Research Note Did David Koresh Plagiarize Cyrus R. Teed?
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Research Note
Did David Koresh Plagiarize
Cyrus R. Teed?
Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/nr/article-pdf/26/3/101/769176/nr.2023.26.3.101.pdf by guest on 19 October 2023
J. Phillip Arnold
ABSTRACT: During the standoff between federal agents and the Branch
Davidians in 1993 at the Branch Davidians’ property outside Waco, Texas
named Mount Carmel Center, David Koresh proclaimed that he was the
Endtime Christ who would reveal the meaning of the Seven Seals of the
book of Revelation. One hundred years earlier there was another
Koresh, Cyrus R. Teed, who also claimed to reveal the Seven Seals from
his Koreshan Unity center in Estero, Florida. David Koresh echoed many
of Teed’s, i.e. the earlier self-proclaimed Koresh’s, teachings. What kind
of connection, if any, existed between these two aspiring Endtime mes-
siahs? Using primary sources, such as Teed’s magazine, The Flaming
Sword, and transcriptions of the FBI audiotapes of negotiations with
David Koresh and other Branch Davidians recorded during the 51-day
siege in 1993, the answers emerge. Since these answers indicate a link
between the earlier Koresh and David Koresh, they also raise the issue of
how this information about the earlier Koresh and his theology could
have been used by FBI agents to persuade the Branch Davidians to come
out of the Mount Carmel Center residence and be taken into custody.
KEYWORDS: Vernon Howell, David Koresh, Koresh, Cyrus R. Teed,
Branch Davidians, Koreshans, Koreshan Unity, Seven Seals, Revelation,
Lamb
Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, Volume 26, Issue 3, pages
101–115. ISSN 1092-6690 (print), 1541-8480. (electronic). © 2023 by The Regents of
the University of California. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission
to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press’s
Reprints and Permissions web page, https://www.ucpress.edu/journals/reprints-
permissions. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2023.26.3.101.
101Nova Religio
T
he standoff at Mount Carmel Center outside Waco, Texas
between the Branch Davidians and federal agents began with
a failed “dynamic entry” by Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and
Firearms (ATF) agents on 28 February 1993, in which four ATF agents
and six Branch Davidians died. Because federal agents had been killed,
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents arrived on 1 March 1993 to
take over the siege and negotiations. On 10 April 1993 a negotiator
phoned the Branch Davidians inside the Mount Carmel Center residence
and told the right-hand man Steve Schneider (1949–1993) of David
Koresh (1959–1993) that there was an earlier Koresh whom David
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appeared to be plagiarizing. The negotiator asked Steve if he had heard
of this earlier Koresh, whose original name was Cyrus R. Teed (1839–
1908). The negotiator said that the proof was in a book entitled
Koreshanity, The New Age Religion, by J. Augustus Weimar (1971) in the
Waco Public Library about a “cult” leader named Teed who had changed
his name to Koresh in 1892. Steve Schneider, who had a master’s degree
in Religious Studies from the University of Hawaii, pushed back saying
that he had studied religious groups for years and knew nothing about
that one.1 Then the negotiator drove the point home, saying that David
Koresh must have stolen the name and teachings of this earlier Koresh to
deceive his followers including Steve. Schneider asked David Koresh
about it, and he said that he had never heard of a book about a previous
Koresh and to send it in. The negotiator offered to send the book inside
so Steve Schneider and the other Bible students of David Koresh could see
it with their own eyes and confront David with the information. Schneider
eagerly agreed, promising to show it to everyone.2
The Koreshanity book contains original writings of Cyrus R. Teed, who
in 1892 changed his name to “Koresh.” Koresh is Hebrew for “Cyrus,”
and refers to Cyrus the Great (d. 530 B.C.E.), ruler of Persia, who in 539
B.C.E. defeated the Babylonian Empire, after which he issued a decree
to the Jews in exile in Babylon, saying that they could return to Jerusalem
in Judah and rebuild the Temple that had been destroyed by the
Babylonian military in 586 B.C.E., with King Cyrus providing the fund-
ing to do so (2 Chron. 36:23; Ezra 6:3–8). In the book of Isaiah 45:1, it is
stated that Cyrus/Koresh was God’s “anointed” (in Hebrew, messiah; in
Greek, christos). Koreshanity presents eighty proofs of Cyrus Teed’s
“credentials” as the figure known by such terms as the end-time David,
the final Koresh, and the Lamb who opens the Seven Seals.3
From these facts about Cyrus R. Teed as Koresh, the question arises
whether there is a connection between David Koresh and the earlier
Koresh, Cyrus Teed, and if so, how did it occur? Recent research has
uncovered new information that assists in answering these questions.
The following analysis of the evidence attempts to determine the rela-
tionship, if any, between David Koresh, formerly named Vernon Howell,
and the earlier Koresh.
102Arnold: Did David Koresh Plagiarize Cyrus R. Teed?
