Professor James Tabor questions whether the Last Supper was in fact a Seder and on many of the issues that he raises, he is correct. However, on some matters he is clearly not correct. First, he asserts that there was no Seder per se until after the 2nd Century C.E. Actually, the meal associated with Pesach dates back before the Hebrews adopted the customs of the first pilgrim feast from the pagan shepherds in Canaan. As Seder means order, the order of the meal may have changed and is open to change today.
Second, Professor Tabor accurately points out that the alleged meal that takes place in the Synoptics cannot have been as stated because of the difficulties in the dating. If in fact as the Synoptics say, the Seder occurred on a Thursday evening; that would have made Pesach occur on the Friday. No High Priest or observant Jew would have held a trial on Pesach. A trial is clearly work and to do work on the High Sabbath of Pesach would have been a grave sin. This particular Pesach would have had a double Sabbath as the next day, the first day of Unleavened Bread, would have been the regular Sabbath of the week. Again, no trial would be allowed on that day. How do we resolve the problem? John’s Gospel has the Seder occurring on a Wednesday. Matthew clearly says that Yeshua was a Nasorean in Matthew 2:23. Therefore, it follows that he and his disciples would have followed the Essene Calendar. On that particular year, the Essene Pesach was a day earlier than the Farsi and Zaddoki Pesach. Thus, Yeshua would have had his Seder on Wednesday evening and been tried on Thursday, which was the day of preparation for the Farsi and Zaddoki. As a result, the trial could have been held on Wednesday night and Yeshua would have been executed on Thursday.
On the other hand Joachim Jeremias in his book The Eucharistic Words of Jesus lists at least 14 distinct parallels between the Last Supper Tradition and the Seder Meal. In his Biblical Archaeology Review article, Professor Tabor says:
“The Jewish holiday of Passover commemorates the Exodus from Egypt. The roots of the festival are found in Exodus 12, in which God instructs the Israelites to sacrifice a lamb at twilight on the 14th day of the Jewish month of Nisan, before the sun sets (Exodus 12:18). That night the Israelites are to eat the lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. The lamb’s blood should be swabbed on their doorposts as a sign. God, seeing the sign, will then “pass over” the houses of the Israelites (Exodus 12:13), while smiting the Egyptians with the tenth plague, the killing of the first-born sons.
Exodus 12 commands the Israelites to repeat this practice every year, performing the sacrifice during the day and then consuming it after the sun has set. (According to Jewish tradition, the new day begins with the setting of the sun, so the sacrifice is made on the 14th but the beginning of Passover and the meal are actually on the 15th, although this sequence of dates is not specified in Exodus.) Exodus 12 further speaks of a seven-day festival, which begins when the sacrifice is consumed (Exodus 12:15).
Once the Israelites were settled in Israel, and once a Temple was built in Jerusalem, the original sacrifice described in Exodus 12 changed dramatically. Passover became one of the Jewish Pilgrimage festivals, and Israelites were expected to travel to Jerusalem to sacrifice a Passover lamb at the Temple during the afternoon of the 14th day, and then consume the Passover sacrifice once the sun had set, and the festival had formally begun on the 15th. This kind of celebration is described as having taken place during the reigns of Kings Hezekiah and Josiah (2 Chronicles 30 and 35).”
Whether the Seder of Yeshua was the same as the modern Seder is not the point. The point is that Yeshua used the Seder Meal in a ritualistic way to change the nature of the sacrifice. Using a Paschal Lamb in his Seder, he reinterprets the bread and wine as sacrifices and declares thereby that the discussion, even debate, within the Nasorean-Essene Community over the sacrifice of animals is now resolved. The Bread and Wine of the Seder replaces the bloody sacrifice and we are returned by the shedding of Yeshua’s blood on the cross to an earlier time, the time of Melchizedek, in which an universal sacrifice was made available to all the world. Yeshua acted as Melchizedek Returned and changed the sacrifice of Moses back to His earlier sacrifice and thus acting as High Priest he not only consecrated the sacrifice at the Seder Meal but paid the price of the change by offering his own body as the Sacrifice necessary to change the covenant of G-d and eliminate the Bloody Sacrifice. All of this Yeshua did in accordance with the Torah and those who do not celebrate the sacrifice in this way both at the Seder and at the weekly remembrance of the Seder on Friday night remain in their sins and will therefore suffer in the future for their sins.
While the sacrifice is now available to everyone, not everyone will participate equally in the grace of being chosen. As Scripture says, first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles goes the blessing of G-d. Persons who join themselves to the spiritual Israel and begin to keep the Torah and the Sacrifice can claim to be grafted onto the Tree of Life, but contrary to those who would say that Israel has lost its claim, the Nasoreans, who have not changed in 2100 years still are the Tree of Life and those who join with us will be saved; as Paul says from the opinion of the early community, all Israel will be saved.
As a result of this great truth, we can say at the end of the Seder “Next Year in Jerusalem”, for each of us can claim the blessings of the Tree of Life by beginning to keep the Torah and to seek out the Sacrifice that is celebrated by the Tzaddik Baruch and those he ordains to the Priesthood as Melchizedek High Priest of G-d. Then that person can say they have been grafted on to the Tree of Life and will receive on the blessings of G-d.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
The Making of a Modern Exorcist
Arrogant is defined as "haughty, having or showing too high an opinion of one's own position or rights, contemptuous of others. In a new book, "The Rite: Making of a Modern Exorcist", Matt Baglio talks about the making of Father Gary Thomas, a long time priest, into an exorcist. The book is well written and well researched. It presents the Catholic view of the Devil and of the phenomenon called exorcism. The description of the exorcisms are believable and supportable from the countless anecdotal reports of those engaged in this ministry. I highly recommend the book for those who would like to see how the Catholic Church is dealing with the modern recognition of the existence of demons and the Devil.
However, the book presents a church which is arrogant to the extreme. While ignoring the words of scripture, the church states that only bishops may authorize exorcisms and only priests appointed by the church have authority to do exorcisms. While repeatedly pointing out that in the early church exorcisms were a normal ministry of laity, the church arrogantly claims that any attempt to deviate from Catholic norm is disobedient and a sign of demonic presence. The church arrogantly claims that only it among all of Christianity is capable of performing valid exorcisms. The church arrogantly claims that only Christianity is capable of casting out demons and all other religious traditions are practicing magic, which it roundly condemns.
First, I would say that I have performed the ministry of exorcism, first as a lay person, and then as a Rabbi for 38 years, more than double the time of many of the persons spoken of in the book. Even the chief exorcist of the Roman Church, Father Amorth, has not been doing exorcisms as long as I have; he has only done so since 1985. While I have the rank of bishop, I do not need nor do I have the permission from the Pope to perform exorcisms. Having performed at least 100 exorcisms in 38 years, I have been accustomed to seeing the responses and have learned the information that the book presented without the teaching of the Church. The Holy Spirit, Michael the Archangel, and Raphael the Archangel were my teachers. Further, no demon has ever said to me, "Rabbi, you do not have authority over us" or "Rabbi, you forgot to get the Pope or the Bishop's approval and therefore we do not have to go." In fact, the Apostolic Tradition of St. Hippolytus specifically says that a person who heals, another part of the exorcism ministry, is already ordained and does not need the intervention of the Church to authorize his or her ministry.
