SPIRITUAL REBIRTH AND THE ESSENES

(What Is It All About, Anyway?)

*****

by R. Joshua Walker

The expression "born again" has been kicked around by so many different kinds of shoes that it is difficult for the sincere seeker after truth to know what to make of it. It is doubly unfortunate that many who identify themselves as "born-againers" are a poor advertisement for the spiritual condition or position the term is meant to describe.

The surest and sometimes only way to determine the basic ideas, realities or concepts of any religion - whether Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism...- is to study the oldest and truest documents that lie at the root of their beginnings. For Christianity, this is a two-fold process: the mother of Christianity is Judaism, and it is often necessary to study both Judaic and Christian texts in order to fully comprehend a Christian concept or spiritual reality. This is not a new idea but what is not generally perceived is that the modern day perceptions are based upon the narrowly delimited sect of Pharisaical Judaism. This is the Judaism of 2000 years ago, carried forward, and now called "Traditional" Judaism. Thus, the Old Testament scriptures and writings of the Rabbis are usually -unconsciously - read in the atmosphere, and as products, of Pharisaical Judaism. If the legalistic, rote observance of Traditional Judaism and much of Christianity was not in fact uninspiring, if not stultifying, so many would not have left those faiths to seek enlightenment in the Eastern Philosophies, cults and so forth.

The Hasidic movement, the Dead Sea Scriptures and the non-canonical or apocryphal texts afford us an entirely different and vibrantly alive view of the religious life of the Judaians and early Christians. For whatever reason, this view became lost to man until recent times. According to Philo of Alexandria, Josephus the historian and the Essenes themselves, the true Judaic religion of Jeshua's/Jesus' day was not Pharisaism, Sudducism or anything else, but Essenism.ⁱ In ii, 2-13 of the Zadokite Document, the Essenes who refer to themselves as the "Elect," also say of themselves:

"Nevertheless, in all of their generations He has ever raised up for Himself duly designated men, so that He might provide survival for the earth and fill the face of the world with their seed. And to these has He ever revealed His holy spirit at the hands of His anointed and has ever disclosed the truth"

Reading through the Old Testament or Tenach, one finds continual reference to schools or bands of prophets, and no doubt, the Essenes regarded themselves as the present-day perpetrators of the prophetic tradition. Looking again through the Old Testament, one also finds a dual religious tradition. All through the Scriptures there are references to a personal relationship with God through His Holy Spirit, and running parallel to that point of view is that of the priestly legalists for whom animal sacrifice was the requisite to spirituality. One wonders in this dichotomy, if the Almighty was saying to mankind: "It's your choice, personal relationship with Me, or arm's length rote obedience and sacrifice." In all ages, there are always the "go-to-the-holy-place-to- worship-at-the-appointed-times," people, and those who seek a moment-by-moment dialogue with the Deity. It is a choice we all have to make. At some point, the Pharisees supplanted the importance of Temple worship with observance of the Mitzvoth or oral commandments attributed to Moses, such that the Siddur or Prayer Book verbally reprises the Temple sacrifices.

Examples of the prophetic disdain for sacrifice and desire for communion with God through His Holy Spirit may be found in many places; below are just a few:

"Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and uphold me with Your generous Spirit. "For You do not desire sacrifice, or I would give it; ...The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and contrite heart You will not despise." (Psa.11-17)

"For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings." (Hos.6:6)

"With what shall I come before Jehovah, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will Jehovah be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does Jehovah require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:6-8)

In Jesus' time, the contemporary school of prophets , according to the accounts of Josephus and Philo and in the words of their own writings, seems to have been the Essenes, who were to be found in every city and village throughout the land. It is quite possible, if fact, that the Essenes were the dominant sect of Jesus' day and later became lost to history

--perhaps because they were assimilated into the early Christian church. The Essenes were clearly the charismatics of Jesus' day and it to is their writings and spirituality rather than to Pharisaical Judaism we must look for a more complete understanding of the roots of Jesus' teachings, and therefore of the spiritual concepts and realities which underlie Christianity. Moreover, even in fairly recent times, Judaism itself has rebelled against the strict legalism of the Pharisees. As the Christians had their Martin Luther to inveigh against Catholic legalism, so the Baal Shem Tov or Besht began the Hassidic movement which swept through European Jewry with its invigorating spiritual life perhaps indeed, a modern day Essenism!

