Essene

The Essenes (Greek Εσσηνοι, Εσσαιοι, or Οσσαιοι) were a Jewish religious group that flourished from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century CE that some scholars claim seceded from the Zadokite priests^[1]. Being much fewer in number than the Pharisees and the Sadducees (the other two major sects at the time) the Essenes lived in various cities but congregated in communal life dedicated to asceticism, voluntary poverty, and abstinence from worldly pleasures, including marriage and daily baptisms. Many separate but related religious groups of that era shared similar mystic, eschatological, messianic, and ascetic beliefs. These groups are collectively referred to by various scholars as the "Essenes." Josephus records that Essenes existed in large numbers, and thousands lived throughout Judæa. The Essenes believed they were the last generation of the last generations and anticipated Teacher of Righteousness, Aaronic High Priest, and High Guard Messiah, similar to the Prophet, Priest and King expectations of the Pharisees.^{[citation needed]}

The Essenes have gained fame in modern times as a result of the discovery of an extensive group of religious documents known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, commonly believed to be their library. These documents include preserved multiple copies of the Hebrew Bible untouched from as early as 300 BCE until their discovery in 1946. Some scholars, however, dispute the notion that the Essenes wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls.^[2] One scholar, Rachel Elior, even argues that the group never existed. ^[3][4][5]

Contemporary ancient sources

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The earliest mention of the Essenes is by the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria (c. 20–54 CE). Philo told his readers that there were more than 4,000 Essenes (Essaioi) living in villages throughout Palestinian Syria ^[6]. Among their neighbours they were noted for their love of God and their concerns with piety, honesty, morality, philanthropy, holiness, equality, and freedom. The holy Essenes did not marry and lived a celibate life, and practiced communal residence, money, property, food and clothing. They observed the Sabbath according to all the strictest instructions and spent much of their time studying the Law according to philosophical and allegorical interpretations. They cherished freedom, possessed no slaves, and rejected the use of weapons or participation in commerce. Philo did not mention any names or places, nor any background to the origins of this group.

The next reference is by the Roman writer Pliny the Elder (died c. 79 CE) in his Natural History. Pliny relates in a few lines that the Essenes do not marry, possess no money, and had existed for thousands of generations. Unlike Philo, who did not mention any particular geographical location of the Essenes other than the whole land of Israel, Pliny places them in Ein Gedi, next to the Dead Sea.

A little later Josephus gave a detailed account of the Essenes in The Jewish War (c. 75 CE) with a shorter description in Antiquities of the Jews (c. 94 CE) and The Life of Flavius Josephus (c. 97 CE). Claiming first hand knowledge, he lists the Essenoi as one of the three sects of Jewish philosophy^[7] alongside the Pharisees and the Sadducees. He relates the same information concerning piety, celibacy, the absence of personal property and of money, the belief in communality and commitment to a strict observance of the Sabbath. He further adds that the Essenes ritually immersed in water every morning, ate together after prayer, devoted themselves to charity and benevolence, forbade the expression of anger, studied the books of the elders, preserved secrets, and were very mindful of the names of the angels kept in their sacred writings.

Pliny, also a geographer and explorer, located them in the desert near the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in the year 1947 by Muhammed edh-Dhib and Ahmed Mohammed, two Bedouin shepherds of the Ta'amireh tribe.^[8]

Name

Josephus uses the name Essenes in his two main accounts^[9][10] as well as in some other contexts ("an account of the Essenes";^[11] "the gate of the Essenes";^[12] "Judas of the Essene race";^[13] but some manuscripts read here Essaion; "holding the Essenes in honour";^[14] "a certain Essene named Manaemus";^[15] "to hold all Essenes in honour";^[16] "the Essenes";^[17][18][19]). In several places, however, Josephus has Essaios, which is usually assumed to mean Essene ("Judas of the Essaios race";^[20] "Simon of the Essaios race";^[21] "John the Essaios";^[22] "those who are called by us Essaioi";^[23] "Simon a man of the Essaios race"^[24]). Philo's usage is Essaioi, although he admits this Greek form of the original name that according to his etymology signifies "holiness" to be inexact.^[25] Pliny's Latin text has Esseni.^[26] Josephus identified the Essenes as one of the three major Jewish sects of that period.^[27]

Gabriele Boccaccini implies that a convincing etymology for the name Essene has not been found, but that the term applies to a larger group within Palestine that also included the Qumran community.^[28]