Second, the Scripture in the book of Acts (19:13) talks of Jewish exorcists using the name of Jesus. When speaking of Jewish exorcists, we cannot be sure who Acts is speaking about but they were clearly not Nasoreans, because the early church attests to the authority of Nasorean ministers to cast out demons. There are exorcism prayers in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the book of Tobit, which even the Catholic Church holds to be canonical, teaches that the Archangel Raphael, the Archangel of Exorcisms, can cast out demons and did so in the book with a magical rite which is called theurgy. So we see that the Jewish authority in exorcism is just as firmly established as the Catholic authority.
Lastly, every major religion and most minor religions have methods of performing exorcisms and are successful in that ministry.
Therefore, the arrogant Catholic claim that it is solely authorized to perform exorcisms is without basis or factual authority and is in fact an act of pride, a sin by Catholic standards.
Nonetheless, I heartily support the position that the Catholic Church has taken in regard to the growing infestation of demons in the world. Not only are there many more infested with demons (probably because 2/3 of all people who have ever lived are alive today), but also the general moral state of humanity is at such a low ebb that demons find a welcome home when they come knocking on ones door. When I speak of a low moral ebb, I am not talking about drugs, abortion, promiscuity, homosexuality, etc. because these things are symptoms, not causes. The problem is a materialism that demons can offer to aid. The problem is a selfishness even among religious that makes them want fancy houses instead of service. The book makes a point of saying that the exorcist needs to be in a state of grace when performing is ministry because the demon can read the exorcist's heart like a book and can play on his deficiencies.
However, the book presents a church which is arrogant to the extreme. While ignoring the words of scripture, the church states that only bishops may authorize exorcisms and only priests appointed by the church have authority to do exorcisms. While repeatedly pointing out that in the early church exorcisms were a normal ministry of laity, the church arrogantly claims that any attempt to deviate from Catholic norm is disobedient and a sign of demonic presence. The church arrogantly claims that only it among all of Christianity is capable of performing valid exorcisms. The church arrogantly claims that only Christianity is capable of casting out demons and all other religious traditions are practicing magic, which it roundly condemns.
First, I would say that I have performed the ministry of exorcism, first as a lay person, and then as a Rabbi for 38 years, more than double the time of many of the persons spoken of in the book. Even the chief exorcist of the Roman Church, Father Amorth, has not been doing exorcisms as long as I have; he has only done so since 1985. While I have the rank of bishop, I do not need nor do I have the permission from the Pope to perform exorcisms. Having performed at least 100 exorcisms in 38 years, I have been accustomed to seeing the responses and have learned the information that the book presented without the teaching of the Church. The Holy Spirit, Michael the Archangel, and Raphael the Archangel were my teachers. Further, no demon has ever said to me, "Rabbi, you do not have authority over us" or "Rabbi, you forgot to get the Pope or the Bishop's approval and therefore we do not have to go." In fact, the Apostolic Tradition of St. Hippolytus specifically says that a person who heals, another part of the exorcism ministry, is already ordained and does not need the intervention of the Church to authorize his or her ministry.
Second, the Scripture in the book of Acts (19:13) talks of Jewish exorcists using the name of Jesus. When speaking of Jewish exorcists, we cannot be sure who Acts is speaking about but they were clearly not Nasoreans, because the early church attests to the authority of Nasorean ministers to cast out demons. There are exorcism prayers in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the book of Tobit, which even the Catholic Church holds to be canonical, teaches that the Archangel Raphael, the Archangel of Exorcisms, can cast out demons and did so in the book with a magical rite which is called theurgy. So we see that the Jewish authority in exorcism is just as firmly established as the Catholic authority.
Lastly, every major religion and most minor religions have methods of performing exorcisms and are successful in that ministry.
Therefore, the arrogant Catholic claim that it is solely authorized to perform exorcisms is without basis or factual authority and is in fact an act of pride, a sin by Catholic standards.
Nonetheless, I heartily support the position that the Catholic Church has taken in regard to the growing infestation of demons in the world. Not only are there many more infested with demons (probably because 2/3 of all people who have ever lived are alive today), but also the general moral state of humanity is at such a low ebb that demons find a welcome home when they come knocking on ones door. When I speak of a low moral ebb, I am not talking about drugs, abortion, promiscuity, homosexuality, etc. because these things are symptoms, not causes. The problem is a materialism that demons can offer to aid. The problem is a selfishness even among religious that makes them want fancy houses instead of service. The book makes a point of saying that the exorcist needs to be in a state of grace when performing is ministry because the demon can read the exorcist's heart like a book and can play on his deficiencies.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Material Idols
The YHVH told Moshe, "Thus shall you speak to the Israelites: You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven. Do not make anything to rank with me; neither elohim of silver nor elohim of gold shall you make for yourselves." Exodus 20:22-23.
The Ten Sayings are the first part of the chapter in scripture. But along with the primitive statement of the Ten Commandments we also find this passage which goes far to explain the mind of the Archangel. He says that you must not make anything to rank with me. What do we make that ranks with G-d. In this time of March Madness, does basketball rank with G-d? How many people will prefer basketball to church? How many will spend a thousand dollars on a trip to see a favorite team play but will give little or nothing to the poor people of Haiti or Chile? How many will rush home to watch their new HD Plasma TV? How many want to play that new video game? There are many things today that we "make" to rank with G-d. Some will let the book rank with G-d. Some will allow a particular preacher to rank with G-d.
YHVH says that "you shall not have other elohim before my face." Exodus 20:3. Literally, the passage does not say that you can not have any other g-d, but none that is before his face, that is, that is higher than him or equal to him. The reason for this statement is found in the truth set forth in Deuteronomy 32:8-9. The use of elohim throughout means that YHVH is the G-d of the Israelites, and they should not worship the other g-ds of the other people around them. The passage before says that YHVH is the Elohim of Israel. In this case, it means that YHVH is one of the G-ds and that he is the one for Israel. He forbids any other g-d to rank with him or be before his face.
It is encumbant on us to recognize that El Shaddai and Elyon is the true G-d, far away from us and that YHVH is the G-d who has been assigned by El to the Jewish people. We must not allow any other gods to come close to him or rank with him, not gold, not silver, not anything.
I recognize that the truth is hard for Jews, Christians, and Muslims to accept, but the True G-d, the One G-d, the Almighty and Highest G-d is El, not YHVH. But YHVH is the King of the Elohim, and the Elohim are Angels, as I have said in earlier blogs and proved through scripture.
The Ten Sayings are the first part of the chapter in scripture. But along with the primitive statement of the Ten Commandments we also find this passage which goes far to explain the mind of the Archangel. He says that you must not make anything to rank with me. What do we make that ranks with G-d. In this time of March Madness, does basketball rank with G-d? How many people will prefer basketball to church? How many will spend a thousand dollars on a trip to see a favorite team play but will give little or nothing to the poor people of Haiti or Chile? How many will rush home to watch their new HD Plasma TV? How many want to play that new video game? There are many things today that we "make" to rank with G-d. Some will let the book rank with G-d. Some will allow a particular preacher to rank with G-d.
YHVH says that "you shall not have other elohim before my face." Exodus 20:3. Literally, the passage does not say that you can not have any other g-d, but none that is before his face, that is, that is higher than him or equal to him. The reason for this statement is found in the truth set forth in Deuteronomy 32:8-9. The use of elohim throughout means that YHVH is the G-d of the Israelites, and they should not worship the other g-ds of the other people around them. The passage before says that YHVH is the Elohim of Israel. In this case, it means that YHVH is one of the G-ds and that he is the one for Israel. He forbids any other g-d to rank with him or be before his face.
It is encumbant on us to recognize that El Shaddai and Elyon is the true G-d, far away from us and that YHVH is the G-d who has been assigned by El to the Jewish people. We must not allow any other gods to come close to him or rank with him, not gold, not silver, not anything.
