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It never ceases to amaze me in my studies the overall failure of Christian commentators to be acquainted with the evolution of the Essenes and their doctrines, dogmas, philosophies from generation to generation. It seems as if the vast majority of writers on the Essenes read Josephus, Philo, or Pliny and believe these accounts are a realistic and total view of this theologically complex group of apocalyptists. An unbiased study of the Essenes will show that this group grew by gradual stages, from a Judaizing program at the beginning into an esoteric cult of celibate-communist apocalytpists at the end some two-hundred years later. Serious investigation into these Essenes will reveal how they were able to create in secrecy the elements, which, according to accepted Christian history, were proclaimed for the first time to an astonished public by John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth.
Many writers, including Martin Larson, Dupont-Sommer, Edmund Wilson, and John M. Allegro have given vivid intimations of this. The knowledge gleaned from these men and their research into Essene history as well as their religious doctrines, gives unsuspected light upon the origin of Christianity and the career of its founder, as well as that of a predecessor, the Teacher of Righteousness.
It is only by looking at the Essene movement and tracing its evolution by comparing the doctrines within their writings can we see for certain how the theological views of this "sect" changed over two-hundred years!
By 143 B.C.E., the Zadokites had become known definitely as the Sadducees; and the Chasidim, splitting into two parties, had become known as the Pharisees and the Essenes. The Essenes could be looked upon as "ultra-strict" Pharisees. The Sadducees became identified with the rich and successful; the Pharisees became the popular leaders; and the Essenes gradually evolved into an esoteric communion of celibate communists.
As stated above, it is a shame that so few have endeavored to trace the evolution of these Essenes (Holy Ones) from their pristine, pre-Chasidic beginnings as a Zadokite reaction against Hellenization among the Jews, into the frozen, rigid, esoteric, and celibate-communist mystery-cult which they had become in the days of Philo and Josephus. Until this is done then it is very difficult to look at the writings left from this group of individuals and discern that many of their "religious doctrines" originated outside of normative Judaism and find their points of origin in the Pythagorean, Buddhist, and Iranian religious culture.
There is evidence which indicated that, about 70 B.C.E. or soon thereafter, an Essene prophet known as the Teacher of Righteousness had been put to death by the Jewish authorities because of doctrinal, ritualistic, and organizational heterodoxy; that, in due course, his followers declared that he was God himself, appearing as a man in Jerusalem, and that his death was an atoning sacrifice for the elect; that he arose from the grace and returned to heaven; and that he would send a representative in a few years who would be precisely the kind of Messiah that was proclaimed for Jesus by his followers. There is a strong indication that if Jesus was not at one time affiliated with the Essenes, that he was strongly influenced by them and their doctrines; yet at times we find Jesus' individuality and diversion from some of the Essene tenants. Many feel that Jesus was persuaded that he was himself the Messiah expected by the Essene Community, that he left it and preached the Gospel to the public; and that finally, in a revised concept of his own mission, re-enacted the role and the passion of the slain Teacher, and proclaimed that in his eschatological role he would appear as the last judge and the all-powerful Son of Man.
The book of Acts attests that the core of the pristine Christian communion consisted of individual Essenes who defected to the "Jesus Movement" soon after Jesus' crucifixion; that soon after Jesus' death and later after the destruction of Jerusalem these Essene Priests came over in large numbers and constituted the Christian-Essene communion known as the Ebionites; and, finally, that many of the multifarious primitive Gnostic communions, which flourished during the early centuries of this era, bear the indelible imprint of Essene origin and influence.
Those who speak of "our Judeo-Christian tradition or culture" are laboring under a serious misconception. Ours is not the social, political, or economic system reflected in the Mosaic Law or the Yahweh prophets, which existed in Palestine following David and Solomon; and western life is separated by an even more impassable gulf from the ethics, political economy, and religious discipline set forth in the Essene and Synoptic Scriptures. Our culture is based substantially upon Graeco-Roman antecedents. The Essenes absorbed their basic ideology originally from Zoroastrianism and later from Dionysus & Greek-mystery sources, particularly Pythagoreanism. The Essenes group, originally a return to Torah movement, would evolve into a group that would reject Judaism in toto; and except for certain Buddhist accretions, Jesus and the pristine church reproduced the Essene pattern faithfully. Since, however, this form of Christianity was wholly unacceptable in the pagan world, it was Hellenized in the Pauline literature and the Fourth Gospel, both of which reflect Stoic influence; these eventually became the essential foundation for that reconstruction or restitution of Christianity known as the Protestant Reformation. Ancient Hellenized Christianity itself did not long survive; for the soon-to-be victorious Catholic Church, in order to establish itself as a theocracy, absorbed their most salient elements from the great pagan cults which were its competitors.
