Dear John, What do Locusts Tast Like?

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Dear John, What do Locusts Tast Like?

To trace the origin of the Essenes we must first examine the figure of Yochanan (John) the Immerser (baptist). As the Goodnews according to Mark begins: The beginning of the goodnews of Y'shua the Messiah,... John came immersing in the wilderness... (Mk. 1:1, 4) A careful reading of the Gospels will show that John the Baptist had his own "disciples" (Jn. 1:35) who continued on as such, apart from the Y'shua movement, even after John and Y'shua had died (Acts 19:1-3). The flavor of John chapter one also indicates that John did not live alone in the wilderness, but lived with a community of followers near Bethabara (Jn. 1:28) a town just eight miles from Qumran. Now one of the most important similarities between John the Baptist and his disciples, and the Qumran community is quite obviously that of geography.

As mentioned, John and his disciples resided "in the wilderness" near a town just eight miles from Qumran. In fact, the caves in which the scrolls were found are just five miles from the location along the Jordan at which John was baptizing. Both the Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament use the phrase "in the wilderness" (drawn from Is. 40:3) as a proper noun, to describe this area. One NT passage in particular seemed a mystery until the discovery of the Scrolls. Luke 1:80 states: "...the child [John the Baptist] grew and became strong in spirit, and was in the wilderness till the day of his manifestation to Israel." What would a child be doing "in the wilderness" if it was a desert like place? Moreover, Joesphus tells us that the Essenes commonly raised other peoples children (Josephus; 2:8:3). Thus it would seem that John the Baptist was raised up in the Qumran community.

As Hannah gave over her child Samuel to live in the temple, Elizabeth may have given over John to be raised by a family in the Qumran. It could also be possible that Elizabeth went there with him and then stayed to. As a Levite, and decendant of Zadock, John would have held a prominent place in the Qumran community, which favored the priesthood heirs. However, John's normal life at Qumran was interrupted when "the word of G-d came to John... in the wilderness" (Lk. 3:2). In a rigid community where everyone had a rank and no one spoke out of turn, John's message may not have been welcome. This would explain why John and his disciples relocated nearby to Bethabara.

We have also heard a lot about John eating locusts and wild honey. Locusts were ok to eat, but I can’t imagine an entire family spending enough time to catch as many locusts as it would take just to make one meal. I guess if one were a good first century cook you could think of different ways to cook them such as: locust stirfry, fried locust (for the “southern” Essenes), or maybe a quick locust casserole. I think I would tend to go with the second definition of locusts here that refers to them as pods. It was somewhat like a bean. Locusts were said to have been the food of the poor back then. We’ll just have to ask old John when we get to heaven which one it really was. If it really was the “insect locust”, do you think he’ll say they tasted like chicken??????