Tentative Qumran to Quran

7/27/2019 Tentative Qumran to Quran

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From Qumran to the Quran

Copyright New Dawn Publications 2010 No reproduction, in whole or part, withoutexpress writtenpermission from the author Mikhah ben David Naziri

Jewish Sectarian Origins

To Mu.ammad, what would come to be called Islam, was not an extra-Judaic religion.heactions of submission (aslama), is described in the Quran just as any other verb.The earliestsources make no mention of the Arabs who followed Mu.ammad calling themselves Muslims orbeing called such by others.1 Prior to the Umayyad Caliphate, it appears that proto-Muslims andJews were a single Ummah (Nation).2 There is astonishing evidence that the proto-Muslims sawthemselves not as followers of a new or distinct religion, but as a competing interpretation ofJudaism.

In some fashion, this radical position has been advanced by the school of John

Wansbrough, and thus Andrew Rippin, Patricia Crone and Michael Cook,3 as well asChristophLuxenberg, who has explored alternate Aramaic readings of the Quran.4 Additionally, we seesimilar conclusions from Shelomo Dov Goitein, and Qumran scholar Chaim Rabin, along with

1 For centuries there is no written record of the term Muslim being used to definea religion separate fromJudaism. Indeed, when Jerusalem was retaken by the Arabs it was with Jewish approval and direct assistance. Theinvading forces were identified by their Arab identity rather than by a separatereligious title. This was also the case

in Andalusia where Jews and Arabs fought side by side. There is no record that these Arabs regarded their faithdistinct from that of their Jewish comrades in arms (or, vice versa). For a survey of these third-party sources, see thefirst three chapters of Crone and Cooks Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World. Malta: Cambridge UniversityPress, 1977.2 Remnants of this reality are even evidenced in the Arabic wording of Ibn Is.aqsrecord of the Constitution ofMedinah.3 Crone and Cook 10. Though they accept that the Hagarenes were an expression ofJewish messianism, they donot make the deeper connections such as those we find from Chaim Rabin, that the

Mu.ammadi community was asectarian expression of Judaism.4 Though he is far from the first to do so, drawing from the work of Author Jeffreys, Luxenberg has taken thisresearch to a new level.

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many others.5 Long before their work, however, Orientalists were noting the presence of Jewishsource material in the Quran. Fred Donner cites in Mu.ammad and the Believers, that a littleover a century ago, renowned French scholar Ernest Renan (1823-1892) wrote thissummation ofhis findings on Islamic Origins and history:

We arrive, then, from all parts at this singular result: that the Mussulman movement was

produced almost without religious faith; that, putting aside a small number of faithful

disciples, Mahomet really worked with but little conviction in Arabia, and never

succeeded in overcoming the opposition represented by the Omeyade party.6

Renans statement represents, Donner claims, an extreme and harsh formulation of hisotherwise accurate observations. The notion that Mu.ammad and his followers weremotivated

primarily by factors other than faith is certainly too dry and disengaged a conclusion. Donnercalls it a subtler guise which has been embraced by many subsequent scholars in whahasbeen associated with Orientalism. At the same time, however, that the Umayyad family,which ruled from 661 to 750, were fundamentally hostile to the essence of Mu.ammadsmovement, is even today widespread in Western scholarship,7 and is the orthodox Shi`iposition, even today.

Renans reductionism notwithstanding, Hubert Grimme and W. Montgomery Watt

both argued for a sociological basis for the Mu.ammadi movement and mission. Leone Caetani,Carl Heinrich Becker, Bernard Lewis, Patricia Crone and Glen Bowersock, Iram Lapidus andSuliman Bashear have argued for the emergence of Mu.ammads movement was some sortof

5 Rippin 36 Fred M. Donner, Muhammad and the Believers7 Donner xi

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nationalistic or nativist activity. Donner rightly rejects this, Mu.ammads aims were no doubtsocial, but they were not social to the exclusion of also being religious. The following article willdemonstrate the following, as a clarified position on the matter:

Mu.ammad viewed himself as participating within the milieu of Jewish sectarianism.His movement was remarkably similar to Essenic thought and Halakhah, as noted bybothShelomo Dov Goitein and Chaim Rabin. After Mu.ammad we would see a remarkable similaritybetween the Jewish Ì.uniyyah movement that rose against the Caliphate and whatwas adeveloping proto-Shiìsm. In one of the only sustained studies on the Ì.uniyim,IsraelFriedlaender noted fifteen Shiìtic elements in this Jewish, anti-Caliphate movement. Thismight indicate a shared perspective if not, more certainly, a common sectarian origins.

Mu.ammad apparently had many social aims but his movement was socio-religious in

nature. He addresses groups associated with Jewish sectarianism: Yahud (Jews) Yahudan(Judeans), Na.ara (Nazarene Judaic-Christians, never using the contemporaneous termKristiyan), Sabaeans (which we can locate with some certainty as the Mandaeans ofIraq, asect originating with the movement of John the Essenic proselyte which took on this name ofSabaean as well as Elchasaites, the post-Ossaean sect which Mani (2 16276 CE) wasraised in.

We will find remarkable evidence that Mu.ammad not only held ideas and terminology

in common with the Essenes, but with post-Judean Essenic offshoots. We will findthatMu.ammad preached a verbal Islam, within the context of both his own Essenic Judaism, butextended as a broader universalism, apparently practicable to Jews of various sects which hesought to unite, quasi-Judaean offshoots and perhaps even general God-fearing gerim toshavim(monotheistic non-Jews, respected in Jewish tradition and entitled to equal rights and coexistencewith Jews).

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Just as the term Islam was not considered a proper noun of some unique, singular religion,Mu.ammad himself was merely a messenger according to the Quran, and never afundamental tenant of religious faith. Once we strip away the centuries of explaining the clearwords of the Quran away, we read that Mu.ammad told people NOT to come to him andaskabout matters which the Torah had already instructed us on:

And why do they come to you for a decision while they have the Torah, in which is theDecision of God; yet even after that, they turn away. For they are not Believers(Mu'minin/Ma'minim). (5.43)

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Similarly, the Quran was not intended as a new, written book, but was itself therecitation of

previous scriptural material with commentary on it in these sermonic orations. The Quran wasnot a book but a recitation of Scripture according to sa.i..adith. Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya

..... (ra.aHidayat al-Hiyara Ajwibat fi al-Yahud wa al-Na (1292-1350 CE) says inhis work). .. .. .. ....... .

The reference to the Torah therein does not mean the Torah proper, the Book of Moses.The words: Torah, Gospel, and Psalms, are sometimes used to mean the individualBooksin themselves, and sometimes they are used to refer to the gender (Holy Books).Thus,the mention of the Quran may interchangeably be used to express the Psalms (Zabur),the Torah for the Quran, and the gospel for the Quran. In the Authentic Prophetictradition it is mentioned that the Prophet said:

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The Quran was a light burden to David. In the time between saddling his riding animaland then riding it, he read the Quran.

The word Quran here refers to Davids book the Psalms (Al-Zabur). The sameapplies to His saying in the foretold in the Torah: A Prophet I shall raise for the peopleof Israel among their brethren. I shall send down upon him a Torah similar to the Torahof Moses. The same usage of gender applies to the description of his (sal) community asin the former books: their Scriptures are in their hearts.8

It seems that the general Quranic usage of Torah is to refer to the Torah, but that is not theprimary point of the quote above. The Quran thus clearly refers to the Jewish scriptures asQuran, an obvious use of the common Qiriyat Torah in Judaism. Quran then refers totherecitation of previous scriptures, besides the Torah, like the Psalms here.

The Divorce from Judaism and the Caliphates Quranic Vulgate

John Wansbrough introduces his Quranic Studies with the revolutionary statement that Onceseparated from an extensive corpus of prophetical logia, the Islamic revelationbecame scriptureand in time, starting from the fact of itself of literary stabilization, was seen to contain a logicalstructure of its own. It was from this achievement of canonicity that both the document andidentity was assured a kind of independence.9

8 http://www.archive.org/stream/frq07/062?ui=embed#page/n6/mode/1up9 Wansbrough 1

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On the boundaries of the emerging identity associated with the verbal Islam nowreassigned as a noun Annemarie Shimmel opens her work by commenting on a manuscriptfrom Iran, dated to the twelfth century which celebrates the second half of the Shahadah in atangible way, and highlighting the central position of the Prophet in the religionof Islam. Theprofession of the Unity of God, along with the rest of the Kufic script of Suratu-l-Ikhlas iswritten in an otherwise beautiful calligraphy, but utterly inferior to that celebratingMu.ammad. In this way, Mu.ammad himself comes to define the nationalistic borders definingIslam as a religion.10

Over the course of the centuries, Schimmel asserts the historical personality ofMu.ammad had almost disappeared behind a colorful veil of legends and myths; thebare factswere commonly elaborated in enthusiastic detail, and were rarely if at all seenin their historicalperspective.11 To unearth then the Historical Mu.ammad, we must proceed in a manner parallel

to the scholarship of Christian Origins and the Historical Jesus which similarlyhad the task ofdifferentiating the Historical Jesus, who lived and died as a Jew from the latermythic figure whowas a product of a very anti-Jewish Church. In the same way, following the methods of HigherCriticism common to both the Quest for the Historical Jesus and the Quest for the HistoricalMu.ammad, we will find a movement and figure emerging from the milieu of Jewishsectarianism whose principal revivals would come to ascribed his name and movement to theirown imperialist and anti-Jewish empire beginning with the dynastic Caliphate ofthe Umayyads,

but really cementing with the Abbasids. In a follow-up book to this one, we willexplore theevidence of this from archeology and coinage minted by the early dynasties.

