I was not even ten years old when I first became fascinated with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Since that time, I have read everything available on the subject. I wrote papers on the scrolls in college, and made them a part of my Old Testament assignments in Seminary. In time, I became aware of information about the Essenes and the records they had kept from the unlikely source of a Virginia Beach psychic named Edgar Cayce. That information enhanced both my understanding and my curiosity. I made my first trip to Virginia Beach and the A.R.E. in 1965. A decade later, it was my privilege to see Qumran in person on an A.R.E. trip with both Hugh Lynn Cayce and his son, Charles Thomas. I shared nearly a thirty-year friendship with Dr. Theodore H. Gaster, one of the very first translators of the Scrolls [The Dead Sea Scriptures, Double Day/Anchor Books 1956, 1964, 1976] and was privileged to hear first-hand information about the scrolls from one of its preeminent scholars. The scrolls have remained a central part of my life for decades.
Somehow, somewhere, Edgar Cayce, the most documented psychic of all time, was able to cross paths with what was at the time an all-but-unknown group—a Community known as the Essenes. Although Edgar was a deeply devout Christian who made the unusual practice of reading the Bible (all sixty-six books) once through for each year of his life, the Essenes were not a subject he would have ever encountered even in the best Sunday morning Bible class anywhere. Yet time after time, the psychic readings that came forth from him provided detailed information about the group called the Essenes during the time when Jesus “walked the earth.” Historically, the Essenes were a known religious sect of the day like the Pharisees and Sadducees made popular by the many references in the New Testament, but unlike them, the Essenes are never mentioned, at least directly.
It would be nearly a decade before a casually thrown stone by a Bedouin goat herder and a telltale sound of a “plink” against” pottery that held some of the scrolls led to one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of all time. The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in the Judean desert close to the northwest shore of the Salton Sea better known as the Dead Sea.
It was not until after Edgar Cayce’s death that the scrolls came to light between 1947 and 1955 in eleven caves about the “Monastery-like” compound at Qumran. They are known to have been written and copied by the Essene Hebrew sect. The scrolls contain all the books of the present Old Testament Bible (several in multiple copies), excluding the book of Esther but including some apocryphal books quite important to them, such as Jubilees and Enoch. The scrolls also include the Essene’s own Psalms, the War Scroll (of the Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness), the Manual of Discipline (basically rules for the community), and the so-called Zadokite Document containing credible but arcane references and interpretations.
In his readings, Mr. Cayce spoke of the Essenes being students of both what we now call astrology as well as reincarnation. In terms of astrology, archaeological excavations in Qumran unearthed two astrological charts, seemingly adding credence to Cayce’s premise. In terms of reincarnation, according to the book of Malachi certain souls, including Elijah and Christ, were promised to return. In addition, some scrolls stated or implied the return of souls. Most importantly, the Manual of Discipline and the War Scroll describe an ongoing pitched battle between the Sons of Light (or the Sons of the Law of One) and the Sons of Darkness (or the Sons of the Lie). According to the scroll, the battle has been raging from the beginning of time itself, and the Sons of the Law of One return at crucial times in history to do battle with the Sons of Belial. The Sons of Light had a “Teacher of Righteousness,” who fit the description of Jesus in every way. In fact, a writer in the 1950s, M. Dupont-Sommer, was moved to say:
Everything in the Jewish New Covenant heralds and prepares the way for the Christian New Covenant. The Galilean Master as He is presented to us in the writings of the New Testament appears in many way as an astonishing reincarnation of the Teacher of Righteousness.
E. Wilson, pg. 85, The Scrolls from the Dead Sea, 1955
Dupont-Sommer goes on to make seven direct comparisons between the fabled Teacher and Jesus.
It is no wonder then that Jesus and John the Baptist were questioned by the Jewish leaders concerning who they were—were they the return of one of the prophets or Elijah? The Pharisees wanted to know so that they could report to their superiors. Reincarnation appears to have been a rather common subject of concern around the time of A.D. 30.
The Essenes, themselves were highly trained and disciplined. Initiates could only join the “Brotherhood” after the age of 20. They could be Jew or Gentile but had to undergo a long path of self-examination under the “Overseers” and Elders before they could become members. No one was allowed to become a priest until the age of 30.
It is thought that Jesus, if not part of the community, was in close communication with it, as was (especially) John the Baptist. Neither of them began his ministries until the age of 30—as revealed by Luke (3:23) so they were on the same page in so many ways with this enigmatic Community. John was baptizing to begin the new Kingdom only a literal stone’s throw from the Qumran monastery. Here also Jesus was baptized.