It should be obvious to almost any reader or disinterested observer that very few indeed believe and fewer still practice the Gospel as proclaimed in the New Testament, especially the Synoptics. A dwindling minority profess to embrace one or two of its elements, while ignoring the remainder. It is safe to say that not one American in a thousand would accept the Gospel if he were required to live according to its commandments.
Answer for yourself: Why, then, does it continue as the dominant religion of the western world?
Neither inertia or surrender to the past nor yet the power of vested and venerable institutions can explain the power of the Christian religion. For the dominance of Christianity in the western world finds its momentum from the fact that Paul and the writer of the Fourth Gospel Hellenized the pristine Essene evangel, then it was paganized by Catholicism, and then the Protestant Reformation revolutionized, not only the religious, but also the political and economic structure of northern Europe. The broad appeal of Christianity stems from the fact that it a synthesis of the most important doctrines which had already been developed in the great pre-Christian cultures over a period of centuries. Had this not been so, it would simply have been a restrictive creed and would, like many others, soon have vanished from the stage of history.
The central elements in the Synoptic Gospels as derived from Essene theology are:
What escapes the understanding of 99.9 % of all Christians is that the immediate source of these concepts was the Essene society and the pagan influences and sun-worship to which they had yielded over two-hundred years. Behind them the ultimate origins of these above religious concepts must be traced to the mystery-cults and the major religions of the pre-Christian world.
Most believe, judging by the recent publicity concerning the Dead Sea Scrolls since their discovery, that the casual inquirer might conclude that the existence of the pre-Christian Essene cult was revealed for the first time after a Bedouin boy, following his goat, discovered a cave near the Dead Sea in 2947. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The truth is that many scholars and historians had dealt with this religious organization at length in articles, essays, and even in elaborate scholarly works long before the discovery of the caves. Every competent student of western religion knows well of the celebrated passages in Pliny, Philo, and Josephus describing the Essenes and most take for granted this is all that is needed to be known to describe this religious sect and their beliefs. Again nothing could be further from the truth and far too many Christian writers and "supposed" authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls have failed to look beyond these three "summary statements" in writing upon the pre-Christian Essenes.
Enough material to fill a small library has now been produced concerning the Essenes; and yet, in spite of all the advantages available to modern scholarship, one of the most accurate analyses of them yet today was published in 1889 and was authored by Frederick William Evans. He maintained that Jesus was heavily influenced by Essene theology and was most likely a member of the order at one time (Larson, The Essene Heritage, p. 21). John Allegro also stated: "The Essenes were, many of them, converted on the day of Pentecost, and formed the body of the Jerusalem Church, with its spiritual origin" (John Allegro, The Dead Sea Scrolls, p. 161). Allegro goes on to say: "the members of the first Christian Church 'were Essenes. They loved one another so that they sold their possessions and had all things in common. They forsook the generative life, with its wives and husbands, for Christ's sake and the Gospel's…" Jesus then, taught celibacy and communism; and the first Jerusalem Church consisted largely of Essenes who came over to Christianity.
As stated in another article, the Essenes of Jesus' day were a far cry from the Essenes who began a separatist movement from the Temple and corruption of the Priesthood in roughly 150 B.C.E. Warren Felt Evans, who died in 1889, makes mention of the "method of healing practiced by Jesus, and perhaps also of the mystic Pythagorean sect of the Jews called the Essenes…to which sect Jesus himself unquestionably belonged" (Ibid.). Evans states that the writer of the Gospel of Luke was an Essene (Esoteric Christianity, Boston, 1886, p. 100), and he adds: "Jesus came to do for the world at large, by revealing the sublime wisdom of the ancient mystical sects and brotherhoods, what had been done only for the chosen few in the sacred privacy of the inner recesses of the temple" (Ibid., p. 79). Jesus, then, according to this was an Essene; the Essenes were Pythagoreans; and the unique mission of Jesus was to reveal the esoteric doctrines of the Essene-Pythagoreans to the world at large" (Larson, The Essene Heritage, p. 21-22).
