Biblical Nations - Jewish Essenes

Essenes

Key Scripture: Colossians 2:16-23

Figures: None... or was there?

This week we will look at a group within Jewish society that wasn't really part of society.  By choice, the Essenes tried to avoid the rest of the population by withdrawing to secluded wilderness.  They are not specifically mentioned in the Bible but it is likely they are referenced, and possible that one or more of their members played a role in early church history.  Importantly, they also resurfaced in modern times and have played a significant part in how Christians now understand and believe our own spiritual foundation.  Let's take some time and dive into this reclusive group to see what more we can learn.

During the centuries leading up to the birth of Jesus, major upheavals throughout Jewish society birthed numerous groups with varying responses to the rising tide of Hellenism.  While many embraced the new culture and the modern benefits it provided, others vehemently opposed the spiritual dryness that came with it.  Among the most radical sects that formed were the Essenes, of whom we initially knew very little for certain due to conflicting reports about their lifestyle.  We do know that they rejected the secularism that surrounded them, and while some apparently remained where they lived it seems a number of committed members instead fled to live in isolation where they could focus almost exclusively on the spiritual side of life.  Likely comprised entirely of males that had sworn off association with or desire for women, their community seemingly survived and grew only through the addition of outsiders.  While that may have included adopting children or welcoming proselytes, their numbers appear to have remained strong for nearly 200 years.  Both Josephus and Pliny wrote of this enigmatic group, establishing that they were well enough known during the first century AD, and combined with recent archaeology we think we have an idea of how they lived and what they believed.

With at least one significant settlement located along the western shore of the Dead Sea, this communalist group lived with all things in common and left behind what they treasured the most - namely, the famed Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in caves near the location known as Qumran.  These ancient texts include portions of the Old Testament as well as various other writings that inform modern readers of their rules, practices, and plans.  They were a strict organization that focused on discipline and preservation of religious knowledge and rituals, but while they were all Jewish by birth they differed from the bulk of their brethren in several ways, including many who followed Moses but rejected the writings attributed to him as fraudulent and saw the existing high priesthood as illegitimate.  They took care to memorize the names of angels, whom they believed had spoken to humans and provided true information about the details of their faith.  There is evidence that they neither consumed nor sacrificed meat, but still maintained a number of Jewish traditions.  Some, such as the ritual immersion in water, have echoes in Christian history as well.

Due to their rigorous spiritual asceticism, their rejection of civil leadership, and their association with the wilderness, there have been scholars who have opined that John the Baptist was an Essene despite Scriptural silence on the topic.  Claiming to be the voice of one in the wilderness who made straight the path of the Messiah, the man who drew crowds away from their homes in an effort to have them repent certainly had earmarks of that community.  Even Jesus, who followed up his baptism by fasting in the wilderness for 40 days, has been suspected of associating with the Essenes.  Unlike John, however, the Essene community never accepted Jesus as the Teacher of Righteousness that would come from among their group and lead the people.  Both Jesus and Paul, however, seem to have the Essene beliefs in mind at times in their teachings.  In the book of Matthew, after his disciples comment that his teachings seem to make celibacy sound preferable to marriage, Jesus comments that some are eunuchs by various means (at birth, at the hands of men, or willingly "for the sake of the kingdom of heaven" - Matt. 19:12) but that not everyone can accept the teaching.  Paul had a harsher critique of the self-denial that groups like the Essenes adopted, indicating a rejection of the elemental things of the world did not equate to greater spiritual maturity and insisting that refusing their asceticism would not disqualify believers from God's kingdom.

In 1946 a teenage Bedouin shepherd named Muhammed edh-Dhib was searching for lost goats when he threw a rock into a limestone cave to scare out any wayward livestock.  Instead of hitting a rock wall or an animal, however, he struck (and broke) a bit of ceramic pottery.  Inside, he found what would become the most impactful Biblical discovery of the 20th century - the first seven Dead Sea Scrolls.  Although the boy and his cousin sold the first few pieces of leather to a merchant, including the book of Isaiah and the Community Rule of the Qumran societal group, it was not long before scholastic and government interests descended upon the area to preserve and study what was there.  Although the Essenes were lost to history after the destruction of the Second Temple in AD 70, the discovery of the writings they had preserved came on the heels of World War II and served to confirm the authenticity of the Bible during a dark moment in history when skepticism and spiritual despondency ran high.  Incredibly, the translation we read today has not changed in the two millennia since the clay pots were sealed and stored in caves, affirming God's ability to protect His word through the ages.  Like the hermitic monks in Europe during the Dark Ages, the Essenes were instrumental in preserving Scripture in a most obscure, yet fascinating, fashion.