Some parts excerpted from "Jesus and the Riddle of the Dead Sea Scrolls"

by Dr. Barbara Thiering, PhD, but mostly --

as interpreted by

Dr. Robert F. Holt, MD

Rev. Chapter 15

 Preparation for the Plagues  

      The seven angels having the seven last plagues are Essene angels, as are the angels of Chapter 14.  The sea of glass mingled with fire, is again the Dead Sea, and more specifically the southern shallow part of the Dead Sea whose salt-coated bottom reflects the fiery sunset like a field of ice or snow.   But the poisonous water will kill anyone who tries to drink too much of it, or even tries to swim in it too long.   Those who “stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God, “ (verse 2) are dead, as the imagery clearly suggests.

     Beginning with verse 5, the Essenes are seen leaving the “open” “temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven”, (the Qumran monastery), and clothed in their usual attire of “pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles,” (verse 6) are headed south towards the fortress of Masada.  It is about 70 AD, and Jerusalem is burning.  Herod’s beautiful temple has been destroyed.   The Essenes have buried and hidden most of their precious scrolls.  A few they took with them to Masada.  The Zealots at Masada will accept these Holy Men as “brothers” so long as they agree to fight and work alongside of the rest of the defenders of that fortress.  Seven  Essene “angels” busily prepare surprises for the Romans soldiers sure to follow.   As Egypt  had its “plagues” so shall the Roman 10^th legion have its plagues!

      Revelation 16:1 “And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. 

2 And the first went and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men that had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.” The Roman 10^th legion, marked with it’s “mark” and worshipping it’s flags and images, labored in the heat and dirt, and quite predictably developed blisters and open sores.  They had to wear full armor at all times, lest the archers atop the fortress of Masada kill them, one by one.     And so it went in 73 AD, as the soldiers discovered they were camped next to a body of water they could neither drink nor swim in.  A sea “as the blood of a dead man”, verse 3.   And they discovered the Zealots had poisoned all the local wells and springs with animal “blood” and entrails, verse 4-6.  The sun had the power “to scorch men with fire” every day, verses 8, 9.  Occasionally severe sand-storms arose, causing “darkness”,

Verse 10, 11.  Then the Essene prophets atop Masada looked forward to our time at the End of the Age when armies would cross the Euphrates (verse 12) and the whole world fight a similar battle to that which they were here contemplating with the Romans in 73 AD.  By verse 16, the battle has a name, ARMAGEDDON!  

       Minor temporary victories are celebrated in verses 18-21, as the Essene and Zealot defenders tricked the Romans into camping and parading too close, then pelted them with a great barrage of 100 pound rocks (the hail of verse 21). 

 

        But at the end, the Romans built a great ramp up the side of the seemingly impregnable fortress, and there was a great “earthquake” (verse 18) as the Roman battering ram caved in the stone wall.   An ingenious inner wooden wall gave the defenders one more night’s respite.   When the Romans made their final assault the next day (a Sabbath-day) they found 960 dead bodies only.  The defenders had committed suicide rather than live as Roman slaves.

       In Revelation 16, the defenders are heroes, not victims.  And indeed they are seen as such by modern Jews, who vow, “Masada shall not fall again!”   It can hardly be doubted by those who see the accuracy of these details, that Jesus himself was recording these events, and it is wholly likely that he was one of the Essenes known to have been there during the Roman final assault.   And such is the story I read when I finally found a copy of The Jesus Scroll  published by Donovan Joyce in 1973.   I assume that Lord Shiva swooped in with his space-craft and carried Jesus off at the last opportunity early that Sabbath morning.

 

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