I recognize that the truth is hard for Jews, Christians, and Muslims to accept, but the True G-d, the One G-d, the Almighty and Highest G-d is El, not YHVH. But YHVH is the King of the Elohim, and the Elohim are Angels, as I have said in earlier blogs and proved through scripture.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
The Spiritual Ark of the Covenant
What made the Tent or Mishkan that the Hebrews had in the desert a sacred place? The answer is obviously the Ark of the Covenant. It was believed that the Ark was the Footstool of G-d and that the Stone Tablets, which represent his treaty or covenant with the Hebrews was under his feet. The true Ark holds the Stone Tablets, the Pot of Manna, the Rod of Aaron and at one point, Nehushtan, the Brazen Serpent. Likewise, when Solomon built a wonderious building, he built it to hold the Ark of the Covenant. Each successive Temple had an Ark. The rebuilt Temple after the Babylonian Exile had a new perfect copy of the Ark, but without the sacred objects inside. Likewise after Onias IV took the Ark to Egypt, Herod's Temple had another perfect copy of the Ark.
The Nasorean sect of Judaism along with our Enochian forbears and our Essenian teachers rejected the Temple of Herod as a true Temple. We awaited a perfect Temple that would come down from heaven just as promised by the Prophecy of Ezekiel. Instead the Nasoreans believed that a spiritual building existed consisting of the believers of Yisrael. They were living stones in this new Temple. Now the Nasoreans passed this idea on to the Christians and Peter and Paul both speak of this spiritual building and it has become the central focus of the Masonic Order.
However, just like the physical buildings, the spiritual Temple must have a spiritual Ark of the Covenant. We are told by the Early Church that the Apostles and Prophets are the foundation of the spiritual Temple. Ephesians 2:20. So we can assume with reasonable certainty that they are not the Spiritual Ark of the Covenant. Likewise, the Early Church believed that Yeshua was the Capstone, i.e., the Stone from which Sabbath was proclaimed high on top of the Temple. Ephesians 2:21. We can therefore state that he is not the Ark of the Covenant. So then we must ask, if this is a temple not made with hands and if a Jewish temple is not a Temple without an Ark, who or what is the Ark of the Covenant in this spiritual Temple?
There have been really good books written to explicate the character of the Ark of the Covenant and its place in the economy of spirituality within Ancient Judaism. I will not attempt in a short statement to replicate those excellent monographs. Instead I will note some relevant points about the Ark of the Covenant so that we might look closer for an institution or person who might embody those characteristics. First, this box was made of Acacia wood. Acacia is a symbol of eternal life and the symbol was no doubt received from the the Egyptians whose myth of Isis and Osiris mentions the nature of Acacia as a symbol of resurrection. Next, the box had the symbol of divine revelation, the Word made physical, the Stone Tablets. It held the Pot of Manna, a symbol of divine providence and promise of personal protection, for G-d gave the Manna to the children as bread in the desert. It held the Rod of Aaron which G-d used to prove that Aaron was appointed to the High Priesthood and is therefore a symbol of divine governance. Lastly, it held, until the time of King Hezekiah and his murderous repression of authentic Hebrew religion, the Brazen Serpent, Nehushtan. Nehushtan represented the willingness of G-d to constantly maintain peace between Himself and His People and to heal them not only of physical illness, but also of spiritual illnesses. Lastly, on top of the box was placed the Mercy Seat, or Ha Kapporet protected by the Archangels spreading their wings over the Bowl for the Blood. The HaKapporet is not only the symbol of sacrifice, but also forgiveness and mercy.
What, if anything, embodies all these elements into one concept? First, let us look at the concept of immortality and resurrection. As we can eliminate Yeshua as the Ark, as stated before, we must look to an institution to provide the eternal quality. I would propose that the Institution of the Three Pillars comprising a True Prophet, a True High Priest, and a True King is the only institution that can vie for this eternal quality. If we see the Three Pillars as the box itself, then we must look into the character of the offices that comprise the Three Pillars for the remainder of symbols. The Office of the Prophet represents G-d's continual Voice within the spiritual Temple. However, that office must be subject to Messianic Offices of the High Priest and King. They alone are given the final authority to validate the Voice that speaks through the Prophet. Together, the Three comprise the Embodying of the Word into Flesh. It is the certainty that Yeshua and the Holy Spirit will be with the Spiritual Temple until the end of the age that makes us certain that that Word will Be True when Embodied in this way. The King represents the symbol of Divine Providence. It devolves upon Him to make the Word effective in the World by doing what the Word requires. This Spiritual Temple, like the Jewish faith, is place of orthopraxy, right practice. Lastly, the High Priest, by his acts of Intercession and Sacrifice, in the form of the Kiddush ritual of bread and wine, exercises the Divine Governance with the King over the Spiritual Temple. The Fourth Pillar, unseen but always present, is the Holy Spirit, which filled the Temple and sanctified the Ark. It is the Holy Spirit that represents the Divine Intervention in the form of Healing, both of physical ailments and sin. Lastly, because of their willing discharge of their duties and the selfless acts of the True Officers of G-d, they become the repositories of the Blood of the Lamb which truly will bring reconciliation between G-d and Man. The influence then of the Spiritual Ark is felt throughout this spiritual building when people act in Prophetic, Kingly, and Priestly ways.
The Nasorean sect of Judaism along with our Enochian forbears and our Essenian teachers rejected the Temple of Herod as a true Temple. We awaited a perfect Temple that would come down from heaven just as promised by the Prophecy of Ezekiel. Instead the Nasoreans believed that a spiritual building existed consisting of the believers of Yisrael. They were living stones in this new Temple. Now the Nasoreans passed this idea on to the Christians and Peter and Paul both speak of this spiritual building and it has become the central focus of the Masonic Order.
However, just like the physical buildings, the spiritual Temple must have a spiritual Ark of the Covenant. We are told by the Early Church that the Apostles and Prophets are the foundation of the spiritual Temple. Ephesians 2:20. So we can assume with reasonable certainty that they are not the Spiritual Ark of the Covenant. Likewise, the Early Church believed that Yeshua was the Capstone, i.e., the Stone from which Sabbath was proclaimed high on top of the Temple. Ephesians 2:21. We can therefore state that he is not the Ark of the Covenant. So then we must ask, if this is a temple not made with hands and if a Jewish temple is not a Temple without an Ark, who or what is the Ark of the Covenant in this spiritual Temple?
There have been really good books written to explicate the character of the Ark of the Covenant and its place in the economy of spirituality within Ancient Judaism. I will not attempt in a short statement to replicate those excellent monographs. Instead I will note some relevant points about the Ark of the Covenant so that we might look closer for an institution or person who might embody those characteristics. First, this box was made of Acacia wood. Acacia is a symbol of eternal life and the symbol was no doubt received from the the Egyptians whose myth of Isis and Osiris mentions the nature of Acacia as a symbol of resurrection. Next, the box had the symbol of divine revelation, the Word made physical, the Stone Tablets. It held the Pot of Manna, a symbol of divine providence and promise of personal protection, for G-d gave the Manna to the children as bread in the desert. It held the Rod of Aaron which G-d used to prove that Aaron was appointed to the High Priesthood and is therefore a symbol of divine governance. Lastly, it held, until the time of King Hezekiah and his murderous repression of authentic Hebrew religion, the Brazen Serpent, Nehushtan. Nehushtan represented the willingness of G-d to constantly maintain peace between Himself and His People and to heal them not only of physical illness, but also of spiritual illnesses. Lastly, on top of the box was placed the Mercy Seat, or Ha Kapporet protected by the Archangels spreading their wings over the Bowl for the Blood. The HaKapporet is not only the symbol of sacrifice, but also forgiveness and mercy.
