Essenes

Relation to the Bible

The Essenes are not mentioned by name anywhere in the Old or New Testament. The Gospels frequently mention the Pharisees and the Sadducees, but never the Essenes. Even so, Bible study materials and commentaries often discuss them as part of the background for understanding Jewish society in the New Testament era.

Background

Accounts of the Essenes survive mainly in the writings of the first-century Jewish historian Josephus, the Alexandrian Jewish philosopher Philo, and the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder. Josephus identified three principal sects within the Judaism of his day: the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes. Both Josephus and Philo put the number of Essenes at somewhat more than four thousand. According to these sources, the Essenes lived communally and held their property in common, bathed frequently to maintain purity (ritual cleanness), and observed the Sabbath with great strictness. Many of them did not marry, although Josephus wrote that one group among them did. Pliny recorded that they lived along the western shore of the Dead Sea.

The meaning of the name "Essene" is uncertain. Various theories derive it from Aramaic or Hebrew words meaning "pious ones" or "doers of the law," among others, but no explanation has gained general acceptance.

Relation to the Dead Sea Scrolls

Since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, beginning in 1947, in caves near Qumran on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, many scholars have identified the Qumran community as Essenes or as a group closely related to them. Their reasons are that texts among the scrolls setting out the community's rules resemble the Essene way of life described by ancient writers, and that the site matches the location Pliny recorded. Scholars nevertheless continue to disagree over whether the Qumran community was the same group as the Essenes and whether this community produced all of the scrolls.

Interpretations and Issues

• Relation to John the Baptist: Life in the wilderness, ritual washing with water, and self-identification with "the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness" (Isaiah 40:3) appear in both the Qumran texts and the Gospels. For this reason some scholars conjecture that John the Baptist had contact with the Essenes. No record, however, demonstrates this directly.
• Relation to Jesus: Popular books frequently claim that Jesus Christ was an Essene or was taught by them, but these claims have no basis in the Bible or in ancient literature. Twentieth-century works such as The Essene Gospel of Peace are not recognized by scholars as ancient documents.
• Comparison with the New Testament: Some scholars compare the teaching against swearing oaths (Matthew 5:34) and the saying about hating one's enemy (Matthew 5:43) with the teachings of the Essenes and the Qumran community. Such comparisons are interpretive proposals; the texts themselves do not refer directly to the Essenes.

Scholars across denominations generally treat the Essenes as historical background illustrating the diverse streams of Judaism that continued from the intertestamental period. No known controversy over this sect reflects confessional differences among denominations.