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Edgar Cayce on... Dead Sea Scrolls

More than eleven years before the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in 1947, Cayce’s readings described a sect of Judaism about which scholars knew little. This group was the Essenes. Cayce gave a great deal of information about their work and their life in the community. For example, he claimed that in the Essene society men and women worked and lived together. At the time of the reading, scholars believed that the Essenes were a monastic society composed exclusively of men. However, in 1951, more than six years after Cayce’s death, archaeologists made further excavations at Qumran near the site where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. They discovered evidence that both men and women lived together in the Essene society.

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This psychic reading given by Edgar Cayce at the office of the Association, Arctic Crescent, Virginia Beach, Va., this 21st day of June, 1942, in accordance with request made by the self - Mrs. [ 1010 ], Associate Member of the Ass'n for Research & Enlightenment, Inc. Mrs. [ 1010 ] offered her Reading as a part of the 1942 Congress program, a copy to be included in the Congress Booklet.

Present: Edgar Cayce; Gertrude Cayce, Conductor; Gladys Davis, Steno. [ 1010 ], Gladys & Charles Dillman, Julia Chandler, Beulah H. Emmet, Beatrice & Richmond Seay, Rosa & Joshua Manning, Hannah & Noah Miller, Frances Y. Morrow, Ruth LeNoir, Marion Wolfe, Helen & Marsden Godfrey, Esther Wynne, Evelyn Cruser, Mae Verhoeven, Evelyn R. Gimbert, Ruth Denny, Beverly & Riley Simmons, Sally & Hugh Lynn Cayce, Malcolm H. Allen, Mignon Helms, Reba Bennett, Mildred Tansey, Eula Allen, Mildred White, Patricia White, and others

Time: 11:35 to 12:05 A. M. Eastern War Time. TEXT GC: You will have before you the life existence in the earth plane of [ 1010 ], nee [ 1010 ], born April 6, 1871, in Black River Falls, Wisconsin; and the earthly existence of this entity as Sophie or Josie, a handmaid to Mary, Jesus and Joseph, throughout the childhood of the Master. Considering the reference in her Life Reading that a history of this incarnation "would lay the foundation for giving a great deal of historical data," you will give a biographical life of the entity in that day and plane of earthly existence, from entrance - and how - into the earth's plane, and the entity's departure; giving the development or retarding points in such an existence. You will answer the questions that may be asked:
EC: Yes, we have the records here of that entity now known as or called [ 1010 ], in the present; as Josie in the Palestine experience and activities; together with the information which has been indicated through these channels.

In giving the biographical life of the entity Josie, much of those activities might be indicated that brought about those later relationships with Mary, the mother of Jesus.
As has been outlined from here, there were those special groups of individuals who had made some preparations for the expected activities that were to come about during that particular period; especially those of the Essenes who had chosen the twelve maidens to indicate their fitness. This choice was to be made by those selections indicated by the spirit, and Josie was the daughter of Shem and Mephibosheth that was among these.

This entity, Josie, was close to Mary when the selection was indicated by the shadow or the angel on the stair, at that period of consecration in the temple. This was not the temple in Jerusalem, but the temple where those who were consecrated worshiped, or a school - as it might be termed - for those who might be channels.

This was a part of that group of Essenes who, headed by Judy, made those interpretations of those activities from the Egyptian experience, - as the Temple Beautiful, and the service in the Temple of Sacrifice. Hence it was in this consecrated place where this selection took place.

Then, when there was the fulfilling of those periods when Mary was espoused to Joseph and was to give birth to the Savior, the Messiah, the Prince of Peace, the Way, the Truth, the Light, - soon after this birth there was the issuing of the orders first by Judy that there should be someone selected to be with the parents during their period of sojourn in Egypt. This was owing to the conditions which arose from the visit of the Wise Men and their not returning to Herod to report, when the decrees were issued that there should be the destruction of the children of that age from six months to two years, especially in that region from Bethany to Nazareth.
Thus this entity, Josie, was selected or chosen by those of the Brotherhood, - sometimes called White Brotherhood in the present, - as the handmaid or companion of Mary, Jesus and Joseph, in their flight into Egypt.