A comparison of the theologies of these two Koresh figures indicates
that there is reason to think that David Koresh, né Vernon Howell, was
influenced by Cyrus Teed’s interpretations of the Bible’s Endtime
prophecies, either directly by reading the Korseshanity book in the
Waco Public Library, or indirectly by being taught by someone who had
read the book. During the 51-day siege in 1993 of the Branch Davidians
at Mount Carmel Center, if FBI agents had sent in the copy of
Koreshanity, it might have been utilized by negotiators to try to persuade
David Koresh’s followers that David did not have an original divinely
inspired interpretation of the Bible’s prophecies, as he claimed, and
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they should come out of the residence and send their children out.
KORESH: CYRUS R. TEED
There definitely was an earlier Koresh: Cyrus R. Teed, who was born
in 1839 in New York, the son of Jesse and Sarah Teed. Cyrus was a man of
many talents, serving as a doctor in the Civil War (1861–1865), and was
well read in medicine, science, history, alchemy, and religion. Teed
moved in the circles of New Thought and was very knowledgeable of
Mother Ann Lee (1736–1784) of the Shakers, and especially the works of
Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772). In 1869 Teed had a life-changing
experience, an “illumination,” when he was visited by a heavenly spirit
woman, an angel with the appearance of the “woman clothed in the sun”
(Rev. 12:1–6), who called him to a messianic mission to bring truth to
the world.4 Though biblically oriented, this mission had a unique theo-
logical message. For example, Teed taught that God has a feminine
aspect, a “biune nature” of male and female, and he insisted that celi-
bacy would increase the transforming power of the Spirit to empower
immortality of the physical body. He saw himself as the seventh and final
messiah, whose persona consisted of the reincarnations of the previous
six, including Jesus. In 1892, Teed changed his name to Koresh and
called his group Koreshan Unity located in Chicago with over one hun-
dred members.5
Leaving Chicago in 1894, Teed moved his followers to Florida where
he acquired land in southwest Florida, in Estero, south of Fort Myers.
There his grand plan was to build a community that would grow into
a metropolis of millions of whites and blacks who would follow the
principles of Koreshanity. He was successful in founding a community
of several hundred persons, mostly women. It functioned well as a self-
sufficient communal group of celibates holding things “in common.”
Conflicts with locals emerged in time as Teed started a rival paper,
The American Eagle, and the Progressive Liberty Party, to control civil
affairs for his prospering community. However, in 1906, Teed and some
other Koreshans were beaten in Fort Myers, in which Teed suffered
103Nova Religio
a head wound that led to his passing in 1908. His followers waited by the
side of his corpse for weeks believing that he would return to life, until
authorities forced a burial. In 1921, a hurricane swept his tomb and
coffin into the ocean. The community continued his work and published
the Koreshan magazine, The Flaming Sword, on a regular basis. When the
last member died in 1982, the property was donated to the state of
Florida where it now serves as the Koreshan State Historic Site.6
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SIMILARITIES IN THE THEOLOGIES OF CYRUS R. TEED
(KORESH) AND DAVID KORESH
The mystery remains: How can there be two Koresh figures in the
same century? After all, in two thousand years of Christian history there
are no other examples of an aspiring messiah taking the name Koresh.
Therefore, it is striking to find two persons claiming messianic identity
and changing their names to Koresh in the same century: Cyrus R. Teed
(Koresh) in Florida and Vernon Howell in Texas who legally changed
his name to David Koresh in 1990.7 FBI negotiators suspected a connec-
tion as did some scholars in 1993 since it appears too coincidental. But is
there evidence of a connection between Teed and Howell? To answer
this important question, an analysis of the sources is crucial.
The most valuable primary sources available to explore this question
are the Koreshan publications and the recordings of the Bible studies
given by Vernon Howell/David Koresh and Koresh’s statements to nego-
tiators during the 1993 FBI siege at Mount Carmel Center. These
sources show specific parallels between David Koresh and the earlier
Koresh of Florida. In fact, there exist many more similarities than solely
the name Koresh. After listing fifteen of these, an analysis of the most
important ones will provide answers.8
1. Both taught that Christ [messiah, anointed one] has
appeared on earth multiple times, and both regarded
themselves as an “anointed/messianic” figure for the
Endtime events.
2. Both changed their names to Koresh in reference to the
statement in Isaiah 45:1, which refers to Cyrus [Koresh] of
Persia who defeated “Babylon,” as “anointed” [messiah].
3. Both thought of themselves as a latter day “David.”
4. Both saw themselves as revealer of the Seven Seals of the
book of Revelation.
5. Both identified themselves as the Rider on the White Horse
in the First Seal in Revelation 6:2.
104Arnold: Did David Koresh Plagiarize Cyrus R. Teed?
6. Both saw themselves as the one in Revelation 5:5 worthy to
open the Seven Seals.
7. Both argued that when the book of Revelation says it is the
“revelation of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 1:1), it does not mean the
revelation “from” Jesus Christ; it means the revelation of his
person [emphasis added].
