Sarai

Hi everyone--I hope someone here can assist me. I am doing some armchair research on Pharisaism and recently ran across a comment in a book I am currently reading (In Quest of the Historical Pharisees (or via: amazon.co.uk) -ed. J. Neusner & B. Chilton) that said, “Essenes maintain special sacrifices and therefore are barred from the Temple…” and cited Josephus Antiquities 18:18 as the source for the comment.

My (ancient!) copy of Josephus has the following translation in the pertinent passage: “…and when they send what they have dedicated to God into the temple, they do not offer sacrifices, because they have more pure lustrations of their own; on which account they are excluded from the common court of the temple, but offer their sacrifices themselves…”

I don’t read Greek, so I am at the mercy of translators here, and hope that someone with knowledge of Greek can help me on this. I’d be very grateful if any of you who are able would be willing to offer your own translation of this passage or confirm that the translation I have (at least for this passage) is accurate. Thank you so much for any help you can offer!

Warm regards,
Sarai

Sarai

Thank you for adding the link, Toto! I promise I'll get more html-literate one of these days!

spin

Neusner and Chilton aren't offering a translation, but are giving an overview of what Josephus said. Whiston uses the English of his time and therefore is often difficult.

Let me give Feldman's translation:

They send votive offerings to the temple, but perform their sacrifices employing a different ritual of purification. For this reason they are barred from those precincts of the temple that are frequented by all the people and perform their rites themselves.

This seems accurate to me. It's not very different from Whiston, except for the antiquated language used by the latter. They are excluded from the temple for performing their own sacrifice rituals. The temple was a business in which temple priests were the performers of sacrifices and thus had the right to claim a portion. If the Essenes performed the sacrifice that would exclude the priest.


spin

DCHindley

Spin,

It looks to me like the temple authorities *made special accomodations* in order to *allow* the Essenes to perform their sacrifices according to their own purification rituals, separate from the "common" areas of the court of the Israeiltes where most folks brought their offerings. Chances are they had their own priests perform the slaughter, burning, waving, heaving and what have you. I do not agree with the poster who suggested that they turned to the temple in Heliopolis in Egypt, or the suggestions of early excavators to the effect that they made private sacrifices at Qumran and bypassed any temple completely.

DCH
(on am break)

Sarai

Spin--thank you so much for Feldman's translation of this passage. I was particularly interested in the "excluded from" or "barred" terminology, and whether the Greek might provide a hint as to who was doing the "barring"...temple officials or was it voluntary by the Essenes? My other particular interest in this passage was the assertion that the Essenes offered their own "sacrifices" (as stated in my old translation). Feldman uses "rites" here, instead of "sacrifices", which could go either way...sacrifices or some other rituals. And DCH hit on exactly what my questions are in that regard. (Thank you, DCH for stating it much more clearly than I would have!)

If they made "sacrifices", what type were they? Did they include animal sacrifice or only grain/vegetable? And where did they make them? Since Josephus specifies their exclusion from the common court only, it sounds rather like there was a place within the temple compound for the Essene sacrifice. But there's also the charred animal bones that were buried in jars between the buildings at Qumran. What's that about? And might it be related? Who might have served as their high priests? The usual answer is Zadokites, but I think that's tenuous. I know they are specified in some Qumran documents, but they are strikingly absent in other copies of the same documents found at the site. Besides, I don't think the connection of Essenes to Qumran is solid, it's an attractive proposition, but it might well be a red-herring.

So, so MANY questions and so darn few answers! Again, thank you Spin and DCH, you guys are great!

Warmly,
Sarai

spin

The verb used is ergw, "to bar one's way". This is not self-imposed; it is imposed on them all. They were excluded from the temple, specifically because of their different purity customs. This means they had to send their votive offerings to the temple, because they weren't allowed into even the commonest grounds of the temple.

The LXX uses Qusia (Q = theta), the word in question, regularly to mean sacrifice. It's actually used twice in the passage and he's translated it once as "sacrifices" and once as "rites".

I really don't know how they could have performed sacrifices outside the temple. As I said in another thread, the Essenes did not accept bloodline as significant, taking children from any poor family that gives them away. Besides officials were elected, so there is no sign of recognition of bloodline at all, suggesting no place for priests.

I think it's less than not solid.


spin

spin

I think I was the poster re Heliopolis. That was a comment to XKV8R about what Zadokites could have done to continue to sacrifice.

I don't see how any torah abiding group could make sacrifices without priests, for the Essenes had no priests, no sons of Aaron, no sons of Levi. Bloodline was given no value.

And you had to pass through the common area of the temple to get into more restricted areas.

Further, most probably no sacrifices were ever made at Qumran, a place of potters and goat heards and impurity.


spin

maryhelena

What Greek word is being used in these quotes from Josephus regarding Essene priests - is the word for 'priest' here the usual Greek word or something different?

Sarai

Spin, thank you for the specifics on the "barring" terminology--that's exactly what I wanted to know. I agree, given the term used, the exclusion from the temple seems to be coming from temple officials. And another thanks for the info on his use of "sacrifice" and "rite". I guess for now I'll presume "sacrifice" is what is meant in the passage.

As far as sacrifices at Qumran, I'm still up in the air on that one. The buried animal bones are perplexing, and it's my understanding that no other archaeological site has yielded anything similar. To add to the perplexity, the documents provide detailed instructions on the procedure for the offering of sacrifices. The most popular explanation for the instructions is that they are intended for some unspecified eschatological future, but I'm not yet convinced that that's the case. Certainly, if there is any connection between Essenes and Qumran, I think our modern understanding of Essenes is going to have to undergo a sea change.

MaryHelena--Thank you for pointing out the use of "priest" in those passages. If the Greek term is undeniably "priest", that just strengthens my conviction that we know MUCH less about the Essenes than we thought we did. (Or at least, I know less than I thought I did!) I have often wondered if the group behind Josephus' "Fourth Philosophy" might be structured somewhat on the "Hamas" model--a "social service" wing that provided help to the poor, orphans, widows, etc.; and a "paramilitary" wing that used guerilla tactics against Romans and Roman collaborators. In other words, an Essene/Zealot organization. (I know, I know--it's wacky!)

Warm regards,
Sarai

spin

The normal Greek word, iereus. But tell me, how do you elect a Jewish priest?


spin