This began on an evening, and the journey - through portions of Palestine, from Nazareth to the borders of Egypt - was made only during the night.
Do not understand that there was only Joseph, Mary, Josie and the Child. For there were other groups that preceded and followed; that there might be the physical protection to that as had been considered by these groups of peoples as the fulfilling of the Promised One.

In the journeys to Egypt, little of great significance might be indicated, but the care and attention to the Child and the Mother was greatly in the hands of this entity, Josie, through that journey.
The period of sojourn in Egypt was in and about, or close to, what was then Alexandria.
Josie and Mary were not idle during that period of sojourn, but those records - that had been a part of those activities preserved in portions of the libraries there - were a part of the work that had been designated for this entity. And the interest in same was reported to the Brotherhood in the Judean country.

The sojourn there was a period of some four years, - four years, six months, three days.
When there were those beginnings of the journey back to the Promised Land, there were naturally - from some of the records that had been read by the entity Josie, as well as the parents - the desires to know whether there were those unusual powers indicated in this Child now, - that was in every manner a normal, developed body, ready for those activities of children of that particular period.

But do not interpret same in the light of childhood in thine own land in the present, - more in the light of the oriental. For, remember, Egypt as well as parts of Galilee were the customs and activities of those to whom the care of this physical entity was entrusted through that early sojourn in the earth.
The return was made to Capernum, - not Nazareth, - not only for political reasons owing to the death of Herod but the division that had been made with the kingdom after the death of Herod; and that there might be the ministry or teaching that was to be a part of the Brotherhood, - supervised in that period by Judy, as among the leaders of the Essenes in that particular period.

Hence much of the early education, the early activities, were those prompted or directed by that leader in that particular experience, but were administered by - or in the closer associations by - Josie. Though from the idea of the Brotherhood the activities of the entity were no longer necessitated, the entity Josie preferred to remain - and did remain until those periods when there was the sending or the administering of the teachings to the young Master, first in Persia and later in India, and then in Egypt again - where there were the completions.

But the entity, Josie, following the return, was active in all the educational activities as well as in the care of the body and the attending to those things pertaining to the household duties with every developing child. And Josie was among those who went with Mary and Joseph when they went to the city, or to Jerusalem, at the time of the age of twelve. It was thought by Joseph and Mary that it was in the care of Josie that He had stayed, when He was missed, in those periods when there was the returning to find Him in the temple.
Josie was with Mary throughout those activities. And is it any wonder that when there were those preparations of the body for burial that Josie was the one who brought the spices, the ointments that were to consecrate the preparations of this body for whom it had cared through those early periods of its experience in the earth?

Through that period Josie never married, and was known among the Holy Women throughout the period; coming and persuading the Mother, Mary, when there was the arrest, to come to Jerusalem.
The entity passed on through those periods of riots following the beheading of James, the brother of John.
Ready for questions.
(Q) What association with the entity who is now [ 294 ] did I have in the Palestine experience?
(A) The teacher of the Master knew only of Lucius through those activities in Laodicea, - for he came at the time of Pentecost, see?
(Q) What was the nature of the records studied by Josie in Egypt?
(A) Those same records from which the men of the East said and gave, "By those records we have seen his star." These pertained, then, to what you would call today astrological forecasts, as well as those records which had been compiled and gathered by all of those of that period pertaining to the coming of the Messiah.

These had been part of the records from those in Carmel, in the early experiences, as of those given by Elijah, - who was the forerunner, who was the cousin, who was the Baptist. All of these had been a part of the records - pertaining not only to the nature of work of the parents but as to their places of sojourn, and the very characteristics that would indicate these individuals; the nature and the character that would be a part of the experiences to those coming in contact with the young Child; as to how the garments worn by the Child would heal children. For the body being perfect radiated that which was health, life itself. Just as today, individuals may radiate, by their spiritual selves, health, life, that vibration which is destruction to dis-ease in any form in bodies. These were the characters and natures of things studied by Josie.

For, is it not quoted oft, "All of these things she kept and pondered them in her heart"? With what? With the records that Josie as well as herself had seen. These records were destroyed, of course, in a much later period.

(Q) Can any more details by given as to the training of the Child?

