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show_no_mercy · 11-28-2008, 06:46 AM

Did they not know about them? Were they trying to be them?

bacht · 11-28-2008, 02:10 PM

Did the Essenes cease to exist as an identifiable group after 70 CE? If most of the NT was written after the revolt there may have been no reason to mention them (?)

Cesc · 11-28-2008, 02:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by show_no_mercy

Did they not know about them? Were they trying to be them?

Depends on what the term "Essenes" cover.

spin · 11-28-2008, 09:28 PM

Essenes were a Palestinian phenomenon. The gospels were written on the fringes of the diaspora.

spin

show_no_mercy · 11-29-2008, 06:45 PM

This website seems to say that the Essenes, the Nozrim, and the Nazarenes were one and the same. Jesus wasn't from Nazareth, but Jesus was a Nazarene/Nozrim/Essene:

http://www.bidstrup.com/bible.htm

Quote:

One question remains: if the Essenes are really so widespread and influential as we now know they were, why do we see no references to them in the Gospels and other New Testament works? Good question, and one that is often asked, seldom with satisfactory answers from the apologists. But the answer is simple - there are references to them, lots of references. We know them from the canonic gospels as the Nazarenes - a corruption of the word "Nozrim," by which the Jesus Movements, which sprang from the Essene movement, knew themselves early in the first century. Not citizens of a place (Mark's mistake), but members of a movement. By the time the gospel writers composed their gospels early in the second century, the word was no longer current, hence the mistake was an easy one for an uncultured non-scholar like Mark to make during his mythologizing. Mark, fairly ignorant of history as he was, failed to understand it as a movement, because by the time he was writing, that movement had largely disappeared - through being subsumed into the church. Subseqent Christian writers, knowing no better, never corrected the mistake, but compounded it by entrenching it in their own mythmaking. Once that is understood, it all makes sense.

I'm not sure what to make of this webpage, but if its contents are true, it would make me a MJer.

spin · 11-29-2008, 07:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by show_no_mercy

This website seems to say that the Essenes, the Nozrim, and the Nazarenes were one and the same. Jesus wasn't from Nazareth, but Jesus was a Nazarene/Nozrim/Essene:

http://www.bidstrup.com/bible.htm

I'm not sure what to make of this webpage, but if its contents are true, it would make me a MJer.

Christian groups used baptism as an initiatory act in the religion. The Essenes however, used ritual bathing as a means of cultic purity. The Essenes weren't related to the baptist movement.

spin

Doug Shaver · 11-30-2008, 07:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by show_no_mercy

How come the writers of the NT didn't write about the Essenes?

The question assumes they had a reason to. What would that have been?

Toto · 11-30-2008, 07:54 PM

What did the writers of the NT write about? They wrote about the Pharisees and the high priest, and there are indirect references to Zealots. They also wrote a bit about Roman centurions. They didn't provide a comprehensive guide to the intellectual or theological landscape.

So if they didn't include the Essenes, it must have been because there was nothing related to the Essenes that advanced the plot line.

spamandham · 11-30-2008, 09:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by show_no_mercy

Did they not know about them? Were they trying to be them?

A few possibilities:

1. The writers were Essenes
2. Essenes didn't exist
3. The writers didn't know about Essenes
4. The writers didn't care about Essenes
5. The writers *did* mention them, but a later redactor took the reference out for some reason
6. The writers *did* mention them, but by another name

11-28-2008, 06:46 AM	#1
show_no_mercy Veteran Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Dancing Posts: 9,940	How come the writers of the NT didn't write about the Essenes? Did they not know about them? Were they trying to be them?

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11-28-2008, 02:10 PM	#2
bacht Veteran Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Canada Posts: 2,305	Did the Essenes cease to exist as an identifiable group after 70 CE? If most of the NT was written after the revolt there may have been no reason to mention them (?)

11-28-2008, 09:28 PM	#4
spin Contributor Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: nowhere Posts: 15,747	Essenes were a Palestinian phenomenon. The gospels were written on the fringes of the diaspora. spin

11-30-2008, 07:54 PM	#8
Toto Contributor Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: Los Angeles area Posts: 40,549	What did the writers of the NT write about? They wrote about the Pharisees and the high priest, and there are indirect references to Zealots. They also wrote a bit about Roman centurions. They didn't provide a comprehensive guide to the intellectual or theological landscape. So if they didn't include the Essenes, it must have been because there was nothing related to the Essenes that advanced the plot line.

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