by Dr. Pelham Mead (c) 2016, Xlibris Publishers.
Jesus and John (The Early Years)
Written by
Dr. Pelham K. Mead III
Based on research from the Dead Sea Scrolls
JESUS AND JOHN
Jesus and John
By Dr. Pelham K. Mead III
Image #1 cover picture of stain glass photo of Jesus and John
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my friends Glenn Bornsen of El
Cajon, Calif., and Paul Renfrew of Boston, and George
Schandel of Mastic Beach, Long Island, New York.
And also to the memory of my mother Doris Grace Mead who
taught me to read at age one, and
Continued to support my reading adventures all my life.
Index Page
Introduction……………………………………………………..……page 4
Chapter 1-In the beginning…the birth of John………………………page 7
Chapter 2-The birth of Jesu (Jesus) of
Nazareth…………………….page 16
Chapter 3-The flight into Egypt of the Holy Family……………….page
22
Chapter 4-Young Jesus at age 6…………………………………….page 46
Chapter 5- Young John of Hebron ………………………………..Page 82
Chapter 6- Jesus at age 12………………………………………….page 48
Chapter 7- The Mount Carmel Essenes…………………….……….page 53
Chapter 8-The funeral of Joseph of Nazareth……………………..page 87
Chapter 9- Jesus the Essene Healer…………………………………page 66
Chapter 10-The voice of one crying in the
wilderness…………….page 92
Chapter 11- The Baptism of Jesus…………………………………page 110
Chapter 12- John questions who Jesus really
was?……………………page 116
Chapter 13-The Righteous Teacher………………………………page 118
Chapter 14-The Sermon on the Mount……………………………page 122
2.
Chapter 15-The Beginning and the End………………………….page 137
Glossary
Bibliography
Introduction
The purpose of this novel is to reveal secrets about Jesus
and John the Baptist when they were infants until when they
formally met again, when John the Baptist baptized Jesus in
the Jordan River. This novel also seeks to answer how Jesus
and John got all their formal training, and how that became
the basis of their ministry. I did a great deal of research
into what happened when Joseph, Mary, and Jesus fled into
Egypt for four years. My basis for research for the Egyptian
flight of the Holy family is recorded in the oral and written
traditions of the modern day Egyptian Coptic Church. The
Egyptian Coptic Church places as much significance on oral
tradition, as they do in written tradition that might explain
the many miracles they claim happened in the flight to Egypt
of the Holy Family. Oral tradition passed down over 2,000
years is bound to change.
I also researched extensive parallels in what John the
Baptist taught, and what Jesus of Nazareth preached, and how
much can be traced to Essene ideas, prayers, and Gospels.
The monastic Essene community of Qumran near the Dead Sea was
close enough for John to travel from Hebron, and seek
membership. Walking distance from Jesus’ house in Nazareth
was the secret Essene community on Mount Carmel. It was all
very convenient for both Jesus and John that Essene societies
were close by at the time.
What Jesus and John revealed to the world was a philosophy of
the Essenes, who were around more than 100 years before
Jesus, and John. No one in the days of Jesus ever realized
that both Jesus and John were secret Essenes. The Essenes
were concerned with the coming of the Messiah, and or the
return of the “Teacher of Righteousness,” who died 150 years
before the birth of Jesus. Here in 15 A.D. when Jesus joined
the Mount Carmel Essene community was an opportunity to raise
up another “Teacher of Righteousness,” “The son of Man,” or a
“Messiah,” by Simon the Essene leader. The Essenes learned
not to get involved with the local authority when spreading
its messianic word. It cost the original Essenes the life of
their many of their beloved brethren, when they attempted to
interfere with local politics. As a result, they withdrew
from the cities, and fled to Qumran near the Dead Sea, and
otherwise, became secret societies in Nazareth, Jerusalem and
other major Judean cities.
The Dead Sea Scrolls reveal much about Essene Philosophy at
the time of Jesus.
3.
Jesus of Nazareth, and John of Hebron (the Baptist) were both
secret Essenes, as I shall demonstrate later in this book.
If you compare what John the Baptist taught in his ministry
and what Jesus of Nazareth taught in his ministry with the
Essene documents recorded on the Dead Sea Scrolls of the
Qumran Essene community, it is easy to see how John and
Jesus’ ideals imitate the Essene philosophy of praying for a
messiah or “Righteous Teacher,” to come and save the Jews.
Baptism and repentance were a way of life for the Essenes and
the core of John the Baptist’s teachings. The Essenes were
the best healers of the day and it is no consequence that
Jesus was a great healer who had many years of training and
experience somewhere like the Essene community of Mount
Carmel.
The Essenes looked upon these two men as a way of getting the
Temple in Jerusalem to reform, and bring the people to
salvation. Many things had to fall in place for the coming
of the Messiah to happen, and the Essenes knew that, and
prayed about it daily. One of their missions in life believed
in the coming of a Messiah who would deliver them from the
Romans, and other authority. Another mission was to copy
manuscripts, the Old Testament, secret religious documents,
and secret healing documents. The question is, was the
timing for the Essenes in the Jesus story right?
