-excerpts in parentheses from The Buddhist Essene Gospel of Jesus, Vol. I

''John was not shut up in prison. The Syriac English Glossary states kHBISA means hermit, coming from kHBaS to shut up, and kHBUSTA confinement, restraint or imprisonment.

Also, he was not beheaded, PSQT also meaning stop, cease, decided as well as cut off. Actually in Mandaic PSQ means to find relief. So in Mark’s elaborate allegory, Jesus was explained as the resurrected John, who was thus working great miracles.

He was not only declared as the greatest Prophet (although he himself says he is not the Prophet), but practicing restraint himself as a hermit, rather than imprisoned and beheaded.

More, he was protected by Herod in admiration for being "a righteous and holy man, and he guarded him, and he heard him gladly" and was given relief rather than beheaded by Herod.

This tetrarch, Herod, was the foster brother of Manahen, the Essene, that Josephus tells about, and thus was a fellow Essene, and sought to be John’s protector. (Mk.6:16-20)

Mark 6:16-20 New International Version (NIV)

¹⁶ But when Herod heard this, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised from the dead!”

So the aramaic word for imprisoned and beheaded had multiple meanings also meaning stop, cease, decided as well as cut off. kHBISA means hermit, coming from kHBaS to shut up, and kHBUSTA confinement, restraint or imprisonment. PSQT also meaning stop, cease, decided as well as cut off.

¹⁷ For Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested, and he had him bound and put in prison. He did this because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, whom he had married.

¹⁸ For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” ¹⁹ So Herodias nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him.

But she was not able to, ²⁰ because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. When Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled^[a]; yet he liked to listen to him.

''Simon Zealot and his follower Judas saw only the negative meaning in the Aramaic words of the whole story like Satan (Mt.16:23), and thus were actually the wardens of a prisoner’s escort taking John to the High Priest and Pilate.

As Luke informs us, it was Herod who assured Pilate in the maneuver protecting John and helping John discipline Simon Peter in dying to his former sinful self.

This is tactfully described in the Lost Gospel of Peter dealing with the swoon and quick revival.

The Apocryphon of John (Nag Hammadi Library) considers another aspect as the "prison of the body" dwelling in darkness of the world, keeping one from the Light (which the hermit life escapes).

Thus he also shows how Noah’s Ark as a luminous cloud, the light of foreknowledge that saves him from the flood of darkness brought upon the whole earth, the luminous cloud being also a part of the gospel mysteries described in the transfiguration.

He goes on telling of the ineffable, immeasurable Light "neither corporeal nor incorporeal" like the "being and non-being" of the Buddhist mysteries, beside the "the Word, the Christ the Self-Begotten Autogene that created everything".

Self-Begotten is the only begotten, since Father begot Himself in the Son.

The Gnostic Gospel of Thomas cites Jesus in saying, "Woe unto the Pharisees for they are like a dog sleeping in a manger of oxen, for neither does he eat nor does he let the oxen eat", which in regard to the divine mysteries, the Eastern Orthodox Church to our day believes the Western Roman Church resembles with its dogmatism.

(Remember that Protestants are protesting against the Catholic Roman Church and wanted reform, but a lot of their beliefs and customs they just adopted like the Apostle's creed. If we want to get back to the original gospel of Jesus given by John we need to study the Aramaic pre-Catholic scriptures.)

Jesus said: `A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, his own house and his own kindred.’ And he could not do any miracles there." (Mt.13; Mk.6)

Only King Herod said he was John Baptist risen again, doing miracles.

However, Luke says the people thrust him out of this city, and tried to cast him over a precipice. John only says "Neither did his brethren believe in him."

With faith he could move mountains but without it he could do nothing, because it was the Father within him who did the works.

Yet the Esoteric Wisdom he obtained at the Buddhist Monastery did save John with both Herod and Pilate, both of whom maneuvered the trouble-makers to become victims of the penalties the Truth-Teacher was mistakenly accused of deserving.

Theodas was beheaded instead of John, and Simon was crucified instead of Jesus or John who stayed with him until after he was taken from the cross and put in Joseph’s tomb, and secretly revived so he could live to old age in Kashmir.''

(In Kashmir India there are the footprints of Jesus Barabbas aka Peter son of Abbas the terrorist of Cyrene, with the crucifixion scars in his feet. Even the worst terrorist and criminal, like Peter was before, can be reformed or rehabilitated. Similar to Nelson Mandela who killed over a hundred people in terrorist attacks but later turned to non violence and helped end apartheid in South Africa. Would that this might happen in Israel-Palestine.)