Orthodox Jews/Essenes

Shema – HebrewShema Israel, Adonai elohenu – Adonai

echadVe’ahavta et Adonai eloeikahB’khol levavkahUve’khol naphshekahUve’khol m’odekahVe’ahavta le’reacha Kamocha, Amen

Shema

Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God. The Lord alone. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.

And Love your neighbor as yourself. Amen.

Fullness of Time

• But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.

• Galatians 4:4-5

Triangle Cities

Capernaum

Korazin Bethsaida

Magdala

Capernaum

Galilee

• Region much larger than around the sea• After return, a resurgence of commitment to

God and the Torah

Deuteronomy 6:7-9

Video

Galilee

• All their trials were from disobedience • The more persecution, the stronger the

commitment– Hellenism

Mt. Arbel

Caves where families hid

Bethsaida

Korazin

Capernaum

Synagogue School

Top-Notch Education

• Memorize the Torah by 12/13• The best of those could continue – Bet Midrash• Best of those could choose to study under a

Rabbi• Galilee considered the Yale, Oxford of Jewish,

Rabbinic study – better than Jerusalem• The entire population knew the text

Jeremiah 31:33-34“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel

after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

What does it take to be a disciple?

• What does that level of commitment look like in our culture?

• Do you have what it takes?

Essenes

A voice of one calling: “In the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.” Isaiah 40:3

Essenes

Storage caves

Storage cave #9

Word of God

• Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away – Matthew 24:35

• 40% Books of the Tenakh – not Esther• 30% Apocryphal books• 30% “Secular” texts – rules of Jewish sects• Before this the earliest copies of the Bible were

from around 1,000 AD• Proof the Bible changed very little through time

Common Rooms

Mikvah

Housing Huts??

Qumran waterwayLiving Water

Who was here?

• Many who came were wealthy members of the Priestly lines

• Passionate about the word of God• Some studied for a short time and left• Some stayed for long periods• John the Baptist could have studied here

Priest house in Jerusalem

They gave up much to study the Word of God

Temple Arch

Walkway arch

Priestly gate and walkway

• What would it take today to have the passion of the Essenes?

• What is my commitment to the Word of God?

Next week

• Herodians• Zealots