The surprising this is not that the Essenes have been well known, but that very little has been understood concerning their esoteric nature and doctrines. Even more amazing is the fact that although several of their most important documents have long been extant and widely circulated, not even the most acute scholars ever suspected the true origin of these before 1947; and that to this day a great deal of confusion persists concerning them.
Among a people totally dedicated to religion, the Essenes, from their proto-beginnings to the end of their career, were the most fervent, pietistic, and dedicated. Furthermore, after the consolidation of Yahwism, the Essenes alone were able to absorb the essence of other religions and so create a new and powerful synthesis of their own. It is for these reasons that several Jewish scholars have found it difficult to accept the Essene documents. J. L. Teicher, agreeing with various other writers, maintains that the Essenes were none other than a cult of Christians (Larson, The Essene Heritage, p. 25). Upton C. Ewing believes that all the Christological and Messianic references in Essene literature point only to the founder of Christianity, that they are, therefore, genuinely prophetic, and that there was only a single cult of this kind in Palestine, which might be called Essene-Christian (The Prophet of the Dead Sea Scrolls, p. 132-133).
But before we call this religious sectarian group "proto-Christian" we need to look at the religious beliefs they held; both in the beginning of their conception as well as their demise.
Like many other cults, the Essenes began by accepting the dominant religion of Judaism and its Scriptures; before very long they were creating new and divergent revelations, which to them in time became superior to the orthodox or to the writings of Moses. Every successful prophet builds upon, but remakes, the doctrines and practices accepted by his prospective converts. Thus, almost every new faith possesses in reality two related but also disparate scriptures: first, the established and conventional; and, second, the new revelations, the distinctive possession of the avant-garde. Thereupon, the cult takes the next step; it claims also a unique power to interpret the old canon. Thus, the new communion become independent. Almost from the beginning the Essenes began the creation of new scriptures; and they believed with realizing certainty that their leader, known in successive generations as the Teacher of Righteousness, the Master of Justice, the Man Who Reneweth the Law, etc., alone could reveal the esoteric and prophetic meanings of the orthodox Jewish canon (Larson, The Essene Heritage, p. 26-27).
Answer for yourself: What is the pseudepigraphic technique as used by the Essenes?
The Essenes were certain that their scriptures, especially the Book of Enoch, possessed unquestionable priority and supremacy. The unparalleled authority of such works lay in their exact prophecies, accurate to the date of composition, which the amazed communicant could easily understand. These already-accomplished predictions were then followed by others for which similar and imminent fulfillment was confidently expected. This is known as the pseudepigraphic method; and behind it lies a long and interesting story.
When the Jewish priests consolidated their power after the return from Babylon, they outlawed all prophecy (Zech. 13:3-6), since that could disturb the public tranquillity and discredit the incumbent priesthood. The purpose of this proscription was to freeze the existing canon. The ingenuity of man, however, is not so easily thwarted; and effective techniques were developed by which new revelations could be promulgated. The ban against prophecy gave rise to the literary form known as the pseudepigraphic apocalypse, which was to play so large a role for several centuries in Jewish life.
The method is daring: a fervent prophet with an irrepressible message composes a "revelation" which he attributes to some ancient personage, provides a suitable historical setting, delineates history up to his own day under an easily understood symbolism, and the, relying on the credit established for the immediate future, especially an eschatological cataclysm. The Chasids, the Essenes, and the Pharisees became masters of this pseudepigraphic method and, by its use, composed an entire corpus of extraordinary literature, edited by R.H. Charles and published in 1913 as the Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament.
For want of a better description, we can refer to the earliest anti-Hellenizing reaction among the Jews as the Zadokite movement: it began and ended during this period.
