India in Primitive Christianity: Chapter XI. The Essene Jesus

Was Jesus an Essene?—Nazarites or Nazareens—Baptised by the Nazarite John—A Secret Society—"Inquire who is worthy!"—Essene Bread Oblation—Miracle of the Loaves—Probably an Essene Passover gathering—The Codex Nazaraeus—The earliest gathering of Christians at Rome—Essene water drinkers and vegetarians—The Gospel according to the Hebrews—Gospel of the Infancy.

Was Jesus an Essene?

Historical questions are sometimes made more clear by being treated broadly. Let us first deal with this from the impersonal side, leaving out altogether the alleged words and deeds of Christ, Paul, etc. Fifty years before Christ's birth there was a sect dwelling in the stony waste where John prepared a people for the Lord. Fifty years after Christ's death there was a sect in the same part of Palestine. The sect that existed fifty years before Christ was called Essenes or Nazarites, or Nazareens. The sect that existed fifty years after Christ's death were called Nazarines or Nazarites, Therapeuts, Gnostics, Continentes, and according to Epiphanius "Essenes or Jesseans." They were not called Christians in the first century at all.

Each had two prominent rites: baptism, and what Tertullian calls the "oblation of bread." Each had for officers, deacons, presbyters, ephemereuts. Each sect had monks, nuns, celibacy, community of goods.

Now, if, as believed by Dr. Lightfoot, the chief object of Christ's mission was to establish for ever the Mosaism of the bloody altar, and combat the main teaching of the "Ascetic" as he was called, which "postulates the false principle of the malignity of matter," why did He go to a Mystic to be baptised? Whether or not Christ belonged to mystical Israel, there can be no discussion about the Baptist. He was a Nazarite "separated from his mother's womb," who had induced a whole "people" to come out to the desert and adopt the Essene rites and their community of goods. And we see, from a comparison of the Essene and early Christian initiations, what such baptism carried with it. It implied preliminary instruction and vows of implicit obedience to the instructor.

It is plain, too, that the Essene Christ knows at first nothing of any antagonism to His teacher.

"The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it" (Luke xvi. 16).

This shows that far from believing that He had come to preserve the Mosaism of the bloody altar, He considered that John and the Essenes had power to abrogate it.

Listen, too, to Christ's instructions to His twelve disciples:—

"As ye go, preach, saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

This is the simple gospel of John.

"Provide neither gold nor silver nor brass in your purses, nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes."

"And all that believed were together, and had all things common" (Acts ii. 44).

"If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come and follow me" (Matt. xix. 21).

A rigid continence was exacted:—

"All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. . . . There be eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it" (Matt. xix. ii, 12).

"And I looked, and, lo! a Lamb stood on Mount Zion, and with Him an hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Father's name written on their foreheads. . . . These are they which were not defiled with women, for they are virgins" (Rev. xiv. I, 4).

Divines tell us that this first passage is to have only a "spiritual" interpretation. It forbids not marriage, but excess. We might listen to this if we had not historical cognisance of a sect in Palestine at this date which enforced celibacy in its monasteries. The second passage shows that the disciples understand Him literally.

The bloody sacrifice forbidden:—

"I will have mercy and not sacrifice" (Matt. ix. 13).

"Blessed are the just, the peacemakers, and the believers."

"Blessed are the peacemakers who abstain from evil."

"Desire not gold nor silver nor the riches of the world, for the world will perish and all its riches."

"Feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, for he who gives will receive abundantly."

"Put on your stoles and white garments, O Peacemakers, symbols of the Water of Life. Put on your heads white crowns like the crowns of glory of heaven's angels. Take up arms not of steel but of more worthy metal, the weapons of faith and justice, the weapons of the Nazarine."

One point is its strong hostility to the Mosaism of the bloody altar.

"Then shall appear that ignoble nation which will kill fat offerings, and make God's sanctuary swim in blood. It will commit wicked acts, and call itself the People of the House of Israel. It will circumcise with a bloody sword, and smear its face and lips with gore. Its sons will burn with infamous lusts, perverting

"Say not that to the Most High alone is known the mysteries. He has revealed them to you."

"When thou eatest, drinkest, or sleepest or restest, in all things strive to exalt the Name of the great King of Light, and hasten to the Jordan to receive His baptism."

"Give bread and water, and a home to him who is tormented by the tyranny of persecution."

"When thou makest a gift, O chosen one, seek no witness thereof to mar thy bounty."

"The mercy, goodness and majesty of the King of Light cannot be fathomed."

"None can know these things save the life that is within thee, and the spirits and messengers that gird thee around."

"Thy creatures they know not even thy name."

"The Kings of Light ask one another, What is the name of the Great Light?

"They answer, He has no name!

"No poor sculptor of earth has fashioned his throne.

"The palace of the King was not built up by earthly masons.

"Immoveable he dwells in a city of Adamant, a city without discord or broils.

"In that city are no butchers, or gluttons surcharged with animal food.

"The tears of weeping women disturb it not.

"Revealer, who makest known the inmost secrets, have mercy upon us."

These are the simple rites of the Nazarines:—

"Assemble the faithful. Read to them the Scriptures. Pray to the Lord for His mercy, that His splendour may go before and His light follow after."

