“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Give us a moment. Now. The Essenes had deep roots in some of the mystery religions of the Greeks. Some of the Essenes set up schools that were not what they appeared to be. Subterfuge was used. There were various tests applied before an initiate could come close to the interior doctrines. (Pause.) There were other groups of Essenes, therefore, beside the one generally spoken of.

(The Essene group generally known would be the Jewish sect in the Holy Land during the time of Christ, early in the first century. Historically they are thought of as a peaceful group.)

The Essenes, as they are known, were a surviving group from a larger and more ancient brotherhood. Some existed in Asia Minor. Efforts were made to infiltrate into national or group cultures. Certain basic ideas united the Essenes, therefore, though often they went by different names. (Pause.) There were three basic groups: the one generally thought of, an offshoot in Africa, and the Asia Minor group mentioned earlier. Little contact existed between these groups, however, and gradually the inner doctrines themselves showed important variations.

Some of the members of the Zealots were originally Essenes. The Essenes predated them. John the Baptist was an Essene in all important ways; yet a man who steps forward in such a way automatically steps out of his group, and so did your friend, John.

(9:46.) There was some jealousy, then, from certain members of the Essenes at John’s progress. At one time John attempted to join various divergent groups together as one brotherhood, but he failed. The failure weighed heavily upon him. Fire is seldom gentle, and John the Baptist was as filled with fire as Paul.

The Essenes kept sets of records to confuse the Zealots, and another set to confuse the Romans, and they very carefully guarded the inner set from which all the facts were made. They were not as violent as the other groups, but they were as shrewd.

(Concerning symbols… In 1947 scholars began acquiring the seven now famous Dead Sea Scrolls. They had been found in a cave situated above the usually dry Qumran wadi, or riverbed, which leads to the Dead Sea a mile or so away. Excavations in the Judaean desert nearby soon revealed the ruins of a monastery which had been occupied by a divergent Jewish group, for varying periods, between 180 B.C. and A.D. 68. The Qumran settlement was but fifteen miles from Jerusalem and Bethlehem. It has been linked with the peaceful Essene sect by some authorities, while others just as strongly associate it with the more aggressive Zealots.