> When found, that area was TransJordan. The origianl 7 scrolls are
claimed by
> Jordan. Part of the reason translation started so slow was who
translated them had
> to be settled before work could begin. Currently the Office of
Antiquities of Israel
> now controls digs and archeaological expeditions in the region.
>
> There is no great mysteries or secret meanings or what ever. If
anything there are
> more questions as to who the Essenes were and the purpose of Qumran
> community....