8. Both saw themselves as being a “sinful messiah.”
9. Both found many other instances in the Bible where they
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were predicted to come in the Endtime.
10. Both taught that there is a female aspect of God.
11. Both promulgated celibacy for their followers.
12. Both used music as a vehicle for their message.
13. Both were aware of the Millerite movement in the 1830s and
early 1840s, which predicted the Second Coming of Christ
in 1843 or 1844, and of the Seventh-day Adventists.
14. Both had a fully functioning community with property that
they owned.
15. Both claimed they had angelic visitations and special reve-
lations from God.
From this list of similarities and parallels, there are several key points
evincing a connection between David Koresh and Cyrus Teed (Koresh).
First, David Koresh insisted throughout the negotiation tapes that the
book of Revelation is a revelation of Jesus Christ, not a merely a revelation
from him. This view was not a traditional interpretation of that phrase
from Revelation 1:1 but for David Koresh it was crucial to the meaning of
the book of Revelation. He insisted that it meant that when the book of
Revelation is understood it will identify Christ. That is, the Seven Seals
(Rev. 5–8) will reveal David Koresh as Christ come in the flesh. He wrote
in 1993, toward the end of the siege, that the Seals will permit people to
“see the king in his beauty.”9 This does not mean that David Koresh
thought he was Jesus the Jew come again. For Koresh, the Christ is the
messianic spirit that falls on a few chosen persons through the ages,
much like the ancient Ebonite view that the Christ “hastens through the
ages” seeking repose.10
In essays published in The Flaming Sword magazine, Teed wrote that
the book of Revelation is the revelation of Christ, and he explained that
understanding the book of Revelation would show that he, Teed, is the
very Christ. Further, Teed explained that there have been six previous
messiahs, and now he was the seventh and final Christ. He said that all
the others who died before him were present in him, so he was the
105Nova Religio
cumulative expression of them all. Teed confidently claimed that when
he interpreted the book of Revelation, the Christ would be revealed
because that book was the “revelation of Jesus Christ.” This claim, there-
fore, pointed to Cyrus Teed as the Christ. For both David Koresh and
Teed to use the phrase “the revelation of Jesus Christ” to refer to them-
selves personally supports the conclusion that David Koresh was influ-
enced by the teachings of his predecessor Koresh, Cyrus Teed. We have
no other known interpreter of the book of Revelation in over two thou-
sand years who takes that phrase to mean that the person interpreting
the book is the Christ that is being revealed.11
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Cyrus Teed also taught another doctrine so very unusual that it
appears that no one else in history has ever said it—no one, except
David Koresh. In The Flaming Sword, Teed offered an astounding proof
of his “credentials” as the final Koresh. He cited 2 Thessalonians 2:3 in
which Paul writes that in the last days a man will arise claiming that he is
divine, but this figure will be “that man of sin.” Teed claimed that he,
Cyrus Teed, was this “man of sin.” He said that even though he was the
seventh messiah who is deity, he was born a man and thus was also the
“man of sin” predicted to come in the Endtime. For Teed, the final
Christ was a “conjunction” of the divine and sinful human. This is an
unheard-of claim in Christian history from someone claiming to be
a messiah.12
The fact that David Koresh also claimed to be a “sinful messiah”
represents such an unusual claim that he must have duplicated it some-
how from Cyrus Teed, either by reading Koreshan publications or learn-
ing about Koreshan teachings from someone who had access to them
and passed the ideas to him while he was merely Vernon Howell. The
Waco Tribune-Herald on Saturday, 27 February 1993, used the headline,
“The Sinful Messiah,” on the article on the front page, which reported
David Koresh’s claim to be a sinning messiah. David Koresh expounded
Psalm 40:12 to refer to himself, saying “mine iniquities have taken hold
upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs
of mine head.” Since Teed was prior to David Koresh and originated this
unusual identification with the “man of sin,” David Koresh was likely
copying Teed, either by design, or somehow unknowingly by what he
was taught by another party.13
There is more evidence that David Koresh did not independently
come up with these teachings, but was dependent on the teachings of
Cyrus Teed, the earlier Koresh. We find that Teed also identified himself
as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah and the Lamb who in Revelation 5:9 is
the only one in heaven and earth able to open the Seven Seals and
interpret them. Teed was so convinced there no one could interpret the
Seals except him, and he challenged anyone in the world to come try it.
David Koresh issued the same challenge to anyone as the litmus test to
reveal the identity of the Lamb of the book of Revelation. Both Teed and
106Arnold: Did David Koresh Plagiarize Cyrus R. Teed?
David Koresh identified themselves as this figure, and they used the
same scriptures to support it, and issued similar challenges to prove it.14
In addition to claiming the title of Lamb, Teed and David Koresh also
claimed to be the Rider on the White Horse found in the First Seal in
Revelation 6:2. Teed was reported to be “General Koresh” leading his
“White Horse Army.” Not to be outdone, David Koresh saw himself as
the White Horse Rider in his interpretation of the First Seal when he
fleshed it out with Psalm 45 in which a rider on a horse has many wives.
