The Dead Sea Scrolls - MetaphysicSpirit.com

1 The Dead Sea ScrollsThe Dead Sea Scrollsandthe Personages of Earliest ChristianityArthur E. Palumbo. PublishingNew York 2004 by Algora Rights portion of this book (beyond what is permitted by Sections 107 or 108 of the United States Copyright Act of 1976) may be reproduced by any process, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, without the express written permission of the : 0-87586-296-9 (softcover)ISBN: 0-87586-297-7 (hardcover)ISBN: 0-87586-298-5 (ebook) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataPalumbo, Arthur E. The Dead Sea Scrolls : and the personages of earliest Christian / Arthur E.

2 Palumbo, Jr. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-87586-296-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN 0-87586-297-7 (alk. paper) ISBN 0-87586-298-5 (e) 1. Dead Sea Scrolls Relation to the New Testament. 2. Bible. History of Biblical events. 3. Qumran community. 4. Jesus Christ Family Miscel-lanea. 5. Jesus Christ Crucifixion Miscellanea. 6. Christianity Origin. I. Title. 2004 '55 dc22 2004009921 Front Cover: The scroll of the Rule West Semitic Research/Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation/CORBIS Photographer: Bruce E. Zuckerman Printed in the United StatesTo my mother and father9 INTRODUCTION 1 PART I THE DEAD SEA Scrolls 7 CHAPTER 1.

3 WHO WROTE THE DEAD SEA Scrolls ? 9 CHAPTER 2. THE BAPTISM OF JOHN 25 CHAPTER 3. JOHN S FOOD AND DRESS 41 CHAPTER 4. THE FIRST ONES 49 CHAPTER 5. ZADOK 63 CHAPTER 6. JOHN THE BAPTIST 73 CHAPTER 7.

4 DOSITHEUS 83 CHAPTER 8. JAMES THE RIGHTEOUS 91 LEADERS OF THE DEAD SEA scroll SECT 113 LEADERS BEFORE THE NEW COVENANT 113 LEADERS OF THE NEW COVENANT 113 FUTURE LEADER OF THE NEW COVENANT 113 CHAPTER 9. THE HYMN scroll 115 CHAPTER 10.

5 THE KITTIM 121 CHAPTER 11. THE LION OF WRATH 131 CHAPTER 12. HEROD, AGRIPPA I, AND AGRIPPA II 137 CHAPTER 13. THE COMING VISITATION 145 CHAPTER 14. KHIRBET QUMRAN AND THE Scrolls 159 TABLE OF CONTENTSDead Sea Scrolls10 PART II. CHRISTIANITY 165 CHAPTER 15. THE FAMILY OF JESUS 167 CHAPTER 16.

6 MICROLETTERS 175 CHAPTER17. THE TRIAL AND CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS 179 CHAPTER 18. THE HYPOTHESIS 193 CHAPTER 19. THE SLAVONIC JOSEPHUS 225 CHAPTER 20. THE FATE OF THE SON OF JOSEPH 237 CHAPTER 21. SIMON MAGUS 245 CHAPTER 22. SAUL, PAUL, THE PILLARS, AND THE TWELVE 255 CHAPTER 23.

7 THE CREATION OF CHRISTIANITY 275 SUMMARY 283 BIBLIOGRAPHY 295 BOOKS 295 ARTICLES 299 INDEX 3011 INTRODUCTIONI have always been fascinated with the beginnings of Christianity for aslong as I can remember.

8 What really happened in the Holy Land in the firstcentury AD? Can we ever know for certain? Or must it remain an unanswerablequestion that can only come alive by religious faith? When some of the Dead SeaScrolls were first discovered in cave 1 in 1947, the air was rife with excitementthat they might reveal the answer to us at last. Now, more than fifty years aftertheir initial discovery, the scholarly consensus is rather disappointing. Althoughthe Dead Sea Scrolls reveal more fully the religious ideas and beliefs that pavedthe way for Christianity, they do not tell us anything about the men who createdthe Christian faith.

9 So we are told, but is this view correct? Part I of this study is an attempt to deal more realistically with the evidenceof the Dead Sea Scrolls . Such a work is desperately needed, because research onthe Scrolls has been for the most part a continuing process of evasion anddistortion in order to lessen their importance and to distance them from thepersonages of earliest Christianity. This has been accomplished by placingundue reliance in the purported accuracy of paleography and radiocarbon datingand by locating the historical setting from one to two hundred years earlier thanthe evidence requires. Paleography is the study of the evolution of a language s script over time inorder to determine the relative dates of documents.

10 It can be useful as anadditional verification of dates obtained initially from the internal literaryevidence of the Scrolls , but it can never be the main determinant for arriving atdates. A carefully worked out theory of the Scrolls cannot be discarded solely because itdisagrees with the paleographical dating. Radiocarbon dating is a test for determiningDead Sea Scrolls2the approximate age of fossils and artifacts based on the radioactive decay of thecarbon-14 isotope in organic matter. As a result of this technique, we can be veryconfident that the Scrolls belong somewhere within the period from 200 BC toAD 100 and that they are not for example medieval forgeries or documents fromthe time of the Divided Monarchy.