"Certain writers have suggested that the Templars were infected with the Johannite or Mandaean heresy ~~ which denounced Jesus as a 'false prophet' and acknowledged John [the Baptist] as the true Messiah. In the course of their activities in the Middle East the Templars undoubtedly established contact with Johannite sects...."(1)
"The Johannites ascribed to Saint John [the Baptist] the foundation of their Secret Church, and the Grand Pontiffs of the Sect assumed the title of Christos, Anointed, or Consecrated, and claimed to have succeeded one another from Saint John by an uninterrupted succession of pontifical powers. He who, at the period of the foundation of the Order of the Temple, claimed these imaginary prerogatives, was named THEOCLET; he knew HUGUES DE PAYENS, he installed him into the Mysteries and hopes of his pretended church, he seduced him by the notions of Sovereign Priesthood and Supreme royalty, and finally designated him as his successor."(2)
"The true version of the history of Jesus, and the early Christianity was imparted to Hugh de Payens, by the Grand-Pontiff of the Order of the Temple (of the Nazarene or Johannite sect), one named Theocletes, after which it was learned by some Knights in Palestine, from the higher and more intellectual members of the St. John sect, who were initiated into its mysteries. Freedom of intellectual thought and the restoration of one and universal religion was their secret object. Sworn to the vow of obedience, poverty, and chastity, they were at first the true Knights of St. John the Baptist, crying in the wilderness and living on wild honey and locusts. Such is the tradition and the true kabalistic version."(3)
"Egypt was the cradle of the Order of the East(4), its chiefs being priests and legislators, and its occult rites being carefully withheld from the profane. They were indeed allowed to see the emblems, but remained perfectly ignorant of their interpretation. Moses and Aaron having been initiated, are said to have adopted the mysterious arrangement of Egypt, in classing the Levitical priesthood..."(5)
"Moses was initiated in Egypt. Profoundly versed in the physical, theological, and metaphysical mysteries of the priests, he knew how to profit by these so as to surmount the power of the Mages and deliver his companions. Aaron his brother, and the chiefs of the Hebrews became the depositories of his doctrine...."(6)
"A young virgin of Nazareth, named Miriam, who had been betrothed to a youth of her tribe named Jochanan, was one day surprised and outraged by a certain man, Pandira, or Panther, who introduced himself into her chamber in the garments, and under the name, of Jochanan, the latter being made acquainted with the misfortune quitted her without compromising her, she being in fact innocent. The result was that she gave birth to a son who received the very ordinary Jewish name of Joshua, or Jesus in the Graeco-Aramaic dialect. This child was adopted by a Rabbi named Joseph, who carried him into Egypt, where he was initiated into the occult sciences, and the priests of Osiris, regarding him as the long-promised incarnation of Horus, expected by the Adepts, finally consecrated him Sovereign Pontiff of the universal religion."(7)
"In the year 3671 (about 90 bce) in the days of King Jannaeus, a great misfortune befell Israel, when there arose a certain disreputable man of the tribe of Judah, whose name was Joseph Pandera. He lived at Bethlehem, in Judah.
"Near his house dwelt a widow and her lovely and chaste daughter named Miriam. Miriam was betrothed to Yohanan, of the royal house of David, a man learned in the Torah and God-fearing.
"At the close of a certain Sabbath, Joseph Pandera, attractive and like a warrior in appearance, having gazed lustfully upon Miriam, knocked upon the door of her room and betrayed her by pretending that he was her betrothed husband, Yohanan. Even so, she was amazed at this improper conduct and submitted only against her will.
"Thereafter, when Yohanan came to her, Miriam expressed astonishment at behavior so foreign to his character. It was thus that they both came to know the crime of Joseph Pandera and the terrible mistake on the part of Miriam. Whereupon Yohanan went to Rabban Shimeon ben Shetah and related to him the tragic seduction. Lacking witnesses required for the punishment of Joseph Pandera and Miriam being with child, Yohanan left for Babylonia. [Some traditions say 'Egypt.']
