VOLUME XXII   March 21, 1999 Number 11

HOSPITAL NEWS:  THIS EDITION WAS PRINTED EARLY, please refer to the services for timely sick notices.

SYMPATHY:  Our sympathy is extended to Angela Killingsworth and family in the recent passing of her father's cousin.

MONTHLY MEAL:  The monthly meal is scheduled for this Sunday Evening (3-21) after the worship services.  Keith and Angela Killingsworth are the host/hostess, and everyone is invited to stay and enjoy a period of fellowship.

HOW DO I BECOME A CHRISTIAN?
   You must hear and believe the truth (John 8:24, Hebrews 11:6), repent of sins (Luke 13:3, Acts 2:38), confess faith in Christ (Matthew 10:32, Acts 8:37), and be baptized in water to have your sins washed away (Acts 22:16, I Peter 3:21).  Having done this, fidelity is required to maintain our salvation (Revelation 2:10).  Are you a Christian?  Call on us at the Enon Church of Christ and allow us to study with you.

WRITE OR CALL FOR A FREE BIBLE CORRESPONDENCE COURSE!!!

WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED?  Hear the Gospel (Romans 10:17), Believe the Gospel (Hebrews 11:6), Repent of Sins (Acts 2:38), Confess Faith in Christ (Acts 8:37), be baptized (Acts 22:16), and remain faithful, even to the point of death (Revelation 2:10).  May we assist you in becoming a faithful Christian?

THE ESSENES

A discussion of the third Jewish sect and the Dead Sea Scrolls

As we know from the Bible, there were two leading and influential sects or divisions of the Jews in the period of time in which our Lord lived and in which He and His apostles did the preaching and writing that we have in the New Testament, the Pharisees and the Sadducees.  From extra-biblical sources we learn of a third great sect, known as Essenes, which also flourished in New Testament times, though they were not as prominent or powerful as the other two.  Josephus tells us that there "were two groups of Essenes (War, Book II, Chapter VIII, Sect. 2), while the third-century bishop Hippolytus says there were four groups of Essenes (cf. his Refutation of All Heresies).  There may be even more" (THE BIBLE ALMANAC, J.I. Packer, Merrill C. Tenney, William White, Jr.; pages 507-508).  Whereas our knowledge of these people is limited, and whereas there is a great controversy surrounding just who they were, and a great controversy as to their alleged role in the composition of the "Scrolls" discovered in the vicinity of Qumran near the shore of the Dead Sea, we shall tentatively endeavor to examine such evidence as is available in the light of the various scholarly works at our disposal in an effort to see what we can learn about these people.

The word "Essene" itself is derived from a Hebrew word meaning "pious" or "holy".  There is no indication that these people called themselves "Essenes", but other Jews did, and we shall (for convenience) so identify them in this study.  From ancient histories we learn that the Essenes lived in groups, mostly in the desert, though some lived in a special section of Jerusalem, where there was even a specific location named for them (i.e., the Essene Gate).  They are described as a peace loving people, opposed to war, opposed to the corruption of the priesthood and indeed of the nation of Israel, and were seemingly very meticulous in their approach to and keeping of the Law of Moses.  They are thought to have numbered about 4,000, and seemed (if the evidence is properly interpreted) to think themselves the fulfillment of the Old Testament injunction concerning the one who would go out into the wilderness and prepare the way of the Lord.  "The wilderness of Judæa near En-gedi was a favorite place for their settlements, but there were colonies in various towns of Judæa also.  Each colony had its own synagogue, a common hall for meals and assemblies, and a provision for daily bathing in running water.  Whoever became a member of the order gave up all that he possessed to it.  They read the law of Moses daily and nightly, and endeavored to regulate their lives in every detail according to it.  Their habits were simple.  Their food and clothing were plain.  They passed the day in husbandry and other useful industry.  Money was almost unnecessary, as they supplied their needs by their own labor; and when they traveled, they found lodging and food free of cost among their brethren.  They had no slaves, as they recognized no distinction between men save that of clean and unclean.  They did not deny the fitness of marriage; but they abstained from wedlock, except one party among them.  Their morality was lofty.  They promised "to honor God, to be righteous toward man, to injure no one, either at the bidding of another or of their own accord, to hate evil, to promote good, to be faithful to every one, especially those in authority, to love the truth, to unmask liars, and to keep the hand from theft and the conscience from unrighteous gain" (Antiq. XVIII. 1, 5; War ii. 8, 2-13)" (Davis Dictionary of the Bible, page 229).  This offers a good summary of what we know, at least with any degree of assurance, about the Essenes.  Josephus elsewhere mentions one named John, called John the Essene, as a general in the revolt against Rome, but outside of this we learn of no other participation of the Essenes in any military movement or capacity.  Some have suggested that John was indeed a practicing Essene at the time of his involvement in the Revolt and that he had led a band of other Essenes as their commander, but this assertion is totally without historical support.  Some have suggested that John was called "the Essene" because of his past life as a member of this sect, and that by the time he participated militarily he was no longer a practicing Essene.  There is, also, no historical support for this explanation, but it does seem to fit more the circumstances as other ancient historians have relayed them to us.  It would seem to me that if there were such a great change in the position of the Essenes concerning war that Josephus, writing after the fatal Jerusalem siege had occurred and telling the history of his people with all the pieces of the puzzle, as it were, before him, would have indicated the change.  He tells us that they were peace loving, but never that they changed their views and their habits.

