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Here’s what James Tabor says about the connection between the Jesus movement and the Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran:
“The Jesus movement can best be described as a radical, nationalistic, anti-religious establishment, messianic, apocalyptic, baptizing, new covenant, wilderness-way movement–and that is precisely how the community behind the Dead Sea Scrolls can be described as well!”
So, is this right? Continue reading “The Jesus movement and the Dead Sea Scrolls”
James Tabor, whose writings never cease to challenge those thinking about the historical Jesus, has argued in a recent blog that the Dead Sea Scrolls were written by the group of Essenes as described by Josephus and Philo (the “classical Essenes”). (He also says that the Dead Sea Scrolls were written by the group who occupied Qumran before and after the time of Jesus, which I’m not challenging.) Tabor states “the parallels between the Qumran sect and the ‘Essenes’ as they are therein described [by Josephus and Philo] are overwhelming.”
The parallels between the Qumran sect and the Essenes of Josephus and Philo are not overwhelming. Continue reading “The Essenes and the Dead Sea Scrolls”