That psalm, he said, explained that the rider is the final figure to come
and will have many wives. David Koresh taught that the “marriage of the
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Lamb” with his “perfect mate” will take place in heaven. There, the
members of the “wave sheaf,” the “first of the first fruits,” those who
were willing to give their all to God, will attend the wedding between
the Lamb and his Bride. According to Clive Doyle (1941–2022), one of
David Koresh’s students, “The Lamb is a figurative expression for the
extension of God in the flesh, and the bride is the extension of the Spirit
[which is feminine].”15 The marriage of the Lamb also includes the
concept that the Lamb is also marrying the Church—the members of
the wave sheaf—who will attend this celestial marriage. Until then, male
members of the Branch Davidian community should remain celibate
awaiting this heavenly marriage. Subsequently, in the Endtime scenario
taught by David Koresh, those remaining on earth who will be included
in Koresh/Christ’s earthly kingdom in the Holy Land, will be invited to
the marriage supper, “the reception,” on earth.16
Although Teed did not take “many wives,” he did teach that in the
Endtime, Koresh would be united with the heavenly Bride at the
“marriage feast of the Lamb.” Both Teed and David insisted that in
Genesis 2 Eve was taken out of Adam, therefore the female was part of
the original Adam. From this, both concluded that God is both male and
female because the text states "male and female created he them"
(Genesis 1:27). If Adam was both male and female, then so is God. To
be reunited with one’s perfect mate, David Koresh said that a high state
of spiritual purity must be obtained. In his 1989 New Light teaching, he
urged the male members of the Branch Davidian community to remain
celibate to purify themselves spiritually and physically. Teed also insisted
that celibacy would prepare the Koreshan community for immortal life
as the Bride of Christ. For Teed, celibacy would help transform the
mortal body into an immortal body. Although David Koresh did not say
that the physical mortal body could be made immortal as Teed did,
Howell spoke of “light bodies” that the Spirit could bring to members.17
In addition to these major similarities, the presence of other signif-
icant ones indicates that David Koresh derived his distinctive interpre-
tation of Bible passages from Cyrus Teed either directly or indirectly.
After all, both taught the female aspect of God, both used music as a way
of expressing their beliefs, and both scoured the Bible for prophecies
107Nova Religio
pertaining to themselves and their mission, including an interest in the
prophecies in the book of Daniel and the modern location of the “lost
tribes.” Both Teed and David Koresh taught that some of the “lost tribes”
of Israel migrated to the northern Europe and found their way to Great
Britain and the United States. Therefore, prophecies in the Bible that
refer to the “lost tribes” pertain to the Anglo-Saxon peoples of Britain
and America. These points join with the unusual fact that both persons
changed their names to Koresh.18
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AVAILABLE INFORMATION ON CYRUS R. TEED (KORESH)
IN WACO, TEXAS
The cumulative evidence supports the contention that Vernon
Howell/David Koresh was exposed to key teachings of Cyrus Teed
through his own reading or through someone close to him conveying
Teed’s ideas to him. Knowledge of the existence of Cyrus Teed was
potentially available to Howell and other Branch Davidians in the
1980s, because in the Waco Public Library there was the very book that
the negotiator told Steve Schneider about on 10 April 1993, Koreshanity,
A New Age Religion. It would appear that someone with an interest in
Cyrus Teed and Koreshan Unity had ordered this unique book back
then. The library records show that this marked-up Koreshanity was
checked out in the 1980s, but does not indicate by whom. Also, there
are some hints that there was a book about the earlier Koresh at Mount
Carmel Center. In a conversation with long-time Branch Davidian and
survivor of the fire on 19 April 1993, Clive Doyle, this author asked
whether there had been any knowledge of an earlier Koresh. Doyle
replied that he thought there might have been such a book around
Mount Carmel Center. He did not elaborate further. From this, one
might ask if Clive Doyle or Perry Jones (1929–1993), both of whom
researched for Lois’ SHEkinah, may have come across the Teed book
and introduced his ideas to Lois and Vernon in informal Bible discus-
sions without attributing them to Teed. However, it seems more proba-
ble that Lois had discovered Teed while researching the femininity of
the Holy Spirit since that was a major subject in publications about Teed
and his Koreshan community. This would fit well with her statement that
she had been convinced of this doctrine through her personal study
prior to her vision of the shimmering female angel in 1977. That vision,
so like Teed’s vision of a female entity in 1869, confirmed her conclu-
sions that she had come to through her reading19
Nevertheless, we know that on 11 April 1993, Steve Schneider told
the negotiators that he asked David Koresh if he knew about the book
about Cyrus Teed, Koreshanity, and Koresh said that he had never heard
of it and to send it in. David Koresh’s denial of knowledge about the
108Arnold: Did David Koresh Plagiarize Cyrus R. Teed?
book and his willingness to have the book examined by Steve Schneider
and his followers suggests that Koresh was not bald-faced lying about his
scriptural interpretations, which he felt were original to him. It would
seem that if David Koresh had a “secret copy” of a Teed publication that
he was consulting as a sort of “script,” over time, someone would have
found him out. Further, to date no one has brought forth any comment
or “slip of the tongue” from David Koresh that would reveal his aware-
ness of some of the eccentric pseudoscientific views of Teed, such as the
“hollow earth,0” or physical immortality through celibacy.