"Miriam gave birth to a son and named him Yehoshua, after her brother. This name later deteriorated to Yeshu. On the eighth day he was circumcised. When he was old enough the lad was taken by Miriam to the house of study to be instructed in the Jewish tradition. One day, Yeshu walked in front of the sages with his head uncovered, showing shameful disrespect. At this, the discussion arose as to whether this behavjor did not truly indicate that Yeshu was an illegitimate child and the son of a niddah [i.e., "sexual impurity -- incest, adultery, prostitution."]. Moreover, the story tells that while the rabbis were discussing the Tractate Nezikin, he gave his own impudent interpretation of the law and in an ensuing debate, he held that Moses could not be the greatest of the prophets if he had to receive counsel from Jethro. This led to further inquiry as to the antecedents of Yeshu, and it was discovered through Rabban Shimeon ben Shetah that he was the illegitimate son of Joseph Pandera. Miriam admitted it. [In one version of this admission she confesses that not only is Yeshu the product of an illicit union, but she was ritually unclean from menstruation at the time as well....](8) After this became known, it was necessary for Yeshu to flee to Upper Galilee.
"After King Jannaeus, his wife Helene [i.e., Salome Alexandra] ruled over all Israel. In the Temple was to be found the Foundation Stone on which were engraven the letters of God's Ineffable Name. Whoever learned the secret of the Name and its use would be able to do whatever he wished. Therefore, the Sages took measures so that no one should gain this knowledge.(9) Lions of brass were bound to two iron pillars at the gates of the place of burnt offerings. Should anyone enter and learn the Name, when he left the lions would roar at him and immediately the valuable secret would be forgotten.
"Yeshu came and learned the letters of the Name; he wrote them upon the parchment which he placed in an open cut on his thigh(10), and then drew the flesh over the parchment. As he left, the lions roared, he forgot the secret. But when he came to his house he reopened the cut in his flesh with a knife and lifted out the writing. Then he remembered and obtained the use of the letters.
[For the present we shall advance to the later portion of the story, namely, the death, and aftermath of the death of Yeshu.]
"Yeshu was put to death on the sixth hour on the eve of the Passover and of the Sabbath. When they tried to hang him on a tree it broke, for when he had possessed the power he had pronounced by the Ineffable Name that no tree should hold him. He had failed to pronounce the prohibition over the carob-stalk, for it was a plant more than a tree, and on it he was hanged until the hour for afternoon prayer, for it is written in Scripture, "His body shall not remain all night upon the tree." They buried him outside the city.
"On the first day of the week, his bold followers came to Queen Helene with the report that he who was slain was truly the Messiah and that he was not in his grave; he had ascended to heaven as he prophesied. Diligent search was made and he was not found in the grave where he had been buried. A gardener had taken him from the grave and had brought him into his garden and buried him in the sand over which the waters flowed into the garden. ...
"The disciples went out among the nations -- three went to the mountains of Ararat, three to Armenia, three to Rome, and three to the kingdoms by the sea. ...
"The erring followers amongst Israel said: 'You have slain the Messiah of the Lord.' The Israelites answered: 'You have believed in a false prophet.' There was endless strife and discord for thirty years.
"The Sages desired to separate from Israel those who continued to claim Yeshu as the Messiah, and they called upon a greatly honored man, Simeon Kepha, for help. Simeon went to Antioch, main city of the Nazarenes, and proclaimed to them: 'I am the disciple of Yeshu. He has sent me to show you the way. I will give you a sign as Yeshu has done.'
