There is a figure that appears in several scrolls known as (using the common English translation) the “Teacher of Righteousness.” He is shown opposing wickedness and lies (and is cast as the opponent to a “wicked priesthood”). There is no certainty regarding this figure. Was he a specific person? Was it a position of authority within the Essene community? We don’t know (unless we found out in the last year or so and I missed it).
As people tried to discover who this figure was, they have assigned him the names of various historical figures. One of those persons has been Jesus of Nazareth. There are some striking parallels in terms of the types of opposition that both Jesus and the Teacher seemed to offer to the religious authorities. However, most of those parallels are the natural differences one finds between spiritual reformers and any current establishment. It is unlikely that the two are the same person, as Jesus, like John, was an itenerant teacher, not a monastic.
There have been people–generally not those who have actually studied the scrolls–who would have liked to have claimed that Jesus ran off to Qumran and was enlightened by the Essenes (perhaps becoming their Teacher in the meantime) and then came out for his public ministry. This is all speculation with no evidence to support it. For various reasons I doubt that it is true. (Considering that the Essenes were around for almost 200 years before Jesus, we would have to be able to document the Teacher scrolls to the specific first 30 years CE to link them. I doubt this has happened or it would have been published.)
I think I heard what you posted on the History Channel, or TLC, or someplace like that. Interesting speculation, but that is all it is. If they found documentation of their lives around 30 AD that would mention Him that might be VERY interesting.
To handle yourself, use your head. To handle others, use your heart. unknown
One doesn’t have to condemn other religions to feel strongly about the truth of their own. There is no “duh” here at all. While common, religious intolerence (or even believing that the others are “wrong”) is not
a necessary outgrowth of genuine religious feeling.
One can feel that one’s own religion is not a bunch of myths and feel that other’s are not a bunch of myths either.
David, you’ve heard of Judaism, right? There isn’t much there that is not contained within Christianity. I mean Moses is a figure in the Christian view of God and the people he created.
Also Buddhism seeks the truth in all religions, and is much more tolerant as a result.
The problem is that American’s exposure to proseltyzing Protestantism has warped our entire view of what religion is.
We come to think it is not cultural, but is a logical “science” that explains the world, can and should be “proved” to others - and for that reason feels that it is appropriate hold other’s views in disdain.