This period is best described as the "proto-Essenism" period. These thirty years were crucial for the formation of the ultimate Essene theology. The Chasids (Chasidim, Hasidaeans) came into existence about 175 B.C.E. and had split away from the more conservative Zadokites. These Chasids formed a fervent and militant organization dedicated to the establishment of a purified Judaism. The immediate objective was the total defeat of the Syrian Hellenizers and the Jewish apostates who cooperated with and supported them. For some reason, an extraordinary event seems to have occurred during the first decade of this period, without which there would probably never have been any Essene communion; the Chasidim split into two divisions., of which one remained in Judea while the other exiled itself, or was driven, into the Syrian desert, not far from Damascus, shortly before or about the year 170 B.C.E.
However, the evidence indicates also that these exiles returned soon after Mattathias and his sons wet up their standard at Modin in 167 B.C.E. During the struggle against the Syrians, the two fractions submerged their differences and became militant co-patriots. Precisely what Chasidic developments occurred from 160-145 B.C.E., remain obscure. However, we believe that the two divisions not only remained distinct but that the gulf between them probably deepened.
The thirty years following 175 B.C.E. were prolific in literary production. The oldest extant writing is the Damascus Document, composed before 170 B.C.E.. This was followed by the first portion of Enoch, to which is assigned the date 170-168 B.C.E. The third scripture consists of Chapters 7-12 of the canonical Daniel; this was not produced by the Essene movement proper, but by the more conservative Chasids, who never left Judea; the date is probably 164 B.C.E. The fourth scripture is the second portion of Enoch, composed about 162-161 B.C.E. The fifth work, The War of the Sons of Light, written about 163, is quite different. Following this, there seems to be a literary interruption, for no extant documents reflects a date following 160 and preceding 142 B.C.E.
About 145 B.C.E., as we learn from Josephus, the three great Jewish sects or political parties emerged as well-known and definite entities (Antiq., XIII, v9). The old right-wing Zadokites became the Sadducees; the more conservative wing of the Chasids emerged as the Pharisees; and the radical Chasids, the People of the Covenant, became the Essenes. Allegro states that from "the Pious Ones," or Hasidim…we can almost certainly trace the origins of the Essenes, and the Pharisees (Dead Sea Scrolls, p. 97). The Sadducees were rich, educated, successful, powerful Jews; and they absorbed the Epicurean philosophy. The Pharisees became the popular leaders of the people; in due course, they elaborated the Mosaic Law into an extraordinarily elaborate code; and they were probably influenced by the Stoic school of thought. The Essenes became more and more dedicated to the holy life of religious separation, which drew them finally into the Pythagorean way of life. The Essenes of 140 B.C.E. were quite different from the esoterics of 75 B.C.E., and even more from the rigid celibate-communists described by Philo, Pliny, and Josephus. One can, upon personal investigation, observe the gradual trajectory of their development way from traditional Judaism and toward a synthesis of Pythagorean-Buddhist-Iranian apocalyptic beliefs.
During and following the years beginning at 145 B.C.E., the People of the Covenant continued for some time as a public organization which required no novitiate or secret indoctrination and which lived a fairly conventional existence. They developed a corpus of literature which gradually supplemented or supplanted the canonical; they had undoubtedly already revised the calendar. The revised calendar was probably one of the first Essene deviations from orthodox Judaism because the Damascus Document refers to The Book of the Divisions of the Times According To Their Jubilees and Their Weeks, which probably contained a system connected with their novel calendar (Larson, The Essene Heritage, p. 30). This calendar placed their feasts and holy days on date diverging from those celebrated by the orthodox; and, although we cannot be sure just when they ceased to offer burnt sacrifices, this deviation may have begun about 125-120 B.C.E., and it is certain that such ritual were proscribed when they became Pythagoreans (Ibid.). This conclusion is supported by the fact that Jubilees (140 B.C.E.) reflects the common practice of burnt sacrifices in many passages; but the Testaments (130-125 B.C.E.) has only a single reference to such a ritual (Levi 9). There is no reference at all to such sacrifices in the subsequent documents; and they are condemned in The Manual of Discipline (104 B.C.E.).