10 Schimmel 3Commenting to this effect, Wilfred Cantwell Smith hits the proverbial nail on the head, in saying thatMuslims will allow attacks on Allah; there are atheists and atheistic publications, and rationalist societies; but todisparage Mu.ammad will provoke from even the most liberal sections of the community a fanaticism of blazingvehemence Schimmel 4.11 Ibid 6

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Harald Motzki writes, on The Murder of Ibn Abi l-Huqaya: On the Origin andReliability of Some Maghazi-Reports, that from the viewpoint of historical sourcecriticism,our sources for a biography of the Prophet Mu.ammad must be classified as traditions. Motzkiexplains what every historian knows, that the informative value of the kind of sources termedtraditions is blurred by several limitation. He explains that this is not uniqueto the historicalMu.ammad, but nevertheless this quest is not free of these universal limitations. Traditions aresubjective due to their choice of what they mention and what not; they put factsinto a certainperspective, sequence and connection; and they use topoi or even create facts which have neverexisted or not in the manner that they describe them. There are thus two approaches withtradition sources, whether related to Mu.ammad or a similar figure. Motzki explains they aresimilar to pieces of a broken mirror, both in their inherent flaws and in that they can be usedto reconstruct historical reality.

Hadith Literature and Higher CriticismThe Battle of the Trench a tale of pure anti-Jewish polemic as it is conceived in IslamicHistoriography, is pure myth. Moreover, it is a myth that itself traces to a narrator that evenTextual Critics within the mainstream Islamic tradition denounce as unreliable.The Qur.an treatsthe battle of the Confederates/Trench much like any other battle, telling of nospecialsignificance of one of the tribes, the Banu Quray.ah, or violating an oath of allegiance. However,around a century and a half later Ibn Is.aq claimed that after this battle up to900 Jews of

Medinah - every male who had been inspected for and proven to have pubic hair (and onewoman) - were executed, unarmed, and after the fact of the battle.

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The original work of Ibn Is.aq, which created this tale, is lost, it survives only in therecension of Ibn Hisham (d. 833) and Al-.abari (838-923). Indeed, all accounts of Islamichistory, maghazi battle narrations, and later, subsequent theological and historical critique, onthis matter of the Banu Quray.ah, trace back to this one fundamentally flawed account whichfinds no earlier parallel, and most damning, no reference in Jewish histories until well after thewide circulation of the Sirah, centuries later.

This narrative of Islamic history is pure fabrication, catalyzed by an emergingreaction toJewish Messianism of the `I.uniyim12 during the Abbasid Caliphate (7501258 C.E.).13 Thisthesis maintains that this narrative of Ibn Is.aq (d. 767, or 761) ,14 though initially met withambivalence and rejection by the authors contemporaries, was invited to remain within theUmmah (Islamic nation) as the attitude towards Jews deteriorated in the Middle East. In thecenturies since, the problem has remained unchecked as the method of Lower or So

urceCriticism, has not only prevailed in Islamic scholarship in the generations thatfollowed, but hadremained the outdated default methodology, even by modern scholars of Hadith literature.

Acknowledging the preference for the Quran, the Encyclopaedia characterizes it asthemost difficult to utilize as a historical source, for understanding Islamic Origins. Joseph Schactsimilarly concludes that traditions alleged to go back to the Prophet or to his Companions, arethe product of legal, theological and political developments, from the second cent

ury followingMu.ammad. Therefore, he surmises, they lack any historical value, in legitimatelydocumenting the historical Mu.ammad or the events of his era.15

12 A reaction to the perceived audacity of the second Jewish Messianic revolt against the Caliphate, of Serene andthen of Abu `Isa Obadiyah, respectively.13 The Abbasids were the third Caliphate of the Islamicate Empire. The Abbasidsdynasty would built their capital inBaghdad following the overthrow of their Umayyad predecessors from all but Andalusian Spain.14 Neither the date of his birth, nor of his death are agreed upon.15 Motzki XII

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The aforementioned Sirah Rasul Allah, composed by Ibn Is.aq (d. ca. 767770 CE), hastraditionally been regarded as the earliest biography of Mu.ammad. To effectively frame thiswithin historical context, we might imagine the first biography of Abraham Lincoln having beenwritten just after the fall of the Twin Towers.16 To complicate the matter further, imagine thatthere was no surviving copy of that biography, only later recensions that did not even agree onwhat this late biography said!

The Encyclopaedia of Islam authoritatively declares that early accounts of Mu.ammad,requires specialised knowledge and a variety of historical and literary criticalmethods in orderto reach sound conclusions and plausible hypotheses.17 In The Eye of the Beholder, Uri Rubincites Josef Horovitzs attempt to pinpoint the earliest dating for the legendary Mu.ammad of theSirah accounts.18 Believing that the critical minded reader could distinguish between thelegendary and the real Prophet, he asserted one could get inside the mind of the hi

storicalMu.ammad, determining how he really thought and acted.19 More recently, Rubin explains,Rudolf Sellheim published a literary analysis of Ibn Is.aqs Sirah accounts, creating a veryclear-cut differentiation between the creation of a literary character and the historicalMu.ammad.20

Sellheim refines three major stages in the literary development of the story ofMu.ammads life, each represented in a different literary layer or schicht. The grlayer is the most authentic, according to Sellheim, containing traditions which lead towards

16 Though it was originally written a century and a half after Mu.ammad, the work has survived only through therecensions of Ibn Hisham (d. 833) and At-.abari(838-923 CE). Much of the material is parallel in each source.Nevertheless, there are some significant differences. .abari, for instance, is the source of the infamous SatanicVerses account, and in both cases, Ibn Is.aq tells of the controversial marketplace massacre against the BanuQuray.ah.17 36118 Rubin 2; Rubin cites here Josef Horovitz, Zur Mu.ammadlegende, Der Islam 5 (1914), 41-53

19 Rubin cites Horovitz, published in Gottingen in 1932. The English translationby Theophil Menzel is entitledMohammed, the Man and his Faith (London, 1936); Ibid20 Ibid

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actual events. Next there is the first layer. in which the legendary image of Mu.amadevidently from reconfigured Jewish, Christian and Persian material. Finally, there is the secondlayer in which political interests of various Islamic groups manipulate and embeddewithin the text.21

Jewish Sectarianism in the Post-Himyarite HijaazMontgomery Watts believes that the colorful tale in the Sirah account, of the monastic sageBa.ira, though essentially a legend, also depicts truly the world in which this hisoricalMu.ammad lived. For him, this potential is where the true value of the Sirah literature resides.The Sirah and a.adith in general cannot be relied upon for a linear historical narrative, that muchis clear. However, it can give us clues to help in reconstructing the HistoricalMu.ammad. Wattreminds us, for instance, that Mu.ammad travelled to Syria with his uncle and guardian withAbu.alib, a possible period of intersection with various ideas in Judaism.22 That Mu.ammad

would, according to Sirah and .adith accounts, retire for lengthy periods of subterraneanhermitage, is clear and also an embarrassment to the orthodox notion of spontaneous revelation.The entry on Mu.ammad in the Encyclopaedia of Islam notes Caetanis argument thatMu.ammads emergence as a religious reformer was a gradual and involved developmentwithcave retreats of extended periods of meditation and reflection, referred to in the Sirah literatureas ta.annuth.23

Mentioning Mu.ammads uncle-in-law, the sage Waraqah (said to have been fluent inHebrew), Watt is content to accept that he was some sort of Christian Arab. Neve

rtheless, heparadoxically acknowledges that the average Christian Arab probably had no directknowledge

21 Ibid22 Watt 823 Watt, Mohammed at Mecca 44

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of the scriptures. Indeed there was no Arabic translation of the Bible for more than a centurylater. If Christian Arabs were not thought to have direct knowledge of the Gospel accounts, doesWaraqah actually fit the bill?

We might consider Rubins comment that the An.ar24 of Mu.ammads movement weresaid to have been descendants of those Jewish rabbis of the time of the ruler of Yemen, TubanAsàd Abu Karib,25 namely that they were ansar or helpers from Himyarite Jewry.The traditionfrom the Egyptian Yunus Ibn Yazid (d. AH 159), also cited by Rubin26 that Waraqah wroteHebrew, and used to copy passages from the Injil in Hebrew If this is true, then whatever sectWaraqah was, it is clear he was not of any known brand of Christianity, insteadresembles theÌ.uniyyah,27 possibly a Diaspora Essene sectarian form of Judaism which Rabin assigns toMu.ammad.

From Qumran to the QuranSupporting this theory, Chaim Rabin takes this connecting-the-dots-to-Judaism, o

ne step furtherin the first essay in Andrew Rippins The Quran: Style and Contents (the original work beingfrom a concluding chapter of: Qumran Studies; based on a lecture given at the Institute of JewishStudies in Manchester). A researcher in the sectarian milieu of the Second Temple Era, and theEssene community, Rippin ties the language of the Quran directly to that found throughoutthe Dead Sea Scrolls. Rabin does not advance this theory without precedent.

24 The Medinan helpers of Muhammad.25 Rubin 45

26 Rubin 106-727 I have here selected an Arabization based upon the Jewish rendering of the word both with Samech and a Nunrather than a Sin and Waw in the belief that the Jewish community was aware of the identity of this group and thuscalled them by their proper name. Thus, the Àrabic Ìsawiyyah, by which they were also known, was either a playon words, or simply a mistake by the Muslim community that assumed this was whatthe similar sounding namemeant, due to their acceptance of Jesus (Ìsa). This is, however, a large claimand one that is too big to address here,though it is worth mention that Chaim Rabins conclusion would fit exceedingly well with what I am proposing.

