“Jerusalem’s Essene Gateway: Where the Community Lived in Jesus’ Time”
by Bargil Pixner

This article appeared in the May/June 1997 issue of the Biblical Archaeology Review. http://www.centuryone.org/essene.html

This research establishes the fact that the Essenes lived in Mt. Zion, which is that part of Jerusalem were Jesus celebrated the Lord’s Supper with the disciples. Jesus gave the instructions to Peter and John to prepare the Passover on the 13 day of the month according to the Normative th calendar. This is determined by noting that John 18:28 specifies that the religious leaders refused to enter the Praetorium because they had not yet eaten the Passover. This tells us that they were planning to eat the Passover meal that night, which would be the beginning of the 15 , the day on th which the Passover meal is always eaten. John confirms that Jesus was crucified on the preparation day for Passover, which is the 14 day of the month. John 19:14. Jesus celebrated the Lord’s Supper th and was crucified on the 14 . Jesus gave Peter and John the instruction to prepare the Passover the th day before that, which necessarily had to be the 13 . The problem with preparing the Passover meal th on the 13 is that the Passover lambs were sacrificed only at the Temple and only on the 14 . Thus, th th the Lord’s Supper does not include a Passover lamb as part of the meal. Appropriately, Jesus Himself is the Passover lamb. When He tells them “take, eat, this is my body,” He gives them bread instead of lamb. Not only is He the Passover lamb, He is the bread of life.

It is important also to notice the information regarding the Essene Calendar. In the body of his article between where the 14 and 15 footnotes are posted along the left-hand margin Pixner th t provides a brief review of the Essene Calendar. Notice that the festivals of Feast of Trumpets, Passover, and the first day of Sukkot (Tabernacles) always falls on what he calls Wednesday, the fourth day of the week. Pixner doesn’t mention it, but most of the details of this calendar are described in The Book of Jubilees, chapter 6. The calendar each year began on the fourth day of the week in honor of the creation of the sun and moon on the fourth day of the week. Understanding the working of this calendar and how it compares with the normative calendar followed by the rest of Judaism allows us to solve the riddle of why Jesus celebrated the “Passover” a day ahead of the rest of the Jewish community. The Lord’s Supper was the Essene version of the Passover celebrated in that part of Jerusalem called Mt. Zion, the Essene section of the city, and the meal did not include a Passover lamb. Moreover, the Essenes did not participate in the sacrifice of animals because they considered the Sadducees to be imposters in the Temple and all such sacrifices by them were considered illegal.

From the attached composite calendars illustrating the corresponding dates for the Essene and Normative Jewish calendars, one can see how all the statements of scripture regarding the sequence of events are exactly correct and the traditional teachings are completely false.

Gerald Brown
jerbro@linkline.com