In his encounters with the Essenes, particularly the Sons of Light, Edgar Cayce picked up on their highly purposeful nature. “What was the meaning of ‘Essene,” he was asked? His answer, in a way, was as surprising as the original re-discovery of the group: “Expectancy.” Cayce stated that their function and their purpose was synonymous with their name. Their names and various ranks, much like those on the banners of battle, are mentioned in the War Scroll; their function and name are joined together in the same manner.
After the Scrolls’ discovery, scholars with a memory rediscovered the writings of Josephus (b. A.D. 38), who actually lived with the Essenes around A.D. 57, as well as the historians Pliny the Elder and Philo, who wrote in real time about the curious Brotherhood established on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea. Pliny had pinpointed their location there, while Philo of Alexandria, who greatly admired their stoic strength, especially in the face of persecution, dubbed them, “Athletes of Virtue.” The term matched Cayce’s assessment of them in readings given a decade previously when he detailed their high integrity and purposeful lives.
Josephus makes a remarkable comment that “there are many among them [the Essenes] who undertake to foretell things to come by reading the Holy Books and using several sorts of purifications and being perpetually conversant in the discourse of the Prophets, and it is seldom that they miss in their predictions. (War of the Jews, 11, viii, 12)
In 1955, ten years after Cayce’s passing, Edmund Wilson, a seasoned journalist for The New Yorker, matched Cayce’s excitement and assessment of the Essenes with the following:
The Monastery (at Qumran) this structure of stone that endures, between the bitter waters and the precipitous cliffs, with its oven (kiln) and ink wells, its mill and cesspool, its constellation of sacred fonts, and the unadorned graves of its dead, is perhaps more than Bethlehem, or Nazareth, the “Cradle of Christianity.” (The Scrolls from the Dead Sea, pg. 98)
As time passed, the enthusiasm of Wilson and Dupont-Sommer fell sorely out of fashion. More and more, Jewish scholars took possession of the Scrolls’ destiny. Later on, those in charge of their study were not the original seasoned French Dominican priest/scholars, such as Father Roland de Vaux, or J.C. Trevor or even W.F. Albright, but rather an atheist and an anti-Semite were among those in charge. For decades, very little, if anything of importance was revealed to the public.
As early as 1937, another surprise from the Cayce readings was that many of the Essenes were women—women who played a significant role in not only the Essene Community but also carrying over into the emerging early Christian Church. To confirm Cayce’s insights, as many of the graves southeast of the Monastery were excavated, several female skeletons were found. They were buried Essene-style, wrapped in simple white garments, laid with the head to the south, and buried on a ledge six feet deep. White robes were the trademark of the Essenes except when they traded these prized garments for clothes for their six-day work week. The white robes were reserved for dining and worship. Other than these garments, the Essenes held everything in common and owned nothing of their own.
Cayce’s amazing revelations resurrected other little known facts concerning Jesus—facts that were hardly ever discussed even in Orthodox circles. Among these are Jesus’ connection with Melchizedek, the fabled high priest of Salem and King of Righteousness. Salem (Shalom) means peace in Hebrew and is half of the word, Jerusalem, the Holy City of Peace.
Who was Melchizedek? Abraham paid him tithes. He is also recognized as the beginning of the priestly tradition in Israel. He is only mentioned in Psalms 110 and in Hebrews in the New Testament: “Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” (Hebrews 7:17) Interestingly enough, Edgar Cayce gave the surprising information that Melchizedek had been a former incarnation of the soul who became Jesus. Rather than simply thinking Cayce incorrect, doesn’t the fact that Abraham paid Melchizedek tithes and Jesus’ statement that “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.” (John 8:58) take on an entirely new meaning? What is perhaps even more interesting is the scene in Luke where Jesus essentially proclaims himself to be the Christ, as all eyes are watching:
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. (Luke 4: 16-21)
On one occasion, I contacted my friend Dr. Theodore H. Gaster, a brilliant Hebraist, who was also the first to translate all of the available Scrolls in his volume, The Dead Sea Scriptures (Doubleday/Anchor, 1956). He was quite excited because he had just seen a newly released Dead Sea Scroll from Isaiah 61:1-4. In this section, the Hebrew letter “mem” was inserted in the place where the word “Lord” is often seen. As a scholar, he knew that “mem” represented Melchizedek. Therefore, as Jesus is addressing the elders in Luke, he is not only stating his role as Messiah, he is mentioning his former incarnation as Melchizedek! As this sunk in with the elders, they saw it as heresy and moved to throw him off the brow of the hill “upon which Nazareth is built.” While in Nazareth, I searched for a time before finding that very synagogue off the beaten path but on that “brow of the hill” as mentioned in Luke.