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The possibility of the main Jewish influence on Mu.ammad having been that of aheretical Jewish sect was first put forward by S.D. Goitein in 1933, and elaborated in1953, when he specified this sect as one strongly influenced by Christianity. In hisColumbia University lectures of the same year, he suggested that Mu.ammad was inhisdebate with the Jews of Medina merely carrying on an internal Jewish controversy, beingsupplied with arguments by his heretical teachers, and also seriously weighed thepossibility of these teachers coming from an offshoot of the community of the Dead SeaScrolls. But [Goitein] rejected this, because if it were so, it would not have had suchclose affinities with the Talmudic literature to which the .uran bears such eloquenttestimony.28

Rabin, attempting to to remove that objection,29 reasons that Mu.ammad was linkedwith theDiaspora Essene sect of Judaism though he has not made the connection with the `I.uniyyah

movement. The difficulty from Goitein, that the Quran is so replete with the sortof Talmudicreferences that a connection with Qumran seems difficult, only rears its head ifwe presume thatthe Qumran exiles did not assimilate and cross-pollinate with rabbinic tradition, beginning in thesecond century. Whilst apparently maintaining their own sectarian flavor and identity, there issimply no reason to imagine this, or that some of the traditions in the Talmud did not actuallypre-date it. It is, to this end, worthy of reminding the reader that the Esseneswere not restrictedto Qumran. Contrary to this popular view, they were said to have operated in the

thousands in

28 Emphasis mine. Rippin 329 Ibid

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surrounding cities,30 a point that would have greatly strengthened Rabins thesis.With thismissing information on the Essenes Diaspora Essene Jewish community emerges with ahigherdegree of probability.

Rabin tells us, in his Qumran Studies, that the Qumran sect had proselytes amongitsranks,31 cited as hanilwim `alehem, literally those who join to them.32 The term pelytesis itself a Greek equivalent of the word Hebrew or evri, meaning one who crosses over.33The Arabic equivalent of this term, Rabin asserts, like pseudonymous author ChristophLuxenberg, is .anafa, which he defines as to incline, turn; synonymous with the Arabic lawa,he notes. Torrey deduces that the Arabic word means one who turned away from thesurrounding paganism, while Katsh sees ta.annut, the aforementioned condition whentheangel appeared to him, being derived from the Hebrew te.innot, a very common Jewisexpression of voluntary devotion.34 The apt student of the a.adith attributed to the protoShiiteimami

sect will note the words of Ja`faru al-.adiq, when asked Why are the people ofMoses called Yahud, that this refers to the Quranic attribution to the people of Moes,Verily, we turn (hudna) unto You. Thus, Rabin sees the term .anif, as a synonym forproselyte, or Hebrew, a homonym as those who incline, meaning with the Essenes those who

30 While we tend towards thinking of the Qumran Community as the whole of the Essene faction, Philo writes inEvery Good Man is Free, that there were over 4,000 Essenes in Palestinian Syria.He states therein that they live invillages and avoid cities. Pliny noted that Essenes live on the western shore ofthe Dead Sea above Engeddi. In

addition to Philos claim that thousands of Essenes resided in various small villages, the Essenes mentioned by Plinywere not located at the site of Qumran adjacent to caves where some of the DeadSea Scrolls were discovered.Though the Community Rule makes no mention of women or children, and though all sources of Antiquity seemto point to celibacy, Josephus describes another group of Essenes who married (Joan E. Taylor, The Immerser: Johnthe Baptist within Second Temple Judaism, pp 20) indicating that common pigeonholing, and infatuation withconcise delineations of such groups, may be more wishful thinking than anythinghistorically substantial. Like Philo,Josephus claims, in The Jewish War, that there were many Essenes in every town.

31 Rabin cites gerim, CDC xiv. 6.32 Rabin notes that this was also used for naturalized Jews of foreign origins converts in Isaiah xiv. I; lvi. 2, 6;Zech. Ii. 1533 The term proselyte would have been no different than an English-speaking covert saying Hebrew in Englishinstead of the Hebraic Evri.34 Katsh 108

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incline towards the teaching of the sect; more specific than general conversion toSecondTemple Palestinian Jewry.35

Thus, in approaching tradition sources, whether related to Mu.ammad or any similarhistorical figure, Harald Motzki reminds us that these pieces of a broken mirror can be usedto reconstruct historical reality.36 When Rabins thesis is taken with Geigers initial examinationof the Talmud in the Quran, the detailed examination of the Suratayn of Al-Baqarah and Al`Imrans use of Talmudic material, in Abraham Katshs Judaism in Islam, and in reconciliatoryworks such as that which is at hand, a very strong composite theory of Islamic origins emerges,far more historically probably than the traditional account.

35 Rippin 6-7; Also in Rabin36 Ibid 171

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Part 2: From the Essenes to Ossaeans

Essenes, Ossaeans and Elchasaites

The Essenes of Second Temple Era Judaism, have always fascinated scholars and laypeoplealike. The nature of their Judaism was so similar, and gives precedence to, otherwise anomalous-seeming figures as John the Baptism, in the pre-Christian tradition, and yet wasregarded by allwho report on them as wholly within the context of Judaism. This realization alone is intriguing,for after the codification of the Talmud, a vision of a more or less unified Judaism, deriving fromPhariseeism, emerges that makes the Essene sect seem even more astonishing.

The Talmud seems to refer to the Essenes, only in passing, as the Chassidim Rishonim(Early Pietists). The rabbis, whose words were put down in the Talmudic commentaries, werenot often favorable towards asceticism. While Naziritism (Nazirut) is reported on in tractatesNedarim and Nazir, we find a general distaste for the practice, and even occasio

ns where therabbi is stumped regarding the practice. Nedarim 19b relays Rabbi Huna ben Yehudah askedRaba about a nazir shimshon cutting their hair annually like a nazir òlam. Rabasays it is notpermitted, though the context of why a nazir òlam is permitted annually would similarly stillapply to a nazir shimshon (for safety, for instance). When Rabbi Ada ben Ahavahexplained thathe knew of a nazir shimshon who was taught such, Raba replies "if it was taughtthen it wastaught," a figure of speech meaning that he was not aware of this.

Though there have been some rabbis over the years who have practiced Nazirut RavKook appears to have been and his disciple David haNazir was most have at least frownedupon it. The Talmud is thus not nzirim reporting on Nazirut, so we have sometimesslightlydifferent formulations between a nazir stam, a nazir òlam, a nazir lòlam, anda nazir shimshon.

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Amongst these are further descriptions of nzarim who avoided fruits which could be alcoholicand those who did not.

The relationship between the Essenes and Naziritism is a complex one which deserves anintensive study of its own. While this would be beyond the scope at hand, it should suffice to saythat there are Naziritic elements in the sectarian writings and certainly Nazirut would not beunexpected amongst such an ascetic community. Norman Golb argues that vegetarianNazirutbecame attractive to survivors of the Essene movement, following the destructionof Jerusalem(and Qumran). Arguing that the Ossaeans were of Essenic origins, Golb believes the Ossaeansaccepted the vegetarianism of the Ossaeanic Elchasaites (which will be addressedin detail later)as a matter of course:

The Essenic hostility to the Pharisaic order of sacrifice may well have given rise to an

Ossaean acceptance of the Elchasaitic ban on sacrifice, and these same Essenic

remnants would have been attracted to the vegetarianism of the Elchasaites. 37

While the Essenes are generally not associated with vegetarianism before the records of theOssaeans, we find allusions to it in the scrolls: They shall atone for sins without the flesh ofholocausts and the fat of sacrifice and prayer shall be an acceptable fragranceof righteousness(1QS 9) Pending the rebuilding of the Temple by the groups anticipated Mashiachayim (the dualMessiahs Ben Yosef and Ben David), the Yachad or community would constitute a sanct

uaryof human beings38 (1.6) and adherence to the mitzvot would substitute for sacrifices39 (1.6-7)without any deficiency (1QS 8.6-10)

37Norman Golb 45-46 The Qumran Covenanters and the Later Jewish Sects. The Journal of Religion, Vol. 41, No. 1(Jan., 1961), pp. 38-5038 D. Dimant, 4QFlorilegium and the Idea of the Community as Temple, in Hellenicaet Judaica (Hommage a V.Nikiprowetzky). edited by A. Caquot, et al. (Leuven, 1986) 165-8939 1QS 8.9-10,9.3-6, particularly line 5; Hos 14.3; Ps 141.2

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The fact that the Essene sectarians did not view animal sacrifice as necessary,whether inJerusalem at the Temple or elsewhere, potentially complicates a straightforwardstudy of bothNazirut from Talmudic sources, and the potential for at least limited Essenic vegetarianism. Theyproposed charity for the sin (chatta) sacrifice that normally followed the completion of a nazirioath. Thus, when we read in the tractate Nazir on animal sacrifice associated with the completionof this oath, we are reading a Pharisee interpretation, not an Essenic one.

Furthermore, we must remember that meat would only be kosher if brought to theTemple to be sacrificed. Therefore, to say that at the conclusion of a nadr (oath) one would bringan animal for sacrifice precludes that meat was not being eaten during the duration of the nadr.We see then a probability that the Essenic rejection of the necessity of animalsacrifice at thecompletion of nadr, or a cycle of Nazirut, indicated a continuation of vegetarianism, and arejection of the unnecessary step of animal sacrifice for those who did not eatmeat. Otherwise,

we cannot conclude that they would offer a charity exception and eat traif meat.Suchconclusions become important as we try to identify the sect after the destruction of Qumran.