What, if anything, embodies all these elements into one concept? First, let us look at the concept of immortality and resurrection. As we can eliminate Yeshua as the Ark, as stated before, we must look to an institution to provide the eternal quality. I would propose that the Institution of the Three Pillars comprising a True Prophet, a True High Priest, and a True King is the only institution that can vie for this eternal quality. If we see the Three Pillars as the box itself, then we must look into the character of the offices that comprise the Three Pillars for the remainder of symbols. The Office of the Prophet represents G-d's continual Voice within the spiritual Temple. However, that office must be subject to Messianic Offices of the High Priest and King. They alone are given the final authority to validate the Voice that speaks through the Prophet. Together, the Three comprise the Embodying of the Word into Flesh. It is the certainty that Yeshua and the Holy Spirit will be with the Spiritual Temple until the end of the age that makes us certain that that Word will Be True when Embodied in this way. The King represents the symbol of Divine Providence. It devolves upon Him to make the Word effective in the World by doing what the Word requires. This Spiritual Temple, like the Jewish faith, is place of orthopraxy, right practice. Lastly, the High Priest, by his acts of Intercession and Sacrifice, in the form of the Kiddush ritual of bread and wine, exercises the Divine Governance with the King over the Spiritual Temple. The Fourth Pillar, unseen but always present, is the Holy Spirit, which filled the Temple and sanctified the Ark. It is the Holy Spirit that represents the Divine Intervention in the form of Healing, both of physical ailments and sin. Lastly, because of their willing discharge of their duties and the selfless acts of the True Officers of G-d, they become the repositories of the Blood of the Lamb which truly will bring reconciliation between G-d and Man. The influence then of the Spiritual Ark is felt throughout this spiritual building when people act in Prophetic, Kingly, and Priestly ways.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Tracing the Emanations
TRACING THE DOCTRINE OF EMANATION
EMANATIONS
There once was a man named Zarathustra. He was a priest of the indigenous religion of the high plains of the area of the world now known as Iran. He lived in a cave and spent much of his time contemplating. Now, his native religion like most religions of his time had a multitude of gods, all in charge of one or another of the various events, objects, and needs of his people. Zarathustra was an unusual indigenous priest because Zarathustra heard a Voice. That Voice and Zarathustra began to talk about the nature of good and evil. The result was the first great and revolutionary spirituality.
For Zarathustra, there were two G-ds, not many. He rejected the idea that there were gods of trees, water, rain, wind, etc. He said there was a Good G-d called Ahura Mazda and Bad G-d called Ahriman. He said that the Good G-d had six manifestations of His being and a Divine Spirit that came forth from His Being. The six manifestations were the active presence of the Good G-d in the various animal and vegetable kingdoms, but the Divine Spirit was in mankind and caused mankind to be capable of assisting the Good G-d.
Likewise, the Bad G-d had manifestations and helpers. These were called Daimons. They infused things and took possession of people.
In Zarathustra’s view, it was the duty of mankind to aid the Good G-d in his war with the Bad G-d to make sure that the Good G-d won. Mankind accomplished this task by right actions towards each other, right eating, right contemplation, right worship, and right living. The principal manifestation of this Good G-d was the purifying fire. Thus Zarathustra wanted Temples where the Sacred Fire was eternal. He believed that by contemplating the Divine in these sacred places one could understand how to live correctly. This concept of divine contemplation of the divine manifestations is the earliest spirituality in the Western Tradition and forms the basis of the Kabbalah. The Seven Manifestations approximate to the Seven Divine Emanations of the Little Face of G-d in the Tree of Life or Chaim Etz which are Mercy, Strength or Judgment, Beauty or Love, Victory, Glory, Foundation and Kingdom.
This well developed religion, Zoroastrianism, broke forth from the tiny kingdom of Zarathustra’s birth to become the unifying force that unified the Medes and Persians and in the sixth century before the common era; that force took Babylon and established the first great Persian Empire. The exiles from the tiny state of Yehudah (Judah) ran into this developed theology and began to contemplate how it fit into their understandings of life. One particular priest of Aaron, named Ezekiel, was sitting by a River called the Chebar one day and as he was contemplating there appeared a vision of a Divine Chariot holding a Throne upon which sat a Divine Being. Now this Divine Being seemed to Ezekiel to be very much like the Ancient of Days, the Good God Ahura Mazda, and he adopted the meditation practices of the Fire Worshippers. His goal was to recreate that Divine Communion that he felt when he saw his Vision of the Chariot or Merkabah.
The earliest stratum of Western Tradition, the contemplation of the Sephiroth or Manifestations of G-d now received an additional strata involving the contemplation of the Divine Being of G-d and his Holy Throne. When the Priesthood returned to Yisrael to rebuild the Temple, they took with them a commitment to right actions based upon the Torah, right eating based upon the kosher law, right contemplation based upon the contemplation of the Emanations of G-d and His Holy Throne, right worship which was now directed to the importance of the intent of the giver, and right living based upon the Torah’s ethical laws. They were certain that there was just one G-d, not even two, and they had become aware of three Dark Angels, one who was Evil, one who ruled the Daimons or Demons, and one who ruled the Evil Spirits. They even took on Persian and Babylonian names: Ahriman was the Shaitan, the Devil; Ba’al Zebul was the Lord of Flies or Demons; and Ashmodai or Ruler of the High Fire was the Lord of Evil Spirits.
The basic concepts of right action; right eating; right devotion, the private face of religion; right worship, the public face of religion; and right living, the correct way of treating the world became the basis of all Jewish spirituality. The principles of meditation and contemplation learned in Babylon became the necessary tool for all future spiritual growth. The concept of the ongoing war between Good and Evil became the raison d’etre for all future religion. No longer was righteousness limited to hospitality to strangers, widows and orphans. It had expanded to an entire philosophy of a good life.
TWO JUDAISMS
Margaret Barker in her book The Great Angel: The Study of Israel’s Second G-d puts forth a well developed theory on the nature of the pre-Josiah religion of Israel. She argues persuasively that the reason that the Decalogue is phrased -- You shalt not have any other gods beside me – is to denote that there were other g-ds, but that the national god of Israel was to be YHVH. The Yahwist recognized that El Shaddai, the G-d of the Mountain, the War G-d of the Cana’anites was the same G-d as YHVH. Now the Yahwist also recognized that there was a High G-d, El Elyon, which means G-d the Most High, who was the Father of the G-ds. He realized that El Shaddai was one of nine children of this G-d, including Ba’al Moloch, Astarte, and others. The Hebrew faith believed that this High G-d worked entirely through their G-d YHVH.
This idea of a Great G-d and a lesser G-d is further confused by the appearance in Exodus 23:20 of an Angel who took the form of fire and smoke and who could forgive sins. The second G-d was now seen as this Archangel and the first G-d was seen as the distant YHVH, the father of the G-ds. Slowly, but surely, the simple people called “ha am ha eretz” in Hebrew and meaning the rural or as the Romans would say, paganus, developed a rich theology based upon worshipping El Shaddai on mountains and worshipping Astarte as a pillar in the Temple yard.
All of this popular religion came into conflict with King Josiah who began what is known as the Josiac reform, which culminated in the Deuteronomic additions to the Scriptures. Josiah set out to eradicate the influences of the popular religion from the official religion of Israel. For two centuries or more, a war waged between the popular religion and the official religion resulting finally in Hezekiah’s suppression of all places of worship other than the Temple in Jerusalem and his destruction of Nehustan, the Brazen Serpent, because it was being worshipped. The war was not over until the Captivity.
