Luigi Cascioli explains this strange passage:
“Only now that the mask has been removed, can we understand the meaning of all those gospel passages, which up until now seemed incomprehensible and contradictory. An example is the passage that describes the casting out of demons that possessed a man from Gerasa, which symbolized all the hatred of the Jewish revolutionaries towards Rome. Now we finally know that the name ‘Legion’ given to the demons referred to the Fretensis Roman legion stationed in Judea. The ‘pigs’ represented this legion, which had a pig’s head as its insignia. The sea these animals drowned in was really the Adriatic Sea where they would throw the Roman army after they had expelled it from Egypt according to the War Scrolls [part of the Dead Sea Scrolls].” (The Fable of Christ, Luigi Cascioli, 156-157)
There is reason to believe that Jesus, along with John the Baptist (who were possibly originally the same figure and only later separated), were members of the Essene religious sect of Judaism. This was a group which is described by historians of the time as being a deeply religious order. They preached to the poor to gain converts. “Like John the Baptist, these missionaries are said to have eaten locusts and wild honey and dressed in the skins of animals” (Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches, Marvin Harris, 184). They lived a communist lifestyle in which all converts sold all their possessions and gave the money to the group (like with the early “Christian” communes). These communes existed all over the Empire. The historian Josephus describes them as having “a greater affection for one another than the other sects” (Jewish Antiquities, Flavius Josephus). Their leaders were called Nazarites. 2 This would be practically all we knew about them, if not for the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the caves of their Khirbet Qumran commune in 1947, preserved in jars and forgotten for two thousand years.
As a result of this access to their internal literature, we have come to discover that the peaceful outer appearance they presented was merely a pretense. In truth they were a terrorist organization that sought to overthrow the Romans and establish the Holy Jewish Empire—the Kingdom of God. Because of this discrepancy between their outer appearance and inner reality, converts had to undergo three years of indoctrination before they were admitted to the communities as full members. The communes had extensive bathing facilities within their settlements, which presumably were used for baptismal rites. And they held a simple Eucharistic rite: whenever ten or more sat down to eat, a priest would bless the bread and wine. Luigi Cascioli and Marvin Harris explain the Essene connection to Christianity extensively in their books, but it is perhaps most extensively addressed by Edmond Bordeaux Szekely in his book The Essene Origins of Christianity. The nature of the Essenes, and the Dead Sea Scrolls for that matter, is complicated, however, and it is difficult to say anything definitively. Even so, this seems an angle worth exploring.
According to his “about the author” paragraph from The Essene Origins of Christianity, Szekely received his Ph.D. from the University of Paris and degrees from the Universities of Vienna and Leipzig. He held professorships in Philosophy and Experimental Psychology; was a philologist in Sanskrit, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin; spoke ten modern languages; and translated selected texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls. After studying all the documents that we have concerning the origin and evolution of Christianity, he concluded that Jesus and John the Baptist were based on “John of Gamala”—the eldest son of Judas the Gaulonite (Judas of Galilee). “John of Gamala” was the leader of the Essene Messianic (“Christist”) movement until his military defeat and crucifixion. Szekely says John of Gamala was the author of the original book of Revelations (which has since undergone numerous additions and revisions to reach its current state) and that Christianity developed from this militant terrorist organization after it lost its ability to wage open war on Rome. During the centuries the Church enjoyed unchecked power after the fall of Rome, it forged documents and rewrote history to serve its purposes.
For interests sake, here are the family connections of Jesus pieced together by Luigi Cascioli and Edmond Bordeaux Szekely in their respective books:
The Assideans (Hassedin) of the Old Testament:
Mattathias (founder of the Hasmonean line, heir to the Davidic throne)
Simon, son of Mattathias
John Hyrcanus I, son of Simon
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