Golb continues that from Epiphanius we learn not only that the Ossaioi during thethirdand fourth centuries amalgamated with a sect know as the Sampsaeans, a name which hebelieves is probably to be explained as those showing homage to the sun though thismayrefer to the Nazirut of one who was Talmudically regarded as a nazir shimshon, aNazirite like

Samson. These titles, the Sampsaeans and the Ossaioi became a single group goingby one orthe other of these titles.40

40 Norman Golb 45-46 The Qumran Covenanters and the Later Jewish Sects. The Journal of Religion, Vol. 41, No. 1(Jan., 1961), pp. 38-50

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Who Were The Mysterious Second Century Ossaeans?

In such a quest for Post-Qumran and Diaspora Essenism we should take notice of the vegetarianand Nazirite movements of the second century CE and beyond. One group by the name of theOssaeans, is noted by Epiphanius as a Jewish heresy. The Ossaioi spelling is an alternativeversion offered by Philo (Hypothetica 11:1-18). They are also described by Epiphanius ofSalamis (ca. 310320 403) as Jewish and on the spectrum of Jewishness, more so than theearly Nazarene Jewish-Christians. The only non Jewish trait of the Ossaeans was saito betheir disregarding of the Chumash (Pentateuch). This description is both subjective toEpiphanius outsider interpretation and also seems to fit with the Essenic primacyof the SerekhhaYachad/Rule of the Community as the groups Torah. It seems to me to argue for theirEssenism.

Norman Golb connects the Essenes and Ossaeans, and while this study does not arg

ue forGolbs disconnection of the Essenes from the Qumran site,41 he has done exceptional work inJudeo-Arabic studies connecting the Essenes to Arabian sects of Late Antiquity and indocumenting the continuation of Second Temple Era trends (namely proselytism andEssenism)in the Diaspora.

In Greek, we see that the term Ossaean is related to a variation of Essenes which Philooffers us in the first century. In praxis, the similarities are just as strikingbetween descriptions of

the Essenes and Ossaeans. Epiphanius, writing in the fourth century CE (c. 378),tells us of afigure named Elxais,42 who led an offshoot of the Ossaeans that Of those that came before[Elxais] time and during it, the Ossaeans and the Nazareans.43 Here there is a connection made

41 See Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls42 Hippolytus gives it as Elchasai, Origen as Helkesai, Epiphanius as Elxai or Elkessai, Epiphanius further informsus ( Haer., xix.2) that the name meant the Hidden Power.43 Epiphanius of Salamis (c. 378). Panarion. 1:19

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between the Elchasaites and the Ossaeans from which they were said to have proceeded and theNazarenes, with which they shared some clear similarities. Regarding the Ossaeans, Epiphaniuswrites:

After this Nazarean sect in turn comes another closely connected with them, called theOssaeans. These are Jews like the former... originally came from Nabataea, Ituraea,Moabitis and Arielis, the lands beyond the basin of what sacred scripture calledthe SaltSea Though it is different from the other six of these seven sects, it causes schism onlyby forbidding the books of Moses like the Nazarean.44

The location reveals that in the second century CE, they were present in multiple places. In thefirst century, Philo and Josephus wrote that the Essenes were in every city. Philowrites, inEvery Good Man Is Free,45 that there were 4,000 Essenes in Palestinian Syria. He statestherein that they live in villages and avoid cities. Pliny notes that Essenes li

ve on the westernshore of the Dead Sea above Engeddi. In addition to Philos claim that thousands of Essenesresided in various small villages, the Essenes mentioned by Pliny were not apparently the sameas those presumably located at the site of Qumran, adjacent to the caves where some of the DeadSea Scrolls were discovered.

Though the Community Rule makes no mention of women or children, and though allsources of Antiquity seem to point to celibacy, Josephus describes another groupof Essenes whomarried;46 indicating that common pigeonholing, and infatuation with concise del

ineations ofsuch groups (even by Josephus), may be more wishful thinking than anything historicallysubstantial. Josephus, we should remember, demonstrates an obvious disdain for women.

44 Panarion. 1.1945 Every Good Man Is Free, pp 75-9146 (Judaism, 1997) pp 20

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Essenes who engaged in celibacy, either temporarily or permanently (we cannot know), wereapparently his favorite type, as he only mentions in passing that this did not apply to all of thesect. Like Philo, Josephus also claims, in his The Jewish War, that there were many Essenes inevery town. The question of their presence at Qumran47 is thus a moot point fora discussion ofwhether or not the sect continued after the sites destruction. The evidence points decisivelytowards the fact that they did.

Did the Essenes write the Dead Sea Scrolls? One could hardly say with absolute certaintythat each and every text in the collection was from the same sect. Golb certainly doubts it.However, the Essenes were known separatists. In understanding this then, it canbe seen aspeculiar that they would share their cache with other sects who they deemed to not truly be Jews,but instead covenant breakers.

Some of the Dead Sea Scrolls do indeed identify their community as Essenes or Os

saioiin Hebrew, as we read they are the `Ossim haTorah (1QpHab 8:1). This notion of Ma`asei

which is found within 4Q39848 is . .. ...... is supported by the phrase). .....(rahoT

in juxtaposition to the Covenant Breakers who they do not regard as Jews. The Aramaic

equivalent Hesiim known from Eastern Aramaic texts has been suggested.49 The evid

ence for

both the Qumran site and the linguistic variation of Ossaioi can be found in a detailed discussion

of Stephen Goransons, Others and Intra-Jewish Polemic as Reflected in Qumran Texts, as well

as In The Dead Sea Scrolls after Fifty Years: A Comprehensive Assessment, editedby Peter W.

47 Significantly, though the location of Qumran is never specifies, Epiphanius locates the Ossaeans around the Dead

Sea too, as does Pliny before him; though the latter gives a different location.This would seem to argue againstscholars like Norman Golb who believe the sect to be unrelated to the site. Arguing for the presence of the Essenesat Qumran, one should consult the magisterial work of Jodi Magness, The Archaeology of Qumran and the DeadSea Scrolls, as well as James Vanderkam and Peter Flints, The Meaning of the DeadSea Scrolls.48 Fragments 14-17 2.349 Lightfoot, Joseph Barber (1875). On Some Points Connected with the Essenes. St.


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Pauls epistles to theColossians and to Philemon: a revised text with introductions, notes, and dissertations. London: MacmillanPublishers. OCLC 6150927.

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Flint and James C. VanderKam, with a focus on the linguistic discussion in VanderKams essaytherein.50

If we can, however, identify amongst those texts documents of an Essene-sectariannature, then this would logically demonstrate the cache to have originated fromthe sect. Inhis The Wars of the Jews (2.137138) Josephus mentions a three year probation period for allwho would seek admission into the Essene community that we can compare with thedescriptionin the Qumran Rule of the Community (1QS; at least two years plus an indeterminate initialcatechetical phase, 1QS VI).

We will thus take the mainstream scholastic position that the works known as theDeadSea Scrolls were indeed the product of the sect known as the Essenes. The view that the Esseneswere unrelated to the Qumran site is in part borne from the belief that the Essenes as a whole didnot marry, and the Qumran site certainly has female and child corpses buried the

re. This seemscontradicted by their description as a race or some sort of genos.

In his two main accounts, Josephus uses the name Essenes to refer to one of the threemain philosophies of Second Temple Era Judaism. He speaks of giving an account of theEssenes (Antiquities of the Jews 13.10.6) which he describes further as the Essenegenos51.(Antiquities of the Jews. 13.11.12; The Wars of the Jews 1.3.5); referring to Simon of theEssaios genos (The Wars of the Jews 2.7.3); and in a parallel account of Simon a man of the

Essaios genos (Antiquities of the Jews 17.13.3). The only other apparent reference to a Jewishgroup being called a genos by Josephus is one reference to the Sadduccees as such in Ant.13.10.6; bearing in mind that they were more of what we might also think of as agenos, insofaras the Sadduccees were Kohenic and represented the aristocratic Hasmonean Kohenim

50 2:534-55151 A cognate of genus, race, stock, kind and gonos birth, offspring, stock.

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haGadolim associated with the Temple. Josephus also calls them a moira, or party;a termwhich he does not use for the Essenes or Pharisees. Was this conscious use of these terms?

Mason and Chapman, in their Flavius Josephus: Translation and Commentary, note thatJosephus uses this term genos of then Essenes in 2.113 and follows in 2.119 by using the sameterm genos to refer to his own biological ancestry.52 However, whatever is meantby it, we seethat it is not intended in a racial sense, as Josephus tells us that he studiedwith all three of themajor Jewish philosophies, and all sources agree that the group was open to outsiders with theproper ideological and theological orientation. Furthermore, Josephus regards Jews in general asa phyle (which he uses for people repeatedly) not a genos. We might thus best translated theterm here as an inter-marrying religious community. (War 3.354; 7.327) We see Christianityreferred to as a phyle but not a genos,53 by Josephus (Ant. 4.207; Ap. 2.237) indicating the genos

is indeed related to marriage, parentage of descendent, whereas this is not as clear with phyle.

In numerous places of the Wars of the Jews and the Antiquities of the Jews, he refers toJews in general as a phyle. He calls the Sadducees (and only the Sadducees) as aMoira. This is aplay on words of Fate and Portion as in the portion of casting lots. The pun is effctivelycalling them a Party or Sect while at the same time calling them Fatalists. TheEssenes he calls agenos. This last, Essene-specific term is the closest word we could expect for arace back then

as this concept of race did not quite exist yet genos means essentially a group reproducing withitself.