"Simeon, having gained the secret of the Ineffable Name, healed a leper and a lame man by means of it and thus found acceptance as a true disciple. He told them that Yeshu was in heaven, at the right hand of his Father, in fulfillment of Psalm 110:1. He added that Yeshu desired that they separate themselves from the Jews and no longer follow their practices, as Isaiah had said, 'Your new moons and your feasts my soul abhorreth.' They were now to observe the first day of the week instead of the seventh, the Resurrection instead of the Passover, the Ascension into Heaven instead of the Feast of Weeks, the finding of the Cross instead of the New Year, the Feast of the Circumcision instead of the Day of Atonement, the New Year instead of Chanukah; they were to be indifferent with regard to circumcision and the dietary laws. Also they were to follow the teaching of turning to the right if smitten on the left and the meek acceptance of suffering. All these new ordinances which Simeon Kepha (or Paul, as he was known to the Nazarenes) taught them were really meant to separate these Nazarenes from the people of Israel and to bring the internal strife to an end."(11)
"The Essene commentary on the book of Habakkuk makes the point that it was on the Day of Atonement that the Wicked Priest suddenly appeared at the place of the Teacher's exile in pursuit of his enemy, to make him 'swallow the cup.' Writing probably long after the event, the commentator still shrinks from openly acknowledging the manner of the Lawgiver's death. Even the otherwise surprisingly direct Nahum commentator will go no further than to speak of 'the man hanged alive upon a tree', and to emphasise the gravity of the crime as perpetrated by a Jew against one of his own people. Nevertheless, the sacrificial nature of the Teacher's death is implicit in the Essene writings, and was further developed as the socio-religious situation affecting Judaism, and Essenism in particular, changed.."(12)
"Kleuker says that the Emanation-doctrine of the Kabalists is the Soul of a System, which, after it was present among the Hebrews, put forth its SECRET and HIGHER theology, and was taught and propagated only in Secret Schools, by its most speculative minds. The Chaldaean and Persian Wisdom so spread, that about the time of Christ, Sects everywhere came forth, which philosophized after the same Spirit, founding themselves together upon a certain Primaeval WISDOM, as the Mother of their own; -- on the oldest, primitive doctrine of the human race, which held in itself the original light of the true and higher knowledge.
"The Christian Sect believed that this Wisdom became 'flesh,' and dwelt among men. This is The Wisdom, revealing and manifesting itself in act, UTTERING Itself, as the Logos, Word, incarnate, i.e., abiding in the human intellect." - Albert Pike, Lecture on Masonic Symbolism, Lecture II, Section entitled "Filiation of Ideas," p. 223.
"'Religion,' [Bunsen] says, 'rests, under whatever form, upon the assumption that Divine and Human reason are identical, only with the difference between the Infinite and the Finite. This,' he says, 'may be expressed imperfectly, but must not be negatived.' Arianism APPEARED to negative it, and this appearance of negation killed it. 'The most absolute form of negation is to declare the problem incompatible with reason.'
"'In the fourth century, one party among the clergy appeared to negative the problem, and the other solved it illogically and unhistorically. The latter view triumphed, and the victorious party canonized, in the course of the two next blood-stained centuries, the confession of its intellectual bankruptcy into a confession of faith, and made submission to it a condition of churchmanship, and the badge of eternal submission.' This is the language of Baron Bunsen. Those, he declares, who idolize formularies of Councils or Synods, show a gross ignorance of primitive church history; for the Ancient Church did not set up speculative formularies as tests." - ibid., pp. 231 - 232.
"Gnosticism borrowed much from the traditions and theories preserved in the Sohar. [Our note: even though the Zohar wasn't written until over a thousand years later than Gnosticism.] The Kabalistic Book Yezirah was composed in the time of the first Mischna-teachers, that is, during the first century BEFORE Christ, and the first fifty years of the Christian era. --- Franck: Die Kabbala, Ed. Gelinck., 82-85.
"All the important metaphysical and religious principles which make up the basis of the Kabalah are older than the Christian dogmas. --- Id., 249.
"The Gnostic Emanation-doctrine existed in the time of the Apostles, and was widely spread; and the writings of Paul and John show that the higher and secret doctrine of Judaism was no result of the Alexandrian philosophy. --- Kleuker, 77.
"Out of Babylon, Ehrmann says, the Israelites brought the first germs of the Kabalah. The Kabalah, Franck says, is a valuable remnant of the religious philosophy of the Orient. The Hebrew Sohar, Nork says, was written by, or composed from the writings of, Schimeon Ben Zochai, who lived in the second century before Christ.
"The Tanaim, the oldest and most valued of all Teachers in Israel, first make their appearance at the beginning of the third century before Christ, as teachers of the 'Tradition.' They form a long chain, whose last link is Yehuda the Holy, compiler of the Mishna, who delivered to posterity the doctrines of his predecessors. Among these were Rabbi Akiba and Schimeon Ben Yochai, composers of the oldest manuscripts of the Kabalah. --- Franck, --- who says that the Kabalist Book Yezirah existed before the end of the first century. The Jerusalem Talmud says that Rabbi Jehoshua Ben Chanania, who was an old man in the year 73, A. D., boasted that he had performed miracles by means of that Book. Its language, not Bible-Hebrew nor Talmudic, shows that it belongs to a time in which the teachers of the Mishna lived.
