The Essenes: Sons of Light
The Roman savant Pliny the Elder (A.D> 23-79) described the Essenes as "a solitary race," which was "strange above all others in the world."
They were remarkable indeed, because they were monks living in a monastery- a phenomenon hitherto unknown in Judaism (and rarely seen anywhere at the time outside India). Similar to the Pharisees but much more radical, the Essenes were the most pious, rigorous, and secretive of all the Jewish sects of antiquity.
Although the group is never mentioned in the New Testament, scholars have identified Essene practices and beliefs that parallel those of early Christianity.
The name Essenes means "the pious ones" (or possibly "the healers" ). After the Jewish independence war of 167-165 B.C., the Essenes formed their own sect because they could not agree with the Pharisees on certain religious and political issues.
Led by a "Teacher of Righteousness" -whom historians have never been able to identify, they set up a series of monastic communities, such as the one tentatively identified as a monastery at Qumran, in the wilderness on the west side of the Dead Sea. By the time of Christ, there was an estimated 4,000 Essenes, scattered throughout Palestine in communal enclaves of zeal and ascetic piety.
Though some Essenes did marry in order to have children, the sect was mainly a brotherhood of male celibates. The brethren concentrated on purifying themselves for what they believed was the imminent coming of the kingdom of God. They did so unsparingly in their monasteries. Their day began at sunrise, and they spoke not a word until after morning prayers.
Then they spent the day toiling at their appointed tasks in the grain fields, at pottery kilns and looms, or in the scriptorium copying sacred texts.
Zealous study of books, especially the Scriptures, was an all-important activity, for their entire life centered on the effort to understand the Law of Moses. Like many early Christians, they were inclined to prophetic interpretations of Scripture, particularly ones having a bearing on present and the immediate future. The Essene view of history as preordained of God comes through in one Dead Sea Scroll: "Assuredly, all the times appointed by God will come in due course, even as He has appointed in His inscrutable wisdom."
The Essenes were experts in medicinal herbs and the healing powers of gemstones, a science they purported to have gleaned from ancient writings. Their white linen garments were in keeping with their belief that they were the true priesthood of Israel, the righteous "faithful remnant" mentioned in earlier prophecy, who would live to witness the dawning of a new era. In this cosmic context they saw themselves as Sons of Light at war with the Sons of Darkness led by Satan.
Life in the monastery was life at the minimum, with communal property, ritual cold baths, and meager meals at midday and evening. A council of 3 priests who stood for 3 priestly families, and 12 laymen, who represented the twelve tribes of Israel, governed the community under strict rules, particularly for the Sabbath. When the Essenes rested on the Sabbath after six days of toil, they ate cold meals prepared beforehand and even refrained from relieving themselves, lest the waste profane God's holy day.
Their breaking of common bread was treated as a holy act, much as the shared meals of the earliest Christians were a kind of Eucharist. There were other institutional similarities. The Essene offce of "over-seer" paralleled the later Christian office of bishop. Like the followers of Jesus, the Essenes rejected animal sacrifice, and like the, too, they spoke of their new doctrine and mode of life as "the Way."
On entering the community, new members were on probation through three stages and the were initiated with an oath pledging piety toward God, honestly with fellow Essenes, and secrecy regarding the group's teachings, for example, the esoteric doctrine concerning the naming of angels. Initiates were bathed in flowing water, a ritual in some ways parelleling John the Baptist's rite of baptism.
Some scholars have speculated that John may have lived in an Essene community for a period of time. They note that he, too, lived an ascetic life, apparently never married, and preached repentence in preparation for the kingdom of God that was soon to come.
The brotherhood disappeared about A.D. 70, as Roman armies crushed the Jewish uprising (in which the Essenes had taken part). Several hundred documents of zealous sectarians remained hidden in a cluster of desert locations near Qumran, where they lay buried for almost 2,000 years. Then one day in 1947 an Arab shepherd searching for a lost goat threw a stone into a cave mouth. The sound of breaking pottery led him to clay jars containing the first of the discoveries known as the Dead Sea Scrolls.
