Did the essens believe in the coming of the messiah?

Answer 1

Yes, they did. They were a tiny, wilderness-dwelling non-traditional sect who deviated from the mainstream of Jewish tradition.The Essenes eventually disappeared from the Jewish community. They styled themselves "observant; pious ones." The normative, majority Jewish community viewed them as breakaways from the common stream of Jewish tradition, because of their non-traditional beliefs and practices.

Their beliefs included an excessive amount of dabbling with the names of angels, messianic fervor, gnosticism and eschatological speculation; and their practices were more like Christian monasticism than the generally accepted Jewish way of living.

The practices of the Essenes included vegetarianism, dwelling in isolated groups, communal ownership, monastic asceticism and avoidance of money, commerce or private property; and (among some of them) celibacy. Also, they had some forms of non-traditional observances (such as round phylacteries [tefillin]). Some researchers identify the Essenes as a form of early Christianity, taking also into account the fact that early Christianity was far from uniform and was, for a time, thought of by some as a kind of modified Judaism.

Answer 2

The Essenes were a sect of Judaism that lived in the desert regions of Israel. They despised riches, but believed that God would bestow upon everything they needed.

Answer 3

The Dead Sea Scrolls reveal that the Essenes hoped for the coming of two messiahs. The moshiach ben David (literally, the annointed son of David) was to restore the monarchy, and the moshiach ben Joseph (literally, the annointed son of Joseph) was to restore legitimate worship to the Temple in Jerusalem. They're both biblical (see the Book of Zechariah). Note that the Essenes rejected the legitimacy of the Temple after the Macabbean revolt, so naturally, they wanted to restore both the Kingdom and Priesthood.