It was proposed before the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered that the name came into several Greek spellings from a Hebrew self-designation later found in some Dead Sea Scrolls, 'osey hatorah, "observers of torah."^[29] Though dozens of etymology suggestions have been published, this is the only etymology published before 1947 that was confirmed by Qumran text self-designation references, and it is gaining acceptance among scholars.^[30] It's recognized as the etymology of the form Ossaioi (and note that Philo also offered an O spelling) and Essaioi and Esseni spelling variations have been discussed by VanderKam, Goranson and others. In medieval Hebrew (e.g. Sefer Yosippon) Hassidim ("the pious ones") replaces "Essenes". While this Hebrew name is not the etymology of Essaioi/Esseni, the Aramaic equivalent Hesi'im known from Eastern Aramaic texts has been suggested ^[31]

Location

Remains of part of the main building at Qumran.

According to Josephus, the Essenes had settled "not in one city" but "in large numbers in every town".^[32] Philo speaks of "more than four thousand" Essaioi living in "Palestine and Syria",^[33] more precisely, "in many cities of Judaea and in many villages and grouped in great societies of many members".^[34]

Pliny locates them "on the west side of the Dead Sea, away from the coast… [above] the town of Engeda".^[26]

Some modern scholars and archaeologists have argued that Essenes inhabited the settlement at Qumran, a plateau in the Judean Desert along the Dead Sea, citing Pliny the Elder in support, and giving credence that the Dead Sea Scrolls are the product of the Essenes. This view, though not yet conclusively proven, has come to dominate the scholarly discussion and public perception of the Essenes.

Josephus' reference to a "gate of the Essenes" in his description of the course of "the most ancient" of the three walls of Jerusalem,^[12] in the Mount Zion area,^[35] perhaps suggests an Essene community living in this quarter of the city or regularly gathering at this part of the Temple precincts.

Rules, customs, theology and beliefs

The accounts by Josephus and Philo show that the Essenes led a strictly celibate and communal life – often compared by scholars to later Christian monastic living – although Josephus speaks also of another "rank of Essenes" that did get married.^[36] According to Josephus, they had customs and observances such as collective ownership,^[37][38] elected a leader to attend to the interests of them all whose orders they obeyed,^[39] were forbidden from swearing oaths^[40] and sacrificing animals,^[41] controlled their temper and served as channels of peace,^[40] carried weapons only as protection against robbers,^[42] had no slaves but served each other^[43] and, as a result of communal ownership, did not engage in trading.^[44] Both Josephus and Philo have lengthy accounts of their communal meetings, meals and religious celebrations.

After a total of three years probation,^[45] newly joining members would take an oath that included the commitment to practice piety towards "the Deity" (το θειον) and righteousness towards humanity, to maintain a pure life-style, to abstain from criminal and immoral activities, to transmit their rules uncorrupted and to preserve the books of the Essenes and the names of the Angels.^[46] Their theology included belief in the immortality of the soul and that they would receive their souls back after death.^[18][47] Part of their activities included purification by water rituals, which was supported by rainwater catchment and storage.

The Church Father Epiphanius (writing in the fourth century CE) seems to make a distinction between two main groups within the Essenes:^[31] "Of those that came before his [Elxai, an Ossaean prophet] time and during it, the Ossaeans and the Nazarean.".^[48] Epiphanius describes each group as following:

The Nazarean – they were Jews by nationality – originally from Gileaditis, Bashanitis and the Transjordon… They acknowledged Moses and believed that he had received laws – not this law, however, but some other. And so, they were Jews who kept all the Jewish observances, but they would not offer sacrifice or eat meat. They considered it unlawful to eat meat or make sacrifices with it. They claim that these Books are fictions, and that none of these customs were instituted by the fathers. This was the difference between the Nazarean and the others…^[49]

After this [Nazarean] sect in turn comes another closely connected with them, called the Ossaeans. These are Jews like the former… originally came from Nabataea, Ituraea, Moabitis and Arielis, the lands beyond the basin of what sacred scripture called the Salt Sea… Though it is different from the other six of these seven sects, it causes schism only by forbidding the books of Moses like the Nazarean.^[48]

If it is correct to identify the community at Qumran with the Essenes (and that the community at Qumran are the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls), then according to the Dead Sea Scrolls the Essenes' community school was called "Yahad" (meaning "unity") in order to differentiate themselves from the rest of the Jews who are repeatedly labeled "The Breakers of the Covenant".

Scholarly discussion

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The Essenes are discussed in detail by Josephus and Philo.

