In many mythologies, as soon as god-begotten saviours were born into the world they were adored by shepherds. Instead of wise men Luke 2:8–21 has lowly shepherds, who had been “watching their flock”, coming a–visiting, notified by angels of the birth of God. Sometimes the visitors were angels, leaving the splendid perfection of heaven to adore the new born saviour of this wicked world. Christian imagery usually has both!

Angels and wise men appeared to Confucius who was born in 598 BC. Five wise men came from afar to the house where the infant lay to present their offerings to him. Celestial music was heard in the skies, and angels attended the scene. The only difference in the Christian story is the number of wise men. Matthew (Mt 2:1) does not give the number, but popularly it is three. Luke speaks of a multitude of the heavenly host praising God (Lk2:13). Popularly the heavenly host was singing its praises so we have another way of saying that celestial music was heard. How complete the parallel!

It goes further. Confucius, like Christ, had twelve chosen disciples. He was descended from a royal house of princes, as Christ from the royal house of David, and like Christ was born poor. He had a disagreement with a monarch and retired for a long period from society into religious contemplative seclusion. He taught the same Golden Rule of doing to others as we desire them to do toward us, and other moral maxims equal in importance to anything in the Christian scriptures.

In Luke, an angel saluted Mary (Lk1:28):

Hail, thou that art highly favoured; the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women.

In the next chapter the angel joins with the heavenly host in praising God. The same is found in the Ramayana, when Brahma and Siva, with a host of attending spirits, came to the mother of Krishna, the eighth avatar of India (1200 BC), and sang:

In thy delivery, O favoured among women, all nations shall have cause to exult.

When Krishna was born, he was inundated in flowers by the gods, the equivalent of Christian angels. Pipes and drums were played in the heavens, trees blossomed and pools were filled with clear water. The room was illuminated by his light, and the countenance of his father and mother shone with its brightness and glory. They had an image of him as a king and, realising he was the preserver of the world, they began to worship him, but like the virgin Mary quickly forgot all this and soon regarded him as an ordinary infant!

The ninth avatar of India, Buddha (600 BC), is similar. On a silver plate in a cave in India is an inscription stating that a saint in the woods, at the time of the advent of Buddha, learned by inspiration that an avatar had appeared in the house of Rajah of Lailas. He flew through the air to the place beheld the new-born saviour. He declared him to be the great avatar destined to establish a new religion.

The metaphor of a shepherd is one of those that the Essenes were fond of—which is why it appears so often in Christianity. The Essenes, among many other things, called themselves “the watchers for the kingdom”. Thus the Master in the Community Rule is commanded to watch always for the judgement of God. We have noted that the Damascus Document interprets Zechariah 13:7—a very important passage for Essenes and Christians—by applying the metaphors the “humble of the flock” and “those who watch for him” to the Essenes themselves. Luke has used the same metaphor of the watchers and their flock, the children of Israel, and dramatized it into the birth story. One scroll fragment, discussing the expected visitation, even uses the same terms as Luke—“the holy spirit”, “the meek”, “glad tidings”, “the messiah shepherds the holy ones” and “commands the heavens and the earth including the heavenly host”.

The heavenly hostin Luke 2:14 are calling for the kingdom of God when they sing:

Glory to God in the highest; on earth peace, good will towards men.

Though a desirable sentiment the offer of goodwill to all men is not meant. The proper translation of the best manuscripts is given as:

on earth peace to men in whom He is well pleased.

The men in whom God is well pleased are the Essenes, His righteous, to whom glory and peace come in His kingdom, because those who…

…walk by the spirit of truth shall receive abundance of peace and everlasting joy in a life without end.

Next Luke 2:22–38 has Mary and Joseph—described as the parents thus acknowledging Joseph as the father (in short, a passage preceding the invention of the Virgin Birth)—present at the temple for Mary’s ritual purification after childbirth. There an unknown man described as “just” and “devout”, “waiting for the consolation of Israel”, and “having the holy spirit upon him” chants his Nunc Dimittis before Jesus. These words denote him as an Essene.

The word translated “devout” is peculiar to Luke and might be his translation of “Nazarite”. The clergy have always denied any connection with the Nazarites, perhaps because they did not like others besides Jesus in the story consecrated to God, and because the word is remarkably similar to Nazarene, suggesting that the latter might have had nothing to do with Nazareth. So Luke or an editor avoids it. “Waiting for the consolation of Israel” meant he was waiting for the messiah and therefore the kingdom.

The word “Lord” beginning the song in Luke 2:29 is a mistranslation—it should be “Master”, immediately showing its Essene origins and that it is the departing Master recognizing the new Master. The song is litany from the coronation or transference ceremony of the Nasi. Luke being a gentile has altered verse 2:32. Originally, following Isaiah 9:2, it will have read, “a light to lighten the darkness”, meaning the sins of the people, but Luke had a good knowledge of the scriptures and knew that Israel was “the light of the gentiles” (Isa 49:6) and merely substituted this here. Anna the prophetess is one of Luke’s female additions to placate the church’s female congregations.