Jesus and the Essenes
932826
I felt led to buying this book as I browsed through Amazon. I never imagined how it would change my life and renew my faith stronger in knowing the facts from this incredible book. I say facts because that is what I believe came from the contents of this book. I would recommend it to anyone who is searching for spiritual truth. Thank you.
4185619
This is a wonderful book for someone wishing to get a better understanding of the Bible. I ordered it because our group is doing a study of Jesus' parables and their meanings, seeing the meaning from the Jewish perspective from those times. This has brought a whole new understanding to His teachings. These are the teachings the Jewish children learned from birth and seeing the names and places shown in their more original spellings and names brings it to life.
2474930
Eye opening... no pun intended.  Jesus was middle eastern, why not look at him through the lens of the culture and societal norms of the day.  Very interesting, not radical.
1157185
This review is for the book "The World of Jesus" by Dr. William H. Marty. This book was so interesting to me. As the back copy states, sometimes when you read the New Testament you get confused about customs and people groups and conflicts. In this book, Marty takes the reader on a journey through history, leading up to the birth of Jesus, so it is easier to understand all these issues. The author goes through periods such as: Persian, Greek, Maccabean, Hasmonean, Roman, and Herodians. He discusses tons of important people who are discussed in historical transcripts other than the Bible. And of course it all fits in perfectly with the Bible which is infallible.

I enjoyed this book because it is like a background look into the Bible. It is also very easy to read and would be great for anyone, layman or scholar, to read.

Thank you to Bethany House for a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.
3246951
Taken from the Sayings Documents in the original Aramaic (remember - Jesus did NOT speak Greek!),
this text serves to unify the discordant messages attributed to him. The author explains what the "Q" document is (from "Quelle," the German word for "Source" as  in a source of a river) as well as what the Gospel of Thomas is (a second copy of the original sayings/teachings of Jesus) as well as what Gnostic documents are and reminds us that in 367 AD, Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria ordered all "non-approved" church documents destroyed. (The point being that the original teachings of Jesus did not align with burgeoning "structured" religion, hence were targeted for destruction.) He also describes his process of (contextual) recovery and translation and combination of the 33 sayings common to Q1 and The Gospel of Thomas (revised total number of 136 Sayings, I believe) for a fresh look at the oldest written documentation of Jesus Sayings / Lessons. As I write this, the Author has a web page where sample pages are found. I tried to contact him, then discovered that he had only recently passed - and that he lived in my current city of residence! (Knoxville, TN) Let these words express my gratitude and admiration to him for his fine work.  If you've ever wondered why some biblical passages seemed odd, and suspected alter-is, this book should prove an enjoyable read, and may even rekindle your most positive thoughts as to the author of the Sayings.
3965959
Real eye opener about how religion and the Bible was formed. I'd never thought before that Jesus never read the Bible, because it was written hundreds of years after his death.  Is someone wanted to believe what Jesus believed, they would have have to be a devout Jew and read and live the Torah

An interesting thought, too, that Jesus would have been stoned to death by Jews for blasphemy if he had really gone around preaching himself as Savior.  That wouldn't have been tolerated for a minute among devout Jews of that era.
802218
Dr Robert Eisenman has done great service to humanity uncovering the Dead Sea Scols to humanity to be a true and a factual basis about the Essenes and he does not hide information that he discovers. He presents the Essac Brotherhood as best as he sees it and understands it, even when he does not fully understand the glossary that is used by the Essenes. In page 426 in the Glossary of the Hebrew terms, he  includes the word "Da'at" which he defines as: " Knowledge, a basic concept at Qumran very much connected with the terminology of Is. 53:11 and the process of Justification generraly, in some vocabularies, "Gnosis" ". This gives full justification to the statement by Josephus in his work "Jewish Antiquities XV 371" where he states with respect to the Essenes:  "This is a group  which follow a way of life taught to the Greeks by Pythagoras." Da'at-Gnosis i=means that the Essenes are Gnostics and they follow the precepts of Primordial Gnosticism which is the only true way to God and and true Christianity. God is one for all people irrespective of race or color. Moses said "thy shall not kill,thy shall not covet your neibhors wife, thy shall not steal, thy shall not lie, etc. Christ said love thy nedighbor. People changed all this to you shal hate your neighbor, you shall fornicate, you shal lie, you shall steal to yourhearts conent, and you shall kill each other as if you were killing mosquitos. Gnosis is the Socratic Delphic know thyself. The true interpretation of this is that if you come to know thyself you will know that god is in your heart- and the Gospell of Mathew says :"Blessed are the pure at heart; for they shall see god." (Mat. 5:7). This is how peace will be established on earth. All this means that Christ was with the Essenes and this is the reason they were slaughtered by the Romans, like the Christians later on.
3620504
Wonderful understanding of the subject.

