The reference to Jesus being conceived by the Holy Ghost, or the Holy Spirit, has at least two different meanings. This relates to the Pesher Technique of reading the Bible, and also how God does things on several different levels at once.

First of all, one of Jesus' father's titles was the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit. His primary title was that of Joseph of Arimathea, which Jesus' brother James inherited as the second son. These means that Jesus' father was the second son, the Crown Prince, not the David. It is unknown to me at this point in time who Joseph's older brother was, Jesus' uncle, the Davidic king before Jesus. This information is neatly hidden in all the resources available to me right now, but God always leaves an audit trail so I suspect I will find out eventually who this man was. I am assuming that he was alive at the time of Jesus' birth since Jesus father was still known as Joseph.

The Essenes followed the Gnostic tradition of "as above, so below," and this is why people held the angelic titles. Everything was to be a mirror of heaven and this is why when asked where the Kingdom of Heaven was, Jesus replied that it is spread out all over the earth. Remember that he said the meek will inherit that exact place.

According to Dr. Barbara Thiering, the three leading priests during the Gospel Period were called Father, Son, and Spirit, and the Annas priest was the Spirit (to "pneuma," or in a higher status, the Holy Spirit, to "pneuma to hagion." The pattern of three was repeated in the village, so that the Chief Priest and the two levites below him were also called Father, Son and Spirit (the last in a different form of the Greek, "to hagion pneuma."

The other meaning in with regard to the Melchizedek priesthood. Things were a bit inconsistent at Qumran. There were two political factions there: the Hebrews, who did things the male-oriented, conservative way, and the Hellenists, who did things more liberally and female-oriented. The Melchizedek priesthood belonged to the Hellenists. The Hebrews were the ones who claimed that Jesus was illegitimate and tried to put James on the throne. The Hellenists hailed Jesus as the David. By their standards, the Holy Spirit is always feminine. She is God's wife, the Druidic Goddess, and the Hebrew "Shekinah." The Melchizedek priesthood stems from the Mother, not the Father. Therefore, Jesus was being called a gift from the Mother, who gives the gift and breath of life (pneuma) as the Holy Spirit. Since all life is to be regarded as holy, then Jesus' existence was for reasons beyond their mortal understanding at the time and should be received as a blessing, not a curse. Heaven's ways are not our ways. Some things we just have to accept and move on with despite man's rules about the way things should be.*S*