They then entered the city (‘they’ here means Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the zealot, and Judas (the son of James) and went to the upstairs room where they were staying. [Acts 1:13 (NLT)]
Along with the Pharisees and Sadducees, the two other major sects or philosophies mentioned by the historian Flavius Josephus were the Zealots and Essenes. Religion and politics were one and the same in ancient Palestine and the Zealots movement originated with Judah/Judas of Galilee and Zadok the Pharisee. Their most basic belief was that any and all means were justified if it led to political and religious liberty for the Jews. When Judah was killed while leading a revolt around 6 AD, his followers fled to the desert and continued in guerilla warfare against the Romans.
Josephus reported that the Zealots agreed in most things with the Pharisees “but they have an inviolable attachment to liberty, and say that God is to be their only Ruler and Lord.” The two groups interpreted their suppression by Rome differently. Seeing their oppression as God’s punishment for the nation’s sins and His call to repentance, the Pharisees were confident that once the nation became committed to following the law, God would intervene and their nation would be restored (explaining their rigorous enforcement of the Law). The Zealots, however, believed that the Jews had to reject any ruler other than Jehovah and considered any cooperation with their Roman rulers as traitorous. Fiercely opposed to Rome’s occupation of Judea, they believed God would deliver them with the sword. Regarding the Greek language a symbol domination and paganism, Zealots were opposed its use. Wanting to incite rebellion, they refused to pay taxes, harassed and murdered government officials, and were known to violently attack Jews if they thought them to be collaborators or heretics. There probably were no other groups so diametrically opposed than Zealots and tax collectors and yet among Jesus’ disciples were Simon the Zealot and Levi/Matthew, the tax collector. What a beautiful demonstration of Jesus’ power that, rather than hate each other, these men loved Jesus and one another!
The Zealots, thinking Jesus would incite war against the Romans, initially may have welcomed Him as the Messiah. As His ministry continued and they realized the Kingdom of which Jesus spoke was not a political one and would not come about by military victory, they may have seen Him as a false Messiah. It is speculated that, like Simon, Judas was a Zealot and that his disappointment in a non-military kingdom is what led to his betrayal of the Lord. Barabbas, the criminal whose place Jesus took that day on Golgotha, was a Zealot who’d been sentenced to death because he’d committed murder during an uprising.
The Essenes are the fourth group cited by Josephus who reported they “shun the pleasures as vice, they consider self-control and not succumbing to the passions virtue.” Originating around 150 BC and disappearing after the Temple’s destruction, they’re not directly mentioned in Scripture. Rather than coexist with or fight Rome, the Essenes chose to withdraw from Rome entirely. Disgusted by both the Pharisees and Sadducees, they abandoned Jerusalem in protest against the worldliness of the city, the way the Temple was run, and Roman rule. A monastic Jewish community with strict membership requirements and the communal ownership of their possessions, the Essenes lived in the desert. Living austere lives of poverty, abstinence, and ritual purity, they didn’t sacrifice animals, own slaves, or make oaths. The Essenes believed God would send two messiahs from within their sect. Rather than resurrection, they believed in an immortal soul and, rather than man’s free will, they credited all things to God. When the Apostle Paul warned the Colossians about man-made philosophies, he may have been warning them about some of the Essenes’ unorthodox beliefs. Because of their ascetic lifestyle and their belief that ritual immersion in water (baptism) was an indication of spiritual change, it is speculated that John the Baptist was an Essene but that is merely speculation.
Fortunately, the Essenes were copyists who preserved the texts of the Hebrew Scriptures. It is thought that the Dead Sea scrolls, found by shepherds in Qumran in 1946 or 47, were recorded and stored by an Essene community. Among the scrolls, we have a nearly all the Hebrew Bible along with Essene commentaries on many of them. Even though they are never specifically mentioned in Scripture, they played an essential role in preserving the Word for future generations.
While we tend to think of 1st century Judaism as a unified faith, we find that it was as divided as the Christian church is today. And, just as Paul warned the Colossians about false philosophies, we must be cautious as well.
If I mentioned the Rotary or Kiwanis clubs, used the acronyms AARP, NRA, or PETA, or referred to the #MeToo or BLM movements, today’s readers would understand my references but they’d be unfamiliar to a reader 2,000 years from now. That’s the difficulty we sometimes encounter when reading the New Testament. While the authors knew who they were talking about, the 21st century American often doesn’t.
If I read a novel simply by searching through it for a few choice sentences, I’d miss the whole plot! I could quote Scarlett’s last words “After all, tomorrow is another day,” but I wouldn’t know why she said it nor would I know why Rhett said he didn’t give a damn! If I picked out just a few sentences in A Tale of Two Cities, I’d never know why Dickens said, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” or even the names of the two cities! While I might be able to quote Santiago’s belief that, ”A man can be destroyed but not defeated,” I wouldn’t know if that proved true without finishing The Old Man and the Sea. Reading only bits and pieces, I’d never know that it was an escaped convict, not Miss Havisham, who was Pip’s benefactor in Great Expectations, that Jane Eyre’s Mr. Rochester had a lunatic wife in the attic, or the identity of the killer in Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None.
Every employee wants to have a good boss. Unfortunately, the CEOs of some large firms can be out-of-touch with many of their employees; the executive suite is a world away from the mail room or warehouse. While they may understand the bottom line, many CEOs have no idea how their businesses function on a day-to-day basis. In its 10th season, Undercover Boss is a television show in which high-ranking executives disguise themselves, assume an alias and cover story, and then work undercover in their own companies. Taking such jobs as cashier, line cook, delivery person, or maintenance man, the bosses learn what it is like for the rank and file in their large corporations. Later, they reveal their identities to the workers with whom they interacted during the week. Their experience usually results in better training and improved working conditions for the employees and a change of attitude for the executives. Reality TV, however, is a carefully planned and edited version of events and I wonder if that one week really makes a lasting impact on the bosses.
Just north of us are the winter estates of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison. Along with their homes, gardens, and laboratory, is a museum. It was there that I first learned of the unlikely friendship between automobile pioneer Henry Ford and naturalist and essayist, John Burroughs. After Ford introduced his Model-T car in 1908, Burroughs, who was concerned about its effects on nature, called it a “demon on wheels” that would “seek out even the most secluded nook or corner of the forest and befoul it with noise and smoke.” Upset by the naturalist’s censure, Ford sent Burroughs a letter explaining his view that the automobile would connect people to the land and allow them to explore it rather than destroy and pollute it. Accompanying that letter was a new Model-T! “Out of that automobile grew a friendship,” Ford wrote in his memoirs.
Devotions of the Heart 