excellent writer.

enjoyed the whole book.

I have a new understanding of the man called Jesus
2203553
Great book! The author has done a fantastic job of analyzing the kind of leadership that Jesus provided to his disciples and to those around him. Using Jesus' own words, the author reveals that Jesus was not always the patient, benevolent being that his followers claim he was. While this might not be a concern for non-believers, those that believe that Jesus was put here to save the world should be concerned with some of Jesus malevolent character traits. They are after all told to follow in his footsteps, and whether you believes that Jesus was the son of god or god incarnate Jesus' character should be called into question. The only issue I have with this book is the title. While I share the authors sentiments, I think his material world be better served with a different title.
436585
Veronica gives an insight into the life, practices and rituals of women of the Essene community in the times of Jesus. The author reveals how she maintained communication with Jesus during his extensive voyage to Egypt, Tibet, India and Persia. Whilst the Mystic embarks upon a fascinating journey, the Exoteric reader finds in this book the missing pages of the great manuscript.
This is a gift to Esoteric and Exoteric Readers alike.
I look forward to reading the sequels of this book.
393599
Awesome book. I would highly recommend it. One can draw upon the Sages to properly get a foundational insight into the context of Jesus/Yeshua and His words.
4242629
I learned about this book while reading translator Andrew Welburn's excellent book The Beginnings of Christianity: Essene Mystery, Gnostic Revelation and the Christian Vision.  These two books should be treated as a set.  I was apprehensive about reading Steiner, not wanting anything to do with occult, psychic, or reincarnation ideas -- fortunately, none of these appear in this particular book.
Highly recommended to anyone who is interested in the original, esoteric forms of Christianity as a Jewish-styled version of the Hellenistic mystery-religion, as described in the book The Jesus Mysteries, by Freke and Gandy.
3484706
haveing used sitting at the feet of Rabbi Jesus in a study this book caught my attention, I wasn't sure if it was just the original book restated.  It is not, I am using it with the same bible study group as the first book.  It has moved us beyond "sitting" to "walking"; moving forwad with what we had learned in the first book. It devles into putting the knowledge from the first book into action, revealing more of the mindset of 1st century christians, those closest to their Hewrew roots, the same roots Jesus grew up with.  By studing this book you find yourself looking at scripture with new insights, a deeper understanding
3502260
While browsing a favorite bookstore, I happened to find "The Brother of Jesus and the Lost Teachings of Christianity".  I've read other books about James the Just previously, but this one put a lot of information into "easily digestible bits" for me.  This may not be an easy read for some conservative and fundamentalist Christians, but its worth a try.

This book spotlights First Century Palestinian Jewish Christianity as led by James the "Brother of Jesus".  Btz introduces the reader to the writings of various scholars - some of them controversial - on the subject of James the Just.  I had not known about the work of scholars such as Chilton and Painter previously.  Thus, for me, it was a good way to be introduced to ideas put forth by these scholars, and how their ideas might interact with other scholars with whom I had more familiarity.