We know that the Essene genos accepted people from all cultures and nations if theyunderwent their three-year mandatory gerut for all other branches of Yahadut (which theyregarded as Covenant Breakers) as well as Greeks, Romans, anyone else. Their genoshus

52 13053 Steve Mason 169-170; see also S.G. Wilson, Luke and the Law (Cambridge: Cambr

idge University Press, 1983)

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was not a race either, but an inter-marrying-and-reproducing-ideological-group. Jews ingeneral do not get this designation, but are instead a phyle because they do notmarry under suchstrict ideological guidelines. Phyle is first used in the context of race in 1590 CE.

Joseph Baumgarten writes in his Studies on Qumran Law, that the Dead Sea Scroll4QpNah excludes proselytes. We do read here vger as which Baumgarten renders andproselytes. Yadin, however, sees this as impossible and completely contradictory towhat weknow of Second Temple Judaism and the practices of the Essenes in general.54 Theterm ger,we know, was used in the past to mean both foreigner, and to mean gerei toshav and gereitzaddiq. Here, there is no qualification as either ger toshav or ger tzaddiq. This Pesher on 2Samuel 7, explains itself. Baumgarten overlooks the context of the Peshers reference in sayingvger. We need not resort to the meaning Yadin gives of this being an adulterer. Thhentirely possible, the Pesher reads: an Ammonite and a Moabite and a mamzer55 andan alien

(ben nekar), and a ger forever, for his holy ones are there.56 We read in the very next line thatthis is because Strangers shall not again make it desolate as they desolated it formerly, thesanctuary of Israel because of their sins. The context here is clearly referringto theAbomination that causes desolation by Antiochus Epiphanes. He was absolutely not aproselyte, but was indeed a literal ger though not a ger tzaddiq, the term used for proselytes inRabbinic literature, which Baumgarten wishes to imagine applies here.

Josephus claimed to have studied with each philosophy of Judaism. With the Essenes

,however, he apparently studied with them only through the very beginning of theinitiationprocess, under a teacher named Bannus. Tessa Rajak, in her Josephus, suggests nomore than

54 Y. Yadin, "A Midrash on 2 Sam VII," Israel Exploration Journal, IX (1959), p9655 The meaning of mamzerut does not have a universal definition. In all cases, it means a child born of illegal union,such as incest. What that illegal union constitutes varies in interpretation.56 line 4-6

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about three months of training in each group for Josephus. She claims that thiswas a commonGreek practice to study with each group for about three months, in order to gainanunderstanding of each, before either undergoing conversion or returning home.57Within thiscontext, we see elaboration that the Essenes were far more open than some mightsuspect. Theyhad such an influx of strangers who were just there to find out about them, that it is not at allunlikely that these were those to whom they were referring. Furthermore, just aswith Karaitism,which Golb sees as influenced by Diaspora Essenism (which will here be concededat least as afactor in their development, but not the primary influence), those who became Jews(mityahadim) as we see in the story of Esther, were simply Jews, and not to be designated as anytype of gerim. Baumgarten is thus wrong to expect Essenic parlance to mirror that of laterTalmudic development.

Baumgarten rightly comments that there is an affinity between the Qumran

interpretation [of Deut. 23.4 excluding certain individuals from the congregationof God] andthat of Philo, who understood the exclusions in Deuteronomy 23 to apply to communalassemblies.58 In his De specialibus legibus, we read him say that knowing that inassembliesthere are not a few worthless persons who steal their way in and remain unobserved in the largenumbers which surround them, it guards against this danger by precluding all theunworthy fromentering the holy congregation... For it expels those whose generative organs are fractured... andit banishes not only harlots, but also the children of harlots.

Here we clearly see that Philos understanding of mamzerut in the first century CEreferred to children born of harlots. The reasons for these conditions are speculation, but not

57 Tessa Rajak. Josephus. (Duckworth Publishers, 2002) 34-3658 While the rabbis saw this as restricting various intermarriages (m.Yeb 2.4; 6.1; 8.203; m. Qid 3.12, 4.1; m.Ket 3.1,11.6; et al), Philo represents a non-Pharisaic view that corrects the modern error of reading the Dead Sea Scrollsthrough the spectacles of what became Talmudic, Rabbinic Judaism.

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. The notion of the forbidding of the Moabites and Ammonites is . .

. .

. .

. .

. .restored

unascertainable. A child of a harlot would likely be a person raised in shady, even criminalcontexts. Such a person might suggest that they have devoted themselves to reform and teshuvah,but in the context of communities - not Jewry in general - this would be an unnecessary risk. Aman with crushed genitals would likely be one type of man, a combative man, a soldier orformer soldier, or a thug of some sort. There would undoubtedly be rare exceptions to this rule,but the primary contexts of the era, a person with severe physical injuries would be formersoldiers or thugs. These would be the very sorts of people who often may have posed problemsof infiltration. Yadin notes that the beginning of line 4, in the aforementionedPesher should be

adequately treated in the Talmud.

Prohibition Regarding the Ammonites and Moabites

We must recall that the Essene community did not set down each of the Dead Sea Scrolls toparchment in the first century CE. They were said to have existed by Pliny for one thousandgenerations. While this is clearly an exaggeration, the community and the sect associated with it,were not new. Their Serekh haYachad was preserved in several variations, indicating that the

text and likely others were copies of much older texts which had been recopied.

Regarding the other prohibitions, the Torah notoriously forbids an Ammonite orMoabiteto enter the assembly of the LORD; permitting the entrance of Egyptians and Edomites onlyafter the lapse of two generations. Yet there was never any objection to accepting converts fromthese peoples; and we have several specific instances of such on record.59 Though seeminglyracial in overtones, it is important to note that if intermarriage was not occurring (and Egyptiansor Edomites were intermarrying with other converts from their same culture), the

lapse of two59 (Bamberger, 1968) pp 33

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generations would not change their ethnic make-up, but rather their national andculturalinfluence would wane and presumably dissolve into Judean assimilation.

We must remember that race is a concept far more important to the Americanexperience (and the experience of the Post-Colonial Era), than it was in the days when Nationand Race were regarded fairly mutually, in an Ethno-National sense. Accordingly,Bambergernotes and comments upon a relevant `Aggadah:

Rabbi Eliezer says: God swore by His throne of glory that if a person of any of the

nations should come desiring to be converted to Judaism, Israel should receive him; but a

person from the house of Amalek they should not receive. Yet this could not havebeen

invoked halakically in the Rabbinic period as the Amalekites (as with the Caananites and

Filistines), had disappeared as a separate people.60

Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Yehudah apply the prohibition of Deuteronomy 23.4 to a male. RabbiIshmael attributes this to the poor hospitality shown by the male inhabitants during the Exodus;61the very same crime of Sodom and Gomorrah. This position was issued: An Ammoniteand aMoabite is forbidden for all time (to marry), but their women are permitted forthwith.62 Thus anAmmonite or Moabite63 proselytes is so regarded as Jewish that even the Kohen haGadol maymarry her virgin daughter.64 Importantly, we find Ruth in the Davidic genealogy.

60 Ibid pp 3361 (Braude, 1940) pp 5062 See also Pseudo-Jonathan on Deuteronomy 23.463 At some time during the centuries of religious mode of assimilating immigrants into the Jewish community, aprocedure wanting in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, came into being (See Kaufammin Golah We-Nekar 1.226).Once devised, this procedure came gradually to be applied even to those who according to Deuteronomy 23.4 couldnot come into the community of YHVH. Thus, Raba, a further century Babylonian Amora, tells us that even

David had been threatened with exclusion from the community of YHVH because of hisancestress Ruth theMoabitess. Whereupon Ithra the Israelite donned a sword in the manner of Ishmaeland declared: I shall put mysword through him who refuses to accept this law. From the court of Samuel the Ramathite I have the rule: AnAmmonite is to be excluded but not an Ammonitess: a Moabite but not a Moabitess.It is fair to say that thisexegetical invention hints at a vigorous opposition to a newly promulgated and otherwise seemingly non-Biblical


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principle. Since in 1 Chron. 2.17 we find: And the father of Amasa was Jether theIshmaelite and in 2 Sam 17.25

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The rabbis of the apparently pre-Christian and first Christian century did muchtominimize the discrimination faced by Ammonite proselytes. Yehudah, an Ammonite proselyte,appeared in the House of Study, inquiring May I marry a Jewish girl? Rabbi Yehoshuah benHananiah said, You may. However, Rabbi Gamaliel [the second] said, You may not, forScripture definitely rules against you. Whereupon Rabbi Yehoshuah asked, How can youidentify the present inhabitants of the other side of the Jordan with the ancient Ammonites andMoabites? Did not Sennacherib come and put all nations into confusion?To be sure,RabbiGamaliel countered, But Scripture says, Afterwards I will return the captivity ofAmmon.(Jeremiah 49.6) And now they are back again.Yes, replied Rabbi Yehoshuah, Scripturalso tell us, And I will turn again the captivity of my people Yisrael (Amos 9.14)and we arestill in exile. The logic of the reply was irrefutable and Yehudah was thus permitted to marrythe Jewish woman he had inquired about. If the mere promise of Ammonite captivit

y meant thatthe contemporary inhabitants were themselves Ammonites then this must similarlymean that theChildren of Israel had been permanently restored (when obviously this was not the case), as theverse reads:

I will restore My people Israel. They shall rebuild ruined cities and inhabit them

Nevermore to be uprooted from the soil I have given them.

