Category:Essenes (subject)

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The Essenes were one of the religious parties of Second Temple Judaism.

Overview

During the late Second Temple period, the Essenes became with the Pharisees the most popular opposition party against the leadership of the ruling party of the Sadducees. The Essenes seems to have represented the interests of "lower-class" Jews, who felt oppressed in this "evil" world.

Religiously, the Essenes were a reform movement. Contrary to the Sadducees and the Pharisees, they stressed the power of evil, which they saw as a result of superhuman causes--a disease that affects the capability of human beings to be good and do good. They believed that the Devil had become the ruler of this world and expected the restoration of the Kingdom of God at the end of time and the coming of an heavenly Messiah--an eschatological judge (the Son of Man), or an eschatological high priest (Melchizedek). They considered normative not only the five books of Moses and the Prophets, but also had "writings of their own", to which they attributed the same authority.

The Essenes denied any authority to the leaders of the Temple and the priesthood, which they considered irremediably corrupted. As a competing reform movement, they also criticized the theological positions of the Pharisees. Especially under the Hasmoneans the Essenes were subjected to persecution, but their strength proved to be greater of any attempt to suppress them.

The Essenes lived as separated groups within the people of Israel, forming strict communities which shared their goods and gathering for their own rituals (communal meals). Ancient sources and the Dead Sea Scrolls show that the Essenes were a very diverse movement. The Yahad, centered at Qumran, seemed to have been the most radical group, living a celibate life in the wilderness with little contacts with the rest of the population, waiting for the final battle in which the Children of Light would prevail against the Children of Darkness. The majority of Essenes however lived in urban communities, in villages and towns, including Jerusalem, practicing a less radical life.

The teachings of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth, as recorded in the Gospels, present some striking similarities with the theology of the Essenes. The life of Early Christians was strongly influenced by the model of the Essene urban communities.

The Essenes apparently shared a role of leadership at the beginning of the Jewish War, when Ananus ben Ananus succeeded in creating a government of national unity with the Sadducees, the Pharisees and the Essenes. It is not clear what happened to the Essenes during and after the Jewish War, especially which role was played by the larger Essene community of Jerusalem. Their military leader John the Essene died in battle at an early stage in the War and Qumran was distroyed by the advancing Roman troops. With the destruction of the Temple, the Essenes vanished from history, even though many elements of their theology survived in Christianity.