This would mean that the catalyst that brought the idea of an end-
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time Koresh into the Branch Davidian community was research into
other groups that taught that the Holy Spirit was female. Once Teed’s
literature was scoured for evidence supporting the femininity of the
Spirit, his other ideas began to filter into the community, either through
Lois or such researchers as Clive Doyle and Perry Jones. In this scenario,
with these ideas circulating in the community in the early 1980’s, Vernon
Howell would conclude that many of them applied to him and would
begin to transform himself into Koresh without perhaps knowing any-
thing about Teed.
From the presence of so many of Teed’s key biblical ideas coupled
with the absence of evidence that Vernon Howell/David Koresh read
Koreshan publications, it leads to the view that Howell might have
received these interpretations by means of oral transmission before his
1985 experience in Jerusalem on Mount Zion, which convinced him that
he had received the Christ Spirit for the Endtime events.20 If this con-
nection between Howell and Teed is dependent on some unknown
person(s) telling him about a predicted Koresh as the Christ for the
Endtime events, that person would have laid out very specific claims for
Howell to make in order to become David Koresh. It is possible that
whoever conveyed Teed’s teachings did not tell Howell that the ideas
originated with Teed. This person may have claimed to have discovered
these “truths” by themselves or by “divine revelation.” This would have
taken a very rare person with a serious commitment to the task of inter-
preting the Bible’s prophecies about the Endtime, especially if they kept
the existence of Teed secret from Howell and all others at Mount
Carmel Center.
The most qualified and likely person at Mount Carmel Center able to
do this would have been Lois Roden (1916–1986), the 65-year-old leader
of the community when Vernon Howell arrived in 1981 at age 22. She
had gained a national profile as an advocate of the view that the Holy
Spirit is female, and she proclaimed that view through her journal
SHEkinah. In it, Lois Roden and Clive Doyle reprinted articles from a very
broad range of religious figures and contemporary feminist theologians
advocating the female aspect of God and Christian women’s ordained
leadership.21 Also, Lois Roden traveled throughout the United States
109Nova Religio
and abroad, so it is conceivable that she might have come across the
Koreshan Unity site in Florida and read about the earlier Koresh, espe-
cially since they agreed on the female aspect of the divinity. If so, she
could have revealed these biblical interpretations to her young desig-
nated successor, Vernon Howell, with whom she thought she was preg-
nant in the early 1980s as a way of increasing her prophetic charisma.22
Those who joined the community later after hearing David Koresh’s
message, like Steve Schneider, would not have been there in the early
to mid-1980s to observe any interchange between Lois Roden and
Vernon Howell.
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Given the fact that not one Branch Davidian has expressed any
knowledge of Cyrus Teed and his Koreshan Unity, it is apparent that
someone concealed the existence of the earlier Koresh from the mem-
bers. Lois Roden is the prime candidate since a “regular member”
would have no reason to conceal from the young Vernon Howell and
the other Branch Davidians that they knew about a person named
Cyrus Teed, who over one hundred years ago had called himself
Koresh.
One might ask if these similarities could be explained by a sort of
determinism in which once a person identifies with, say, the biblical
Cyrus, it inevitably leads to subsequent identifications with King David,
Messiah, the Lamb of the Book of Revelation and other Endtime fig-
ures. While it is true that identifying with the Cyrus of Isaiah 45:1 could
include using the term “messiah” found there, it does not include the
adoption of these other titles and names that David Koresh applied to
himself. Not one of these names serves as a first step leading to all of
them. Others have had messianic pretensions without forming the
same constellation that Teed and David did. This point is supported
by the fact that David did not call himself “Cyrus,” but translated it into
Hebrew as “Koresh.” It is one thing to identify with the “Cyrus” of the
King James Version that David used, but quite another to both identify
with and change one’s name to the Hebrew “Koresh,” as both David
and Teed did. The fact that both men proclaimed they were sinful
messiahs, and both used the same Hebrew name, argues against the
view that adopting one or more of these identifications would neces-
sarily lead to an independent recreation of that which Cyrus Teed did
over one hundred years earlier. Instead, it indicates a dependence on
the only known figure in history who assembled this constellation,
Cyrus Teed.
