RE: What were Jesus and early Christians like?
March 9, 2015 at 11:43 am
(This post was last modified: March 9, 2015 at 11:51 am by watchamadoodle.)
I keep wondering about Mandaeism (the John the Baptist Gnostics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandaeism ).
I'll include an image of the Mandaean cross. Daily baptism is a part of Mandaean beliefs (I think), and it was also part of Essene beliefs. I wonder if there were cross-like racks where the Essenes hung their robes during their daily baptism ritual. This is what the Mandaean cross appears to represent - a robe hanging on a rack while somebody is baptized.
Now, one of the sayings of Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas symbolizes the material body as a robe. If the crucifixion represented Jesus' spiritual body returning to heaven, then his physical body would be an empty robe. If Jesus was an Essene, then his body would be depicted hanging on a cross - just like the robes of the Essenes might have hung on crosses while they purified themselves through baptism.
![[Image: Mandaean-cross.jpg]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=wp.production.patheos.com%2Fblogs%2Fexploringourmatrix%2Ffiles%2F2013%2F03%2FMandaean-cross.jpg)
I'll include an image of the Mandaean cross. Daily baptism is a part of Mandaean beliefs (I think), and it was also part of Essene beliefs. I wonder if there were cross-like racks where the Essenes hung their robes during their daily baptism ritual. This is what the Mandaean cross appears to represent - a robe hanging on a rack while somebody is baptized.
Now, one of the sayings of Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas symbolizes the material body as a robe. If the crucifixion represented Jesus' spiritual body returning to heaven, then his physical body would be an empty robe. If Jesus was an Essene, then his body would be depicted hanging on a cross - just like the robes of the Essenes might have hung on crosses while they purified themselves through baptism.