To the South, the earliest legislation regarding the Edomites and Egyptians read

s:

Amasas father is Ithra the Israelite, the rabbis fixation this verbal inconsistency and derive there from the legal coupof Bavli Yebamot 77a. Though Raba lived in the fourth century, I am assuming that he is transmitting an ancienttradition which reflects controversies and issues of a previous era. (Braude, 1940) pp 5264 Sifra, Emor, Perek, 2.6 on 21.14, and 95a on Lev. 21.13

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You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother, you shall not abhor an Egyptianbecause you were a stranger in his land. The children of the third generation that are bornunto them may enter into the assembly of the LORD. 65

The conversation between Jesus the chief priest next in seniority to Ananus [the son ofAnanus] and Simon the Edomite chieftain has significant relevance to this subject ofintermarriage and proselyte rights in the emerging Rabbinic Judaism. At the timethe Zealots hadbegun rebellion in Jerusalem but were an obvious minority. It was then that theyrequested themartial aid of the Edomites, who did not hesitate in response. Had they been regarded as any sortof second class citizens; remembering their conversion under the rule of John Hyracanus (135104BCE), then their own zeal in attending to these militants would almost certainlybeunexpected. Jesus ben Ananus spoke of them as kinsmen and offered the opportunity of enteringthe city as arbitrators, thus indicating the previously assumed two generations

of Edomite waitwas no longer perceived as compulsory.66

We are not here dealing with a later exegetical invention (as in the case of Ruth theMoabitess as the ancestor of King David67). Ephraim Maksha`ah (flourishing around 140-165CE), notes that Obadiyah, the prophet and master of Ahabs household was himself an Edomiteproselyte.68 As we observed in the case of Yehudah the Ammonite, we similarly see RabbiGamaliel the Second ask Will an Egyptian proselyte be dealt with similarly [to Yehudah the

Ammonite]? He was promptly informed at the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptiansfrom the people where they were scattered.69 This apparently prevailed as a few years laterMinyamin, an Egyptian proselyte told his master Rabbi Akiva, of a complicated marriage

65 Deuteronomy 23.8-966 (Braude, 1940) pp5967 See footnote 7168 This was repeated on the authority of Rabbi Meir Sanhedrin 39b, refer to 1 Kings 18.369 Ezekiel 29.13 following Talmud Yadaim (2.17-8) 683-4.

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scheme he had devised, so that his grandson in keeping with Deuteronomy 23.8-9 would beable to marry a Jewish woman, if he himself married an Egyptian proselyte. Nevertheless, RabbiAkiva said that this was entirely unnecessary:

Minyamin, my son, you err grievously. Sebbacheriib, the king of Assyria, long ago had

brought about the diffusion of all people. Neither the Ammonites, nor the Moabites,

neither the Egyptians, nor the Edomites are any longer to be found in their original

habitations.70

With this in mind, it is entirely unreasonable to imagine that the Essenes had adenigrated statusto the proselyte. S. Zeitlin maintains that ger and proselytos do not predate the first century CEin meaning of one who becomes a naturalized Jew.71 Bearing in mind that most ofthe scrolls are

not thought to have been written in the first century CE, it is unreasonable totranslate ger here asanything but foreigner. It is thus more likely that the Essenes, like the Karaitesafter them, hadno differentiation between those born and raised as Jews and those who became Jews. Thiswould explain why there is no qualifier after vger in the aforementioned Pesher on 2 Samuel;ger is being used literally, to indicate foreigners like the Selucides, who Line5 makes it clear itis responding to.

The Essene Genos

The notion of the Essenes as a genos is peculiar, yet we find its usage with Pliny, who wrotethat the Essenes living near the Dead Sea had not one woman, had renounced all pleasure ... andno one was born in their race. It would seem that he was wrong. The cemeteries ofQumran

70 Rabbi Yehudah ben Il`ai (flourished around 140-165 CE) transmits the incidentconcerning the plight of hisEgyptian colleague and the nature of Rabbi Akivas advice in Talmud Kiddushin andSotah 9a; (Braude, 1940) pp60-1

71 Proselytes and Proselytism H.A. Wolfson Jubilee Volume II [1965], pp 871-881

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show that there were numerous woman and children in that location. An over-investment in theaccuracy of Plinys account has led some otherwise excellent scholars, such as Norman Golb, toconclude that the site was unrelated to the Essenes. While this conclusion is not accepted here,many of Golbs insightful positions will help elucidate common misconceptions about theEssenes, both in the first century CE and beyond.

But Josephus acknowledges that there are Essenes who do not marry and bear children,as well as those who do. In his Pharisees, scribes and Sadducees in Palestiniansociety: asociological approach, Anthony J. Saldarini rightly comments that Josephus complete failureto explain how the marrying Essenes live, aside from their bathing habits, is apuzzle. Themystery is exacerbated by what seems his defensive tone: although these Essenesdo marry, theystill regard women in the properly disparaging way.72 It would seem that the characterization ofthe Essenes as celibate, across the board, is not historical.

The Ossaean Race

We also see the description of genos attributed to the sect known as the Ossaeans. Epiphaniusspeaks of two sisters of the Elcasaean sisters named Marthus and Marthana who hesays wereregarded as goddesses, yet were living individuals in his day who were of the race of Elxai(Haer., xix. 1, and li. 1). Epiphanius writes that the founder of the Elcasaeans,an individualwho he believes they were named for (perhaps as was wrongly imagined of the Evionim), joined

the Ossaeans (Pan. 19.1.4). He explains that Elxai was a Jew living in the time ofEmperorTrajan, after the advent of the Savior (19.1.4), saying he was of Jewish origin and his ideas

72 Steve Mason, Honora Chapman, Flavius Josephus: translation and commentary. Judean war, Volume 1 (129)

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where Jewish. Still, Epiphanius says that he did not live according to the Law (19.1.5),73which seems to corroborate with claims that the Essenes did not regard the Biblical Chumash tobe their Torah, but instead took the Serekh haYahad (Rule of the Community) as their Torah.

This could argue for the theory that the cache was a depository for multiple groups, orthat the Chumash and the Tanakh in general were books of a secondary nature to the sect. Thesefactors seem to indicate that we are dealing with either the same sect when we read of theEssenes and Ossaeans, or perhaps an offshoot that readopted the name following its decline.Still, we have no real reason to believe that the Essenes did decline, or that they were in any waydecimated more so than other Jewish groups during the revolts of the late 60s to70 CE. A moreplausible explanation would seem to be that they continued to change, and in many wayscontinued to be separatists, just as the Essenes were.

The Dissemination of Essenic Varieties in the Diaspora

L. E. Toombsa writes, in Barcosiba and Qumrn, that Assuming that the Qumrn Communitywere Essenes, Essenism may still be regarded, even after Qumrn, as a widespread phenomenonwith many varied modes of expression, of which the Community at Qumrn was but one. Itslibrary then lets us look at an Essenism which did not come into existence whenthe buildings atQumrn were erected, nor perish with their destruction.74 Epiphanius seems to distinguishbetween Samaritan Essenoi and Jewish Ossaioi, and it may be that by his own time th

surviving Essenes had branched off into a few subsects; at all events, various writers have shown73 Gerard Luttikhuizen. The Revalation of Elchasai: Investigations into the Evidence for a Mesopotamian JewishApocalypse of the 2nd Century and Its Reception by Judeo-Christian Propagandists(Tubingen: Mohr, 1985) 11674 L. E. Toombsa, Barcosiba and Qumrn. New Testament Studies (1957), 4: 65-71 Cambridge University PressPublished online by Cambridge University Press 05 Feb 2009, 1

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that there must be a close connection between the Ossaioi and the earlier Essenes.75 To this

end, we might recall the aforementioned point regarding the variant copies of the Serekh

haYachad; something which we should not expect of a community that was not deeplyrooted.

Norman Golb poignantly discusses the popular image of the Essenes as having suddenly

disbanded around the Jewish revolt and the destruction of Qumran. His comment isworth

reproducing in full, in spite of its length:

For those who are of the belief that the Essenes disappeared from history when Qumranfell, perhaps only the theory of literary influence will account for the existence ofQumran-like doctrines among the Karaites of the eighth and ninth centuries. Butwere

these Essenic sectarians then massacred, or did they suddenly assimilate? Indeed, thatsuch a view can be proposed in the face of the abundant evidence to the contraryisbaffling in the extreme. To do this we should simply have to discard as worthless orirrelevant all the statements in the early heresiographic literature pointing tothe existenceof Essenic and other sectarian Jewish communities after the destruction of the SecondJewish Commonwealth. It is true that in their descriptions of the Essenes, theheresiographers lean heavily upon Josephus and Philo. But their additional intimations of

the existence of the sect after the time of Philo and Josephus, and after the destruction ofthe Second Commonwealth, are more than just hearsay. The Essenes are mentioned asstill thriving in a community near the Dead Sea by Dio Chrysostom (end of the firstcentury) and are briefly referred to by Hegesippus. We have quite a full accountof themin the Philosophumena of Hippolytus.76

The connection with the Karaites seems less than clear cut. Karaites, if anything, seem more

likely to have been inspired by the Sadducees. While the discussion is far beyond the scope of

75 Norman Golb 45-46 The Qumran Covenanters and the Later Jewish Sects. The Journal of Religion, Vol. 41, No. 1(Jan., 1961), pp. 38-5076 Norman Golb 45-46 The Qumran Covenanters and the Later Jewish Sects. The Journal of Religion, Vol. 41, No. 1(Jan., 1961), pp. 38-50


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the discussion at hand, the influence of Ì.uniyah Jewish revolution as a largealternative branchof Middle Eastern Judaism in Late Antiquity seems to also have played a role ininfluencing,Baptizing groups. The Ì.uniyah overlap with each of these groups theologically,but have somesharp contrasts with the views of Karaitism.77 We will return to a study of theÌ.uniyah in Book2, when we investigate the sectarian milieu in which is here being proposed Mu.ammad wasparticipating within, as an Arabian Jewish reformer, seeking to return the fragmentedcommunities and sects to One Ummah.

