|
Page 4 of 30 3. CHURCH OF SOME
TYPE:
Organized as the YAHAD, same name as
used by early Christians in ACTS,. though could have been a common name
for religious communities in general. In SOMMER, p. 98, we find: "Thus,
the revelation of the Jewish "New Covenant" which has just been
brought to us in such detail by the Dead Sea discoveries, enriches very
substantially our knowledge. In the last two centuries B.C. and the
first century A.D. this represented a movement in Judaism as widespread
as it was deep, both inside and outside Palestine. It is from the womb
of this religious ferment that Christianity, the Christian ˜New
Covenant emerged." SOMMER, p. 99, goes on to say: "In the Christian
Church, just as in the Essene Church, the essential rite is the sacred
meal, whose ministers are the priests. Here and there at the head of
each community there is the overseer, the "bishop". And the ideal
of both Churches is essentially that of unity, communion in love "even
going so far as the sharing of common property".
An intriguing passage is found in BROWNLEE, p. 22, "And it
shall be
when they arrange the table to eat, or arrange the wine to drink the
priest shall first stretch out his hand to invoke a blessing with the
first of the bread or the wine to drink, the priest shall first stretch
out his hand to invoke a blessing with the first of the bread and the
wine."
GASTOR p. 20, carrying this thought forward says: "FOURTH-and,
perhaps, most important-even if, for arguments sake, this document
did refer to a divine eschatological Messiah attending a banquet with
his disciples, it would still not be a eucharist in the Christian
sense, for there is not the slightest suggestion that the bread and
wine were regard as his flesh and blood or that consumption of them had
any redemptive power. At most, it would be an agape, or "love-feast." We would agree with this because the present LDS
practice is more like the ancient practice and not the eucharist of
more than 750 Christian denominations and off shoots.
They were called Saints: DANIELOU, on p. 99 quotes a Scroll
source:
"God gave them a heritage partaking of the lot of the saints (DSD xi.
)7). Similar to Paul in Col. l:12.
SHONFIELD p. 30, quoting from the DAMASCUS TESTAMENT "The
former
saints whom God pardons. The commentator speaks of the "first"
or "former saints" whom God pardones. These are the repentant
remnant from Israel and Aaron of the first part of the Testament of
Damascus who lived at the time of the period of wrath." The people of
Qumran considered themselves to be Saints. Today, the LDS call
themselves, the "Latter Day Saints".
SOMMER, p. 98 states: "Thus, the revelation of the Jewish "New
Covenant", which has just been brought to us in such detail by the Dead
Sea discoveries, enriches very substantially our knowledge.In the
last two centuries B.C. and the first century A.D. this represented a
movement in Judaism as widespread as it was deep, both inside and
outside Palestine. It is from this form of this religious ferment that
Christianity, the Christian "New Covenant emerged." And on p. 99 he
writes: "In the Christian Church, just in the Essene Church, the
essential rite is the sacred meal, whose ministers are the priests.
Here and there at the head of each community there is the overseer, the
"bishop". And the ideal of both Churches is essentially that of
unity, communion in love "even going so far as the sharing of common
property." On page 24 he writes: "The outstanding interest of the Dead
Sea documents is to be found in another direction: its lies rather in
all that they tell us of the religious milieu of the JEWS in the last
TWO CENTURIES BEFORE THE CHRISTIAN ERA. It is precisely this that we
may now proceed to learn." What the Jews believed from 400 B.C. to the
time of Christ is of great interest to LDS scholars. The Greek, Hebrew,
and Aramaic Canons were developed during that period. The Canon of the
Brass Plates was already in place before 600 B.C.
|