The picture emerges that Vernon Howell in the early 1980s pro-
cessed several of Teed’s ideas provided by someone in the Branch
Davidian group, which had been founded in 1955 by Lois Roden’s
husband, Ben Roden (1902–1978).23 This person(s) would have fil-
tered out Teed’s pseudoscience while communicating the biblical
ideas to Howell who felt inspired to make them his own. So, it should
110Arnold: Did David Koresh Plagiarize Cyrus R. Teed?
come as no surprise that Vernon Howell/David Koresh did not men-
tion the cosmogony presented by Teed in which the Earth is said to be
a hollow sphere with inhabitants living on the inside. Nor did David
Koresh use the word “reincarnation” as does Teed to refer to how
persons continue after death. Neither did David Koresh teach that
conserving sexual energies would make the physical body immortal
as did Teed. This would seem to indicate that when the young
Howell arrived at Mount Carmel, there was already awareness of the
earlier Teed among Lois and perhaps her closest confidants. It formed
an esoteric eco-system which privately nourished Howell and in time
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gave birth to David Koresh.24
CONCLUSION
Vernon Howell/David Koresh taught major biblical ideas proclaimed
originally and uniquely by Cyrus R. Teed and integrated them into his
messianic mission. These were primarily the name Koresh, the Seven
Seals as the revelation of the Christ, his identity as the Lamb and as the
sinful messiah, and teaching the female aspect of God. Over time,
Howell would have applied his own creativity to Teed’s ideas and
molded them for his own religious purposes, including shaping them
to the situation that he and his Bible students faced before and during
the 1993 conflict with federal agents.
Since Howell chose not to reveal the fact that he had received these
ideas to become “David Koresh” from Lois Roden or some other
human source, no one at Mount Carmel Center during the 51-day
standoff knew about it. Even Steve Schneider believed that David
Koresh had gotten his identity and message of the Seals solely from
divine revelation beginning in Israel in 1985. His Bible students did
not know that David Koresh was indebted directly or indirectly to an
earlier Koresh, who alone was the first person to put together this
constellation of ideas that would signal the appearance of the
Endtime Koresh.
During the 1993 siege, this situation was ripe for exploiting by FBI
negotiators to weaken the resolve of Koresh’s followers, causing them to
doubt what they believed were David Koresh’s divinely inspired and
original interpretations of the Bible’s prophecies. All the FBI agents had
to do was to carry through on their offer to send in the book Koreshanity.
After reading parts of the book, and seeing the similarities in biblical
interpretations, disconfirmation might have begun to infect the mem-
bers as they learned that David Koresh had taken his identity and many
teachings from the long dead Cyrus Teed, the earlier Koresh. The effect
could have caused doubts in group members and more might have
decided to exit the residence, thereby peacefully rejecting David
111Nova Religio
Koresh’s claim to be who he said he was. Instead, the FBI officials chan-
ged their minds and declined to send in the book, and on the morning
of 19 April 1993 sent in CS gas and tanks.25
J. Phillip Arnold, The Reunion Institute, reunioninstitute@gmail.com
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ENDNOTES
1
Kenneth G. C. Newport, The Branch Davidians of Waco (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2006), 4. Steve says, “I’ve never heard of the book. . . . No,
honestly. I never have. Never have.” Carl Stern, Public Affairs Director, United
States Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation: Negotiation Tape
transcript 207, 10 April 1993, 9:08 P . M .-11:29 P . M ., 54.
2
James Augustus Weimar, Koreshanity, The New Age Religion (Miami: Koreshan
Foundation, 1971.) Weimar (1855–1919) had been affiliated with Charles T.
Russell’s Bible Students until 1895 when he followed Teed. Citations herein are
from transcripts from Carl Stern, Public Affairs Director, United States
Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation: Negotiation Tape 207,
10 April 1993, 9:08 P . M .-11:29 P . M ., 37ff; Negotiation Tape 208, 10 April, 1993–11
April, 1993, 11:29 P . M .-1:34 A . M ., 8; Negotiation Tape 210, 11 April, 1993,
11:25 A . M .-7:38 P . M ., 3, 49–52; Negotiation Tape 211, 11 April, 1993, 7:38 P . M .-
11:42 P . M ., 28ff; Negotiation tape 222, 13 April, 1993, 5:49 A . M .,1 ff. Steve
Schneider requests several times that the Koreshanity book be sent in for all to
read. The agents might have hoped that the effect on David Koresh’s followers of
discovering an earlier Koresh would be similar to the effect on the disciples of
Jesus if they discovered there was an earlier Jesus whom Jesus was secretly copying.
3
Weimar, Koreshanity, 140–41; Lyn Millner, “Koreshans,” World Religions and
Spirituality Project, 7 July 2016, https://wrldrels.org/2017/01/11/koreshans/.
4
Millner, “Koreshans.”
5
Millner, “Koreshans.”
