Sid: I told you Mishpochah that when I got back from Israel I believe God has shown me something. I believe that there is going to be a wave, that’s what I’m going to call it, a wave of the Holy Spirit that’s going to have a major impact on the land of Israel. And when this wave hits there going to be young Jewish Israeli sabras, native born Israelis, that God is going to raise up that are going to be like Paul the Apostles just fiery evangelists and take that ancient mantle that was given to the Jewish people by God in the scriptures to be a light to the Gentiles. And these Jewish believers are going to take that ancient mantle and they’re going to turn this world upside down. I was so excited by what I saw, but I also found something out; when I was in Israel I visited with a friend of mine Bob Fischer in Tiberias and I read his book Full Circle. And in this book I found out things I had no way of every knowing that are in the Dead Sea Scrolls. So for starters Bob would you explain what the Dead Sea Scrolls are?
Bob: Yes Sid they were recordings of some of the books of the Bible and some of the theological understandings of a group of Jews that were called Essenes that lived in Qumran the shores of the Dead Sea. These were written down beginning in 250 BC all the way up to the time of Yeshua…
Sid: But because they were in a cave because many of them were miraculously preserved all of these years.
Bob: It’s quite amazing in fact they were found in 11 different caves between the period of 1947 and 1956.
Sid: Well the thing that I don’t understand is according to your book there are about 375 that are potentially very important manuscripts. But of the 375 that are potentially very important only 175 of them have been translated or even studied to any degree. Why is it taking so long?
Bob: Because Sid unfortunately they were discovered over a period of time at a very unorganized manner by one group of Arab explorers after another that happened upon them. And point of fact we don’t really know how many scrolls there are. These are the ones that are more or less accounted for, there were probably many others.
Sid: Something so important, so earthshaking literally for believers in the Messiah and non-believers alike some of the information that you put in your book “Full Circle” it’s so fascinating it’s almost unbelievable. I imagine that there must be a lot of other bomb shells in these Dead Sea Scrolls.
Bob: Absolutely, you know there’s something like that there were thousands literally thousands of fragments that turned to dust and blew away. There’s a story of one scroll that was bought by the Arabs that found it to a CIA agent in the American Embassy in Beirut, and I think it was Beirut. And they took it up on the roof and unrolled it and it was in a high wind. They were attempting to photograph this important scroll, or at least the potentially important scroll and the wind came along and blew off fragments of this thing. And so ultimately the thing was destroyed in the hands of an America CIA agent. You know of course he didn’t do it intentionally but these are kinds of tragedies that are associated with this. The pictures that were taken of the limited pieces of it have vanished forever also. So here’s a potentially vitally important document that just vanished. Well these things were battered about; they were in the hands of a number of secular and church organizations that were throughout the world. There’s little or no coordination with respect of their management, or their translation, or their handling…
Sid: Listen just what you know and you put in your book I’ve got to make my Mishpochah aware of them. On yesterday’s broadcast we talked about Judaism at the time that Jesus came into the body to earth was in basically 3 groups. There were and 2 of them we’re very familiar with one we’re not that familiar with. The Sadducees, the Pharisees we’re familiar with because they’re mentioned in the New Testament, but the Essenes most people are not that familiar with. The Sadducees as you explained only believe in the first 5 books in the Old Testament. They weren’t into the supernatural, they weren’t into life after death, and they were really the politicians of the day. They in fact the majority of the Sanhedrin the ruling body in Israel were members of the Sadducees. Then the second group you explained were the Pharisees. The Pharisees tell me, go over again a bit about them.
Bob: The Pharisees had an understanding of the God head that God was an indivisible unity and that He was involved in human affairs and was interested. But they certainly didn’t have a triune understanding like the Essenes had. But they also believed that the canon of scripture included the entire Old Testament. But in addition to they believed that the oral law that was written down in the form of the Talmud which is the whole oral law. And also later in the Mishnah which is an abbreviation of the Talmud. And equal weight is given to the oral law along with the written Torah. So this oral law was handed down in according to their understanding by God to Moses on Mt. Sinai. And they also had a view of heaven and hell. But a rather strange view, they believed in a reincarnation for those that were not righteous would have gone to heaven and those that were unrighteous would go to hell. And those in between some place would be given another shot at it through reincarnation through another body.