77 After having demonstrated the persistence of the Essenes in the Diaspora, thelogical conclusion is to connect thedots all the way to the Ìssuniyyah, which will be addressed separately.

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Part 3: All the flocks of Qedar

dic Prophecyu) in Talm. .......On self-converted Jews (

The Talmud refers to gerim grurim as effectively self-made proselytes. Just as Àvodah Zarahspeaks of two types of Gerei Toshav - one that declares itself before three Dayanim of a Beyt Din(Àvodah Zarah 64b) and one that simply proclaims their adherence to the Noachidlaws publicly(65a) - the same tractate (23a-24b), says the same regarding two types of gerut.One typeof gerut is undertaken before a Beyt Din, composed of three Dayanim of anyJews knowledgeable in matters of gerut. The other is performed by the individual. In reference toIsaiah 60.7, that all the flocks of Qedar shall be gathered together unto you, theTalmudexplains that this means the whole world will become Jews by the Messianic Era.Specifically,there is a significance laid here to the gerut of the Children of Ishmael, implicit in the reference

. .. .to Qedar: all these will become self-made proselytes [Jews] in the time to come ().. .. .

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Rabbi Eliezer replied: All these will become self-made proselytes in the time tocome.Rabbi Yosef said: What is the scriptural authority for this? For then will I tur

n to thepeoples a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of God (Zeph. 3.9). Abayeasked: perhaps this merely means that they will [simply] turn away from idolatry? AndRabbi Yosef answered him: The verse continues, and to serve Him with oneconsent. (Àvodah Zarah 24a)

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The only time that gerim grurim will not be accepted is when Mashiach comes and the waragainst Gog and Magog are underway. At this time the righteous of the nations will eitherbe Gerei Toshav or they will Gerim who made Gerut before a Beyt Din or Gerim whodid not,as Gerim grurim. This practice is accepted by the Talmud as making one entirely Jewish,provided the parameters for general gerut are met and pledged to. Ernst Bammel agrees with theobviousness of what the text says on this matter. In his Judaica: Kleine Schriften he notes that aformal acceptance of a proselyte by the Jewish community is, of course, not necessary (135);noting Yevamot 79a (537, note 1) Rabbi Yose says those rejected in that day willactually be idolworshipers, as we are otherwise told that all of the nations will have embracedYahadut. Weknow that this reference to idol worshipers posing as gerim grurim does not disqualify otherthan-idol-worshipers, as in the same tractate we read that the entire world will become Jews, asexpressed in the aforementioned `Avodah Zarah 24a.

Those who would wish to suddenly become gerim grurim in the Messianic Age,however, will be suspect due to the war underway. Avodah Zarah 2a-3b deals withthe finaljudgment and the wars between Mashiach and Gog and Magog. This is the only placewherethere is negative connotation to gerim grurim, as in this time of war, there areidol worshipperswho will present themselves as gerim grurim who will actually not be willing to live as Jews;they will actually be idol worshippers who are merely feigning Yahadut. They aredisparagedhere because of their unwillingness to live as Jews and stand up for the Covenan

t they claim tobelieve in.

`Avodah Zarah 3a suggests that the nations will be judged for not having followed rulesapplicable to them and rejection of the Torah. We must thus recall that the nations were alloffered the Torah first and the Children of Israel were the only nation which accepted it. Yet the

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Talmud teaches that they will be judged because of claiming to have accepted theCovenant,while still being idol-worshippers. Thus we read in `Avodah Zarah 3a:

Whence do we know that even an idolater who studies the Torah is equal to a HighPriest? From the following verse: Ye shall therefore keep My statutes and My ordinanceswhich, if a man do, he shall live by them. (Lev. 18.5) It does not say If a Priest, Levite,or Israelite do, he shall live by them, but a man; here, then, you can learn that even aheathen who studies the Torah is equal to a High Priest! What is meant, then, isthatthey are rewarded not as greatly as one who does a thing which he is bidden to do, but asone who does a thing unbidden. For, Rabbi Hanina said: He who is commanded and does,stands higher then he who is not commanded and does.

Returning to `Avodah Zarah 3a, we can now understand the theological context ofthe prophecy:

The nations will then plead. Offer us the Torah anew and we shall obey it. But theHolyOne, blessed be He, will say to them, You foolish ones among peoples, he who tooktrouble [to prepare] on the eve of the Sabbath can eat on the Sabbath, but he who has nottroubled on the eve of the Sabbath, what shall he eat on the Sabbath?

They will then be offered the easiest of mitzvot to prove their sincerity and afford thempermission to celebrate the Chagim, implicitly as Jews. God will say, I have an easy commandwhich is called Sukkah; go and carry it out. The Talmud teaches that this will be

said for thepurposes of testing their ability to do even the easiest of mitzvot they professa willingness to

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accept. Why should they be offered this observance in the Messianic Era, even after not havingprepared their meal before Shabbat so to speak? The Talmud answers that this is because theHoly One, blessed be He, does not deal imperiously with His creatures when they turn to Hueven after the expired time.

We thus see that by this God offers them one last chance at gerut, even though it isknown aforehand that they will not live up to it. They will immediately go to their roofs to buildtheir Sukkot, but God will make it especially hot out that year and they will thus stomp downtheir Sukkot and abandon the mizvah along with Yahadut in general. Folio 3b recalls that Rabasays in Sukkot 26a that if it is too difficult, you do not need to dwell withinthe sukkah. Howeverhere we read that they did not merely go back into their homes until an easier time, theyabandoned the mitzvah and destroyed their Sukkot. Because God knew they were notsincere -and this is why they did not make gerut before hand - Hu takes this occasion to

laugh at them;Rabbi Yitzhaq saying that this is the only day that there is [mocking] laughter for the Holy One,blessed be He.

When Gog and Magog come for them - as Jews - these would-be Jews will quicklyrenounce on their own. God will weed them out simply by way of them being subjected to thepersecutions of Gog and Magog. That is, the Jewish community will have no authority withwhich to prevent them from being Jews, according to the Talmud. God will createthecircumstances which will cause them to renounce Judaism on their own. The Talmud

effectivelysays that God will have the last laugh here. The context is not even remotely anti-proselyte, butagainst idol worshippers, perhaps here indicating Christians, posing as Jews. Wecould, today,easily draw a parallel to the movement of so-called Messianic Judaism. The more importantlesson that we take away from this is that pertaining to the Halakhic permissibility of gerim

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They use the Gospel according to Matthew only, and repudiate the Apostle Paul,maintaining that he was an apostate from the Law. As to the prophetical writings, theyendeavor to expound them in a somewhat singular manner: they practice circumcision,persevere in the observance of those customs which are enjoined by the law, andare soJudaic in their style of life, that they even adore Jerusalem as if it were thehouse of God.(Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.26.2)

Hippolytus of Rome writes they in preference adhere to Jewish customs (Hippolytusof Rome,Refutation of All Heresies 7 Prol.) They observed all the Jewish rituals, such as circumcision andthe seventh-day Shabbat, like every other Jew. They maintained that non-Jews whowould comeinto their fold must undergo full Jewish conversion, as argued by James againstPaul in theChristian Testament debates (in James and Romans). They live, however, in all respectsaccording to the Law of Moses, alleging that they are thus justified (Ibid. 10.18), adding,

Epiphanius of Salamis wrote, that he came and gave instructions to abolish sacrifices as thegospel which they recognize contains the provision that I came to abolish sacrifices, and unlessyou cease sacrificing, my anger will not cease from you. (Epiphanius of Salamis, Panarion30.16.4-5) Jerome calls this group Jews who saw no contradictions in following a human Jesusas a teacher. He worried that if they were allowed to interact with Christians they will notbecome Christians, but they will make us Jews. (Epistle to Augustine 112.13) Eusebius writes:

For they considered [Jesus] a plain and common man, who was justified only because ofhis superior virtue, and who was the fruit of the intercourse of a man with Mary. In their

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opinion the observance of the ceremonial law was altogether necessary, on the groundthat they could not be saved by faith in Christ alone and by a corresponding life... Thesemen, moreover, thought that it was necessary to reject all the epistles of the apostle[Paul], whom they called an apostate from the Law; and they used only the so-calledGospel according to the Hebrews and made small account of the rest. The Sabbathandthe rest of the discipline of the Jews they observed just like them... (Eusebius,Ecclesiastical History, Chp. 27)

As stated previously, we must remember that during Mu.ammads life, there was notyet anArabic Bible. This makes the claim that Khadijahs cousin Waraqah had a singular,Hebrewversion of the Gospel all the more historically convincing, and all the more evidencing herfamilys Jewish sectarian nature. We must further recall that the lingua franca ofthe educated inArabia was at that time Aramaic.

Mu.ammads Jewish wife Safiyyah was said in .adith literature to have complainedabout Anti-Jewish harassment from locals who said: O Jewess, daughter of Jewish parents! Towhich Mu.ammad replied to her: Could you not have said to them in reply: my father is Aaron,my uncle is Moses and my husband is Mu.ammad? As such, we see that there can be no doubtthat in this early layer, or schicht of Islamic narrations, Mu.ammad confirms yetanothertraditional Jewish position.