"Out of the union of Babylonians, Persians and Jews, established by Alexander the Great, as original settlers of Alexandria, it is clear how the Jews who returned from Babylon could not only teach the same sort of system of secret or Kabalistic theology as those who remained there, but also the same as the Egyptian-Alexandrian Jews. -- Kleuker, 73-71.
"According to Munk, the Kabalah originated in Babylon, during the exile: and Franck says that those initiated in the doctrine of the Kabalah were called 'Companions'. He has no doubt 'that all important metaphysical and religious principles which make up the basis of the Kabalah are older than the Christian dogmas;' not a word being said in them about Christ or Christianity, which is generally spoken against in the later Jewish writings.
"But this reason of belief
amounts to very little: because Philo Judaeus, born before Christ and who lived
long after him, even going on an embassy to Caligula, although he speaks at
much length in regard to the Essenes and Therapeuts and the Sects of Pharisees
and Sadduccees, does not even mention Christ or the Christian Sect.
"Franck says, 'Not only the most general principles, but all the elements
of the Kabalah, are to be shown in the Zend-Avesta and its Commentaries.' He
also says that the metaphysical ideas which are the basis of the Kabalah were
transplanted to Alexandria out of Palestine. In that he errs. The Hebrews, in
Palestine, HAD no metaphysical ideas of their own in regard to the Deity, nor
even a rudimentary psychology, until they obtained them from the Median Magi
at Babylon." -- Ibid., pp. 239 - 242.
"Franck adds that the Judaea proper was not the cradle of the Kabalah, for it is found, in a less abstract and a less pure form, among the Samaritans and the Syrian haeretics. Its cradle was the Median Babylon. Its vicious and diseased development into arrant nonsense was purely Semitic." -- Ibid., p. 243.
"The Codex Nazaraeus, or Nazarene Code, is dated A. D. 1042: but some of its material is found in Irenaeus (in the second century), some in the Kabalah, and some seems to belong to traditions or myths.
"The Nazaraeans, also called Christians of St. John, and Mendaeans, are a sect now found in Persia, chiefly near Bassorah. They hold that the revelation of Light was in John the Baptist. The Nazarenes, Theodoret says, honouring Christ as a just man, use the Evangel called 'According to Peter'. NAZIR, in Hebrew, meant 'separated,' 'abstained from,' 'consecrated;' and the sect of the Nazarenes, to which John and Jesus belonged, lived in the solitudes of the Desert and Jordan, extending along the east of it, and south-easterly among the Arabians and Sabaeans, far north over the Lebanon to Antioch, and north-east to the Nazaraean settlement in Beroea, where St. Jerome found them.
"As all the Jews believed and Christ declared that John was a great inspired Prophet, it is not probable that his followers all became Christians, or that the sect died out. Epiphanius says, 'The Nazarenes were Jews, and adhered to the Law and circumcision. The haeresy of the Nazarenes was before Christ, and knew not Christ. All Christians, at that time, were equally called Nazaraeans. They were called Yessaeans (Essenes) before they were called Christians.'" -- Ibid., pp. 244 - 245.
"The Ebionites and Nazarenes were, according to Bunsen, Judaizing Christians, to whom Paul was an object of detestation, as was the Alexandrian Gnosticism. They set up in opposition to Paul, 'The Preaching of Peter,' a fictitious work, afterwards extended into a novel, and a very ingenious one." -- Ibid., p. 247.
"Mr. Faber says, Jesus was not called originally Jesus Christ, but JESCUA HAMMASSIAH. Jescua is the same as Joshua and Jesus, and means Saviour; and Ham is evidently the OM of India, (the Ammon), and Messiah is the Anointed. It will then be, THE SAVIOUR OM THE ANOINTED; precisely as Isaiah had literally foretold: or, reading in the Hebrew mode, the anointed OM the Saviour. This was the name of Jesus of Bethlehem. The name of Jesus also was Jesus ben Panther. Jesus was a very common name with the Jews. Stukeley observes that the patronymic of Jesus Christ was Panther; and that Panthers were the nurses and bringers up of Bacchus; and adds, ''Tis remarkable that Panther was the surname of Joseph's family, our Lord's foster father. Thus the Midrash Koheleth, or gloss, upon Ecclesiastes: "It happened that a serpent bit R. Eliesar ben Damah, and James, a man of the village Secania, came to heal him in the name of Jesus ben Panther.' This is likewise in the book called Abodazara, where the comment upon it says, this James was a disciple of Jesus the Nazarene'...
