I recently read this article asserting that a "Jesus of Palestine", a Jewish Zakkidim hero, who was reportedly a zealot and terrorist... is the same as Jesus of Nazareth. Essentially asserting that Jesus was a terrorist. I'm not advocating this viewpoint, but would like to answer the person who sent me the article. I will need to answer in a well thought out, logical and historical way.
I don't know if this the correct forum to ask my question but here goes.
If anyone has any information on the Zakkidim ... apparently associated with the Qumran in the Dead Sea Scrolls... I'd really appreciate your sharing it with me.
Pappa, I emailed the article to my Pastor and asked him what he thought. I am going to cut and paste it on here as I asked him if I could share his thoughts.
I hope it is helpful.
#1. The identification of the Qumran sect as a death seeking doomsday cult is a VERY VERY VERY debated issue. I would hate to say it but that version of where the scrolls came from is quite infantile and not at all reflective of the complex history of such a large collection of ancient antifacts. If fact some scholars most closely connected with Scrolls are arguing that the scrolls are not entirely the work of the sect that lived nearest their caves, but rather represent a library of sorts that contained scrolls from many sources including Qumran and even some Jerusalem (meaning mainstream) writings smuggled out before 70 AD. See http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/041104/scrolls.shtmlhttp://www.ancient-hebrew.org/hebrewstudies/504.html
#2. The author characterises NT Christianity as genocidal something like 30+ times without a single actual reference to a supposedly genocidal text in the NT. NO other religion could be treated in such a way at this time in history without proof, no other religion, of course, besides Christianity which is guilty until proven innocent. Shotty scholarship to say the least.
#3. The BIG Issue... Does Premillenial, Pretributional eschatalogy drive the White House foreign policy agenda? I am not sure. I don't work in the White House. Every President since at least Nixon has tried to find peace in the middle east, not war. Albeit W and his father have waged wars in the region, I doubt that either could have been motivated by end time speculation to the degree that they are accused of. Does the author point to a single verse that somehow parallels what W is up to now? Other than indicating that his heavenly father guides him through prayer, nothing that W is supposed to have been motivated is actually attributed to him in the form of any direct quote.
W is a Mason and a member of the Skull and Bones Society, to my knowledge. Both of these groups have mythologies and agendas much more in sync (ie. power) with the stated aims of the War in Iraq. How come we do not hear about that?
