Author: Fr Yuhanna Azize

Part Five: Holy Orders and the Scrolls (I) Chapter 11 is titled “Priesthood and the Scrolls.” It opens by noting how diverse the views of different Christian groups are on […]

Part Four: Matrimony, Celibacy, and the Scrolls Bergsma opens chapter 9 by noting the widespread fallacy that the ancient Jews did not practise celibacy (125), for the Essenes in fact […]

Part Three: The Eucharist and the Scrolls (Part Two) This difference between the two calendars, whereby the Essenes celebrated it on Tuesday but “the Jews” four days later on Saturday, […]

Part Three: The Eucharist and the Scrolls (Part One) Chapter 6 is titled: “Did Qumran Have a “Eucharist”?”, and commences with Justin Martyr, describing the Christian Eucharist about the year […]

Part Two: Baptism and the Scrolls At the outset, Bergsma succinctly states why a connection between the Baptist and the Essenes seems probable: The Essenes were the only sect of […]

John Bergsma, Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls: Revealing the Jewish Roots of Christianity, Image, New York, 2019 (256 pp.) … the fact that the Essenes, by their prayer and […]