The official religion went with the High Priest and the Heads of the Courses to Babylon and there the religion was changed by the orthodox leaders and by association with another rational religion, Zoroastrianism. The popular religion now was being organized by the country priests into a somewhat formal religion that included new alternative places of worship in the countryside.
When the Ezra the Scribe and Zerubbabel the Prince returned to Yehudah, the brought with them this new Priestly Judaism. They found that their influence was limited to just Jerusalem and it environs. Another Judaism was strong in what had been Israel and in the countryside. The tension continued for over two centuries between these two Judaisms until in the period around 300 BCE a book was written – 1 Enoch. Its impact upon the popular religion was dramatic. Enoch made no mention of the Temple or the Torah. It rather referred to 24 golden tablets in heaven upon which all truth was written. This book put forth a powerful eschatology and appealed directly to a more ancient, more perfect time. Enochian Judaism took over and reformed the popular religion and from it came forth two new Judaisms, Farsiism and Nasoreanism.
Farsiism took what was known from Enochian Judaism and added to it the rich spirituality obtained from Zoroastrianism during the captivity. Farsiism contributed a love for the Torah as its guiding principle. Farsiism (known also as Phariseeism) created the office of Rabbi, or spiritual guide. Farsiism while not rejecting the Temple wanted to reform the Official Religion so that it had a much more practical and pervasive effect on the worshipper.
Nasoreanism really was started when a High Priest, his name is unknown, was cast out of office by the Maccabeans under Jonathan. Antiochus V Epiphanes was defeated by the Maccabean revolt in 168 BCE and a new High Priest was installed. His name has not survived and is believed to have been erased purposefully by his opponents. He ruled from 168 BCE until 152 BCE when he was deposed by the Maccabeans. This High Priest took a number of scholars with him into the desert and there they established a holy life of contemplation and strict observance. They were scholars and priests and they loved books. From them was formed an academy of like minded men called the Essenes. They were the remnant of the Hasidim who had aided the Maccabeans in throwing out the Syrians.
The Essenes believed that a strict obedience to the Torah was necessary and so they kept themselves separated from those that did not maintain a strict observance. They taught that the Temple in Jerusalem governed by the Hasmonean High Priests of the family of Maccabi was a corrupt place. They believed that the true Temple would be one that descended from Heaven like the Temple described in Ezekiel. Until that time, they believed that they constituted the Temple on Earth, a living building, composed of true believers. Those that because of their circumstances could not join in this strict life lived instead in closed communities, in the cities and in the countryside. They looked to the Essenes for spiritual direction and authority. Because they were separated from the surrounding peoples, they were called Nasori or separated ones. It is from them that the name Nasorean comes.
There were some of the Essenes and many Nasoreans with them who believed that it was not sufficient to merely be separated from the surrounding people, but in addition they must free the Holy Land from the scourge of the Romans occupiers. From 37 BCE until 135 CE, these people called the Zealotes, formed an army allied with the Nasoreans that controlled the countryside and had significant power in the cities. They were financed by collections for protection and by marauding the caravans that came along the Via Maris and on the road to Jerusalem from the sea. A particularly violent branch of the Zealotes were the Sicarii, named for their knives, who practiced the art of assassination.
The theologians of the Essene Order believed in a form of government that involved Three Pillars and 12 Elders and a Mebakker. It was believed that ultimately the Meshiach would appear together with a Priest and a King and a Prophet. One family, the Davidic family would be the source of these three Meshiachot. A particular Priest, the son of the Onian High Priest, Zechariah, became known for his strict observance of the Torah. He was said to have had miraculous events surround his birth and his mother and he had fled to the desert community of Qumran after his father, the High Priest, was murdered in the Temple by Herod the King. This child, Yochannan, was believed by many to be the High Priestly Meshiach that would fulfill that part of the prophecy. The Essenes began looking at two other young men, a Yeshua ben David and a Yakov ben David, as possibly the other two Pillars that they expected.
In 26 CE, Yochannan was murdered by Herod Antipas. Yeshua ben David went into the desert and when he returned he declared that he was the long awaited Meshiach of Melchizedek, the Priest-King of Salem, who had returned to his people. Nasoreanism quickly began to reorganize around those who supported Yeshua and those who did not. Finally, in 28 CE, Yeshua and the Zealotes decided to attack the Temple. They cast out the money changers and the official priests and levites and took control of the Temple. They held it for two weeks and then the Romans came in with battering rams and destroyed one of the Towers of the wall around the Temple and charged in. After they finished, ten thousand priests and worshippers were dead and Yeshua and his twelve disciples had escaped. Others were not so lucky, such as Judas Barabbas and Dismas. Seven days later, Yeshua was arrested for blasphemy in the Garden of Gethsemane and taken before the High Priest Annas. Unsuccessful in his charge of blasphemy, Annas took Yeshua to Pilate and charged him with treason and sedition. Pilate found him guilty and sentenced him to crucifixion. We know what happened next.
The risen Yeshua met first with Ya'akov, his half brother. Then with Peter and the Twelve. Then with the 500 members who attested to his resurrection. Because of this appearance to Ya'akov, the 120 members of the community that received the anointment of the Holy Spirit elected Ya'akov to be the Mebakker of Jerusalem, the head of the revised Nasorean movement, in 28 C.E. In the next 34 years, Ya’akov transformed the Essene-Nasorean movement into the most powerful force in Judaism and successfully challenged the Farsi for supremacy. In addition, Ya’akov began to formulate with the help of Essene scholars the most important of the philosophical concepts of Nasoreanism, Sefer Yetzirah, Bahir, and Zohar. These ideas were not yet sufficiently gelled nor in a proper form for writing but they were increasingly well known in the more learned circles of Nasoreanism.
In 62 CE, Ya’akov was executed by the High Priest during an interregnum period between procurators. Simon, the half brother of Yeshua, by Clopas his uncle and Mary his mother, became High Priest and Mebakker or Bishop of the Nasorean movement. Six years later, Simon fled the city of Jerusalem and moved the center of the faith to Pella in the Decapolis. The country was ravaged by the first Jewish Revolt and Jerusalem was destroyed. During the years that followed, Simon wrote the Didache, formulated the Sefer Yetzirah, organized the writing of the Bahir and Zohar, evangelized the countryside and turned Nasoreanism into a powerful religious force of over one million people. He was executed just before the Second Jewish Revolt. He was succeeded by an extremely aged Judas Thomas, another half brother of Yeshua by his uncle Clopas and his mother Mary. At the end of the second Jewish Revolt, the Romans were incited to believe that the Nasoreans had inspired the revolt by Rabbi Akiva. An estimated 980,000 Nasoreans were massacred by the Romans. The twenty thousand who escaped went further into Syria and many migrated to Cteisiphon-Seleucis and to Babylon.
One Judaism went under ground. Another collaborated with the Romans and became the foundation of Rabbinic Judaism.
PHILOSOPHICAL UNDERPINNINGS
In the second century BCE, there was a great Jewish philosopher named Philo. Margaret Barker in her Great Angel, before cited, says, that contrary to popular opinion Philo was not trying to bring Platonic thought into Judaism, but rather, was trying to present Jewish thought in a way that could be understood by Platonists. His works talked at considerable length about the First Principle, the True G-d. The idea of a true G-d, an Ain Sof, or Endless Being, was not unique to Philo. The Platonists had talked about it, but so had the Zoroastrians. He was not convinced that the Demiurge of the Platonists was bad. He saw the Demiurge as the Emanation to Mankind from the Zoroastrian point of view. He understood the underpinnings of Kabbalistic thought and recognized in the Demiurge, the First Adam, the Creator. He knew that the Light continued to descend but he was not clear on how that happened, but he called it the Holy Spirit.