Many scholars believe that the community at Qumran that allegedly produced the Dead Sea Scrolls was an offshoot of the Essenes; however, this theory has been disputed by Norman Golb and other scholars.

Golb, for instance, uses strong arguments claiming that the primary research on the Qumran documents and ruins (by Father Roland de Vaux, from the École Biblique et Archéologique de Jérusalem) lacked scientific method, and drew wrong conclusions that comfortably entered the academic canon. For Golb, the amount of documents is too extensive and includes many different writing styles and calligraphies; the ruins seem to have been a fortress, used as a military base for a very long period of time – including the 1st Century  – so they could not have been inhabited by the Essenes; and the large graveyard excavated in 1870, just 50 metres east of the Qumran ruins was made of over 1200 tombs that included many women and children – Pliny clearly wrote that the Essenes that lived near the Dead Sea "had not one woman, had renounced all pleasure ... and no one was born in their race". Golb's book presents sharp observations about de Vaux's premature conclusions and their uncontoverted acceptance by the general academic community. He states that the documents probably stemmed from various libraries in Jerusalem, kept safe in the desert from the Roman invasions.^[50]

Another issue is the relationship between the Essaioi and Philo's Therapeutae and Therapeutrides. It may be argued^{[by whom?]} that he regarded the Therapeutae as a contemplative branch of the Essaioi who, he said, pursued an active life.^[51]

One theory on the formation of the Essenes suggested the movement was founded by a Jewish high priest, dubbed by the Essenes the Teacher of Righteousness, whose office had been usurped by Jonathan (of priestly but not Zadokite lineage), labeled the "man of lies" or "false priest".^[4][5]

Connections with Kabbalah

According to a Jewish legend, one of the Essenes, named Menachem, had passed at least some of his mystical knowledge to the Talmudic mystic Nehunya ben ha-Kanah,^[52] to whom the Kabbalistic tradition attributes Sefer ha-Bahir and, by some opinions, Sefer ha-Kanah, Sefer ha-Peliah and Sefer ha-Temunah. Some Essene rituals, such as daily immersion in the Mikvah, coincide with contemporary Hasidic practices; some historians had also suggested, that name "Essene" is a Hellenized form of the word "Hasidim" or "Hasin" ("pious ones"). However, the legendary connections between Essene and Kabbalistic tradition are not verified by modern historians.

Modern Essenes

The modern pseudo-Essene movement "is directly derivative of two occult bestsellers, The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ, by Levi H. Dowling; and The Mystical Life of Jesus, by Rosicrucian author H. Spencer Lewis, and possesses no authentic ties to the ancient Essene movement,^[53] Other pseudo-Essene writers include the Rev. Gideon Ousely and Dr. Edmund Bordeaux Szekely, both of whom assert that the Essene teachings had been hidden and assimilated into many mystical spiritual traditions around the world, where the teachings were hidden within ancient libraries. Before all of these the Theosophists brought a bit of focus on the Essenes/Nazareans, and Theosophy influenced some Rosicrucians and much of modern occultism as well as agreed with some principles common to both the ancient and so-called hidden teachings.

See also

• Ctistae
• Dead Sea scrolls
• Ebionite
• Ein Gedi
• Jewish eschatology
• Mount Carmel
• Qumran
• Therapeutae
• Vegetarianism and religion
• Hellenistic Judaism

