Toto

Scholar: The Essenes, Dead Sea Scroll 'authors,' never existed

according to Prof. Rachel Elior, whose study on the subject will be released soon.

She says Josephus based the Essenes on descriptions of life in the Greek city of Sparta.

Rachel Elior

DCHindley

I wonder how she deals with Philo of Alexandria, who also spoke of Essenes.

A clue might be in the statement that no "Hebrew or Aramaic" source mentions them. Why doesn't a Greek language source count, even one written by a Jew (Philo)?

Since this article connects her work to that of Norman Golb, who seems to have an axe to grind (as do virtually all DSS scholars for that matter), are we really dealing here with modern perception as to what ancient Jews *must* have been like, as opposed to what they *really* were like?

It is one thing to accept that diaspora Jews far from the holy land and speaking strange tongues were not fully observant (they were too far removed and not likely to visit the temple to make an offering, etc), but whoever wrote the scrolls were right there in the heart of the holy land.

I cannot tell whether she's objecting to the idea of Essenes as somehow not observant (no sacrifices, celibate, etc), or whether relegating such people to a monastary is artificially preserving the purity of idealistic but unrealistic Jewish self images?

DCH

aa5874

And, didn't Pliny the Elder also mention the Essenes?

Toto

Essenes We'll have to see how Elior deals with these. She is, after all, part of academia, not some uncredentialed internet blogger.

mountainman

Philo of Alexandria (20 BC - 50 AD), on the Essenes

(1) Quod Omnis Probus Liber Sit (Every Good Man is Free)

12.75-87

XII. (75) Moreover Palestine and Syria too are not barren of exemplary wisdom and virtue, which countries no slight portion of that most populous nation of the Jews inhabits. There is a portion of those people called Essenes, in number something more than four thousand in my opinion, who derive their name from their piety, though not according to any accurate form of the Grecian dialect, because they are above all men devoted to the service of God, not sacrificing living animals, but studying rather to preserve their own minds in a state of holiness and purity.

(76) These men, in the first place, live in villages, avoiding all cities on account of the habitual lawlessness of those who inhabit them, well knowing that such a moral disease is contracted from associations with wicked men, just as a real disease might be from an impure atmosphere, and that this would stamp an incurable evil on their souls. Of these men, some cultivating the earth, and others devoting themselves to those arts which are the result of peace, benefit both themselves and all those who come in contact with them, not storing up treasures of silver and of gold, nor acquiring vast sections of the earth out of a desire for ample revenues, but providing all things which are requisite for the natural purposes of life;

(77) for they alone of almost all men having been originally poor and destitute, and that too rather from their own habits and ways of life than from any real deficiency of good fortune, are nevertheless accounted very rich, judging contentment and frugality to be great abundance, as in truth they are.

(78 ) Among those men you will find no makers of arrows, or javelins, or swords, or helmets, or breastplates, or shields; no makers of arms or of military engines; no one, in short, attending to any employment whatever connected with war, or even to any of those occupations even in peace which are easily perverted to wicked purposes; for they are utterly ignorant of all traffic, and of all commercial dealings, and of all navigation, but they repudiate and keep aloof from everything which can possibly afford any inducement to covetousness;

(79) and there is not a single slave among them, but they are all free, aiding one another with a reciprocal interchange of good offices; and they condemn masters, not only as unjust, inasmuch as they corrupt the very principle of equality, but likewise as impious, because they destroy the ordinances of nature, which generated them all equally, and brought them up like a mother, as if they were all legitimate brethren, not in name only, but in reality and truth. But in their view this natural relationship of all men to one another has been thrown into disorder by designing covetousness, continually wishing to surpass others in good fortune, and which has therefore engendered alienation instead of affection, and hatred instead of friendship;

(80) and leaving the logical part of philosophy, as in no respect necessary for the acquisition of virtue, to the word-catchers, and the natural part, as being too sublime for human nature to master, to those who love to converse about high objects (except indeed so far as such a study takes in the contemplation of the existence of God and of the creation of the universe), they devote all their attention to the moral part of philosophy, using as instructors the laws of their country which it would have been impossible for the human mind to devise without divine inspiration.

(81) Now these laws they are taught at other times, indeed, but most especially on the seventh day, for the seventh day is accounted sacred, on which they abstain from all other employments, and frequent the sacred places which are called synagogues, and there they sit according to their age in classes, the younger sitting under the elder, and listening with eager attention in becoming order.

(82) Then one, indeed, takes up the holy volume and reads it, and another of the men of the greatest experience comes forward and explains what is not very intelligible, for a great many precepts are delivered in enigmatical modes of expression, and allegorically, as the old fashion was;

(83) and thus the people are taught piety, and holiness, and justice, and economy, and the science of regulating the state, and the knowledge of such things as are naturally good, or bad, or indifferent, and to choose what is right and to avoid what is wrong, using a threefold variety of definitions, and rules, and criteria, namely, the love of God, and the love of virtue, and the love of mankind.

