According to the words of Luke’s Gospel, John the Baptist grew up in the Desert. Some speculate that he might have been brought up in the isolated community ay Qumran, twenty-five miles southeast of Jerusalem, by the Dead Sea. After the discovery of scrolls in nearby caves, a score of buildings were unearthed inside a walled precinct watched over by a high tower.
No living quarters were found however for this was a center for people who lived in surrounding caves, huts and tents. Qumran’s first archaeologists saw it as the 1st century BC home of a peaceful, “monastic” sect of Jews called Essenes.
Although still widely accepted, this view has been at the heart of a bitter controversy for over fifty years. Some opponents see the community as a military outpost or a fortified agricultural settlement. Others say the scrolls were spirited out of Jerusalem away from the advancing Roman army, and hidden in the desert for safety.
All point out that no monastic tradition exists in Judaism – it developed in later Christianity. Perhaps future discoveries will reveal a clearer picture of the community’s purpose and its inhabitants.
*And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the desert till the days of his shewing unto Israel. Luke 1:80.
This page is part of the book The Holy Land of Jesus
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