6
Robert S. Fogarty, The Righteous Remnant: The House of David (Kent, OH: Kent
State University Press, 1981), 138–39; Millner, “Koreshans.” Lyn Millner The
Allure of Immortality: An American Cult, a Florida Swamp, and a Renegade Prophet
(Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press, 2019), presents an excellent account
of Teed’s life and the history of Koreshan Unity. In the chapter, “An Age of
Wisdom, An Age of Foolishness,” in Armageddon in Waco: Critical Perspectives on the
Branch Davidian Conflict, ed. Stuart A. Wright (Chicago: Chicago University Press,
1995), 3–19, Robert S. Fogarty incorrectly states that Teed died from a “boating
accident” and also fails to recognize the indebtedness of Vernon Howell to
Teed’s original constellation of ideas (12). For a photograph of Teed’s tomb,
see “Koreshans Gathered around Tomb of Dr. Cyrus Reed Teed at Ft. Myers
Beach on Estero Island, Florida,” ca 1909, Florida Memory: State Library and
112Arnold: Did David Koresh Plagiarize Cyrus R. Teed?
Archives of Florida, https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/256835,
accessed 22 October 2022.
7
Catherine Wessinger, “Branch Davidians (1981–2006), World Religions and
Spirituality Project, 10 October 2016, https://wrldrels.org/2016/02/25/branch-
davidians-2/.
8
The magazines titled The Flaming Sword and The Guiding Light published by
Koreshan Unity serve as primary sources for the study of Teed’s life and teach-
ings. These magazine issues refer repeatedly to elements in this list identifying
Teed’s biblical titles and his Koreshan belief system in articles by him and others.
The transcripts of the FBI negotiation audiotapes serve as primary sources for
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David Koresh’s claims and teachings that are similar to those of Teed, from the
author’s collection and also in the Texas Collection archive at Baylor University,
Waco Branch Davidians: FBI Letters and Negotiation Transcripts Collection, Accession
#3849. These similarities are repeatedly discussed in these primary sources, and
from them I have compiled the fifteen similarities. For David Koresh’s teaching
that the Christ Spirit has taken on human form on Earth multiple times before
the final Endtime Christ, see Clive Doyle’s theology chapter in Clive Doyle with
Catherine Wessinger and Matthew D. Wittmer, A Journey to Waco: Autobiography of
a Branch Davidian (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2012), 75–98, specifi-
cally 78–79.
Both Cyrus Teed and David Koresh fit the category of “restricted charisma” in
which the leader is viewed by followers as being the one who accesses the divine.
See Catherine Wessinger, “Charismatic Leaders in New Religions,” in The
Cambridge Companion to New Religious Movements, ed. Olav Hammer and Mikael
Rothstein (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 85–86.
9
David Koresh, “The Decoded Message of the Seven Seals of the Book of
Revelation” [Mount Carmel Center, 19 April 1993], 9, available at Internet
Archive, https://archive.org/stream/iambomonomo_gmail_375/375_djvu.txt,
accessed 21 October 2022.
10
“Recognitions of Clement” Book II, Chapter 22 in Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2,
ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, (Buffalo: Christian Literature
Company), 103; Epiphanius, Panarion, II, 3:3 Frank Williams, translator, 1987
(Leiden, Brill), 44–47, 112–51.
11
Cyrus Teed (Koresh), “Interpretation of the Book of Revelation Part II,” The
Flaming Sword, February 1923, 1–2; “Interpretation Part VIII,” The Flaming Sword,
August 1923, 2. A forerunner of the use of the name Cyrus for an Endtime
messianic figure appears in the 1699 “Sixty Propositions” by English mystic
Jane Lead (1624–1704) who prophesied the coming of a David, a Cyrus, and
a Christ in the flesh who would restore “total and full redemption” after the
Seven Seals are opened. See Fogarty, The Righteous Remnant, 147–52, for the
“Sixty Propositions” and a connection to celibate communities. Another reli-
gious leader who identified with figures in the book of Revelation and sought
to open the Seven Seals was HONG Xiuquan (1814–1864), who after his ascent to
heaven in 1837 became known as the younger brother of Jesus Christ and led the
Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864) against the Manchu “demons.” See Jonathan D.
Spence, God’s Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan
(New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1996), 295.
113Nova Religio
12
[No author, stylistically Cyrus Teed], “Interpretation Part II,” The Flaming
Sword, February 1923, 2; “Interpretation Part VII,” The Flaming Sword, July
1923, 2.
13
Mark England and Darlene McCormick, “The Sinful Messiah,” The Waco
Tribune-Herald Tribune, 27 February 1993, 11A; and 1 March 1993, 6A.
14
“Theology, David Is the Christ,” The Flaming Sword, 7 October 1893, 1–2. Teed
is identified with the Endtime David, the Branch, Cyrus of Isaiah 44:28, the
Messenger, the Lion/Lamb as Husband of the Bride; “Interpretation of the
Book of Revelation Part VIII,” The Flaming Sword, August 1923, 1–2, where
Cyrus is said to contain within himself six manifestations of earlier messianic
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persons, such as Abraham and Jesus; James D. Tabor and Eugene V. Gallagher,
Why Waco? Cults and the Battle for Religious Freedom in America (Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1995), 54–55, 78, 86, 195, 209; “The Science of Religion,” The
Flaming Sword, 17 September 1892, 2, where it says that the Lion of Judah
becomes the Lamb. Throughout the fifty-one days of negotiations after the
ATF raid, David Koresh cites his ability to interpret the Seals according to
the biblical prophets as proof that he is the Lamb. See J. Phillip Arnold, “The
Davidian Dilemma—To Obey God or Man?” in Lewis, From the Ashes, 23–31. For
example, on March 26, 1993 David offers to allow a Rabbi to explain the Seals,
implying that no one could explain them except the Lamb, and he expresses to
negotiators a desire to discuss his views with the author and James Tabor of the
University of North Carolina, Charlotte (FBI Event Log, Box 25, March 26, 1993.
