Simon Magus

Dr. Ray Taylor on Why the Essenes and Therapeutae Never Existed

Aeon Byte Gnostic RadioOct 10, 2026

Independent researcher Dr. Ray Taylor argues that the Essenes and Therapeutae were scholarly inventions designed to tie Jesus and John the Baptist safely to Judaism, and that the Dead Sea Scrolls are a modern hoax. He claims the historical Jesus belonged to a Gnostic-leaning 'river' tradition of baptizing sects such as the Mandaeans, Nasoraeans and Simonians, not to a temple-based Judaism. Guest Graham Pong adds his own theory that Judaism itself was a Hellenistic-era construction, rooted in the Septuagint and shaped by the Hasmonean and Seleucid power struggles.