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Chapter 3  
     
1.
 With the murder of Gamaliel the Elder and the rising violence against the Pharisees, Sadducees and Christians for the murder of James the Just, the Hillel School closed its doors and key scribes and family members went into hiding.
  
2.
 By 66 CE, the Nazarene supporters under the command of key Zealots such as Simon Peter had captured and controlled Jerusalem. At this point, the Pharisees, like the Sadducees could have been a mere footnote in history if not for the return of a brilliant student and his skillful political positioning.
  
3.
 Josephus ben Matthias, also known as Flavius Josephus and St Luke had returned from Rome in 67 CE having successfully saved his father, uncles and cousins three years earlier from beheading (custom under Roman law for Romans found guilty of capital crime) in the company of Vespasian (b. 9 – d. 79 CE) Titus Flavius Vespasianus (b. 39 – d. 81 CE).
  
4.
 What few people including scholar remember concerning the revolts in Judea is that it not only potentially emboldened others to rise up across the Roman Empire, but the major land supply route for grain from Egypt.  
5.
 It is the unique geographical position for land trade that was the key reason the Romans invaded and conquered the region in 63 BCE. It is why the Romans spared nothing to crush and quickly as possible return the region to stability to enable the resumption of land trade and food supplies.
  
6.
 Having demonstrated himself as a master orator, not least saving his own neck, Josephus (St. Luke) was quickly sent into action to try and negotiate a peace settlement with Simon Peter (Simon Magus) and the other Zealot commanders and former apostles of Jesus the Nazarene.
  
7.
 However, neither Simon Peter, nor the other apostles would trust nor listen to the words of a founding Christian, a member of the family of High priests who no less than crucified Jesus, then ensured his eventual murder, the murder of his brother, his mother (Mary), his sisters and dozens of other leading Nazarenes.
  
8.
 However, while Josephus (St. Luke) was unable to convince the Apostles to surrender Jerusalem, he was able to save the family of his old Tutor and in the process the Pharisee traditions of Judaism.
  
9.
 For Josephus arranged for the safe passage of Johanan (John) ben Zakkai (Zechariah) otherwise known as John the Baptist, and a small group of former scribes of the Pharisees, out of the city of Jerusalem.
 
10.
 Some Christians will instantly consider this an impossibility because within the texts edited and controlled by Josephus (St. Luke) himself including the Gospel of Mark, John the Baptist is supposed to have been beheaded by Herod, because a Herod gave his word and kept it.
  
11.
 In a sense, this is almost an inside joke for learned Jewish scholars, without having to get into complex anagrams. For anyone who blindly believes that a son of Herod was a person of principle, no matter what convoluted rationale is given clearly has no idea of the real history of the region.
  
12.
 In fact Josephus (St. Luke) gives ample evidence in his history texts to show that the Herods could not be trusted to keep a promise amongst themselves, let alone their wives, their children, or strangers. Therefore, the story that somehow Herod Antipas felt compelled by honor to execute John the Baptist is clearly meant to be an easily detected fraud to anyone who has read Josephus.
  
13.
 In spite of this, many Christians scholars will be astounded at the suggestion that John the Baptist is the founder of modern Rabbinical Judaism.
  
14.
 What is known is that thanks to Josephus, this small band of Qumran Essenes and Hillel school Pharisees were given permission form a new school of Jewish law in Jamnia (Yavneh/Jabneh) before the end of the siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE.
  
15.
 What adds weight to the belief that Johanan ben Zechariah was certainly an Essene is the dramatic changes he influenced upon the Pharisees.
  
16.
 For the first time in Jewish history, he successfully ensured the banning of animal sacrifice- a goal of the Essenes for over a thousand years. Secondly, he emphasized the importance of oral teaching and prayer over an above mere literal memorization of Jewish scripture.
  
17.
 This is also a key indication of the Essene roots finally converging with the Pharisees, for the orah tradition largely established from this point on by Johanan (John) ben Zechariah (John the Baptist) cemented the oral tradition of Rabbinical Judaism a richer source of Jewish history and mysticism than the literal texts of the Tanakh.
  
18.
 Not only did Johanan ben Zechariah introduce a range of measures of genuine piety and virtue into the new religion of Rabbinical Judaism, but he instituted a new council (Sanhedrin) called famously the Council of Yavne (A.D. 70 - 90) which assisted in forming the key elements of modern Judaism.
  
19.
 Still many will doubt it is the Baptist, claiming it must be some other John ben Zechariah.
  
20.
 What is surprising and yet another major clue is that Josephus (St. Luke) nominated Johanan (John) ben Zechariah to be the man to save Judaism.
  
21.
 Possibly this harks back to his earliest years as a teenager with John the Baptist in the wilderness and learning the wisdom of the Essenes.
 
22.
 Maybe after all the evil of the newly formed Christianity and all the death and wickedness in eliminating the true message of Jesus and the Nazarenes from history, Josephus (St. Luke) genuinely wanted to see an end to the evil traditions of Sadduceean Judaism.
  
23.
 Whatever his deeper motives, an amazing religion was formed, clean and pure from the past- respectful to God and supportive of education and family- Rabbinical Judaism.
  

 
 
 

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