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ESSENES

(Gk. Essaios, Essēnos)

A movement within Judaism, known primarily in the late Second Temple period, especially from ca. 146 b.c.e. to ca. 70 c.e. They were a communal association, entered by initiation, and considered themselves the predestined remnant of those who truly observed God’s will. They pursued their own interpretation of Torah and prophecy. Though Essenes influenced the development of Rabbinic Judaism and of Christianity, neither of those groups accepted the Essenes’ self-description, and the history of the Essenes has often been considered enigmatic.

The name Essene has two forms in Greek, Essaios and Essēnos; the English pronunciation comes from the latter form, though the Essaios spelling is attested earlier and appears to be closer to the original Semitic form. Because the solution is crucial, more than 50 different proposals for the etymology have been offered. The Greek forms of the name Essene probably derive from a Semitic (Hebrew or Aramaic) root. The two most often repeated suggestions involve two Aramaic words, ḥasayyāʾ (“pious”) and ʾāsayyāʾ (“healers”), but neither of these terms appears in any known ancient text in any reference at all to the Essenes. A Hebrew proposal is the root ʿāśāh in the participle form ʿôśin and construct form ʿôśê hattôrâ (“doers of torah”); this appears as a self-description in several Dead Sea Scrolls. (Most of the sectarian Scrolls are in Hebrew, not Aramaic.) It parallels some other relevant group self-understandings (e.g., Samaritans as “keepers” of torah); it corresponds with Philo’s etymological guess of hosios, Josephus’ transliteration of Heb. hōšen as essēn, and Epiphanius’ spelling of this Jewish sect as Ossaioi and Ossēnoi. This Hebrew solution was accepted long before the Qumran discoveries (e.g., Johann Carion, Chronica [1532], folio 68 verso) and accords well with the evidence, but no consensus yet exists.

Several ancient descriptions of the Essenes have survived in Greek and Latin texts. Among the most important are those by the three earliest of these writers, Philo, Josephus, and Pliny. Later accounts by Hippolytus and Epiphanius, among others, also preserve important additional observations. Most of these descriptions were addressed to non-Jewish audiences, which influenced the selection of Essene characteristics and their description in terms of Greek virtues. These texts show philosophical (especially Stoic) and ethnographic interests typically found in Hellenistic histories and geographies. Several of the descriptions relied on earlier, now lost texts, including at least one Greek source earlier than Philo, whose account is the earliest extant. Posidonius, Strabo, and Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa are among the likely authors of now lost descriptions of Essenes.

Pliny located an Essene settlement near the Dead Sea. Most scholars have concluded that the ruins at Qumran and the scrolls from surrounding caves belonged to a group of Essenes. Though a few argue that Khirbet Qumran might have been a fort or a winter villa, the majority of historians and archaeologists regard Qumran as one of the Essene settlements. Other settlements or community centers were located in Jerusalem and in the “land of Damascus” (east of the Jordan River) and elsewhere. Philo also describes the Therapeutae in Egypt as a group related to Essenes.

Several of the Qumran manuscripts include parallels to the teaching, practices, and self-description of the Essenes. Surely some of the texts found at Qumran are Essene, including the Serek hayyaḥad (Rule of the Community), several Bible commentaries (Pesharim), and 4QMMT (Miqsat Maʿaseh ha-Torah, “certain enactments of the Law”). Such texts as Jubilees and portions of Enoch likely are pre-Qumran texts written within the Essene movement.

Essene teachings shared much with other Jews, such as the Torah and Prophets, but claimed a special, sometimes esoteric interpretation of Scripture. Essenes regarded the Jerusalem temple high priests (sometimes associated with Sadducees) to be wrong in their practices and calendar. Though Essenes were careful in their legal deliberations, they did not call this “halakha,” and used that term only as a negative pun against Pharisees as the “seekers of smooth things (dôršê haḥălāqôṯ).” Essenes observed Torah strictly but according to their own interpretation. Essene beliefs included predestination, important roles for angels, and resurrection, though not necessarily including bodily resurrection (Josephus and Hippolytus disagree). They expected a messiah, or, in some descriptions, priestly and royal messiahs. The Essene apocalyptic and dualistic worldview is similar to Daniel — and not to 1 and 2 Maccabees, which are not found at Qumran; God and the angels — not humans — will destroy the enemies.

The Essenes were a communal organization. They had rules for initiation and punishments, including expulsion. Some Essenes were celibate and some observed periods of celibacy limited to certain times or places. Essenes kept no slaves, and at least the full members held property in common. Agriculture was the main occupation; they made no weapons. They avoided the courts of outsiders and followed strict ritual purity rules. The extent to which they participated in the Jerusalem temple cult is still debated.

Josephus wrote that Essenes existed in 146 b.c.e. (Ant. 13.171), probably because his source Strabo began his History at that date. The exact year they originated is unknown, perhaps because the Essene movement developed more gradually and because the movement preceded the Greek form of its name. Three of the four Essene individuals mentioned in Josephus are known for prophecy and lived in Jerusalem. The fourth, John the (former) Essene who joined the zealots, is not typical; it was unusual for an Essene to rely on human weapons. Josephus also located an Essene gate in Southwest Jerusalem (BJ 5.145).

Qumran texts describe certain individuals, especially an Essene Teacher of Righteousness and his opponent the Wicked Priest. Though many scholars consider Jonathan (161-143/2 b.c.e.) the best candidate for the Wicked Priest, Alexander Janneus (103-76) may be preferable. Some scholars suggest there were more than one Wicked Priest and more than one Teacher of Righteousness. Though the Teacher of Righteousness has no generally agreed identity, a plausible candidate is Judah the Essene mentioned by Josephus (BJ 1.78-80; Ant. 13.311) as teaching ca. 104, soon before the rule of Alexander. In b. Qidd. 66a (the same?) Judah asks Alexander to give up the priesthood. The Essenes’ negative view of the latter Hasmoneans was shared by Strabo, who wrote (Geog. 16.2.35-40) that Alexander was among the superstitious and tyrannical priests who departed from the honorable teachings of Moses (cf. Philo Apol. Jud. 8.11.1). The Essenes disappeared from history sometime after the war with Rome.

Many aspects of Essene history are still debated.

Bibliography. J. M. Baumgarten, “The Disqualifications of Priests in 4Q Fragments of the ‘Damascus Document,’ ” Madrid Qumran Congress. STDJ 11 (Leiden, 1992), 2:503-13; F. C. Conybeare, Philo: About the Contemplative Life (1895, repr. New York, 1987); S. Goranson, “Posidonius, Strabo and Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa as Sources on Essenes,” JJS 45 (1994): 295-98; G. Vermes and M. D. Goodman, The Essenes according to the Classical Sources (Sheffield, 1989).

Stephen Goranson

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

ESSENES

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)