To add to this, let us examine a Shiì narration in the aftermath of the Battle

of Karbala.Husayn, the second son of Àli and Mu.ammads daughter Fatimah was decapitated andtheUmayyad Caliph Yazid ibn Muàwiyyah ibn Abi Sufyan had his head paraded around on a spear;to show those under his rule what happens to those who dare challenge his dynastic authority.

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A Jewish scholar was in the assembly of Yazid. He admired Imam Zayn al-Àbidin,peace be on him, so he asked Yazid: Who is that lad?Ali ibn al-Husayn, replied Yazid.Who is al-Husayn? asked the Jewish scholar.Son of Àli ibn Abi.alib, answered Yazid.Who is his mother? asked the Jewish scholar.Mu.ammads daughter, replied Yazid.Glory belongs to Allah, explained the Jewish scholar, this is the son of the daughter ofyour Prophet, (why did) you kill him? You opposed him by doing evil to his bloodrelations.By Allah, if our Prophet, Musa (Moses) ibn Ìmran, had left a grandson among us,wewould have worshiped him instead of Allah. Your Prophet left you yesterday;nevertheless you revolted against his grandson and killed him. How bad a communityyou are!The tyrannical one, Yazid, became angry and ordered the Jewish scholar to be hiton themouth, still the Jewish scholar said:Kill me if you want to. I have found in the Torah that whoever kills the progeny

of aprophet will be cursed as long as he remains. When he dies, Allah will cause himto enterthe fire of Hell.78

The layer of narration depicts an obvious anti-Jewish polemic, in suggesting that a Jewishscholar would say that the Children of Israel would have worshiped a grandson ofMoses instead78 Al-Hadaiq al-Wardiya, vol. 1, p. 131. Al-Futuh, vol. 5, p. 246

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of God. Leaving aside other references, in 1 Chronicles 26.24, we read that Shubael was adescendant of Gershom ben Moshe. In other words, any Jewish scholar - as this narrationpurports the man to be - would know that Moses did in fact leave grandchildren and they werenot worshiped. This is hardly the point at hand. What is the point is that the Shiì narratorsconnect the contemporary Jewish scholar with the Bani Israil of antiquity, and demonstrate anearly strata of narration where a Jewish scholar comes to the defense of the family ofMu.ammad.

The Ahl al-Bayt in Shiàh Traditions and Jewish Esoterism

The previous example is not the only correlation between the Ahl al-Bayt and Judaism. IsraelFreidlander has documented no less than fifteen points of overlap between Shiàhand thepreceding Ì.uniyah Jews. As well, in Shiàh sources, there are some surprisingexamples ofJewish ritualism and linguistic employment that still embarrasses the sect.

The collection of A.adith entitled "Bihar al-Anwar" explains that Imam Àli andotherA'immah performed miracles through the "Supreme Name" of Allah which is in Hebrew. Of theexpected "Mahdi" it is said:

Reported to us Ahmad ibn Mu.ammad ibn Said al Uqdah who said: Narrated to us Ali

ibn al-Hasan al-Taymali who said: narrated to us al-Hasan and Mu.ammad the sonsof

Ali ibnu Yusuf, from Sadan ibnu Muslim, from rajal, from al-Mufadhal ibn Umar who

said: Abu Abdullah reported: When the Imam Mahdi calls out, he will supplicate to

Allah in Hebrew.79

79 An-Nu'mani, Kitab al-Ghayba p. 326

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After receiving permission [to manifest himself], the [hidden] Imam will pronounce theHebrew Name of Allah; then his Companions, 313 in all, will gather around him inMecca, in the same way that small clouds come together in the autumn.80

Of this Hebrew Name we are told a description quite akin to that of the Tetragrammaton:ineffable and composed of four parts:

[In the beginning] Allah created a Name with non-sonorous letters, with anunpronounced vowel, an entity without a body; [a Name] indescribable, of a colorlesscolor, unlimited, veiled, though not covered with a veil, from all the senses and from allimagination. Allah made a perfect word out of it; a word composed of four parts,none ofwhich existed before the others; from these four parts, He showed three Names, in orderto respond to a need felt by the creatures, keeping one of them veiled: the Hidden, SecretName. Of the [three] Names shown, the exoteric name is Allah, the Exalted, the Most

High. Then He gave each of these three Names four Pillars, a total of twelve Pillars in all,and created thirty Names for each Pillar... These Names added to the Most BeautifulNames make a total of 360 Names, all coming from the [first] three Names that are thePillars and the Veils of the Single Secret Name, hidden by these three Names.81

The first "element of power" of the Imam is the Supreme Name of Allah (Al-ism al-a`zam/al-ismal-akbar). According to words ascribed via several chains of transmission to Juwayria ibn

80 An-Nu'mani, Kitab al-Ghayba, ch.20 p.44581 Al-Kulayni, Usul, "Kitab al-Hujja," Bab huduth al-asma, vol. 1 p.151-52, num1; Ibn Babuye, Kitab al-Tawhid,ch.29, p. 190-91, num 3

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Mushir, a companion of Àli, the supreme Name (in its full expansion) appears tobe a mysticalphrase in Syriac (Aramaic) or in Hebrew.

In one narration, Àli and his companions are in Babylonia (ard Babil); the sunis aboutto set and it is time for evening prayer; Àli then says that the land of Babylonia is damnedbecause it was the first region where idols were worshiped, and that it is forbidden for theProphet and their Heirs to perform prayer in this land. The companions are worried because thesun is setting and they are going to miss the best time for evening prayer; butÀli calmlycontinues his travel until the group leaves the region; then, when the sun has completelydisappeared over the horizon, he asks that his companions prepare for evening prayer. Juwayriareports that the Imam, withdrawing from the group, began to whisper a phrase inSyriac orHebrew (suryani aw ìbrani); then the sun began to reappear from behind the mountains, and thepeople could say their prayer. When Juwayria asked about is, Àli replied that h

e had spoken theSupreme Name, and that through the power of this Name he was able to reverse thetime.

If even some of the claims regarding the Supreme Name are true, then the power of theSupreme Name seems terrifying. According to many accounts, only Prophets and theAhl al-Bayt are able to stand such power. This is what we might conclude from a .adithreported by As-Saffar: Umar ibn Hanzala, a close disciple of Al-Baqir, asked his master to teach him theSupreme Name. "Can you stand it?" asked the fifth Imam, to which the disciple re

pliedaffirmatively. They then went to the Imam's home, where his hand was placed on the earth as hebegan to say the Name; the house was plunged into the greatest darkness, and Umar's entire bodybegan to tremble. He nevertheless heard the first part of the phrase and the Imam ordered him to

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not divulge it; al-Baqir raised his hand off the ground and things became normalagain.82However, a hasty statement by Ja`far according to which the Companion of Mu.ammad, Salmanal-Farsi had learned the Supreme Name83 suggests that the terrifying Name was taught toinitiates who had been especially tested. Accordingly, the Imam then said that if Abu Dharr [Al-Ghifari] had received Salman's Ìlm he would fall into kufr.84

According to the .adith, Salman and Abu Dharr were both close disciples of ImamÀli .The formed is in a sense the prototype of an esoteric spirituality, and the latter of an asceticexoteric spirituality. These are some of the many examples. Sunni examples are obviously lessdirect; instead pointing to examples, such as Mu.ammad kissing the Torah and setting it on acushion, while speaking directly to it (attesting his belief in it).

A group of Jewish people invited the messenger of Allah to a house. When he came, theyasked him: O Abu Qasim, one of our men committed adultery with a woman, what is

your judgment against him? So they placed a pillow and asked the messenger of Allah toset on it. Then the messenger of Allah proceeded to say: bring me the Torah. When theybrought it, he removed the pillow from underneath him and placed the Torah on itandsaid: I believe in you and in the one who revealed you, then said: bring me oneof youwho have the most knowledge. So they brought him a young man who told him the storyof the stoning.85

82 On Jwayris ibn Mushir al-Àbdi al-Kufi, see at-Tusi, Rijal, p.37 num 4; Al-Ar

dabili, Jami' ar-Ruwat, vol. 1 p.16970;Basa'ir, section 5, ch. 2, pp 217-19; see also Ibn Babuye, AmÀli , "majlis" 71,p.467-68, num. 10 (Àli statesthat the Supreme Name is in Syriac). Basa'ir section 4, ch 12, nadir min al-bab,p.210, num 183 al-Kashshi, rijal, p.7; al-Mufid, al-Ikhtisas, p.1184 al-Mufid, al-Ikhtisas, p.12; al-Majlisi, Bihar, vol. 6 p78385 Book 38.4434

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How is this .adith viewed in the Ummah? Naturally it is rejected, as it is dissimilar andtheological embarrassment to the mainstream dogma. The issue is pinpointed witha transmitterHisham ibn Saad Al-Madani. Hafith Ibn Hajr says about him in his Taqrib, that hewas"Honest" though had "mistakes, and delved into Shi'ism." Thus, once again, we find that eventhose who we were not Shiàh themselves found Jewish Mu.ammad traditions from amongst theschool of the Ahl al-Bayt. While many of the most anti-Jewish polemicists in Islamicatescholarship seem to detest him, Abu Zuraah said, "His status is honesty" and Al-Ìjli said, "Hishadith are permitted, and are Hasan Al-Hadith.86

Shiàh sources, in addition to foretelling that the Mahdi will pray with Allah'sHebrew"Supreme Name" also tell that 27 out of his 313 companions will be Levites, ANDthat he willrule "according to the rulings of David and Solomon" AND even a whole series ofreports thatseem to foretell the rediscovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls(!!!) or something simil

ar. Here is onereference to it (there are many). According to Al-Kafi, the Ma

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Tentative Qumran to Quran