The fact that the disciples of the Baptist are called the Nazareens in the "Codex Nazaræus" is important. The Christians according to the Acts were called Nazarines, and the section of Christ's flock which kept close to the traditions of the Apostles was called the Nazarines for at least three hundred years. Pilate on the cross wrote up Ἰησοῦς ο Ναζαραίος (Jesus the Nazarine). This in our Gospels is translated "Jesus of Nazareth," a place invented some think for the purpose. The "Encyclopædia" Britannica announces that there is no mention of this "Nazareth" outside the New Testament until Jerome and Eusebius seek to identify it with an insignificant village near the modern Nasira.

The Gospels announce that Christ was born in Bethlehem, but that he lived for some time in Nazareth, but a Roman Procurator in giving the name and crime of a condemned man would scarcely descend to such small facts in his biography. The prophecy, "He shall be called the Nazarine," wherever it comes from, has been literally fulfilled. Jews, old and modern, early Christians, Mussulmans, all the East, have used this title, and it is still used. "Nazarite" and "Nazarine" are the same word. "We are they," says Tertullian, "of whom it is written, Her Nazarites shall be whiter than snow."

The main evidence for this is deduced from St. Paul's epistles, which assert roundly that the chief apostles "Cephas, James, and John" attempted to compel the new church to "live as do the Jews." They enforced the old laws about circumcision, the Sabbath, unclean meats, festivals, and holidays. They forbade any preaching to the Gentiles. In this last they were certainly backed by speeches put into the mouth of Jesus Himself in some of the Gospels. He commands His apostles to avoid the Gentiles and go to the "lost sheep of the House of Israel." They are not to give that which is holy to the dogs, or cast their pearls before swine. That the "dogs" mean the Gentiles is proved by Christ's dialogue with the woman of Samaria. And the following text is cited to clench the postulate that the earliest Christianity was pure Mosaism.

"Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am come not to destroy but to fulfil.

"For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall by no means pass from the law."

Now all this it must be admitted would upset the main contention of this book, if by the word "law" Jesus and St. Paul meant the Mosaic law as interpreted by the dominant party.

Let us take St. Paul first. He is rather vague about the word "law," and uses it in more senses than one. Sometimes the word means the mere law of

That brings us to the first of our string of questions. Did Christianity know anything like early Buddhism and its Buddha?

Now certainly there was an early Christianity whose leader was a mere man. He is born of a woman, and has a line of human ancestors. He forsakes all to become a Nazareen, as Buddha desires to become a Yogi. He has his baptism, his fastings, his temptations by the spirit of evil. He sits in solitude to purify his soul, and render it a fit receptacle for the Spirit of God. He has human imperfections. He prays that the cup of death may pass away from him.

The Jewish Saint becomes full of the Spirit of God and goes forth to preach the Dharma Raj—the Kingdom of Justice. He denounces bloody sacrifices; and like Buddha, has his "Beatitudes," invoking blessings on altruism, a forgiving spirit, purity, the love of even our enemies. At the last supper a treacherous disciple dips into the dish of each. Both die like ordinary mortals; and a Magdalena washes the dead body of each with her tears.

"And when the people had been baptised, Jesus also came and was baptised by John.

"And as he went up the heavens were opened, and he saw the Holy Spirit, in shape of a dove, descending and entering into him.

"And a voice from heaven said, Thou art my beloved Son. I have this day begotten thee.

"And straightway a great light shone around the place. And John fell down before him, and said, I pray thee, Lord, baptise thou me.

"But he prevented him, saying, Let be; for thus it is becoming that all things be fulfilled.

"And it came to pass when the Lord had come up from the water, the entire fountain of the Holy Spirit descended and rested upon him, and said to him—'My Son, in all the prophets did I wait thee, that thou mightest come and I might rest in thee;

"'For thou art my rest. Thou art my first-born Son for ever and for ever.'"

Two points are noticeable here. The Holy Ghost "enters into" Jesus. And the Voice from heaven makes an accurate quotation from the Old Testament.

"Thou art my beloved Son; this day have I begotten thee." This did not suit subsequent orthodoxy, and it has been altered.

Another passage has also been altered for the same purpose.

I will give a few more quotations.

"I have come to abolish sacrifices, and if ye do not cease to sacrifice the wrath of God against you will not cease."

"Be ye approved money changers."

The transfiguration in this Gospel is very like Buddha's ascent to the Devaloca to meet his mother.

"Just now, my mother, the Holy Spirit, took me by one of my hairs and bore me up to the great mountain of Tabor.

"He that hath marvelled shall reign, and he that hath reigned shall rest."

Jesus figures as a prophet raised up from his brethren.

"I am he concerning whom Moses prophesied, saying, A prophet will the Lord our God raise unto you from your brethren even as me.

"Him hear ye in all things, for whosoever heareth not that prophet shall die."

It is to be mentioned also that the "locusts" eaten by John the Baptist are unknown in this Gospel.

"His food was wild honey whereof the taste was of manna."

Of a scene that is described as occurring on the night of the crucifixion, I will speak by-and-bye.

The church of Jerusalem had five characteristics:—

(1) They held Jesus to be "a man in like sense with all," as may be seen from Hippolytus (L. VII. 2).

(2) They rejected the writings of Paul, and indeed all other New Testament scriptures, except the Gospel according to the Hebrews.

(3) They refused to eat meat, like the Essenes.

(4) Like the Essenes also, they rejected wine, even in the Sacramentum. "Therefore do these men