Although there was no new apocalypse, several scriptures of high order were produced during this period, probably including many of the Thanksgiving Psalms. To the great doctrinal composition known as the Book of Jubilees as well as the third portion of Enoch, we assign the approximate date of 140. The fourth major production is the substratum which constitutes the bulk of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, probably written about 130-125 B.C.E.
The continual evolution of the religious theology of the Essene cult, which began in 195 B.C.E., take a turn again before or about the year 105 B.C.E. This conclusion is reinforced by the fact that it was never necessary for the cult to discard or even to revise its own previous literature; and still more by the fact that modern scholarship has often failed to distinguish between pre- and post-Pythagorean documents among the Essene collection. We cannot know all the factors which brought about the transformation of a separatist movement within Judaism that ultimately culminated in a Pythagorean-Buddhist cult that elevated their own writings above the Tanakh, but we know that late in his career, John Hycranus ("the Wicked Priest") went over from the Pharisees to the Sadducees and began to persecute the Pharisees (Antiq., XIII, x, 5-6). Along with this he persecuted the dissident Essenes who were "super scrupulous Pharisees" in many regards and they suffered in double measure. We know that the Essenes gave allegiance to John Hycranus while he was opposed by Antiochus VII and when he assumed the triple crown (Prophet, Priest, King); but they must have turned against him during the cruel aggressions he perpetrated upon his neighbors after 125 B.C.E. And they would certainly never have condoned the savage sadism of Aristobulus I during his one year reign of terror.
Around 104 B.C.E. the Essenes established their headquarters at the Dead Sea; and we consider it certain that about this time they gravitated even more toward Pythagorean religious beliefs in rejection of the Temple cult and all that Judaism personified. Basically you, at this time, could consider them a Pythagorean mystery cult.
Some of the most influential and important scriptures date from this period! The Manual of Discipline summaries the laws and organization of this Pythagorean Essenic cult. It contains a large amount of information that was apparently unknown to Philo Judeaus and even to Josephus. In this period also belongs possibly some of the most important literature of the Essene collection; ENOCH FOUR and FIVE, which reflect a totally altered social philosophy. The Habakkuk Commentary is very important, because of the story which details the Wicked Priest in Jerusalem (John Hycranus who usurped the position deserved by the Zadok priesthood) who, because of "the wrong done the teacher of righteousness and the men of the party, God delivered into the hands of his enemies." The final Essene composition, and perhaps the most important of all, consists of additions to the Testaments which re-create in vivid term the ministry, sacrificial death, resurrection, and ascent to heaven of the last Teacher of Righteousness.
What is said next is very important that you understand. When the Essenes became known to Philo and Josephus, they had long been in their state of rigid maturity. Never has there existed a more secretive or thoroughly disciplined organization. They expected their Messiah (Angel-Messiah) within two or three decades following 60 B.C.E.; and if so, they must have found means of rationalizing the delay in his coming after 30 B.C.E. Also, what had probably been intended as an interim or preparatory morality and organization became for them not only a permanent but also a highly desirable way of life. By selling all that they had and giving it to themselves collectively, by turning over to the Order all that they earned during many years of industry, and by living always in the strictest frugality, the members had made their community wealthy. The hope of a supernatural kingdom was, therefore, no longer the sole attraction: for the Society could practically guarantee life-long security from the ills and buffetings of a cruel and uncertain life.
While the Pharisees, who were already the rabbis of the Diaspora, assumed spiritual leadership over the scattered nation, the Essenes, like their opposites, the Sadducees, vanished as an independent cult; and there is evidence that soon after Christianity burst upon the Judean scene, a majority of the Holy Ones came over, forming the first Jerusalem Church; and then, after the destruction of the Jewish capital in 70 C.E., reorganized themselves into the Christian sect known as the Ebionites. (Larson, The Essene Heritage, p. 20-32).
Let me say in closing this article that these delineations of evolution of the Essene cult along with the time frames need to be committed to memory. As we concern ourselves with the various literatures created within each time period it would do us well to remember the dates as we see the evolution and changes within the Essene theology over these two-hundred years. As we note the changes we need only find the sources from them and then identify the origin from which these changes came and the influences upon the Essenes to make such changes in their religious beliefs system.
So let us now see a doctrinal overview that will help us in our further understanding of the evolution of Essenic religious beliefs.