| The title of rabbis is synonymous
with "teacher" or "master" in the Bible.
Jesus is addressed by one of these titles, four times by
Matthew, 11 times by Mark, 15 times by Luke and nine times
by John. It therefore seems certain that by the time he
started his ministry, he had earned the right to be called
"rabbi".
It also seems obvious from his
attitude towards Sadducees and Pharisees and the fact that
they are always referred to in the third person, that Jesus
was not a member of either of these sects and therefore must
have been an Essene.
When Jesus began, and during his
ministry, he was a rabbi in the Sect of the Essenes.
As such, his progress from the
beginning of his religious education at the age of 10 until
becoming a rabbi would have been that described in the
"Organization" section of this essay and explains:
- Why his ministry began at age 30 or 31
- How he acquired the learning that enabled him to
more than hold his own in religious arguments with his
adversaries
- How John the Baptist, also an Essene rabbi, was able
to tell the people of Jesus' impending arrival
The prerequisite for being Essene
scribes or rabbis was that they be Israeli born, over the
age of 25, and unmarried.
If Jesus was an Essene rabbi, he
could not possibly have been married. |