(84) Accordingly, the sacred volumes present an infinite number of instances of the disposition devoted to the love of God, and of a continued and uninterrupted purity throughout the whole of life, of a careful avoidance of oaths and of falsehood, and of a strict adherence to the principle of looking on the Deity as the cause of everything which is good and of nothing which is evil. They also furnish us with many proofs of a love of virtue, such as abstinence from all covetousness of money, from ambition, from indulgence in pleasures, temperance, endurance, and also moderation, simplicity, good temper, the absence of pride, obedience to the laws, steadiness, and everything of that kind; and, lastly, they bring forward as proofs of the love of mankind, goodwill, equality beyond all power of description, and fellowship, about which it is not unreasonable to say a few words.

(85) In the first place, then, there is no one who has a house so absolutely his own private property, that it does not in some sense also belong to every one: for besides that they all dwell together in companies, the house is open to all those of the same notions, who come to them from other quarters;

(86) then there is one magazine among them all; their expenses are all in common; their garments belong to them all in common; their food is common, since they all eat in messes; for there is no other people among which you can find a common use of the same house, a common adoption of one mode of living, and a common use of the same table more thoroughly established in fact than among this tribe: and is not this very natural? For whatever they, after having been working during the day, receive for their wages, that they do not retain as their own, but bring it into the common stock, and give any advantage that is to be derived from it to all who desire to avail themselves of it;

(87) and those who are sick are not neglected because they are unable to contribute to the common stock, inasmuch as the tribe have in their public stock a means of supplying their necessities and aiding their weakness, so that from their ample means they support them liberally and abundantly; and they cherish respect for their elders, and honor them and care for them, just as parents are honored and cared for by their lawful children: being supported by them in all abundance both by their personal exertions, and by innumerable contrivances.

Translation of Charles Duke Yonge

(2) Philo Judaeus: On Ascetics

There is also a brief mention by Philo "On Ascetics", as an introduction to his major treatment of the "Therapeutae.

I. Having mentioned the Essenes, who in all respects selected for their admiration and for their especial adoption the practical course of life, and who excel in all, or what perhaps may be a less unpopular and invidious thing to say, in most of its parts, I will now proceed, in the regular order of my subject, to speak of those who have embraced the speculative life, and I will say what appears to me to be desirable to be said on the subject, not drawing any fictitious statements from my own head for the sake of improving the appearance of that side of the question which nearly all poets and essayists are much accustomed to do in the scarcity of good actions to extol, but with the greatest simplicity adhering strictly to the truth itself, to which I know well that even the most eloquent men do not keep close in their speeches.

Virtually? Who are the exceptions?

the_cave

It sounds as though in her zeal to disprove the authorship of the scrolls by the Essenes (in which she is probably correct), she is going overboard and trying to eliminate the existence of the Essenes altogether (in order to strengthen her case?)

It looks like she'll have a lot of material to refute, however:

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/vi...er=E&artid=478

I guess it could be interesting to see how she does this, though my gut tells me not to hold my breath.

mountainman

Josephus, writing between A.D. 75 and A.D.85, tells us that the Essenes were Pythagorean in lifestyle..

No problems.

andrewcriddle

From the newspaper article, (which may not be accurate), Rachel Elior seems to be claiming that the Scrolls were writted by Zadokites who denied the legitimacy of the Hasmonean high priests.

If this is accurate, then this appears, in effect, to accept the origins of the scrolls within a sectarian Jewish group but denies that this group is equivalent to the (allegedly non-existent) Essenes.

One could rewrite this and say that the Essenes as described by Josephus never really existed, they are loosely based on actual sectarian Jewish groups (such as the group that wrote the Qumran scrolls) but these groups have been radically distorted by Josephus in order to conform to Greek stereotypes.

By now Rachel Elior's radical claims are seeming less sensational.

Andrew Criddle

Clivedurdle

Has Philo been properly dated? Why is he talking of synagogues?

The Essenes read like gnostic pacifist Quakers!

And Elior seems not to understand the breadth of views that was and is Judaism and that the Orthodox view was only one that went around pretending it was the true one and thus corrupting the reality.

The descriptions of the holy ones in the Albigensian crusades are identical. The anti slavery issue was a Pharisaic viewpoint, who said about the spirit of the law, not the letter.

More and more the New Testament looks like a weird amalgam of Jewish cults and sects with very different perspectives. Maybe it is an example of the breadth of views that existed in Judaism, that was not really a diaspora, it was more about people were able to move reasonably freely over very large areas if they were of a certain level in society.

spin

Philo was a well respected member of the Alexandrian Jewish community when he went on a mission to Rome to speak with Gaius (Caligula), an event for which he left written record.

Elior will have a better knowledge than most people on the subject of the types of Judaism around at the time. We simply don't know enough about what she is talking about, so it is difficult to have a clear understanding of what she is saying and why.


spin