"The circumstances of Joseph's family name being supposed to be Panther, is remarkably confirmed by Epiphanius (Haeres. 78; Antidic. 5.vii.), who says, that Joseph was the brother of Cleophas, the son of James, surnamed Panther."(13)
(It is worth comparing this to the story of King Arthur's birth as related in the film 'Excalibur'.)
"The Son of God afterwards appeared on the scene of the world...he was brought up at the School of Alexandria...imbued with a spirit wholly divine, endowed with the most astounding qualities (dispositions); he was able to reach all the degrees of the Egyptian Initiation. On his return to Jerusalem, he presented himself before the chiefs of the Synagogue..."(14)
"Joshua and Joseph returned to Judea, where the science and virtue of his youth soon attracted the attention of the priests, and excited their jealousy and hatred. At last, they publicly reproached him with the illegitimacy of his birth. Joshua, who loved and venerated his mother, who had been preserved and cared for by his adopted father Joseph, interrogated his master, and was informed by him of the crime of Pandira, and the misfortune of Miriam. His first impulse was publicly to deny her, saying to her in the midst of a marriage festival, 'Woman, what have I to do with thee?' (St. John 2:4). But suddenly remembering that a poor woman should not be punished for having suffered that which it was impossible for her to prevent or avoid, he exclaimed, 'My mother has not sinned, she has not lost her innocence; she is immaculate, and yet she is a mother; be double honour therefore paid to her! As for myself I have no father in this world. I am the Son of God and of humanity!' And thereupon he entered upon his mission..."(15)
"Jesus Christ, directing the fruit of his lofty meditations towards universal civilization and the happiness of the world, rent the veil which concealed the truth from the peoples. He preached the love of God, the love of one's neighbor, and equality before the common Father of all men.
"Jesus conferred evangelical initiation on his apostles and disciples. He transmitted his spirit to them, divided them into several orders after the practice of John, the beloved disciple, the apostle of Fraternal love, whom he had instituted Sovereign Pontiff and Patriarch..."(16)
"The Johannite Christians assert that the apostle John had transmitted to them these facts, and attributed to him the foundation of their mystical Church. The Grand Pontiffs of the sect took the title of Christ, and laid claim to an unbroken chain of succession in their office..."(17)
"As the disappointment of its Messianic hopes became permanent, its covert tendencies increased, and its ideas grew ever more esoteric. These, in turn, were transmitted to various groups outside the orbit of official Judaism and Christianity in the East, namely Ebionites, Elkasaites, Manichaeans, Gnosticizing groups like Sabaeans, Mandaeans, and at Nag Hammadi, and even Syriac Christians, Nestorians and Jacobites (note the telltale nomenclature). - Robert Eisenmann, Maccabees, Zadokites, Christians and Qumran: A New Hypothesis of Qumran Origins, from The Dead Sea Scrolls and The First Christians, p. 57.
[But let's also pay attention to other telltale nomenclatures, like those of the Nazaraeans, Nazerinis, Galileeans, Nusairi, Bardesanites, Daisaniyya, Dasni; Elkesaites, Sampsaeans, Shamseans, Shimseans, Sheikh Shams, Yesseans, Yezidis.]
"Among the terms by which the Qumran community referred to themselves was 'Keepers of the Covenant', which appears in the original Hebrew as 'Nozrei-ha-Brit'. From this term derives the word 'Nozrim', one of the earliest Hebrew designations for the sect subsequently known as 'Christians'. The modern Arabic word for Christians, 'Nasrani', derives from the same source. So, too, does the word 'Nazorean' or 'Nazarene', which, of course, was the name by which the 'early Christians' referred to themselves in both the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. Contrary to the assumptions of later tradition, it has nothing whatever to do with Jesus' alleged upbringing in Nazareth, which, the evidence (or lack of it) suggests, did not even exist at the time. Indeed, it seems to have been the very perplexity of early commentators encountering the unfamiliar term 'Nazorean' that led them to conclude Jesus' family came from Nazareth, which by then had appeared on the map." -- Baigent and Leigh, The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception, p. 174.