The indispensable experience, the sine qua non which initiates and creates a Christian, of whatever denomination, lies in the words of Jesus as reported in John 3:1-8:

"There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, 'Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.' Jesus answered and said to him, ''Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.' Nicodemus said to Him, 'How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?' Jesus answered, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you , you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.'"

When Jesus informed Nicodemus that the Holy Spirit was like the wind, He was stating that as with the wind which is ever in motion everywhere, so also the Holy Spirit is always present for all of us in order to convey spiritual reality or programming into our predisposing daily existences. It is a perhaps not properly appreciated fact that the role of the Holy Spirit did not begin at Pentecost, as we see above, but apparently has been laboring in man's behalf from earth's beginning. This is implicit in Genesis 6:3 preceding the flood of Noah, when the Lord declares "

My spirit will not always strive with man" So, the Holy Spirit is not just some charismatic phenomenon of hysterical Christians, but It has a long history throughout the Old Testament saga of the Hebrews.

It is perhaps significant that Jesus refers to water baptism before he speaks of the Spirit. Throughout ancient Judaism, immersion in water was required for purification from sin and defilement, but confession and repentance had to precede the symbol of water immersion. In Mathew 3, John the Baptist says "...repent...and all...were baptized of him in the Jordan, confessing their sins." The Baptist, whom the scholars link to the Essene brotherhood, was but enacting in his ministry the Essene formula for spiritual rebirth as found in The Manual of Discipline (ii,25-iii,12) of the Dead Sea Scriptures:

"...a man...cannot be cleared by mere ceremonies of atonement, nor cleansed by any waters of ablution, nor sanctified by immersion in lakes or rivers, nor purified by any bath...Only through the Holy Spirit can he achieve union with God's truth and be purged of his iniquities."

It is evident that immersion in water was only a tangible symbol of an inner process of cleansing through sincere repentance --that is, a reconsideration or turn about of one's ways or lifestyle.

The idea of rebirth implies the existence of two different modes or types of existence. This was something the Essenes knew very well. Whether one believes it literally or allegorically true (or both,) the story of Adam's - and therefore man's - fall in the Garden of Eden contains the theoretical basis for man's ongoing existential dilemma: the struggle between our will and God's will; between good and evil; between manic egotism and universal love. What is presupposed in the phenomenon of spiritual rebirth is that in emulation of Adam, man was consciously and genetically structuring his ego and existence in accordance with his own imaginings, in ignorance of and defiance for what structurings the Creator already had in place. Put another way, since the Creator invented the game (of life) and built the ball field, He was entitled to establish the rules of the game to the best interests and enjoyment of the players. The irrational rebellion of human ego however, insists upon every man making up his own rules until the game becomes a destructive chaos in which no individuals rights are respected. Moreover, as long as man refuses to listen to Divine reason, he forfeits the wonderful promise of I Cor. 2:9: "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him."

But, this is not just a matter of man the naughty child refusing to obey his Father, in the sense that is, of doing actions which he has been told are wrong. Today, in this chaotic day and age, our ears are so deadened by the sound of so many insistent human voices that we are as incredulous as Nicodemus who comprehended dictatorial religious rules but was blind to the notion of intimate fellowship and dialogue with God expressed throughout the Bible along side of the legalistic texts which he and his coreligionists knew so well. Although modern man is conditioned so as to not hear or even believe there is a voice of God speaking to him, yet, God has always been reaching out to us, as we see in the previous reference to Noah. Put in more modern terms, man is like a computer who keeps programming himself with but the most imperfect idea of how the machine is made or can be caused to work most effectively. When Jesus likens the activity of the Spirit to the unseen movements of the wind, He is indicating that a Help system is always available for every aspect of human existence. Moreover, this Help system, the ever-present extension of God's Being is that Spirit which "...was hovering over the fact of the waters." (Gen. 1:2) as the agent of Divine creation.

In the writings of the ancient Rabbis (Gen.Rab.2:4) it is written:

R.Shim'on Laquish explained: "and the spirit of God hovered over the face of the water (Gen. 1:2)--this is the spirit of King Messiah, as it is written, And the spirit of the Lord will rest upon him (Isa. 11:2). By what merit will it [the spirit of the Messiah] come?...By the merit of repentance."

