Download The Origin and Basis of the Karaite Division (No. 156C)

Christian Churches of God
No. 156C
The Origin and Basis of the
Karaite Division
(Edition 1.0 20121108-20121108)
In this paper we will examine the Origin and Basis of the Karaite heresy and its attitude to and
conflict with Rabbinical Judaism.
Christian Churches of God
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AUSTRALIA
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(Copyright  2012 Wade Cox)
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The Origin and Basis of the Karaite Division
The Origin and Basis of the Karaite Division
Eli Barnavi, the Director of the Morris Curiel
Center for International Studies and a Professor
of Jewish History at Tel Aviv University has
written a useful work on the Karaites but like all
Jewish works it lacks a critical aspect of
analysis of the Temple system.
According to the article The Karaites: A
Medieval Jewish Sect The Karaites, Biblical
Fundamentalists, Challenged the Authority of
Rabbinic Judaism REPRINTED FROM ELI
BARNAVI’S A Historical Atlas of the Jewish
People, (SCHOCKEN BOOKS)).
“The Muslim conquest led to the emergence of
two such forces, having more than one trait in
common: Karaism and activist messianism.”
This assertion has become a major error of
modern Judaism. The Messianic activities of the
Christian faith go back to Christ and the
apostles and Temple Judaism where
Messianism was a significant force.
According to Philo, as we have shown in the
paper God’s Calendar (No. 156) and elsewhere,
the calendar that was observed in the Temple
was determined and set according to the
conjunction of the New Moon as determined by
the academic schools in Judea. The Temple
authorities were organised by the Sadducees and
the Pharisees had no authority in the Temple,
except for nine years under Queen Alexandra.
Their so-called “Oral Law” was regarded as
completely erroneous and only the written
Torah was accepted and used. After the fall of
the Temple, one is able to see from the Mishnah
how the oral traditions were inserted over the
Temple system between the end of the Temple
period 70 CE to ca. 200 CE when the Pharisees
succeeded the Sadducees. The Pharisees formed
the rabbinical system to control Judaism and the
operation of their system was based on tradition
called the Oral Law. The tradition has no basis
in fact and was introduced in second century
late Temple Judaism among the proto-Pharisees
and runs counter to the written law of God in
the Pentateuch. Some of it is based on the
Egyptian Mysteries and is reflected in the
comments written in The Book of Jubilees and
in The Book of Enoch.
Some of those Jews scattered after the fall of
the Temple were cut off from the later heresies
of the Pharisees. One of these is the Lemba tribe
in Zimbabwe along the Limpopo River. They
took black wives in the dispersion but the male
YDNA is Jewish and their Buba clan is Levite
with the Aaronic or Cohenite haplogroup
among them as priests. They determine the New
Moon from the observance of the waning moon
three days in advance of the conjunction from
its reflection on water in a dish. That is the
tradition of the observance system they used in
the dispersion and may well be the basis of
David’s comments in Samuel as he knew he
was required at the court three days before the
New Moon. So any system of observation was
by those away from the academic schools
referred to by Philo. The academic schools were
also found in Issachar as the Pentateuch tells us.
The conflicts that emerged in the post-Temple
period came from the remnant left over from the
fall of the Sadducees and the conflict with the
Samaritans who continued to maintain the
calendar according to the Temple period based
on the conjunction. The Pharisees developed
into the rabbinical system with its court at
Jamnia and began to introduce the system of
observations with the false witnesses set up to
validate the postponement of the system by a
day to avoid the so-called problems they saw in
the Temple calendar and the inconvenience
caused by their traditions. They thus began to
light New Moon beacons which could no longer
be relied upon by those of the post-Temple
system Sadducees (who were depleted and
disenfranchised) and by the Samaritans and also
by the post-Temple Christians among the Jews
in Judea and Galilee. Rabbinical propaganda
states that the Samaritans and others began to
light misleading beacons, which is a false
record. It was the Rabbis themselves that began
to light misleading beacons to justify their
falsification of the calendar through their
traditions. The Samaritans had not changed
anything. Before the destruction of the Temple
all three elements could rely on the Temple
The Origin and Basis of the Karaite Division
calendar for the New Moons. When the
Pharisees took control and established the
rabbinical system they began to light beacons to
justify their “observations” in the false system
they began to set up which was in effect the
precursor to the postponements developed
finally under the Hillel system and which was
not finalised until the twelfth century under
Maimonides.
The remnant of the Sadducees, the Samaritans
and the Christians rejected rabbinical Judaism
as it emerged; and a conflict arose from the end
of the first century throughout the Middle East
and within Judaism.
Barnavi’s text itself states: “The Karaites are
first mentioned in written sources in the late
eighth century. They themselves claim to be
descendants of dissident sects of the First
Temple period, and the rabbinical tradition
traces them back to opposition trends of the
Second Temple period.