"Up to about the year 1118 (i.e. the year the Order of the Temple was founded) the mysteries and the hierarchic Order of the Initiation of Egypt, transmitted to the Jews by Moses, then to the Christians by J. C., were religiously preserved by the successors of St. John the Apostle. These mysteries and initiations, regenerated by the evangelical initiation (or baptism), were a sacred trust which the simplicity of the primitive and unchanging morality of the Brothers of the East had preserved from all adulteration....
"The Christians, persecuted by the Infidels, appreciating the courage and piety of these brave crusaders, who, with the sword in one hand and the cross in the other, flew to the defence of the holy places, and, above all, doing striking justice to the virtues and the ardent charity of Hugues de Payens, held it their duty to confide to hands so pure the treasures of knowledge acquired throughout so many centuries, sanctified by the cross, the dogma, and the morality of the Man-God. Hugues was invested with the Apostolic Patriarchal Power and placed in the legitimate order of the succession of St. John the apostle or the evangelist."(18)
"These knights were all Freemasons; from some of the Syrian Christians, who had yet retained the Mysteries of the Craft; they received their Initiation...."(19)
"Such is the origin of the foundation of the Order of the Temple, and of the fusion in this Order of the different kinds of initiation of the Christians of the East designated under the title of Primitive Christians or Johannites."(20)
FOOTNOTES
1.Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln, Holy Blood, Holy Grail(HBHG).
2."Allocution of Pio Nono against the Freemasons."
3.H. P. Blavatsky, ISIS UNVEILED.
4.Note: The Order of the East is similar in name to the Ordo Templi Orientis. Also, the Order of the Perfect Initiates of Asia, or the Asiatic Brethren.
5.Oliver, Historical Landmarks of Freemasonry, Vol. II. (Hereafter 'Oliver'). P. 18, note 55.
6.Fabre Palaprat, Levitikon, Manuel des Chevaliers du Temple, etc., quoted in Nesta Webster, Secret Societies and Subversive Movements(hereafter Webster). P. 66.
7.Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie, The Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia(hereafter Mackenzie), p. 386, sv. Johannite Christians.
8.Perhaps we have here a secret allusion to the conception of the Magical Offspring, an Avatar.
9.Especially since they themselves probably had no clue as to what it was...
10.Like Abraham's "thigh" perhaps?
11.Sepher Toledoth Yeshu, excerpts. Text from Goldstein, Jesus in the Jewish Tradition, pp. 148-154. Notice how this story places official church council Christianity in a completely bad light, namely, that Judas was not the only deceiver sent by the Pharisees, but Simon Peter/Paul was an operative as well. Not only that, we have here the assertion that Peter and Paul were one and the same person. That has been asserted before by others. It is a common tactic in PsyOps to neutralize a populace by confounding their calendar, their customs, their festivals, etc. Especially if it goes to demoralize and degrade the founder of that system, but is made to look like it is doing the exact opposite.
12.J. M. Allegro, The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Christian Myth, p. 85. For more from this excellent work and its relationship to the present narrative and the present Book, see our essay, DUKU AND ATONEMENT.
13.Godfrey Higgins, ANACALYPSIS (hereafter I ANAC or II ANAC); I ANAC. 6.2.11., pp. 315-6. Higgins, who wrote a lot of gibberish, was, nevertheless, a full Initiate, of some sort, and a British Rosicrucian. Students of the antiquities of the Antient and Primitive Rite would do well to procure and study his voluminous writings.
14.Webster, p. 66.
15.Mackenzie, pp. 386-7.
16.Webster, p. 66
17.Mackenzie, p. 387.
18.Webster, p. 67.
19.Oliver, p. 8, note 20.
20.Webster, p. 67.
|[HOME]|[CONTENTS]|[PREVIOUS]|[NEXT]|[MAIL]|