Likewise, the Nasoreans believed in this Demiurge. They picked up the term that Philo used to describe it – Logos – Word or Idea. The Nasoreans had a similar concept called Dabir – Word or Idea. When Ya’akov began to contemplate all that had happened from 20 C.E. until 28 C.E., he began to understand the Jewish scriptures in a new way. Ya’akov was striving to answer the ultimate question of the believers, “Who do you say that I am?” Yochannan the Prophet begins to formulate the answer and as Ya’akov’s close associate they began to theologize their thoughts. 1 John 1:5 gives the most important theological clue; it says: God is Light. The Nasoreans already understood that to mean Ain Sof is G-d. The ancient hymn attached to Yochannan’s Gospel expresses the theology of Ya’akov and Yochannan:
In the beginning was the Dabir, and the Dabir was with G-d.
For them it was self-evident that the Idea pre-existed with the Ain Sof and within Ain Sof just as the Zohar states.
And the Dabir was G-d.
Here Ya’akov and Yochannan contemplate the meaning of the Sefer Yetzirah when it says:
Mishnah Tet: Ten Sefiroth of nothing, one Spirit, living angels, blessed from blessed is the Name of He, for all worlds. Voice, Spirit, and Speech, this is the Holy Spirit.
Mishnah Yodh: Two, Spirit from Spirit. He engraved and hewed in her twenty-two letters of foundation, three mothers, seven doubles, twelve singles, and Spirit is one of them.
The Two Pillars understand the Nothing as Ain Sof. They understand the One Spirit as the Archangel of the Presence, the Demiurge or Dabir. When it says Blessed from Blessed is the Name of He, they think that means that the Dabir, the Voice, emanated from the Nothing, Ain Soph. They are struggling with the cosmology of the beginning.
He was in the beginning with G-d. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be.
Here Ya’akov and Yochannan see the truth. The Dabir emanates from G-d and the Dabir creates all things. The Colossian author reiterates this truth at Col. 1:15 et seq.
These ideas did not die when the Nasoreans went underground. Others were still in contact with them. One man about 65 years later begins to hear about these things from his Hebrew teacher and from secret Nasoreans he met. Origen, the great church father finally sets forth the ideas again and formulates the idea of a Trinity. But this Trinity is not like the triangle of the Nicenes. It is like the Trinity of Kabbalah. The Light is G-d. He emanates the Son who emanates the Holy Spirit. Sefer Yetzirah and Zohar say that Ain Sof sent forth the First Ray, the Dabir, if you please, and it created the Universe. Then from the Dabir as Kether, the Crown descends Chochmah or in Greek Sancta Sophia. Sancta Sophia has been long associated with the Holy Spirit. For Origen, Yeshua is not divine; the Logos is divine. Only when Yeshua is resurrected does he put on Divinity. Likewise, the Nasoreans say that the Archangel is the King of the Angels, YHVH. Only when Yeshua arises does he put on the Kingship and High Priesthood that allows him to be the Only Intercessor between G-d and Man.
ARIUS
St. Lucian of Antioch was a student of Origen and the headmaster of an Academy in Antioch, the ancient center of Christianity in the early third century. One of his students was Arius. Lucian taught faithfully the teachings of his teacher Origen and Arius listened well.
Arius was a brilliant student but without any particular flair for original thought. He took refuge in the particularization of theories. Arius was not able to find a way out of the conundrum that was created by Origenian thought and the Western Church’s insistence upon the consubstantial character of the being of Jesus. Arius taught that G-d the Father and the Son were not co-eternal because the pre-existent Jesus was a divine being but nonetheless had a beginning. The Father had no such beginning but was forever. Therefore the Father was by nature superior to the Son and the Son was subordinated to the Father. Now this idea was well supported by all of Eastern Christian tradition as has been shown. But those who were in Alexandria for political reasons took exception with these ideas and the rift between Bishop Alexander of Alexandria and Arius became increasingly tied up with the general fight between the Bishops of the West and the Bishops of the East. The Eastern Church supported tradition. The Western Church knew nothing of tradition.
By the end of this controversy, emanationism was dead among the Christians. It still lived on in the secret doctrine of the Kabbalah and reasserted itself in 16th century England among those of the Royal Academy including Sir Isaac Newton.
What I have tried to do in this essay is trace the history of the doctrine of emanations from its ancient roots in Iran to its modern presence in the Kabbalah and the renewed Arianism of the Nasoreans and the Arian Catholics.
EMANATIONS
There once was a man named Zarathustra. He was a priest of the indigenous religion of the high plains of the area of the world now known as Iran. He lived in a cave and spent much of his time contemplating. Now, his native religion like most religions of his time had a multitude of gods, all in charge of one or another of the various events, objects, and needs of his people. Zarathustra was an unusual indigenous priest because Zarathustra heard a Voice. That Voice and Zarathustra began to talk about the nature of good and evil. The result was the first great and revolutionary spirituality.
For Zarathustra, there were two G-ds, not many. He rejected the idea that there were gods of trees, water, rain, wind, etc. He said there was a Good G-d called Ahura Mazda and Bad G-d called Ahriman. He said that the Good G-d had six manifestations of His being and a Divine Spirit that came forth from His Being. The six manifestations were the active presence of the Good G-d in the various animal and vegetable kingdoms, but the Divine Spirit was in mankind and caused mankind to be capable of assisting the Good G-d.
Likewise, the Bad G-d had manifestations and helpers. These were called Daimons. They infused things and took possession of people.
In Zarathustra’s view, it was the duty of mankind to aid the Good G-d in his war with the Bad G-d to make sure that the Good G-d won. Mankind accomplished this task by right actions towards each other, right eating, right contemplation, right worship, and right living. The principal manifestation of this Good G-d was the purifying fire. Thus Zarathustra wanted Temples where the Sacred Fire was eternal. He believed that by contemplating the Divine in these sacred places one could understand how to live correctly. This concept of divine contemplation of the divine manifestations is the earliest spirituality in the Western Tradition and forms the basis of the Kabbalah. The Seven Manifestations approximate to the Seven Divine Emanations of the Little Face of G-d in the Tree of Life or Chaim Etz which are Mercy, Strength or Judgment, Beauty or Love, Victory, Glory, Foundation and Kingdom.
This well developed religion, Zoroastrianism, broke forth from the tiny kingdom of Zarathustra’s birth to become the unifying force that unified the Medes and Persians and in the sixth century before the common era; that force took Babylon and established the first great Persian Empire. The exiles from the tiny state of Yehudah (Judah) ran into this developed theology and began to contemplate how it fit into their understandings of life. One particular priest of Aaron, named Ezekiel, was sitting by a River called the Chebar one day and as he was contemplating there appeared a vision of a Divine Chariot holding a Throne upon which sat a Divine Being. Now this Divine Being seemed to Ezekiel to be very much like the Ancient of Days, the Good God Ahura Mazda, and he adopted the meditation practices of the Fire Worshippers. His goal was to recreate that Divine Communion that he felt when he saw his Vision of the Chariot or Merkabah.