The beginnings of Karaite activity are
associated with the figure of Anan ben David--a
learned and aristocratic man, probably
belonging to a family of exilarchs, the leaders of
Babylonian Jewry. His immediate followers
were a small group of intellectuals who
formulated the sect's tenets and preached them
in Jewish centers throughout the caliphate,
including Palestine. In the tenth and eleventh
centuries, the Karaite communities were
protected by eminent members of the sect who
had reached influential positions in the ruler's
court. Led by a nasi (prince) claiming Davidic
lineage, the Karaites attracted many scholars of
distinction in biblical exegesis, law, Hebrew
lexicography, and philosophy.” (ibid.)
Yet we are expected to believe that the modern
ill-informed Karaites have emerged from such a
distinguished lineage. The destruction of the
original calendar stems from the desire of postTemple Judaism to maintain the illusion of
rabbinical authority rather than the set calendar
of God. The subsequent perversion of the
Karaite system stems from the perversion of
Judaism itself.
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The introduction of the false calendar into
Western Christianity through the Athanasians
who became the Trinitarians from 325-381 CE
from Rome and Egypt at Alexandria as
determined at Nicaea (325 CE) and as
determined from the Council of Constantinople
(381) made no difference to the calculation of
the calendar as it was always done from the
conjunction
as
determined
from
the
astronomical schools as had the Sabbatarian
Christians and Messianic Jews also. Most
Messianic Jews became Sabbatarian Christians.
After the repressions of Hadrian the Jews began
to assert themselves as a group among the Arab
tribes and began to dominate the disparate tribal
groups. The division and dominance was the
reason the conflict became entrenched in
Arabia. The Jews allied with the Arab pagans in
an effort to destroy the Christian groups there.
Islam grew out of the Sabbatarian Christian
system there and the Jews did their best to
destroy the system of Islam and the Sabbatarian
Christian system there and elsewhere. They
became the Sabbatarian Paulicians in Asia
Minor and the system in Arabia that became
modern Islam. Most Muslims don’t understand
the Koran or their own early history (see the
paper Introduction to the Commentary on the
Koran (No. Q1))
In 344 CE two Babylonian Rabbis developed
the Babylonian calendar with its system of
intercalations established in the sixth century
BCE from Babylon. That is also the reason why
the Jewish calendar is out by a significant
amount from the determination of the calendar
according to the Bible record (see the paper
Outline Timetable of the Age (No. 272)).
As the Jews had not kept the Temple calendar
for a couple of centuries they did not care that
their calendar was adrift from the Temple
calendar for a number of years in the time
cycles of intercalations kept by the Temple and
was thus out according to the agricultural
cycles. It became obvious to any observant Jew
in the Middle East that in some years the
Passover was early and the barley was not ripe
for the Wave Sheaf offering. Hence, the
opposition was born to the Hillel system as a
false system. That was because the Wave Sheaf
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The Origin and Basis of the Karaite Division
could not occur in some years due to the
improper intercalations that prevented the Hillel
calendar of 358 CE, when Rabbi Hillel II
introduced it, from being in synchronisation
with the barley harvest, as it always had been in
the Temple period, with the Temple calendar as
determined according to the conjunctions.
Jewish leadership, the exilarchs, the geonim
(heads of the academies), and the dignitaries
which surrounded them.”
This led the Jews, who had decided that the
observations were necessary, to correct the
errors introduced from the Babylonian system
of intercalations by the rabbinical authorities.
They thus had no knowledge of the correct
system of calculations. Because they needed the
observations to determine the correct ripening
of the barley, they accepted that the Rabbis'
propaganda was correct that the Temple had no
set calendar. The lie, that the Temple system
was based on observation, emanated from the
Rabbis themselves. They invented it in order to
justify their destruction of their own calendar, to
justify their postponements. The greatest lie in
post-Temple Judaism came from Judaism itself
in order to justify the heresy of the Traditions of
the so-called Oral Law. It was foisted on
Judaism by its own sect of the Pharisees who
had become the Rabbis.
These people who rejected rabbinical Judaism
were a small but distinct element of Judaism.
They survived all the way through until Judaism
entered into the Medieval Age when the Hillel
calendar was finally re-modeled by Maimonides
in order to get the errors out as far as possible.
The group that had opposed it from its
introduction due to its inherent flaws became
known as the Karaite heresy and was of
significance at the time and became a creditable
alternative to Judaism.
As it was born out of a reaction to a flawed
system, and was comprised of Jews who it
recruited from rabbinical Judaism itself, it was
inevitable that it failed.
