Common history

All scholars agree, however, that the history of Christians is closely intertwined with the history of the Essenes. This is confirmed by a text discovered in a cave in 1955, designated 7Q5. It is a veritable theological bombshell—a mere twenty letters on a scrap of papyrus the size of a postage stamp. The text is verses 52 and 53 of the sixth chapter of the Gospel of Mark.

A computer-assisted comparison of the text with all known Greek literature from that period was conducted. The result was astonishing: Mark 6:52-53 . The probability of accidentally finding another literary text with the same spacing and letter arrangement is one in one hundred and fifty billion! The writing style and comparison with other clearly dated texts led to the conclusion that 7Q5 dates from after 50 AD. It was therefore the oldest Gospel fragment ever found.

Until now, it was believed that liturgical texts began to be written down 40 years after Christ's death. The discovery that this began as early as 20 years after his death allows us to conclude that Jesus' sermons were being written down during the lifetimes of eyewitnesses. The discovery of fragments of the Gospels in the collections of the Essene sect demonstrates the close connection between the sect and the emerging Christian Church.