Shalom All:

Interesting the doctrines of celibacy and poverty.  I really have to question how they line up with the promises in The Blood Covenant.

The Dead Sea Scrolls community has been used as support for these life-styles.  I'm glad Yitzhak Magen and Yuval Peleg had the courage to take a closer look.

Dig renews debate over Dead Sea Scrolls Researchers in dispute over sect's lifestyle

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/09/06/MNGCO8KDV31.DTL&type=printable

"Their assertions (Yitzhak Magen and Yuval Peleg) run counter to the predominant academic and religious consensus -- initiated by the late Yigal Yadin, one of Israel's greatest archaeologists, and his colleague, Pere Roland de Vaux, a Dominican scholar -- that characterizes the Essenes as self-denying celibates who made poverty into a religious ideal. This school of thought holds that generations of Essenes dedicated their lives to transcribing religious texts and when it became clear that Roman conquest was imminent, hid those writings safely away".

Dianne