Eli Barnavi says of it: “The best part of the
Karaite intellectual effort was directed at
proving the errors of the Rabbanites. Their
critical acuteness and thorough knowledge of
rabbinical doctrines ensured the high level of
their polemics. And their religious attack was
accompanied by bitter social criticism of the
Thus the basis of the opposition was based on
that of the Sadducees (comprising the
landholding gentry) towards the Pharisees who
became the Rabbis. However, their knowledge
was limited as was their subsequent power and
wealth. From their influence we see that those
who formed the groups in Arabia became
Islamised. The groups themselves were derived
from the Sabbatarian Christians who were
spread though Asia Minor as the Paulicians and
on into Arabia where the Church or
“Muhammad” comprised of the Twelve Elders
of the faith under Qasim the prophet was
established. It became corrupt after the “Four
Rightly Guided Caliphs” and became
paganised.
Eli Barnavi says “Islamic influence was
apparent in all aspects of Karaism—in their
philosophical outlook, in their spiritual views,
customs, laws, and judicial processes. The main
hallmark of the Karaites is their rejection [of
the] authority of the Oral Law and the belief in
the necessity of direct, independent, and critical
study of the Bible. A "Karaite" reads the Mikra
(the Pentateuch) and recognizes the Scriptures
as the exclusive source of religious law.
This biblical fundamentalism was the basis of
their entire religiosity, and placed them
irrevocably in opposition to talmudic Judaism.
Some of the Karaite doctrines and customs
distinguishing them from the Rabbanites are the
literal interpretation of the biblical rules
concerning the observance of the Sabbath,
celebrating the festivals differently (they do not
blow the shofar on Rosh ha-Shanah nor do they
wave the "four species" on Sukkot; and they
ignore Hanukkah since it is not mentioned in
the Bible). In addition, they are particularly
severe with regard to the law on marriage
among relatives. Their liturgy is mostly biblical
psalmody, and they practice different methods
of ritual slaughter--a custom which widened the
rift between them and the Rabbanites, as they
cannot share the same food.”
The Origin and Basis of the Karaite Division
Note the Karaites did not accept the traditions
regarding kashrut in the food laws even then. It
was not powerful enough to destabilise the
rabbinical tradition however.
“The Karaite attack was not powerful enough to
demolish the rabbinical citadel but it did
succeed in breaching its walls, for the sect
recruited many converts. Towards the end of the
eleventh century, the sect had adherents in most
communities within the Muslim world and the
Byzantine Empire: in the eastern parts of the
caliphate, in Palestine and Egypt, in North
Africa, in Spain, and in Asia Minor.” (ibid.)
Their failure was due to their inherent Zionism
and as we know from prophecy they would not
be allowed back into Jerusalem to reconstruct
the Temple and establish the biblical system
until it was done under the Witnesses and the
Messiah at the end of this Age.
Barnavi refers to this Zionism as follows:
“The Karaites, however, considered the
dispersion a calamity. Their doctrine
emphatically stressed the obligation to live in
the Land of Israel. Residing in Jerusalem,
praying at its gates, submitting to severe
practices of purification--these concrete
measures were to hasten the End of Days: and
without them there was no hope of Redemption.
Hence the constant propaganda for a Return to
Zion. And indeed, many of the sectarians were
not content to preach, and sought to realize the
ideal. Consequently, between the ninth and
eleventh centuries, the ‘roses’--as the Karaites
called themselves in contradistinction to the
rabbinical ‘thorns’--comprised the majority of
the Jewish community in Jerusalem.”
It, however, still has a small minority of Jews
and a number of gentiles who know nothing of
the Temple system. A number of ministers of
the Armstrongite system peddle these rabbinical
false claims in order to justify their following
the Hillel calendar. That is in spite of the fact
that the Rabbis themselves know it is hopelessly
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incorrect. However, the Rabbis themselves lack
the courage to admit the rabbinical system itself
is based on a lie.
The Karaite system is just as serious a heresy as
the Hillel system it opposes.
The system using the Hillel calendar, especially
the Armstrongite system, either does not know
any better, and does not want to know any
better, or is incapable of researching the matter.
Either way they can’t or won’t teach the
“members” of their people. We have even had
some of these ministers repeat this blatant lie;
that there was no Temple calendar. They don’t
even seem to know that the creation itself, the
heavens and the seasons, stand witness against
them. Christ himself stood witness against the
traditions of the Pharisees and no one until
Armstrong and one of the COG (SD) Deacons
had ever had anything to do with the Hillel
system until a small element in Transylvania
became heretics and finally joined Judaism a
couple of centuries ago.
These people have no excuse for following this
heresy and those that do corrupt the calendar
and do not keep the Lord’s Supper or
Atonement on the correct days except for very
rare occasions when they have no alternative.
They will not enter the First Resurrection. No
element of Christianity in the fourth century
was fooled by it as they had been keeping the
calendar correctly for centuries after the fall of
the Temple and were not fooled by it. Nor were
the Athanasians who emerged as the
Trinitarians after Constantinople in 381. At
Nicea in 325 they agreed on the arrangements
for Easter which was the pagan festival of
Easter or Ishtar they adopted, which disrupted
the calendar in some years, but they were never
as heretical as Judaism became concerning the
calendar.
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