Many religious scholars fail to point out that in the
beginning of Jesus’ ministry, he was not as popular as John
the Baptist. John’s charisma helped to attract thousands to
be baptized, however, few if anyone had heard of Jesus yet
when he was 29 or 30 years of age. In this novel, I attempt
to fill in the missing years of Jesus’ childhood, and John’s
childhood based on bible references, Gospels not included in
the Bible, Essene Gospels, Dead Sea scrolls, and established
academic research by scholars in Biblical research. Sheer
speculation fills in the gaps in this story where no direct
evidence exists.
I tried to answer the questions, how did Jesus become a
â€oewalking Bible?†What preparation in the knowledge of the
Bible did he get, and where? Who trained Jesus to be so
knowledgeable in the Torah and the Bible? That is the great
mystery in the story of Jesus because the bible has been
edited again and again by the Catholic Church in the first
and second hundred years to fulfill the dogma that the church
wanted and not paid heed to the real facts about Jesus in his
developing years.
Another question to answer in this book is why is it that
John the Baptist’s philosophy was so similar to the Qumran
Essene community ideals of baptism, repealing sins, and the
coming of the Messiah? John the Baptist used the
proclamations of Elijah from the Gospels of the Essenes to
form the basis for his ministry.
4.
He never healed anyone in his ministry or attempted to
convert anyone to the Essene community. His message was the
same message that the Essenes were declaring and that was the
proclamation that the coming of the Messiah was at hand and
that everyone should repent of their sins and evil ways.
Jesus philosophy was more liberal than John’s philosophy, but
definitely Essene in origin. You have only to read some of
the Essene books included n the appendix of this book to
realize that Jesus philosophy and the Essene philosophy were
the same, even to the point of become a vegetarian, using
baptism on a daily basis, believing in the coming of the
second “righteous teacher,” and learning to live a pure life.
Jesus must have been trained at the Mount Carmel Essene
community that was walking distance from Nazareth, where
Jesus and his family lived. Jesus could read all the sacred
Hebrew texts, but somehow never learned to write, or become a
Scribe. Why is that? Perhaps when Jesus was eligible to begin
the Essene training for a Scribe at age 21 he may have chosen
to become a Healer instead, therefore, never learning how to
write in Hebrew script.
Learning to heal people was like becoming a Doctor in Jesus
day with no formal medical school or institutions to help in
learning. Healing was a guarded skill by the Essenes in
Jesus’ day. The Essenes were the best healers in Judea and
Galilee because they studied cures from around the world and
recorded their findings found on the Dead Sea scrolls two
thousand years later. They grew special herbs in their
gardens, and lived on honey and date palms. They traded for
special potent seeds, and powders to store in their
collections. Essene men were known at Jesus’ time to live a
long life into their 60’s and 70’s when the average age span
at the time was 30. Jesus could have trained with the Essenes
of Mount Carmel to become a great healer, and to also use the
“laying on of hands,” which required a great deal of faith
for the healer, as well as the patient. All of this shall be
explained by the kind of training Jesus went through to
become an Essene at age 20, and to be baptized into the Mount
Carmel
Essene Community. After becoming a learned Essene leader in
the scriptures and the philosophy of the Essenes, Jesus may
well have spent the majority of his life in learning Essene
Healing techniques, drugs and “laying on of hands.”
After extensive research of the Dead Sea Scrolls I have
included some samples of Essene gospels to give direct
evidence that Jesus took his Sermon on the Mount from Essene
prayers, and Gospels. He shortened the Essene Lord’s Prayer
because it was too long for a common person to remember, and
the average Jew did not pray to Mother Earth, as did the
Essenes, which was the first paragraph of the prayer.
5.
The blessings all come directly from the Essene texts as you
can see for yourself at the end of the book in the Appendix.
Of the 1,000 Dead Sea scrolls found, many in cave 4 and 11,
are most useful in my research, especially with references to
the “Righteous Teacher.”
The Essenes prayed that the “Righteous Teacher,” would be
resurrected, and return to lead them. This is why the Jesus
of Nazareth story is so important following the Essene idea
of death and resurrection. No direct mention is made of
Jesus in the Dead Sea Scrolls, but the image of the
“Righteous Teacher,” certainly is likened to the image of
Jesus. It is possible that after the Dead Sea Scrolls were
found and if there were references to Jesus being an Essene
healer or becoming the Essene “righteous leader,” the
Catholic Church may have destroyed these scrolls as they lie
in storage for over 40 years.
It is unfortunate that in 70 A.D. the Romans for the Jewish
revolt against the Romans destroyed all the Essene
communities across Judea and Galilee, as well as the Temple
in Jerusalem as punishment. All of the Qumran 1,000 plus
leather and copper scrolls were put in jars, or otherwise in
a rush, just thrown in caves and boarded up with stones,
until an Arab child discovered them in the late 1940’s. What
ever happened to the scrolls of the other Essene communities
around Israel at the time in 70 A.D.? There may never be an
answer to that question unless someday a hidden cache on
Mount Carmel or under the remains of the Jerusalem Temple are
discovered.
