An Historical Account ofJesus 15It is very important to examine [esus's life in the context of what
was happening politically and socially in the society into which he
was born. It was a time of great unrest in the [ewish world.
The Jews in their history had been trarnpled under the feet of
invaders one after another in a series of invasions, which will be
examined in greater detail further on in this account. Because of
the defeats which resulted in their helplessness, the fire of hatred
always remained burning in their hearts. But even in the days of
their blackest despair, a large proportion of the Jews retained their
mental balance, and continued in the expectation of a new Moses,
whose coming was described in the Torah, and who, it was hoped,
with his staff would succeed in driving away the invader, so that
the rule of [ehovah would be ushered in. He would be the Mes
siah, the Anointed One.
As weIl as this group, there was always a section of the Jewish
nation who worshipped every rising sun, trimming their sails to
whatever wind prevailed at the time, in order to make the best of a
bad bargain. They acquired wealth and position, both temporal
and religious, but were hated by the rest of the Jews as traitors.
Apart from these two groups, there was a third group of Jews
who differed widely from them. They took refuge in the wilder
ness where they could practise the teachings of the Torah more eas
ily, and prepare themselves to fight the invaders whenever the op
portunity arose. During this period, the Romans made many un
successful attempts to discover their hideouts, but the numbers of
these patriots continued to grow. They are described by Josephus
the historian, who categorises these three parties of the [ews as the
Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes, respectively.
The existence of the Essenes was known of but not in any great
detail. This group of people is not once mentioned in the Gospels.
Then, with dramatic suddenness, the documents known as the Dead
Sea Scrolls carne to light in the mountains of Jordan near the Dead
Sea. This discovery took the whole intel1ectual and ecclesiastical
world by storm. The story ofhow these documents came to be found
is this:
In 1947, an Arab boy, tending his flock near Qumran. found one
of his sheep was missing, so he deàded to climb the nearby moun
tain in search of the missing animal. During his search, he carne
upon the mouth of a cave into which he thought the sheep had
gone. He threw a stone into it, expecting to hear the sound of stone