Sid: They also believed according to your book they believed that they’d be resurrected someplace near the temple in Jerusalem. And if they weren’t buried there really what they believed that they would roll under the earth so they could be resurrected. So they could be resurrected so they could roll under the earth from where ever they were to Jerusalem.
Bob: Yeah, so that accounts for the tremendous number of graves on Mount Olives you know it’s just one great big cemetery with grave and top of gravel And the reason for that is the belief system was that they would be resurrected but only from there, only from the Temple Mount.
Sid: Must be the most valuable real estate property in the world.
Bob: It is but they also believed that at the end of days at the time of resurrection that their bodies would literally roll along under the earth and ultimately arrive at the Temple Mount and be resurrected from that point along with everybody who had actually been buried there.
Sid: Okay, now where did they get this belief against the triune nature of God or the Trinity?
Bob: They just came up with it I would think that Rambam came later of course but Rambam codified the whole thing in his 13 principals of the Jewish faith, there’s 13 articles of the Jewish faith.
Sid: Well that’s where really got stuck but they came up with that you say even before Maimonides’s or Rambam.
Bob: Oh yeah they came up with that even before the time of Yeshua but it came to an organized belief system about the time of Yeshua.
Sid: Okay, now the ones that we really want to feature on this interview this week are the Essenes.
Bob: Yes.
Sid: Now most people have never even heard of the Essenes; who were they?
Bob: Well let me get back to the reason why they haven’t heard of Essenes because the scriptures basically ignored the Essenes. There are 88 references in the New Testament to the Pharisees and 14 of the Sadducees and 62 of the Scribes which are probably either one of the 2 sects.
Sid: But you say that the majority of the Jewish people were part of the Essene group at the time of Yeshua.
Bob: Even though you know, even though the Essenes were first to embrace Yeshua; even thought there is amble evidence to show that they seamlessly transitioned into the first body of Jewish believers; Even though the Pauline theologies are written all over the New Testament that are really mere image of what Essenes believed and wrote about in their…
Sid: That was the most fascinating thing I read in your book. I mean I read things in your book that Jesus said in the New Testament yet they were dated pre-Jesus.
Bob: That’s right but even so, even despite all of these incredible things there’s not a single mention of the Essenes in either the Old or the New Testament.
Sid: And how come?
Bob: Or even a hint that they ever existed. I would have to say it was a supernatural interference of a spiritual nature. You know it was a spiritual thing, it was a spiritual warfare block. It was only for us to find out as we’re entering in the end of days the truth is being revealed in a progressive sort of way like an onion being peeled back layer, one layer at a time.
Sid: Here’s the thing Mishpochah these Essences had a Messianic expectation and Jesus fulfilled their complete expectation. And so as you point out in the book and I was never aware of it the majority of the first followers of Jesus came from the Essenes.
Bob: Actually all of the first followers of the Essenes, I say all but there’s obvious an odd 1 or 2. But the first 120 that we read about in the book of Acts were obviously Essenes, they were Nazarene Essenes.
Sid: Okay before Jesus came to earth what were their basic beliefs that caused them to recognize He was the Messiah?
Bob: Well they were… with respect to Messianic expectations let me get back to the basic belief system here to begin with. You know in the same way that we approach the Sadducees and the Pharisees let’s look at first of all their understanding of the Godhead.
Sid: By the way Bob has brilliant charts in his book comparing the three different groups within Judaism and what their belief was. Okay, go ahead now what does the Essenes believe?
Bob: God is from their point of view it was a clearly Triune God and the misunderstanding according to legend had been handed down as an oral tradition that had been given my Yahweh to Abraham as early as 1850 B.C.E. Now it’s well documented that this Triune understanding was being taught and extensively by the Rabbis’ in 515 B.C.E. and it was ultimately recorded in writing in 200 C.E. in at least 2 sacred books.
Sid: Now when you say C.E. that’s the same as A.D.
Bob: A.D. yes.
Sid: It’s so fascinating to see what the Dead Sea scrolls reveal in subjects such as predestination, grace, the Triune nature of God, the Trinity, the Deity of Jesus. What were the first followers like? Fascinating research that will put meat on the bones of much of what you read in the New Testament…
Tags: its supernatural, Sid Roth
Tags: its supernatural, Sid Roth