“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

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.

It would be nearly impossible for anyone except one of the innermost circle to distinguish between some of the versions presented. These signs would not appear isolated, but in such a fashion that only those who knew how to look for them would find them. They were not blazed in gold on the title page. (Humorously.)

Words, therefore, are often used to cover up as well as to reveal. Great efforts are taken so that knowledge is kept, often, from a majority and for a few. In Biblical times this was all the more true. Literary devices themselves served as formalized methods of seeming to indulge certain information, while actually offering instead falsified data. No question in those days was answered directly (emphatically) — not by those who were at all literate.

Many of the men involved did lead double lives then, known in their villages by one name, and in their brotherhoods by another. In some cases, their more mundane identities were never divulged but to a few. Later, when the Christians were being persecuted, there were many safeguards taken — particularly by those who believed they had a responsibility to live long enough to see the new creed find fertile ground.