As if to clinch Cayce’s insistence of the Melchizedek reference, Cave 11, the last to be found in 1955, yielded Scroll 11QMelchizedek, dating to the mid-first century B.C. The first column is completely missing in this Scroll and of thirteen fragments, there are redactions due to missing portions. What remains is some twenty-eight lines of highly significant material concerning the apocalyptical (last days) functioning of Melchizedek who is referred to in the highest of terminology such as Elohim, a term most often reserved for God (as in Genesis 1:1). It is cast in instructional sermonic style. Here is proclaimed “the year of (Melchizedek’s), the Lord’s favor” (as in Isaiah 61:2 just as Dr. Gaster had discovered it) returning everything to the way things should be following Jubilee but this was a Jubilee of Jubilees, a tenth Jubilee period, including “the release of the captives” of Belial “from prison” to the King of Righteousness. This, of course, refers to Jesus’s address in his Home Synagogue as recorded in Luke 4.
As we explore the Cayce’s readings, there are some surprises. One quite pleasant surprise was reserved for Mr. Cayce himself. In 1937, rather late in his career, a reading explored his own involvement in the Holy Land when “the Master walked the earth.” The reading stated he had known St. Luke, who known affectionately as “the dear and glorious physician,” and the individual credited with the Third Gospel and the Book of The Acts of the Apostles. Cayce’s name at the time had been Lucius Ceptulus, or Lucius of Cyrene. Lucius had been a part of the Seventy whom Jesus sent out two-by-two to prepare the way for His mission, but there was more. Lucius would become Bishop of Laodicea and had been a part of writing the Gospel of Luke with its namesake.
The readings commented on the flight of the Holy family into Egypt to avoid the edict of a jealous Herod the Great, where they remained for four and a half years. While there, Mary and others with her studied “the records in and about Alexandria” having to do with the Messiah. Apparently, Mary had a source to track events in the life of her son. Unfortunately, within the First Century, the library’s rare and valuable collection was destroyed by fire. It is interesting to note that both the readings and Luke’s Gospel (Chapter 2) report that Mary “kept these things and pondered them in her heart.” The readings suggest that the study of the records and the library was the source of the pondering. No wonder that the prophecy of Simeon to Mary in the Temple at Jesus’ circumcision as recorded by Luke was: “A sword shall pierce your own soul as well that the thoughts of many hearts might be revealed.”
Were the Apostles also following the same “records” as studied by Mary to track the events in the life of Jesus? For instance, when Jesus turned the tables at the temple in apparent rage at their lack of respect, they searched the record and found in Psalm 69:9: “Zeal for Thy house shall consume me.”
After the death of the despot, Herod the Great, it was safe for the Holy Family and their group to return to Israel, thus fulfilling the prophecy of the Son being called out of Egypt. The readings make reference to Isaiah and Jeremiah but Hosea 11:1 specifically says, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son!”
In any event, the readings state that the sojourn in Egypt was at an end after “four years, six months and three days.” It is important to remember that for a second time the prophecy was fulfilled when Jesus returned home from Egypt at the age of 30 at the death of Joseph, the father, to begin His ministry.
Also within these pages, you will have the opportunity to meet an amazing contemporary of Edgar Cayce, Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a French Jesuit, paleontologist, and full-blown Christian mystic. Like Cayce, his thought and clarity of insight have grown way beyond what was evident during his lifetime. Although the two never met, both were one of a kind: unique, Christ-centered, and disarmingly humble. Cayce provided countless affirmations for both meditation and prayer, while Father Teilhard penned thoughtful prayers in his volume “Hymn of the Universe,” released just as I was finishing seminary in the mid-sixties. Both were prophetic thinkers ahead of their time. Cayce was dubbed “the Sleeping Prophet,” while Teilhard was called “the Aquinas of the Atomic Era.”
Both of these men had a tremendous impact on me in those formative years, pointing to me as many others great optimism and dimensions of hope which have carried through to this day. Cayce peering into eleven caves at Qumran; Teilhard digging out the “bones” of the history of mankind—but both helping us to look within. It is fitting that we meet both of the giants of this age in the following book, “Edgar Cayce on the Dead Sea Scrolls.” Herein is truly one of the greatest stories ever told!
The Rev. Ralph Wm. Spears, A.B., M. Div., D.D., L.M.H.C. is a retired Lutheran pastor and counselor. Born in Springfield, Ohio, he graduated from Wittenberg University. In his years of ministry, he served five mostly inner-city churches in four different States. He was nine years old when the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered and grew up studiously following them. He has lectured on both the Scrolls and the Essene Community. He taught High School science classes as well as acted as a substance abuse and guidance counselor. After 53 years of ordination ministry, he recently retired and lives in Indianapolis, Indiana with Sallie his wife, a retired organist of 55 years.