In 1947, a young Bedouin boy at Qumran, on the banks of the Dead Sea, discovered a ceramic pot inside an empty cave. Within the broken pot were pages of ancient texts. A total of 850 sacred texts were eventually discovered, all around 2000 years old. These scriptures, now known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, contained many details about an ancient spiritual group called the Essenes. The Essenes were often found in communities where meditation or prayer was an important part of daily life that was dedicated to God. With respect for all forms of life, the Essenes’ diet was purely vegetarian. We will now continue with the reading of an excerpt from “The Essene Gospel of Peace – Book One.”
“But I do say to you: Kill neither men, nor beasts, nor yet the food which goes into your mouth. For if you eat living food, the same will quicken you, but if you kill your food, the dead food will kill you also. For life comes only from life, and from death comes always death. For everything which kills your foods, kills your bodies also. And everything which kills your bodies kills your souls also. And your bodies become what your foods are, even as your spirits, likewise, become what your thoughts are.”
“I tell you truly, it is the same fire which destroys your foods and your bodies, even as the fire of malice, which ravages your thoughts, ravages your spirits. For your body is that which you eat, and your spirit is that which you think. Eat nothing, therefore, which a stronger fire than the fire of life has killed.”
“‘So eat always from the table of God: the fruits of the trees, the grain and grasses of the field. For everything beyond these is of satan, and leads by the way of sins and of diseases unto death. But the foods which you eat from the abundant table of God give strength and youth to your body, and you will never see diseases. For the table of God fed Methuselah of old, and I tell you truly, if you live even as he lived, then will the God of the living give you also long life upon the earth as was his.’”
