THE Resurrection numbers

¨     Thomas 19
"Congratulations to the one who came into being before coming into being. If you become my disciples and pay attention to my sayings, these stones will serve you. For there are five trees in Paradise for you; they do not change, summer or winter, and their leaves do not fall. Whoever knows them will not taste death."

When some years ago the complete contents of the last Qumran scrolls found in the so called "cave four" was made public, many people expected spectacular novelties that would shine new light on the dark years of early Christianity.

Although highly interesting, the findings of Qumran can not be called spectacular. The big suspense that arose during the many years that the world waited for the publication of the texts, was largely due to the mystery created by the clerical secrecy that surrounded the findings. The scientific investigation of the scrolls were executed by a team guided by the patriarchal Dominican frater Roland de Vaux, who made big efforts to prove that the scrolls belonged to the sect of the Essenes instead of simply publishing the texts. One does not need to have a vivid fantasy to imagine what a pious "scientist" like De Vaux would have done should he have stumbled on a fragile piece of parchment that might have endangered the Christian doctrine. Nevertheless, what survived the thirty years of Dominican research is a collection of religious texts that belonged to an apocalyptic Jewish sectarian group.

With respect to Christian religion, the scrolls offer interesting information when they talk about a heavenly and an earthly Messiah. Apparently there existed a thoroughly elaborated concept regarding the expected Messiah and how he (or they) were supposed to fulfill his (their) tasks. Besides this, the scrolls also provide interesting information about a ritual end-time meal that shows significant similarities with the Last Supper that Jesus shared with his disciples.

Another highly remarkable finding in the Qumran scrolls was a rather unusual religious calendar. Knowing the peculiarities of Jewish religion, this is less unusual than it seems. The Jewish calendar still follows highly incomprehensible rabbinic rules in order to make sure that the many religious holydays are celebrated on the appropriate days of the lunisolar year. The Jewish calendar is almost as important as the Jewish religion itself and especially during the politically restless time of Jesus life and early Christianity there was much debating as to which calendar would be able to predict the coming of the long awaited Messiah.