The Crown and the Cross: The Life of Christ by Frank G. Slaughter

Essenes to be heard often in the Holy City and their teachings to be listened to by the crowds that thronged there.
    Deeply committed to the essence of the Torah, these intensely dedicated men regarded themselves as having inherited the promises of God to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the prophets of a great kingdom one day to be re-established on earth. To the pious Essene, man was in the midst of a constant struggle between good and evil, represented as Light and Darkness. Since the final days of the struggle, with the triumph of Light and the coming of the true kingdom of God on earth, was almost momentarily expected, their activities were accompanied by a deep sense of urgency and intensity of feeling.
    In organization, an Essene community was very strict. A probationary period of two years was required of anyone wishing to become a member. During this time the applicant devoted himself to study, meditation, and the strictest of ascetic living. At the end of the period, if he were accepted, he turned all his property into the common fund and became a member of a group of ten, led by a priest. A council of twelve, with three priests among them, governed each Essene community, of which that on the shores of the Sea of Judgment was by far the largest unit. One among the group, descendant in authority from a martyred “Teacher of Righteousness” who had founded the order nearly two hundred years before, served as the leader.
    The Essenes observed a ritual communal meal representing the great banquet of the righteous when at last God’s task for men on earth was finished and His kingdom came in all its final glory. They were cleanly in their habit and used baptism with water as a sign that those baptized repented of their sins and sought ever afterwards to live according to the Law.
    Like the Pharisees, the Essenes looked to the day when a new leader, perhaps a new “Teacher of Righteousness” like the martyred founder of their own order, would appear to usher in the kingdom of God on earth. Moses, they taught, had predicted this very thing when he said: “The Lord said to me, ‘I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brothers, and will put My words in His mouth, and He will speak to them all that I command Him.’”
    For men to receive, understand, and obey the Torah, the Essenes believed they must receive a certain enlightenment. This state of enlightenment members of the various communities sought for themselves through meditation, study, withdrawal from the world, and self-denial. In this way they hoped to move upon higher planes of understanding and experience, secure in the knowledge that there was hope for even ordinary human beings to enjoy a communion with the Divine.
II
    To the community of the Essenes near the Sea of Judgment came the youth named John, son of the priest Zacharias and Elisabeth who was the kinswoman of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Shortly after his thirteenth year, when he became a “Son of the Commandment” and took on the status of a young man, John had withdrawn into the desert and the community of the Essenes. There, while living the simple life of the community and denying himself the pleasures of ordinary men in order to make himself pure, he had studied the Law and the promises of God’s kingdom to be brought about on earth.
    Zacharias had told John about the strange circumstances surrounding both his birth and that of Jesus. In his quavering voice the old priest had described how he had been struck dumb when the angel of the Lord had revealed to him that Elisabeth, though well past the age of childbearing, would give him a son who would “be called the prophet of the Highest.”
    John had pondered upon these words while he went about the quiet life of the Essene community and sought the enlightenment which would prepare him for the coming kingdom of God. The intense, dedicated youth, convinced as he grew older that he had been singled out for a great purpose, became