An early Christian poem

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The First Christians / pt. 11 A remarkable poem from the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (T12P) invites commentary. I give the passage in full below, which comes from the Testament of Levi. We have seen that the author of T12P singled out Levi and Judah for special recognition. Among the Jews, these two tribes held religious power and royal power respectively. Yeshu haNotsri was a Levite (as were all males in the Hasmonean line) and thus was a priest by birth. Historically, the poem below has been routinely interpreted through Catholic lenses. Today, conservative scholarship assumes it (and much of T12P) refers to Jesus of Nazareth and accordingly dates the entire work to late I CE+. However, the consensus of scholarship … Continue reading →

The heart of the matter

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From time to time on this website I have reiterated the essence of the Christian religion: baptism, a sacrament involving immersion in running water where “water” symbolizes gnosis and “baptism” signifies conversion, enlightenment, and resurrection all in one. Baptism was the first Christian sacrament and for a long time the only one. It appeared among the Naṣarene Christians once the symbolic equivalence water = gnosis was firmly established, probably by the turn of the era. However, conversion, enlightenment, and resurrection are (and can only be) private. Originally, the sacrament of baptism was a ritual, a public acknowledgment, affirmation, and celebration of those all-important private transformations. Only later was baptism itself endowed with quasi-magical properties when it became a ceremony of … Continue reading →

The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs

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The First Christians / pt. 10 The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (T12P) is a long work made up of deathbed testaments of the sons of Jacob, they being the patriarchs of the twelve tribes of Israel. The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha edition (1983) suggests a dating shortly after 150 BCE (I.778), loosely based on suspected parallels with Qumran literature. However, in recent decades the dating of Qumran has itself moved several generations later (DeVaux’s early Period 1 is doubtful), with the result that those suspected “Essene” parallels should now be moved up to a century later. This revised dating conforms with my own research that places both the heyday of the DSS and that of Naṣarene literature in the middle to the … Continue reading →

The road to two Gods

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The First Christians / pt. 9 Prior posts have noted that (a) the Naṣarenes disparaged the material realm and termed God “the Lord of Spirits” (Parables of Enoch); (b) they were radically ebionite, despising the rich and identifying with the poor of the world; and (c) “Rather than being immersed in the affairs of the world, raising a family, and accruing riches, the first Christians were symbolically immersed in gnosis as in flowing water.” At Qumran we similarly witness a general flight from the world, together with asceticism. But Qumran, as we have seen, attempted a fusion (or compromise) between the radically uncompromising message of Yeshu on the one hand, and Judaism on the other. Thus, the Qumranites present a mixture of … Continue reading →

The early Christians and Qumran

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The First Christians / pt. 8 Early Enochian literature of the second century BCE (the Book of Watchers, Dream Visions, etc.) was very popular at Qumran, as attested by the many copies that survive in the DSS. However, Naṣarene literature of the first century BCE is spectacularly absent from the DSS, including the Parables of Enoch which we have looked at in recent posts. Other works that were inspired by the sect of the Naṣarenes are also absent from the DSS. We should recognize that the early followers of Yeshu—those who lived in the mid- to late-first century BCE—were not yet called Naṣarenes. The name “Naṣarene” came after their founding prophet was dubbed “haNotsri,” which means “the guardian, preserver.” Thus: Yeshu haNotsri, … Continue reading →

The Parables of Enoch—Pt. 3

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The First Christians / pt. 7 The Parables of Enoch (chapters 37–71 of 1 Enoch) is a unique composition dating to the last decades of the first century BCE. It has been preserved as part of the First Book of Enoch (1 Enoch), but scholars have noted that it does not fit its context, neither as to theology nor vocabulary. Its dating is also different: the remaining parts of 1 Enoch have been dated to late II BCE, while the Parables of Enoch are dated a century later (more on dating below). One writer has opined: “I think we should not even rule out the possibility that the authors of the Parables might have been Jewish Christians.”  The theology of the Parables—in … Continue reading →

The Parables of Enoch—Pt. 2

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The First Christians / pt. 6 In the previous post I introduced the Parables (also called “Similitudes”) of Enoch, which forms a major part (chps. 37–71) of the book known as 1 Enoch. Scholars date these chapters to around the turn of the era, which happens also to be the critical period of the first followers of Yeshu haNotsri (d. ca. 65 BCE). I identify those early followers with Epiphanius’ Nasarenes (Panarion 18)—not to be confused with his invented sect of Nazoraeans (Pan 29). Except for the “nazirite” (in Judaism, a person consecrated to God, generally temporarily), all cognates with the “z” sound betray Catholic inventions: Nazarene (Mk 1:24), Nazareth and Nazoraean (Mt 2:23), as well as variations of these words found … Continue reading →

The earliest “Christian” sects

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The First Christians / pt. 4 The purposes of this post are to situate the reader in a relatively unfamiliar time (the first century BCE) and political situation (the Hasmonean Kingdom giving way to Roman hegemony); as well as to introduce religious groups that go by various names and later petered out: Nasarenes, Nazoreans, Therapeutae, and Essenes. The Roman general Pompey conquered Palestine in 63 BCE and subordinated it to the province of Syria. The conquest marked the end of the Hasmonean kingdom and was the last time Jews would rule the land until the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. The Temple still stood after the Roman conquest (it would be destroyed in 70 CE), priests and Pharisees continued … Continue reading →

2024 website statistics

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I thought it might be of interest to some readers, now and in future, to give a snapshot of this website’s parameters as far as traffic, extent, and growth are concerned. The site has been in existence for twelve years (two of them inactive in “sleep mode”). It began in Sept. 2012 for several reasons. One was to publicly chronicle my investigations into early Christianity, which I knew would be novel, if not ground-breaking. Another was that a public blog forced me to order my thinking and to put it in cogent, understandable terms. Finally, the blog would endure as a readily accessible future reference, both for myself and for others. Given its intellectual content and the esoteric nature of … Continue reading →

Jewish-Christian literature: the Parables of Enoch

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The First Christians / pt. 5 The period between the death of Yeshu haNotsri ca. 65 BCE and the acceptance of the canonical gospels ca. 150 CE (215 years in all!) represents a lengthy period in which the theology of Jesus took forms that today we would scarcely recognize as “Christian.” A vast literature survives from this era, some of it denominated Christian, some denominated Jewish, some considered an amalgam of the two religions, and some whose theology remains frankly “uncertain.” This literature, because it did not enter either body of religious scripture, is termed “Jewish pseudepigrapha” and “Christian apocrypha.”  Both terms are treated pejoratively by the guild. Pseudepigrapha literally means “false writings,” and the term “apocryphal” immediately raises suspicion in biblical … Continue reading →