[Cicero]

The folks at Time are still hoping to find something that will shake up the foundations of Christianity. That was one of the reasons the Dead Sea Scrolls were so popular when they were first discovered and why people like Edmund Wilson wrote about them with such enthusiasm. But there really isn't much resemblance between the Essenes and the early Christians. John the Baptist as he is portrayed in the Gospels bears no resemblance to what little we know about that sect.

[dark_lord]

But there really isn't much resemblance between the Essenes and the early Christians. John the Baptist as he is portrayed in the Gospels bears no resemblance to what little we know about that sect.

That may be true. At the time of John the Baptist (and Jesus the Christ) there were three primary Judaic sects: the Essenes, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees. I find it interesting that Jesus beats up on the latter two in several places in the New Testament, but not the former. An excellent summary of the Essene sect can be found at this link.

There is a bunch of, IMO "crap", postings on the web that purport to claim that Jesus was an Essane, that modern Christianity is not the true path, blah blah blah. Mainly a bunch of bunk.

My belief is that the Christ was surely exposed to Essane teachings, and some of his teaching overlap with theirs, nor did he personally appear as hostile toward their teachings as he sometimes did towards the Pharisees and the Sadducees. But was he "brought" up as an Essane? Clearly not. Did he learn some Essane teachings while growing up? Possibly. Not important, though. His message was his message, and that's the end of it.