The question, however, always rises: Could John have spent some of his youth as a candidate for membership in or as a member of the Essene community of Qumran? My answer to that question is yes, as a plausible hypothesis, one that I cannot prove, and one that cannot be disproved. Reasons for considering it a plausible hypothesis are the following seven: 1. The Gospel of Luke depicts John as a child born of elderly parents, “who lived out in the desert until the day that he was manifested to Israel” (1:80).