The earliest stratum of Western Tradition, the contemplation of the Sephiroth or Manifestations of G-d now received an additional strata involving the contemplation of the Divine Being of G-d and his Holy Throne. When the Priesthood returned to Yisrael to rebuild the Temple, they took with them a commitment to right actions based upon the Torah, right eating based upon the kosher law, right contemplation based upon the contemplation of the Emanations of G-d and His Holy Throne, right worship which was now directed to the importance of the intent of the giver, and right living based upon the Torah’s ethical laws. They were certain that there was just one G-d, not even two, and they had become aware of three Dark Angels, one who was Evil, one who ruled the Daimons or Demons, and one who ruled the Evil Spirits. They even took on Persian and Babylonian names: Ahriman was the Shaitan, the Devil; Ba’al Zebul was the Lord of Flies or Demons; and Ashmodai or Ruler of the High Fire was the Lord of Evil Spirits.
The basic concepts of right action; right eating; right devotion, the private face of religion; right worship, the public face of religion; and right living, the correct way of treating the world became the basis of all Jewish spirituality. The principles of meditation and contemplation learned in Babylon became the necessary tool for all future spiritual growth. The concept of the ongoing war between Good and Evil became the raison d’etre for all future religion. No longer was righteousness limited to hospitality to strangers, widows and orphans. It had expanded to an entire philosophy of a good life.
TWO JUDAISMS
Margaret Barker in her book The Great Angel: The Study of Israel’s Second G-d puts forth a well developed theory on the nature of the pre-Josiah religion of Israel. She argues persuasively that the reason that the Decalogue is phrased -- You shalt not have any other gods beside me – is to denote that there were other g-ds, but that the national god of Israel was to be YHVH. The Yahwist recognized that El Shaddai, the G-d of the Mountain, the War G-d of the Cana’anites was the same G-d as YHVH. Now the Yahwist also recognized that there was a High G-d, El Elyon, which means G-d the Most High, who was the Father of the G-ds. He realized that El Shaddai was one of nine children of this G-d, including Ba’al Moloch, Astarte, and others. The Hebrew faith believed that this High G-d worked entirely through their G-d YHVH.
This idea of a Great G-d and a lesser G-d is further confused by the appearance in Exodus 23:20 of an Angel who took the form of fire and smoke and who could forgive sins. The second G-d was now seen as this Archangel and the first G-d was seen as the distant YHVH, the father of the G-ds. Slowly, but surely, the simple people called “ha am ha eretz” in Hebrew and meaning the rural or as the Romans would say, paganus, developed a rich theology based upon worshipping El Shaddai on mountains and worshipping Astarte as a pillar in the Temple yard.
All of this popular religion came into conflict with King Josiah who began what is known as the Josiac reform, which culminated in the Deuteronomic additions to the Scriptures. Josiah set out to eradicate the influences of the popular religion from the official religion of Israel. For two centuries or more, a war waged between the popular religion and the official religion resulting finally in Hezekiah’s suppression of all places of worship other than the Temple in Jerusalem and his destruction of Nehustan, the Brazen Serpent, because it was being worshipped. The war was not over until the Captivity.
The official religion went with the High Priest and the Heads of the Courses to Babylon and there the religion was changed by the orthodox leaders and by association with another rational religion, Zoroastrianism. The popular religion now was being organized by the country priests into a somewhat formal religion that included new alternative places of worship in the countryside.
When the Ezra the Scribe and Zerubbabel the Prince returned to Yehudah, the brought with them this new Priestly Judaism. They found that their influence was limited to just Jerusalem and it environs. Another Judaism was strong in what had been Israel and in the countryside. The tension continued for over two centuries between these two Judaisms until in the period around 300 BCE a book was written – 1 Enoch. Its impact upon the popular religion was dramatic. Enoch made no mention of the Temple or the Torah. It rather referred to 24 golden tablets in heaven upon which all truth was written. This book put forth a powerful eschatology and appealed directly to a more ancient, more perfect time. Enochian Judaism took over and reformed the popular religion and from it came forth two new Judaisms, Farsiism and Nasoreanism.
Farsiism took what was known from Enochian Judaism and added to it the rich spirituality obtained from Zoroastrianism during the captivity. Farsiism contributed a love for the Torah as its guiding principle. Farsiism (known also as Phariseeism) created the office of Rabbi, or spiritual guide. Farsiism while not rejecting the Temple wanted to reform the Official Religion so that it had a much more practical and pervasive effect on the worshipper.
Nasoreanism really was started when a High Priest, his name is unknown, was cast out of office by the Maccabeans under Jonathan. Antiochus V Epiphanes was defeated by the Maccabean revolt in 168 BCE and a new High Priest was installed. His name has not survived and is believed to have been erased purposefully by his opponents. He ruled from 168 BCE until 152 BCE when he was deposed by the Maccabeans. This High Priest took a number of scholars with him into the desert and there they established a holy life of contemplation and strict observance. They were scholars and priests and they loved books. From them was formed an academy of like minded men called the Essenes. They were the remnant of the Hasidim who had aided the Maccabeans in throwing out the Syrians.
The Essenes believed that a strict obedience to the Torah was necessary and so they kept themselves separated from those that did not maintain a strict observance. They taught that the Temple in Jerusalem governed by the Hasmonean High Priests of the family of Maccabi was a corrupt place. They believed that the true Temple would be one that descended from Heaven like the Temple described in Ezekiel. Until that time, they believed that they constituted the Temple on Earth, a living building, composed of true believers. Those that because of their circumstances could not join in this strict life lived instead in closed communities, in the cities and in the countryside. They looked to the Essenes for spiritual direction and authority. Because they were separated from the surrounding peoples, they were called Nasori or separated ones. It is from them that the name Nasorean comes.
There were some of the Essenes and many Nasoreans with them who believed that it was not sufficient to merely be separated from the surrounding people, but in addition they must free the Holy Land from the scourge of the Romans occupiers. From 37 BCE until 135 CE, these people called the Zealotes, formed an army allied with the Nasoreans that controlled the countryside and had significant power in the cities. They were financed by collections for protection and by marauding the caravans that came along the Via Maris and on the road to Jerusalem from the sea. A particularly violent branch of the Zealotes were the Sicarii, named for their knives, who practiced the art of assassination.
The theologians of the Essene Order believed in a form of government that involved Three Pillars and 12 Elders and a Mebakker. It was believed that ultimately the Meshiach would appear together with a Priest and a King and a Prophet. One family, the Davidic family would be the source of these three Meshiachot. A particular Priest, the son of the Onian High Priest, Zechariah, became known for his strict observance of the Torah. He was said to have had miraculous events surround his birth and his mother and he had fled to the desert community of Qumran after his father, the High Priest, was murdered in the Temple by Herod the King. This child, Yochannan, was believed by many to be the High Priestly Meshiach that would fulfill that part of the prophecy. The Essenes began looking at two other young men, a Yeshua ben David and a Yakov ben David, as possibly the other two Pillars that they expected.
In 26 CE, Yochannan was murdered by Herod Antipas. Yeshua ben David went into the desert and when he returned he declared that he was the long awaited Meshiach of Melchizedek, the Priest-King of Salem, who had returned to his people. Nasoreanism quickly began to reorganize around those who supported Yeshua and those who did not. Finally, in 28 CE, Yeshua and the Zealotes decided to attack the Temple. They cast out the money changers and the official priests and levites and took control of the Temple. They held it for two weeks and then the Romans came in with battering rams and destroyed one of the Towers of the wall around the Temple and charged in. After they finished, ten thousand priests and worshippers were dead and Yeshua and his twelve disciples had escaped. Others were not so lucky, such as Judas Barabbas and Dismas. Seven days later, Yeshua was arrested for blasphemy in the Garden of Gethsemane and taken before the High Priest Annas. Unsuccessful in his charge of blasphemy, Annas took Yeshua to Pilate and charged him with treason and sedition. Pilate found him guilty and sentenced him to crucifixion. We know what happened next.
