Savoy, Gene (1980) [1978]. The Essaei Document: Secrets of an Eternal Race: Codicil to The Decoded New Testament. Reno, Nevada: International Community of Christ. ISBN 0-936202-03-3. OCLC 13952564. The Gnostics believed themselves to be chosen ones, with particles of the divinity trapped in the matter of their bodies. These divine sparks could, with special knowledge and practices, be freed to rejoin their celestial home. It is no surprise that these ancient Christian texts did not make it into the Bible. The process of establishing which books should be part of the Christian canon had begun early. Marcion was the first to propose a particular canon in the mid-second century, and from then on different Christian groups disputed hotly which combinations of writings should be included or excluded. Nazaret” itself, is a reflection of this. It’s the Greek form of Eretz of the n-s-r (“Keepers”). It wasn’t the name of a fictitious town in Galilee (which Josephus literally lived 1 mile away from, yet never mentions).

R. Macuch, "Anfänge der Mandäer. Versuch eines geschichtliches Bildes bis zur früh-islamischen Zeit", chap. 6 of F. Altheim and R. Stiehl, Die Araber in der alten Welt II: Bis zur Reichstrennung, Berlin, 1965. Larson, Martin Alfred (1977). The story of Christian origins: or, The sources and establishment of Western religion. Washington: J.J. Binns. ISBN 0-88331-090-2. OCLC 2810217. Thomas, Richard (29 January 2016). "The Israelite Origins of the Mandaean People". Studia Antiqua. 5 (2).These different Gnostic groups all had widely divergent views. Much as there were many 'Christianities' in the first few centuries AD, there were many Gnosticisms, including such famous sects as Manicheism. The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis, Book I (Sects 1–46) Frank Williams, translator, 1987 (E.J. Brill, Leiden) ISBN 90-04-07926-2

The Essenes represent an historical enigma within Early Judaism. They are variously imagined as a small, marginal community, an idiosyncratic group that disappeared itself into oblivion, a thriving multi-regional network of village communities, and/or as a militant sect of apocalyptic pacifists ready to participate in great eschatological acts of violence. The Gospels never mention the Essenes. The Rabbis seem to have forgotten all about them. Is that because the Essenes were so ideologically and sociologically different from Jesus and the Pharisees that they moved in completely different orbits? Or is it because the Essenes represented an integral component of Second Temple Judaism that both early Christians and the Rabbis sought to marginalize by omission? According to Josephus, the Essenes had settled "not in one city" but "in large numbers in every town". [32] Philo speaks of "more than four thousand" Essaioi living in "Palestine and Syria", [33] more precisely, "in many cities of Judaea and in many villages and grouped in great societies of many members". [34]Since the classical sources of Josephus, Philo, and Pliny represented the Essenes as a secretive, initiatory community given to the study of “mysteries” and the pursuit of esoteric practices, healing, and various forms of divination, it was not all that difficult to imagine the Essenes as playing a secret, hidden role in facilitating and orchestrating public and political events from behind the scenes. In the late 1700s, Karl Bahrdt and Karl Venturini both attempted to expose Christianity as an Essene plot to change Judaism, combining Enlightenment rationalism and political intrigue to portray the Essenes as a “secret society.” Reform and Orthodox Jewish scholars could also appeal to the Essenes as a marginal reformer of an obscure sect to counter Christian claims that Jesus was the Jewish messiah. At the same time, the Essenes became a staple fixture in various esotericist projects, one of which was Helena Blavatsky’s Isis Unveiled. For instance, he had to be very careful to show that his idea of 'original sin' did not derive from the pessimistic Manichee conviction that flesh and matter were evil. 'Original sin' entailed the biological transmission to all mankind of the guilt from Adam’s disobedient consumption of the apple in Eden. Essenes in Judaean Society: the sectarians of the Dead Sea Scrolls