A SECOND TEMPLE IN EGYPT:THE EVIDENCE FOR THE ZADOKITE TEMPLE OF ONIAS

[daq]

I believe that you will greatly enjoy this scholarly dissertation; as it covers discussion of the solar calendar. However I think that you will greatly benefit from listening from about the 53 minute mark to the 1:06:35 mark.

"The Essenes are not known in the Hebrew language."

Rachel Elior (born 28 December 1949) is an Israeli professor of Jewish philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Jerusalem, Israel. Her principal subjects of research has been Hasidism and the history of early Jewish mysticism.[1]

Academic career​

Elior is the John and Golda Cohen Professor of Jewish Philosophy and Jewish Mystical Thought at the Hebrew University, where she has taught since 1978. Currently she is the head of the Department of Jewish Thought. She earned her PhD Summa cum laude in 1976. Her specialties are early Jewish Mysticism, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Hekhalot literature, Messianism, Sabbatianism, Hasidism, Chabad,[2] Frankism and the role of women in Jewish culture.

She has been a visiting professor at Princeton University, UCL, Yeshiva University, the University of Tokyo, Doshisha University in Kyoto, Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, in the University of Chicago and at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.

She is a member of the board of the international council of the New Israel Fund.

Rachel Elior - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Yeah, I have actually watched that dissertation twice now in the past, and although there is a wealth of great information presented, the comment you have quoted is one that I do not agree with because of what I presented from the scripture. Sefer Daniel was obviously one of the most important writings to the Yahad-community, and many Aramaic fragments of that and various other works including Henok were found there, so it shouldn't be any surprise that they might light upon a word that is found in both Hebrew and Aramaic texts of the scripture. Moreover I do not think Josephus is wrong on this one: he was too close to the real thing to make such a mistake as to incorrectly name one of the four main sects of Yisrael.

Moreover Ein Gedi was almost surely a Tzadokim town in the era of the Yahad because of the prophecy in Ezekiel 47:10-12, (which is probably speaking of "fishers of men", and is the source text for Rev 22:2). Members of the Yahad were scattered in little groups all over Yisrael, at the least in the form of a minyan for each group, (a quorum of ten, which would constitute an informal synagogue whether they had a building or not, (house meetings and gatherings, just as the early Messianic congregations)).

 

[daq]

"The Way" is language that we find frequently in the writings found at Betharaba (Bethabara) (renamed Qumran by Islam) in the wilderness beyond the Jordan valley, where there were large mikvehs, which were suitable for Zadokites like John the Baptist to do their work, as their writings indicated that they were awaiting Messiah to come and meet them there.

However it seems that these obscure clues are often overlooked, by scholars.

I gathered similar speculations as I was reading the Damascus Document found at Betharaba; but maybe all of these direct correlations are sheer coincidence.

That same document was also found at a Genizah in Cairo, Egypt, yet another connection between the Tzadokim and Egypt.

 

[HARK!]

Paul is accused of being the new ringleader of the Nazarim, and does not deny it, but rather calls the sect the Way. Where was Paul's initial conversion under the name Shaul? That was of course right outside Dameshek, where Hananyah the Kohen and other believers and adherents of the Way had taken refuge

I was going through my files and stumbled onto some of my old work.

I though that it might be intriguing to post some more "coincidence:"



(CLV) Ac 24:14
"Yet I am avowing this to you, that, according to the way which they are terming a sect, thus am I offering divine service to the hereditary God, believing all that is written, according to the law and in the prophets,

(CLV) Ac 9:2
requests from him letters for Damascus to the synagogues, so that, if he should be finding any who are of the way, both men and women, he may be leading them bound to Jerusalem.

Matthew 3 CJB

3 This is the man Yesha`yahu was talking about when he said, "The voice of someone crying out: `In the desert prepare the way of ADONAI! Make straight paths for him!'"

4Q258

He shall guide them with knowledge and instruct them in the mysteries of wonder and truth in the midst of the members of the community, so that they shall behave decently with one another in all that has been revealed to them. That is the time for studying the Torah (lit. clearing the way) in the wilderness.

Dead Sea Scrolls -- Community Rule

4Q434, fr. I
Bless, my soul, the Lord
for all His marvels for ever,
and may His name be blessed.
For He has delivered the soul of the poor,
and has not despised the humble,
and has not forgotten the misery of the deprived.
He has opened His eyes towards the distressed,
and has heard the cry of the fatherless,
and has turned His ears towards their crying.
He has been gracious to the humble by His great kindness,
and has opened their eyes to see His ways,
and [thei]r e[ar]s to hear His teaching.
He has circumcised the foreskin of their heart,
and has delivered them because of His kindness,
and has directed their feet towards the way.

1QS

And when these become members of the Community in Israel
according to all these rules, they shall separate from the habitation of
unjust men and shall go into the wilderness to prepare there the way of
Him; as it is written, Prepare in the wilderness the way of ... , make
straight in the desert a path for our God (Isa. xl, 3). This (path) is the
study of the Law which He commanded by the hand of Moses, that they
may do according to all that has been revealed from age to age, and
as the Prophets have revealed by His Holy Spirit.

They shall depart from none of the counsels of
the Law to walk in all the stubbornness of their hearts, but shall be ruled
by the primitive precepts in which the men of the Community were first
instructed until there shall come the Prophet and the Messiahs of
Aaron and Israel.
These are the precepts in which the Master shall walk in His
commerce with all the living, according to the rule proper to
every season and according to the worth of every man