References

Further reading

• Alexander, David; Pat Alexander (1983). The Lion handbook to the Bible. Tring: Lion Hudson. ISBN 0-86760-271-6. 
• Baldwin, James (1995) [1963]. The fire next time. New York City: Modern Library. ISBN 0-679-60151-1. 
• Bauer, Walter; Robert A. Kraft (1996) [1971]. Orthodoxy and heresy in earliest Christianity. Mifflintown, Pennsylvania: Sigler Press. ISBN 0-9623642-7-4. 
• Bennett, Chris; Lynn Osburn and Judy Osburn (1995). Green gold the tree of life: marijuana in magic & religion. Frazier Park, California: Access Unlimited. ISBN 0-9629872-2-0. 
• Bergmeier, Roland (1993). Die Essener-Berichte des Flavius Josephus: Quellenstudien zu den Essenertexten im Werk des judischen Historiographen. Kampen, Germany: Kok Pharos Publishing House. ISBN 90-390-0014-X. 
• Bultmann, Rudolf (1987). "Significance of the Historical Jesus for the Theology of Paul". Faith and understanding. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress. ISBN 0-8006-3202-8. 
• Burns, Joshua Ezra (2006). "Essene Sectarianism and Social Differentiation in Judaea After 70 C.E.". Harvard Theological Review 99: 247–74. doi:10.1017/S0017816006001246. 
• Durant, Will (1993). Caesar and Christ. MJF Books. ISBN 5-552-12435-9. 
• Eisenman, Robert H. (1997). James, the brother of Jesus: the key to unlocking the secrets of early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls. New York City: Viking Press. ISBN 0-670-86932-5. 
• Ewing, Upton Clary (1994) [1963]. The prophet of the Dead Sea scrolls: the Essenes and the Early Christians, one and the same holy people: their seven devout practices. Tree of Life Publications. ISBN 0-930852-26-5. OCLC 30358890. 
• Ewing, Upton Clary (1961). The Essene Christ. New York City: Philosophical Library. OCLC 384703. 
• Legge, Francis (1964). Forerunners and rivals of Christianity, from 330 B.C. to 330 A.D.. New Hyde Park, New York: University Books. LCCN 64-24125. OCLC 381558. 
• Golb, Norman (1995). Who wrote the Dead Sea scrolls?: the search for the secret of Qumran. New York City: Scribner. ISBN 0-02-544395-X. OCLC 31009916. 
• Lewis, Harvey Spencer (1997) [1929]. Mystical Life of Jesus. San Jose, California: Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis. ISBN 0-912057-46-7. OCLC 43629126. 
• Koester, Helmut (1971). "The Theological Aspects of Primitive Christian Heresy". in James McConkey Robinson. The Future of our religious past: essays in honour of Rudolf Bultmann. New York City: Harper & Row. OCLC 246558. 
• Larson, Martin Alfred (1977). The story of Christian origins: or, The sources and establishment of Western religion. Washington: J.J. Binns. ISBN 0-88331-090-2. OCLC 2810217. 
• Larson, Martin Alfred (1967). The Essene heritage: or, The teacher of the scrolls and the gospel Christ. New York City: Philosophical Library. OCLC 712416. 
• Sanders, E. P. (1992). Judaism: practice and belief, 63 BCE–66 CE. London: SCM Press. ISBN 1-56338-015-3. OCLC 243725142. ^{[page needed]}
• Savoy, Gene (1980) [1978]. The Essaei Document: Secrets of an Eternal Race : Codicil to The Decoded New Testament. Reno, Nevada: International Community of Christ. ISBN 0-93620-203-3. OCLC 13952564. 
• Schiffman, Lawrence H. (1991). From text to tradition: a history of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism. New York City: Ktav Pub. House. ISBN 0-88125-372-3. OCLC 23733614. ^{[page needed]}
• Schonfield, Hugh J. (1984). The Essene Odyssey: The Mystery of the True Teacher and the Essene Impact on the Shaping of Human Destiny. Tisbury: Element Books. ISBN 0-906540-49-6. OCLC 12223220. 
• Schonfield, Hugh J. (1991) [1968]. Those Incredible Christians. Tisbury: Element Books. ISBN 0-906540-71-2. OCLC 13536522. 
• Shaw, George Bernard (2004) [1912]. Androcles and The Lion. Fairfield, Iowa: 1st World Library - Literary Society. ISBN 1-59540-237-3. OCLC 63203922. 
• Smith, Enid S. (October 1959). "The Essenes Who Changed Churchianity". Rays from the Rose Cross. 
• Szekely, Edmund Bordeaux (1977). The Essene Gospel of peace. The Aramaic and old Slavonic texts. Rutland, Vt: Academy Books. ISBN 0-89564-000-7. 
• Vaclavik, Charles P. (1986). The vegetarianism of Jesus Christ. Three Rivers, California: Kaweah Publishing Company. ISBN 0-945146-00-0. OCLC 26054343. 
• Vermes, Geza and Martin Goodman. The Essenes According to the Classical Sources. JSOT on behalf of the Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studie: Sheffield, 1989.
• Lillie, Arthur (1887). Buddhism in Christendom, or, Jesus, the Essene. 1 Paternoster Square, London: Kegan Paul & Co.,. 

External links

• Historical Facts on Essene Culture
• Encyclopedia Britannica: Essenes
• Catholic Encyclopedia: Essenes
• Jewish Encyclopedia: Essenes
• Scholar: The Essenes, Dead Sea Scroll 'authors,' never existed - Haaretz, March 13, 2009.
• Essenes and Others: argues that the Hebrew original form of the name later spelled "Essenes" is in some Qumran scrolls as a self-designation.
• (Thematically compiled comparison of the parallels in the ancient sources) Dead at 2009/09/22.