(A) Only those that covered that period from six years to about sixteen, which were in keeping with the tenets of the Brotherhood; as well as that training in the law, - which was the Jewish or Mosaic law in that period. This was read, this was interpreted in accordance with those activities defined and outlined for the parents and the companions of the developing body. Remember and keep in mind, He was normal, He developed normally. Those about Him saw those characteristics that may be anyone's who wholly puts the trust in God! And to every parent might it not be said, daily, dedicate thy life that thy offspring may be called of God into service - to the glory of God and to the honor of thy name!
We are through.
BACKGROUND See 1010-12 on 4/13/38 with subsequent correspondence.
REPORTS 8/02/65 Extracts by Albert E. Turner from HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY ILLUSTRATED, by Moses Redding:
P. 37 It is even claimed by ancient and modern authority that Christ was an Essene...therefore Christ would naturally associate Himself with an order that was so congenial to His nature.
P. 67 From a well-authenticated tradition we learn concerning St. John the Baptist that his father and mother died when he was quite young, and that he was then adopted by the Essenes and finally became their Rabbin. In that capacity he performed the duty of baptizing the initiates and thus acquired the cognomen of John the Baptist.

2/69 Richmond-Times Dispatch article, "MYSTERY GRADUALLY UNFOLDING - SCROLLS SAID TO ADD INSIGHT":
NEW YORK (A/P) - Like the gradual unfolding of a mystery story, fragmentary hints and clues today are being accumulated from musty manuscripts of the past to illuminate the times of Jesus.
"A steady stream of material is increasing our knowledge of that period," says the Rev. Dr. Robert Northup of New York Theological Seminary. "We can expect a tide of additional material soon."

The painstakingly slow but dramatic process has been going on for about 20 years now, since the big finds of ancient documents in the dunes of Egypt in 1946 and in caves beside the Dead Sea in 1947.
However, less than half of them have been deciphered and published so far, and work now is nearing completion on the rest.

"Not much has been told about what most of these other manuscripts contain," said Dr. Northup, professor of New Testament literature and a research specialist on ancient writings of that era.
"We can anticipate their general nature from what we've already learned, but each is distinct, and some of them may provide information that will give us new, even fuller understanding."
Notably, however, despite premature assumptions that the contents might undermine Christian views of Jesus, scholars say that instead the results have given new weight to the New Testament accounts.
"It has helped to make even clearer the special value and authenticity to the gospel records," Dr. Northup said.

For instance, some gospel phraseology, especially in the Book of John, previously had caused many scholars to date it about a century after Jesus' death, but the usages now are found to have been common in his own day, indicating an earlier origin.

Consequently, there now is new, objective ground for considering all the gospel accounts, including John, as having been produced within the span of the lifetimes of the apostles.

Of the seven leather-bound codexes or books found in Egypt, containing 49 tractates or writings, the dating of which varies in opinion from the 1st to the 4th century, Dr. Northup said only five of the writings have been generally published so far, most of it abstract material.

Of the Dead Sea scrolls, dated between 200 B.C. and 70 A.D., four volumes have been published so far, with six others still to be issued, which is expected within the next four years.
Besides detailed records about a separatist Jewish community, the Essenes, which lived in isolation beside the Dead Sea through Jesus' time, the documents also include all or parts of every Old Testament book except Esther, providing copies 1,000 years older than available before.

"We now have a much more complete picture of the conditions both at the time Jesus lived and in the early period afterward," Dr. Northup said. "But the material also raises new questions and possibilities."
Among those questions, he noted, is whether the immediate forerunner of Jesus, John the Baptist, or even Jesus himself, were at some point associated with the Qumron community, the Essenes, who left the scrolls.
But if they ever were related to the group, they broke with it and differed decisively in their teachings, he said. He noted that while both Jesus and the Qumron community pointed to the Old Testament Scripture, the community only interpreted it to justify its own views, while Jesus made his own personal authority central, asserting an advance in revealed truth.

"He didn't use Scripture to justify his authority, but claimed it within himself, saying the way people acted toward him was the decisive thing," Dr. Northup said.
However, he noted that Jesus, in his sharp criticisms of various religious parties and sects in his day, never mentioned the Essenes, possibly "because, even though differing from them, he may have felt they were searching similar points of faith."

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