We may never know where the scrolls from the Mount Carmel
Essene community, Damascus Essenes, and other community
scrolls were actually buried or hidden in a cave. How many
secret scrolls went underground in Jerusalem, burned or
destroyed during the Jewish revolt of 70 A.D. that ended so
badly, we will perhaps never know? “The end of time,” that
the Essenes preached about, came suddenly in 70 A.D. many
years after they had originally predicted it. The Romans in
retaliation for revolting in 68 A.D. crushed the rebellion,
destroyed the temple in Jerusalem and all of the Essene
communities in the desert and on Mount Carmel and other
cities in Judea.
With the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls, we might one day
discover scrolls more that might reveal more than the
Christian churches wanted to be revealed about Jesus, and
whether he was really an Essene Healer and Rabbi.
Chapter 1- In the Beginningâ€.The birth of John
Bible: Book of Luke
6.
1:5 THERE was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a
certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and
his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was
Elizabeth. 1:6 and they were both righteous before God,
walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord
blameless. 1:7 and they had no child, because that Elizabeth
was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years.
1:8 And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest’s
office before God in the order of his course, 1:9 According
to the custom of the priest’s office, his lot was to burn
incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. 1:10 And
the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the
time of incense. 1:11 and there appeared unto him an angel of
the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.
1:12 and when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear
fell upon him. 1:13 But the angel said unto him, Fear not,
Zacharias: for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth
shall bear yo u a son, and you shall call his name John. 1:14
and you shall have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice
at his birth. 1:15 For he shall be great in the sight of the
Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he
shall be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s
womb. 1:16 and many of the children of Israel shall he turn
to the Lord their God. 1:17 And he shall go before him in the
spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers
to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the
just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. 1:18 And
Zacharias said unto the angel, W hereby shall I know this?
For I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years. 1:19
And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that
stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto you,
and to show you these glad tidings. 1:20 and, behold, you
shall be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that
these things shall be performed, because you believe not my
words, which sha ll be fulfilled in their season. 1:21 and
the people waited for Zacharias, and marveled that he tarried
so long in the temple. 1:22 and when he came out, he could
not speak unto them: and they perceived that he had seen a
vision in the temple: for he beckoned unto them, and remained
speechless. 1:23 and it came to pass, that, as soon as the
days of hi s ministration were accomplished, he departed to
his own house. 1:24 And after those days his wife Elizabeth
conceived, and hid herself five months, saying, 1:25 Thus has
the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me,
to take away my reproach h among men
So it was that John the Baptist was born against all odds.
His mother was old, and yet according to the Angel, she would
still be able to bear a child. The story is similar to Joseph
of Nazareth and Mary his betrothed. Zacharia and his aged
wife were finally having a child after being barren for so
many years. It would truly be a miracle for Elizabeth to
have a child in her advanced years.
7.
According to the Angel Gabriel their son would be named John,
not Zacharias, as in normal Jewish custom. The Angel also
goes on to say that John will be a great person in the eyes
of the lord. He will be a person filled with the Holy Spirit.
He would be a prophet, because many of the children of Israel
shall he turn to the Lord their God. He shall have the power
of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,
and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready
a people prepared for the Lord. It seems John’s mission was
to be a prophet of the Lord right from the beginning.
Bible:
And, behold, your cousin in Elizabeth, she has also conceived
a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her,
who was called barren. 1:37 For with God nothing shall be
impossible. 1:38 And Mary said, behold the handmaid of the
Lord; be it unto me according to your word. And the angel
departed from her. 1:39 And Mary arose in those days, and
went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda;
1:40 and entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted
Elizabeth. 1:41 And it came to pass, that, when Elizabeth
heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb;
and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit: 1:42 And she
spoke out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed are you among
women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb
So according to the scriptures Mary of Nazareth was informed
by an Angel that her cousin Elizabeth, despite her old age,
was already six months pregnant. So Mary went to visit her
cousin Elizabeth to the city of Judah called Hebron. A second
reason was because when she realized that she was with child,
and she could have been stoned to death for having a child
out of wedlock. Joseph may have decided to abandon her for
having a child without lying with him. Fortunately, Joseph
had a vision, and an Angel came to him, and told him not to
worry that Mary would bear a male child who would become a
leader among men, and his name would be called Jesus (Jesua).
Joseph feared for Mary’s life, and he was himself confused.
A young woman that became pregnant without a husband was
stoned to death in those days. He knew it was best that Mary
go to her cousin Elizabeth for a few months, so that his
relatives would forget Mary for a while. This would give him
time to announce that he intended to marry Mary. It was the
safest way for Mary, Joseph concluded.
It was a hot sunny day in Nazareth that day in the year 1 BC
in the country of Judea during the reign of Herod the Great,
a governor put in place by the Romans. Mary, a short,
longhaired brunette was a Jewish girl of age thirteen living
in Nazareth, a city in northern Galilee in Israel. She was
preparing for the three-day journey to the south of Judea to
the town of Hebron to visit her cousin Elizabeth.
TO be continued or read in Kindle format on Amazon.com