There are many vital things of an energy or spirit nature upon which our lives depend, and which we know little or nothing about. How does life-force (what the Hindus, rightly or wrongly, call Prana) get into the foods we eat and absorbed into ourselves? What causes plants to grow, or the cycles of the seasons? What is mind? What is love? Why does the universe exhibit the intelligence, planning, beauty which Einstein and other scientists have remarked upon and attributed to a Creator? All these mysteries are incorporated in Jesus as the Messiah or Savior who is the pre-existent Creative Word or Logos. Jesus, as One with God and the Spirit declared in John 6:25: "I am the bread of life." In John 15, Jesus added: "I am the vine, you are the branches." He went on to explain that branches which cut themselves off from Him have no option but to wither and die. Or, if the computer of ourselves is not plugged into the Power Source we are essentially and eternally lifeless, even though we may have a similitude of short-term egoistic life.

The writings of the Apostle Paul on the fruit and gifts of the Spirit are well known. He, and other of the apostles were almost certainly familiar with the dynamic writings of the Essene brotherhood in regard to the Holy Spirit. Theirs is a very descriptive and down to earth view which seems to be rather more cogent and realistic than what is expressed in the teachings of many of our present day religious congregations. Note that while the Essenes might be said to be forerunners of Christian spirituality, yet, despite their attachment to Old Covenant Law, their sense of God's omnipresent Spirit was foundational and omnipotent. In the Zadokite Document III [iv,init.](xv,1-xvi,20), we read: "On the day that a man pledges himself to return to the Law of Moses, the Angel of Obstruction will start receding from him --that is, if he keep his word." In the quote below, it is hard to see where Eastern philosophy, or any other philosophy, could offer more spiritual possibilities than that to be found in the Essene way of life.

The enlightenment of man's heart, the making straight before him all the ways of righteousness and truth, the implanting In his heart of fear for the judgments of God, of a spirit of humility, of patience, of abundant compassion, of perpetual goodness, of insight, of perception, of that sense of the Divine Power that is based at once on an apprehension of God's works and a reliance on His plenteous mercy, of a spirit of knowledge informing every plan of action, of a zeal for righteous government, of a hallowed mind in a controlled nature, of abounding love for all who follow the truth, of a self-respecting purity which abhors all the taint of filth, of a modesty of behavior coupled with a general prudence and an ability to hide within oneself the secrets of what one knows --these are the things that come to men in this world through communion with the spirit of truth. And the guerdon of all that walk in its ways is health and abundant well-being, with long life and fruition of seed along with eternal blessings and everlasting joy in the life everlasting, and a crown of glory and a robe of honor amid light perpetual."

We may note in passing, that "hiding the secrets" may be analogous to Jesus admonition not to cast one's pearls before the swine.

So, what is being "born again?" As Jesus said, the Holy Spirit is like the unseen wind, or, today, we might liken It to the television and radio airwaves which surround all of us constantly. The problem is, if we do not tune in to the "God channel" we are not going to hear anything. The Holy Spirit conveys the Presence and message of God throughout the ages. The Holy Spirit unites man with the God of all ages. Being born again means accepting the sacrificial atonement of God's uniquely begotten Son and attuning oneself, allowing one's self to receive and be transformed by the circumambient Holy Spirit. It means allowing the universality of the Holy Spirit to rework and transform our petty egoisms into limitless perceptions and creativity. It means, in short, allowing the Holy Spirit to bring us into the reality of having been created "in the image and likeness of God" (Gen. 1:27).

However, in John 6:65, Jesus said, "...no man can come to me unless it has been granted him by the Father."

It is not an opportunity to be passed up!

^IPhilo of Alexandria, Egypt lived at the time of Christ, was brother to Alexander, the Rome-appointed leader of the vast Jewish community, was probably the head of a large monastic group centered at Lake Mareotic in Egypt and wrote at least ten volumes of allegorical interpretation of Scripture, and was undoubtedly the expositor of the entire Logos concept of the Messiah featured in the Preamble to the Gospel of John and other New Testament writings.

Josephus, or Flavius Josephus also lived in the time of Christ and is the sole Jewish historian of the times, having written hundreds of pages detailing the Antiquities of the Jews, and Wars of the Jews.