The Essenes part 1

by John Thomas Lowe
(Woodruff, S.C.)

The Essenes part 1
The Essenes were a devoutly religious group (similar to an order of monks) who emphasized spiritual purification and frequent praying. They were a mystic Jewish sect during the Second Temple period that flourished from the 2nd century B.C.E. to the 1st century C.E. The Jewish historian Josephus records that Essenes existed in large numbers; thousands lived throughout Roman Judaea.
Founded: 2nd-century B.C.E.
Headquarters: Jerusalem

The Essenes were a separatist group, some of whom formed an ascetic monastic community and retreated to the wilderness of Judea. They shared material possessions and occupied themselves with disciplined study, worship, and work. They practiced ritual immersion and ate their meals communally. One branch did not marry.
What did the Essenes believe?
The Essenes looked forward to the coming of the Messiah. They were preoccupied with a heavenly Messiah, who would bring a heavenly kingdom. The Essenes hoped the Messiah would find people prepared to re-establish David's true priesthood and kingship and battle the forces of spiritual darkness. Note: The Essenes were a Jewish sect not mentioned in the New Testament! Their mission was to prepare the Messiah's way and bring spiritual light to the world.
Are there Essenes today?
There are, indeed, people today who consider themselves modern-day Essenes, usually led by a rabbi. There is even a Modern Essene Movement in Southern California. Their last gathering was a vegetarian potluck supper last November, according to their website.
When did the Essenes live in Qumran?
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 confident that the Dead Sea Scrolls are the product of the Essenes. With few exceptions, they shunned Temple worship and were content to live austere lives of manual labor in seclusion. The sabbath was reserved for day-long prayer and meditation on the Torah (first five books of the Bible). Oaths were frowned upon, but they could not be rescinded once taken. After a year's probation, proselytes received their Essenian emblems but could not participate in common meals for two more years.
The Qumran Community and the Dead Sea scrolls
Excavations at Qumrān in the 1950s were led by the French archaeologist Roland de Vaux, whose workers revealed a complex of structures occupying an area about 260 by 330 feet (80 by 100 m). In the eastern part of the ruins stood the principal building, rectangular and large (more than 100 feet on a side), with a massive stone and brick tower in its northwestern corner. East of this tower was a large room with five fireplaces, possibly a kitchen. South of the tower was discovered long benches in one room, and evidence of an upper-story scriptorium - a room set apart for writing, especially one in a monastery where manuscripts were copied - in another—a low bench, three mud-brick tables, and two inkwells were found there. An extensive aqueduct system, fed by the Wadi Qumrān, crossed the site from the entrance in the northwest corner to the southern sections and filled as many as eight internal reservoirs (cisterns), as well as two baths. An aqueduct and a reservoir separated the scriptorium from a large assembly hall that may also have served as a cafeteria. Abutting the hall was a pantry stocked with hundreds of pottery jars. Archaeologists further identified a potter’s workshop, two kilns, an oven, a flour mill, and a stable, but they observed that only a few other rooms might have been living quarters. A cemetery near Qumrān holds the remains of about 1,100 male adults; two lesser gravesites were reserved for some 100 women and children.
The Essenes separated from the rest of the Jewish community in the 2nd century B.C., when Jonathan Maccabeus and, later, Simon Maccabeus usurped the office of the high priest, which conferred secular as well as religious authority. Simon felt compelled to persecute the Essenes, who opposed the usurpation. Hence, they fled into the wilderness with their leader, the Teacher of Righteousness. Rabbi Harvey Falk identifies Hillel the Elder as the Teacher against a "wicked" Shammai, a significant conflict mentioned in the Talmud. Most scholars date the Damascus Document and many of the Dead Sea scrolls to the decades around 100 BCE. Robert Eisenman has proposed that the Historical Jesus was the Nazarene James, the Teacher of Righteousness against a "Wicked Priest" (Ananus ben Ananus), and a "Spouter of Lies," which Eisenman identifies as Paul of Tarsus. This theory is rejected by mainstream scholarship. Stephen Goranson suggests that Judah the Essene, mentioned by Josephus, is the Teacher. Richard A. Freund writes, "The difference of opinion over the positioning of the Teacher of Righteousness leads me to conclude that perhaps all of these researchers are correct. A Teacher of Righteousness did lead the group in the second century B.C.E. when it was established. Another Teacher of Righteousness led the sect in the first century B.C.E. Finally, one more Teacher emerged in the first century C.E."
Some scholars hold that Essenes established a monastic community at Qumrān in the mid-2nd century B.C., probably during the reign of Simon (143/142–135/134 BC) but no later than the time of John Hyrcanus (135/134–104 BC).
Living apart, like other Essenian communities in Judaea, the members of the Qumrān community turned to apocalyptic visions of the overthrow of the wicked priests of Jerusalem and the ultimate establishment of their community as the true priesthood and faithful Israel. They devoted their time to studying the Scriptures, manual labor, worship, and prayer. Meals were taken in common, as were prophetic celebrations of the messianic banquet. The baptism they practiced symbolized repentance and entry into the “Elect of God.”
During the reign (37–4 B.C.) of Herod the Great, an earthquake (31 B.C.) and fire caused the temporary abandonment of Qumrān. However, the community resumed its life there until the center was destroyed (A.D. 68) by Roman legions under Vespasian. Until about A.D. 73, the site was garrisoned by Roman soldiers; during the Second Jewish Revolt (132–135), rebels under Bar Kokhba were based there.
This sect, referred to in the scrolls as adat hayahad (the "Council of the Community"), apparently formed due to profound controversies on various Temple matters that broke out in Jerusalem, such as the calendar, laws of ritual purity, and tithes. These disputes seem to have prompted the founder of the sect, known in the scrolls as the "Teacher of Righteousness," to abandon what he and his followers regarded as the "defiled" Temple, withdraw from the Jewish community at large, and, at a particular stage, establish an isolated settlement near the Dead Sea.
The members of the sect were extremely reclusive and entertained messianic expectations. They hated their foes with a passion. Their ultimate aim was to return to Jerusalem and restore divine worship in the future, an entirely pure Temple, which they believed would be built by God Himself when Redemption came. These hopes were finally dashed in 68 C.E. when the Roman army destroyed the settlement on its way to Jerusalem to suppress the Jewish Revolt.
Most scholars have argued that the scrolls originally formed part of a sectarian (religious) library located in the community center at Qumran. They were hidden in the caves by the sectarians themselves, who left their home in the face of an advancing Roman army, hoping that they would retrieve the sacred documents from their hiding places shortly. However, an alternative theory has been raised. All the scrolls were placed in the caves by Jewish rebels fleeing from Jerusalem, thus redefining or even negating the former hypothesis regarding the Qumran-Essene origin of the scrolls.
The Dead Sea, or Qumrān, community (made famous by discovering the Dead Sea Scrolls) adopted the calendrical system of the noncanonical books of Jubilees and Enoch, which was essentially a solar calendar. Elements of the same calendar reappear among the Mishawites, a sect in the Dead Sea (or Qumrān) community Elements of this same calendar reappear among the Mishawites, a sect founded in the 9th century.

The New Testament does not mention them. The accounts given by Josephus, Philo of Alexandria, and Pliny, the Elder, sometimes differ in significant details, perhaps indicating a diversity that existed among the Essenes themselves.

The Essenes separated from the rest of the Jewish community in the 2nd century B.C., when high priests conferred secular and religious authority. Simon felt compelled to persecute Jonathan Maccabeus and, later, Simon Maccabeus usurped the office of the Essenes, who opposed the usurpation. Hence, they fled into the wilderness with their leader, the Teacher of Righteousness.