Friday, June 01, 2018

" and came into his own country" - Old and Classic Holy Books


A Public Park around Tokyo

Old and Classic Holy Books

It is truly remarkable that some books having been written centuries ago, 1,000 years ago, 2,000 years ago, or 2,500 years ago have still effective influence on people of today.

These holy books handle humanity.  But as humanity has not changed in these centuries, 1,000 years, 2,000 years, or 2,500 years, the teaching in these books have still appealing power to people of today.

For example, if it is written that Christ Jesus talked to a sick man to heal him, we can feel love in the behavior of Christ Jesus, although today many modern medications are available.  No matter how much our material environments and lives change or get modernized, the most important issue for us has never changed.  It is how we feel and think about ourselves, other people, and the world.  It is matters in our hearts and minds that are really counted.

These books are all concerned with our minds and hearts or our lives.  Even in this modernized and well developed world, people are born, study, work, retire, get old or sick, and finally die.  The value along which we think of our lives and the world has not changed for thousands of years.

However, if there is God who gives life to each of us and governs fates of each one, our life must look so simple to Him.  We are just those who were born and die someday while God exists forever. 

So, it might be necessary for us to view or read those holy books from a viewpoint of God.  At least, we must understand that what mattered to human beings  centuries ago, 1,000 years ago, 2,000 years ago, or 2,500 years ago is still important to us.  Therefore, we may be rather able to find and realize what is important to human beings by reading these holy books, since we could clearly see what is still effective in their contents through a filter of time of centuries or thousand years.   

Truly, Christ Jesus looks as if He is talking to us today.


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Mar 6:1 And he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples follow him.
Mar 6:2 And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands?

Monday, May 28, 2018

"rose up, and followed him" - Christian Essenes or Essene Christians


Tokyo

Christian Essenes or Essene Christians

Without hard training for a substantial time period, you cannot become a top athlete.  Without hard training for a substantial time period, you cannot become a top professional in any field.

So, where had Christ Jesus been trained before He started His mission among people?  There must have been a suitable place for training for His difficult mission to guide people, educate people, save people, and cause miracles.  Nazareth could not be the place, since when Christ Jesus visited this family town, people of Nazareth tried to kill Him.  It meant He had nothing to do with people in the town, although he must have been welcomed if people of the town had known him training there for a long time before His starting the holy mission. 

The place must have been in a special religious atmosphere with some religious enthusiasts.  But it must not have belonged to the main stream of Judaism, since Christ Jesus started a revolutionary mission. 

Put short, the place must be Qumran on a hill facing the Dead Sea where many religious scrolls were discovered around 1947 after WWII.  It was as if God had allowed these scrolls to be discovered with a sense of blessing as Jewish people started to return to Palestine.
The Essenes have gained fame in modern times as a result of the discovery of an extensive group of religious documents known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, which are commonly believed to be the Essenes' library. These documents preserve multiple copies of parts of the Hebrew Bible untouched from possibly as early as 300 BCE until their discovery in 1946.

Josephus later gave a detailed account of the Essenes in The Jewish War (c. 75 CE), with a shorter description in Antiquities of the Jews (c. 94 CE) and The Life of Flavius Josephus (c. 97 CE). Claiming firsthand knowledge, he lists the Essenoi as one of the three sects of Jewish philosophy [7] alongside the Pharisees and the Sadducees. He relates the same information concerning piety, celibacy, the absence of personal property and of money, the belief in communality, and commitment to a strict observance of Sabbath. He further adds that the Essenes ritually immersed in water every morning, ate together after prayer, devoted themselves to charity and benevolence, forbade the expression of anger, studied the books of the elders, preserved secrets, and were very mindful of the names of the angels kept in their sacred writings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essenes
Christ Jesus must have been trained by the Essenes around Qumran.  Indeed, after the Jewish-Roman war, the Essenes disappeared from Qumran, hiding some scrolls in vases put in caves.  It somewhat matched the fact that Christian Jewish people also disappeared after the war, and only followers of Paul and Peter survived to establish Christianity.  Early Christians included Christian Jewish people living around Jerusalem and Christian Essenes or Essene Christians living around Qumran. 


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Luk 5:27 And after these things he went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he said unto him, Follow me.
Luk 5:28 And he left all, rose up, and followed him.
Luk 5:29 And Levi made him a great feast in his own house: and there was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down with them.