I would also recommend reading "The Lost Religion of Jesus: Simple Living and Nonviolence in Early Christianity" by Keith Akers (if one doesn't mind the writings of a scholar with a vegetarian agenda).  Another good book that discusses the role of James the Just is "The Jesus Dynasty: The Hidden History of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity" by James D. Tabor.  Lastly, if one would like to investigate the connection between early Jewish Christianity and early Islam and Sufism,  I suggest reading "The Muslim Jesus: Sayings and Stories in Islamic Literature" by Tarif Khalidi.
4499733
Professor Gregory Riley's "One Jesus, Many Christs" (2001, 228 paperback) attempts to presents a first century classical view of Jesus of Nazareth. The book's scholarship is apparent and well documented with the helpful in-the-text style referencing.

Riley basic premise is that the world of late antiquity (roughly Jesus' era) was replete with heroes and "Christs" ("Messiah's" for Jews). He presents a fascinating study of ancient world heroes.

He compares Jesus to Achilles, parallels Hesiod's narrative with the Nazarene's, equates Oedipus to Job, introduces Elysium (similar to the Testamental "Heaven") as the post life heroic abode, and compares Jesus' movement to the Greeks' adoration for the god Asclepius. In the end, the Jesus movement wins.

Hercules' and Hermes' origins in Grecian schools of thought are thoroughly explained. From this background Riley suggests Jesus as a "classical hero" with "cosmic destiny" (page 81). One wonders why the Hebrew concept of "Messiah" is not also considered?

Riley offers plenty of fuel for thought: God's destruction of Palestine (presumably by the Romans of AD 70) is the result of divine revenge for killing Jesus and the martyrs (page 86), Jesus' passion and trial show his character (page 87), and early Christianity's most radical, and unique, claim was the eternal promise for everyone, not just heroes (page 93).

Although Riley quotes the Bible extensively (with a 2-page "Biblical Citations" index) the book reads like an ancient Greek world primer. The book is interesting and helpful, but it fails to fulfill the expectation presented by its title. (A better title might be: "Jesus and the Greeks" or "Jesus as Olympian".) This text needs less Grecian recovery and more New Testament discovery.

This book is recommended to all students of ancient Greece, mythology buffs, classical scholars, and those already biblically well read.
1094873
This book consists of William Whiston's English translation of Josephus' work and can be found on the web.  Josephus, an educated Jew who lived in Palestine during the first century A.D., wrote these wide ranging accounts in order to introduce the history of the Jewish people to Greeks and Romans.  Of particular interest to me are his accounts that relate to the founding of the Christian faith.  I was led to these accounts by Robert Eisenman's brilliant books&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/James-the-Brother-of-Jesus-The-Key-to-Unlocking-the-Secrets-of-Early-Christianity-and-the-Dead-Sea-Scrolls/dp/014025773X/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-New-Testament-Code-The-Cup-of-the-Lord-the-Damascus-Covenant-and-the-Blood-of-Christ/dp/1842931865/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The New Testament Code:  The Cup of the Lord, the Damascus Covenant, and the Blood of Christ</a>

In Josephus' Antiquities, is the famously (or infamously) cryptic description of Jesus (18.3.3).  It is my understanding that most scholars consider this account to be largely a later interpolation--that is, a section added by Christian monks as they copied Josephus' works.  Indeed, this description of Jesus is absurdly brief--especially given the detailed nature of Josephus' other accounts.  Also of interest in Antiquities are the execution of John the Baptist (18.5.2) and James the brother of Jesus (again referred to as the Christ, 20.9.1).

In Josephus' Jewish Wars, the accounts of Jesus, son of Sapphias are interesting (2.20.4, 3.9.7, 3.9.8, 3.10.1, 3.10,5, 3.10.9).  This Jesus was the leader of fisherman and sailors against Roman authorities in Galilee--with at least one major engagement taking place at the edge of the Sea of Galilee where the fisherman could use their boats to their advantage.  It seems very likely that this Galilean conflict contributed to the legends that gave rise to the Jesus persona found in the New Testament.
4202854
Great book.  Great Scripture references to show how Jesus & his disciples were Torah-observant & how we should follow in their footsteps.  Excellent read.