Author: Fr Yuhanna Azize

When the Lord presided at the Last Supper, He was discharging another priestly function, that of offering sacrifice (179). In Bergsma’s consciously literal alternative translation, the Lord says in Luke […]

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 […]