The risen Yeshua met first with Ya'akov, his half brother. Then with Peter and the Twelve. Then with the 500 members who attested to his resurrection. Because of this appearance to Ya'akov, the 120 members of the community that received the anointment of the Holy Spirit elected Ya'akov to be the Mebakker of Jerusalem, the head of the revised Nasorean movement, in 28 C.E. In the next 34 years, Ya’akov transformed the Essene-Nasorean movement into the most powerful force in Judaism and successfully challenged the Farsi for supremacy. In addition, Ya’akov began to formulate with the help of Essene scholars the most important of the philosophical concepts of Nasoreanism, Sefer Yetzirah, Bahir, and Zohar. These ideas were not yet sufficiently gelled nor in a proper form for writing but they were increasingly well known in the more learned circles of Nasoreanism.
In 62 CE, Ya’akov was executed by the High Priest during an interregnum period between procurators. Simon, the half brother of Yeshua, by Clopas his uncle and Mary his mother, became High Priest and Mebakker or Bishop of the Nasorean movement. Six years later, Simon fled the city of Jerusalem and moved the center of the faith to Pella in the Decapolis. The country was ravaged by the first Jewish Revolt and Jerusalem was destroyed. During the years that followed, Simon wrote the Didache, formulated the Sefer Yetzirah, organized the writing of the Bahir and Zohar, evangelized the countryside and turned Nasoreanism into a powerful religious force of over one million people. He was executed just before the Second Jewish Revolt. He was succeeded by an extremely aged Judas Thomas, another half brother of Yeshua by his uncle Clopas and his mother Mary. At the end of the second Jewish Revolt, the Romans were incited to believe that the Nasoreans had inspired the revolt by Rabbi Akiva. An estimated 980,000 Nasoreans were massacred by the Romans. The twenty thousand who escaped went further into Syria and many migrated to Cteisiphon-Seleucis and to Babylon.
One Judaism went under ground. Another collaborated with the Romans and became the foundation of Rabbinic Judaism.
PHILOSOPHICAL UNDERPINNINGS
In the second century BCE, there was a great Jewish philosopher named Philo. Margaret Barker in her Great Angel, before cited, says, that contrary to popular opinion Philo was not trying to bring Platonic thought into Judaism, but rather, was trying to present Jewish thought in a way that could be understood by Platonists. His works talked at considerable length about the First Principle, the True G-d. The idea of a true G-d, an Ain Sof, or Endless Being, was not unique to Philo. The Platonists had talked about it, but so had the Zoroastrians. He was not convinced that the Demiurge of the Platonists was bad. He saw the Demiurge as the Emanation to Mankind from the Zoroastrian point of view. He understood the underpinnings of Kabbalistic thought and recognized in the Demiurge, the First Adam, the Creator. He knew that the Light continued to descend but he was not clear on how that happened, but he called it the Holy Spirit.
Likewise, the Nasoreans believed in this Demiurge. They picked up the term that Philo used to describe it – Logos – Word or Idea. The Nasoreans had a similar concept called Dabir – Word or Idea. When Ya’akov began to contemplate all that had happened from 20 C.E. until 28 C.E., he began to understand the Jewish scriptures in a new way. Ya’akov was striving to answer the ultimate question of the believers, “Who do you say that I am?” Yochannan the Prophet begins to formulate the answer and as Ya’akov’s close associate they began to theologize their thoughts. 1 John 1:5 gives the most important theological clue; it says: God is Light. The Nasoreans already understood that to mean Ain Sof is G-d. The ancient hymn attached to Yochannan’s Gospel expresses the theology of Ya’akov and Yochannan:
In the beginning was the Dabir, and the Dabir was with G-d.
For them it was self-evident that the Idea pre-existed with the Ain Sof and within Ain Sof just as the Zohar states.
And the Dabir was G-d.
Here Ya’akov and Yochannan contemplate the meaning of the Sefer Yetzirah when it says:
Mishnah Tet: Ten Sefiroth of nothing, one Spirit, living angels, blessed from blessed is the Name of He, for all worlds. Voice, Spirit, and Speech, this is the Holy Spirit.
Mishnah Yodh: Two, Spirit from Spirit. He engraved and hewed in her twenty-two letters of foundation, three mothers, seven doubles, twelve singles, and Spirit is one of them.
The Two Pillars understand the Nothing as Ain Sof. They understand the One Spirit as the Archangel of the Presence, the Demiurge or Dabir. When it says Blessed from Blessed is the Name of He, they think that means that the Dabir, the Voice, emanated from the Nothing, Ain Soph. They are struggling with the cosmology of the beginning.
He was in the beginning with G-d. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be.
Here Ya’akov and Yochannan see the truth. The Dabir emanates from G-d and the Dabir creates all things. The Colossian author reiterates this truth at Col. 1:15 et seq.
These ideas did not die when the Nasoreans went underground. Others were still in contact with them. One man about 65 years later begins to hear about these things from his Hebrew teacher and from secret Nasoreans he met. Origen, the great church father finally sets forth the ideas again and formulates the idea of a Trinity. But this Trinity is not like the triangle of the Nicenes. It is like the Trinity of Kabbalah. The Light is G-d. He emanates the Son who emanates the Holy Spirit. Sefer Yetzirah and Zohar say that Ain Sof sent forth the First Ray, the Dabir, if you please, and it created the Universe. Then from the Dabir as Kether, the Crown descends Chochmah or in Greek Sancta Sophia. Sancta Sophia has been long associated with the Holy Spirit. For Origen, Yeshua is not divine; the Logos is divine. Only when Yeshua is resurrected does he put on Divinity. Likewise, the Nasoreans say that the Archangel is the King of the Angels, YHVH. Only when Yeshua arises does he put on the Kingship and High Priesthood that allows him to be the Only Intercessor between G-d and Man.
ARIUS
St. Lucian of Antioch was a student of Origen and the headmaster of an Academy in Antioch, the ancient center of Christianity in the early third century. One of his students was Arius. Lucian taught faithfully the teachings of his teacher Origen and Arius listened well.
Arius was a brilliant student but without any particular flair for original thought. He took refuge in the particularization of theories. Arius was not able to find a way out of the conundrum that was created by Origenian thought and the Western Church’s insistence upon the consubstantial character of the being of Jesus. Arius taught that G-d the Father and the Son were not co-eternal because the pre-existent Jesus was a divine being but nonetheless had a beginning. The Father had no such beginning but was forever. Therefore the Father was by nature superior to the Son and the Son was subordinated to the Father. Now this idea was well supported by all of Eastern Christian tradition as has been shown. But those who were in Alexandria for political reasons took exception with these ideas and the rift between Bishop Alexander of Alexandria and Arius became increasingly tied up with the general fight between the Bishops of the West and the Bishops of the East. The Eastern Church supported tradition. The Western Church knew nothing of tradition.
By the end of this controversy, emanationism was dead among the Christians. It still lived on in the secret doctrine of the Kabbalah and reasserted itself in 16th century England among those of the Royal Academy including Sir Isaac Newton.
What I have tried to do in this essay is trace the history of the doctrine of emanations from its ancient roots in Iran to its modern presence in the Kabbalah and the renewed Arianism of the Nasoreans and the Arian Catholics.
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