) See Flaming Sword, 23 July 1892, p. 6 and 6 August 1892, for Teed’s challenges.
15
Doyle with Wessinger and Wittmer, A Journey to Waco, 88.
16
Doyle with Wessinger and Wittmer, A Journey to Waco, 88.
17
“Koreshan Science and Its Application to Life,” The Guiding Star, October
1887, 254–56, where the titles belonging to Teed are discussed, such as the
White Horse Rider, the Messenger, Lamb, Joseph’s “bough,” and “shepherd
stone.” These titles are frequently found in many issues, such as The Flaming
Sword, 14 May 1892, 20, which discusses the Rider on the White Horse being
Elijah who is the Endtime Messenger; and Cyrus as “General Koresh” leads the
“White Horse Army” in The Flaming Sword, 20 August 1892. See Tabor and
Gallagher, Why Waco? 57. See Weimar, Koreshanity, 50, 51 for Teed’s views on
the marriage of the Lamb.
18
“Koreshan Science,” 254–56; “Closing and Opening of the Seals,” The Guiding
Light, April 1888, 115–17, where the Lamb that opens the book is a “peculiar
Lamb.” These sources show that Teed was convinced that the 2,300-year
prophecy in the book of Daniel predicted his birth in 1839 from descendants
of one of the “lost tribes.” Sourced from the author’s private discussions with
David Koresh’s mother, Bonnie Haldeman, and various members after 19 April
1993, and comments by David Koresh during phone negotiations during the
FBI siege.
19
The author found the book in the Waco Public Library and confirmed that it
had been checked out in the early 1980s, but there were no records remaining
identifying readers. The author spoke directly to Clive Doyle about the existence
of a book on the earlier Koresh. For more on Clive Doyle, see Doyle, with
Wessinger, and Wittmer, A Journey to Waco. The author also discovered the
114Arnold: Did David Koresh Plagiarize Cyrus R. Teed?
existence of Cyrus Teed in March 1993 and communicated it to the media that
month, after which the FBI found the book Koreshanity in the Waco Public
Library and told Steve about it in early April.
20
Newport, The Branch Davidians of Waco, 180–83. FBI Waco negotiation audio-
tape 198, 8 April 1993, side A; transcript available at Waco Transcripts Tapes
197–199, FBI Records: The Vault—Waco, https://vault.fbi.gov/waco-branch-
davidian-compound/waco-fbi-transcripts-tapes-197-199/view, accessed
27 November 2022.
21
Lois Roden, editor-in-chief, and Clive Doyle, editor, SHEkinah, issues dating
from December 1980 to June 1983, World Religions and Spirituality Project, https://
Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/nr/article-pdf/26/3/101/769176/nr.2023.26.3.101.pdf by guest on 19 October 2023
wrldrels.org/2022/10/26/shekinah-newsletter-editions/. Copies of the
SHEkinah issues are in the Texas Collection archive, Baylor University.
22
William L. Pitts, Jr., “SHEkinah: Lois Roden’s Quest for Gender Equality,”
Nova Religio 17, no. 4 (May 2014): 37–60.
23
Eugene V. Gallagher, “Davidians and Branch Davidians (1929–1981),” World
Religions and Spirituality Project, 3 August 2013, https://wrldrels.org/2016/10/
08/davidians-and-branch-davidians/.
24
“Re-incarnation or the Resurrection of the Dead,” The Guiding Star, February
1888, 36ff, 61–62; Koresh, “Interpretation Part XII,” The Flaming Sword,
December 1923, 1–2.
25
Catherine Wessinger, “Branch Davidians, 1981–2006: An Extended Profile,
with Material from Internal FBI Documents,” World Religions and Spirituality
Project, 6 July 2014, https://wrldrels.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/The-
Branch-Davidians-An-Extended-Profile-.pdf; Minji Lee, dir., The Waco Branch
Davidian Tragedy: What Have We Learned or Not Learned? 2:53:00, (Houston: The
Reunion Institute, 2020), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ASYZbOPpXQ;
“Bibliography for the Scholars’ Discussions in The Waco Branch Davidian Tragedy,”
World Religions and Spirituality Project, December 2021, https://wrldrels.org/wp-
content/uploads/2021/12/PUBLISHED-Bibliography-for-The-Waco-Branch-
Davidian-Tragedy-Final.pdf.
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