Shalom everyone, Are you someone who thinks along the lines of, “Look at the terrible things that far-right Jews are doing to non-Jews in Israel! Therefore all Israelis are wicked, Israel is evil, and should not exist!“ The conclusion does not logically follow on from...

I realise that some people have a deep, emotional connection with the term ’Essene’, and firmly believe that Yeshua’s community was part of the Essene movement. However, as individuals who take a scholarly approach to ancient religious history, we have to be realistic...

This article is basically a reference article containing all the quotes of Josephus about the Essenes. 1. The Jewish War Book II, Chapters 8.2–13 (Whiston §§119–161) This is Josephus’s longest and most detailed description of the Essenes. Book II, Chapter 8, Sections...

This is the final part 3 of a 3-part series on the Essenes, comparing their teachings and beliefs with those of Yeshua: Part 1: Were Yeshua and Yaakov Essenes? A Comparison of their Similarities Part 2: The Shocking Similarities between Paul’s teachings and Essene...

This is part 2 of a 3-part series on the Essenes, comparing their teachings and beliefs with those of Yeshua: Part 1: Were Yeshua and Yaakov Essenes? A Comparison of their Similarities Part 2: The Shocking Similarities between Paul’s teachings and Essene beliefs Part...

This is part 1 of a 3-part series on the Essenes, comparing their teachings and beliefs with those of Yeshua. Throughout this set of 3 articles, I have used ChatGPT. It would have taken me far too long to research through the entire corpus of Qumran literature myself...

This is a follow-up article to a previous article, where I defined the biblical difference between Apocalypse and Tribulation. To summarise, an apocalypse is a literal end of the world, with a cessation of the present cosmological order, to be completely replaced by a...

Shalom everyone, On ancient Jewish tombstones in Aramaic, in Yeshua’s time, a common refrain carved on them was, dakir hu le-tab, ‘May he be remembered for good’, or dekirah hi le-tab, ‘May she be remembered for good’. This was an ancient way of saying, ‘May the act...

Shalom everyone, Around Britain, there are recreations of villages from different time-periods in ancient British history. There is one famous one called Butser Farm, which began life as an Iron Age farm, recreating life from about 2,500 years ago. The aim of these...

I was recently asked to explain what was distinctive about Massorite Talmidaism, in comparison to Ebionism. As for what a Massorite is, it would be too simplistic to say that we are just ‘Karaites who follow Yeshua as a prophet’, because it’s not as clear-cut as that,...