The controversy surrounding the Essenes and their possible identification as the "sect" which produced the so-called Dead Sea Scrolls has, with increasing vigor, swelled with the release of previously unpublished and highly restricted portions of the scrolls themselves.  The main body of the scrolls have only been available for a few years to the public in general, having been over five decades in the hands of only a few men who refused to allow the public to investigate them, even that portion of the public whose scholarly views would have enhanced our understanding of the messages contained in them.  Almost from their discovery by the 'Bedouin' in 1947 the theory developed that they were produced by the Essenes.  As more and more scrolls were discovered, the scholarly authorities attributed them to the "sect" of the Essenes, whom they thought to have inhabited the ruins of a complex discovered and examined shortly after the scrolls began to turn up.  This theory was virtually universally accepted for a time, and whereas there were a few dissident forces who opposed it, there was some division among them, enough to prevent any unified assault on the prevailing opinion of those in control of the scrolls themselves.  Andrè Dupont-Sommer (along with several others) contended that on the site of Qumran itself there were the ruins of a "scriptorium", or a room used to copy manuscripts by a number of scribes.  There were three tables discovered therein, as well as a few "inkwells", but upon further examination, there are over 400 (and perhaps more) different handwritings on the scrolls the alleged sect were supposed to have composed, and even if you allow 150 years of inhabitation by the Essenes at this place (which is by no means sure), it is highly unlikely that this number could have been present and employed in copying the scrolls.  Further, it must be noted that the tables and few inkwells are the only evidence that there was ever any writing done in the room, as there were no blank scrolls or papyrus discovered, no needles (used in sewing together the codex's), and it has been noted (Norman Golb, WHO WROTE THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS, page 27) that "...a fundamental question had been raised [by the late fifties] regarding the use of such tables for the purpose of copying scrolls.  Not only did ancient depictions of scribes not show them copying by sitting at tables, but the very height and pitch of the tables seemed unsuitable for the purpose of copying scrolls".  Further, the doctrines espoused in the scrolls themselves seemed to go against the doctrines which have been reported by reputable sources as having been characteristic of the Essenes.  It was further determined that the Qumran complex had been assailed and succumbed to a military attack but only after they had put up a great fight, again totally out of character with what we know of the Essenes.  In contradiction of the ritual purity laws concerning the disposal of dead bodies, the Qumran complex was located only about 35 yards (instead of the normal minimum of 50 yards) from a cemetery. The discoveries in the cemetery itself provide further troubles to the Essene theory, as it contained not only the bodies of men, but also of women and children, in large numbers.  It appears from the arrangement and necessary preparation of the graves themselves that they were filled at one time, perhaps as a result of a great military action in which the people were killed and had to be disposed of at one time.  All of these things, coupled especially with the contradictions in the scrolls themselves of what we know to be characteristic of Essenes, make doubtful the theory that the Essenes inhabited Qumran as a "sect" and composed the scrolls.  To further complicate the matter, the identification of a "sect" of Essenes living in a "monastery" implies that the physical building remains at Qumran would be consistent with a monastery.  Such is not the case.  The presence of a great tower and fortified walls (despite attempted explanations and descriptions to the contrary, these were walls built to withstand military attacks, as reported by those dispassionate scholars who do not advocate a particular view with respect to the ultimate question of whether the ones who inhabited the area were Essenes or not) would argue in favor of considering this a fortress, not a "monastery".  It should be noted that the initial ones to identify this as a "monastery" were two Catholic Priests, and whereas their history is riddled with monasteries, there is no such practice in ancient Judaism.

As for the question of who did compose them, we have greater difficulties still in ascribing them to any one "sect".  There were biblical books discovered among them, but there were also apocryphal works, and other works of unknown origin, commentaries on Old Testament books, a compilation of rules to be employed in a war between the Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness, and a copper scroll containing a description of several treasures and other writings that had been hidden in the region of Jerusalem and Jericho.  Some of the scrolls contained teachings that would be consistent with the Essenes as they are known to us in histories, some that would be consistent with the Pharisees, some with the Sadducees, and some that are totally enigmatic.  There were discovered phylacteries, the little scrolls the Jews sometimes wore on their arms and heads, containing portions of the Old Testament in small writing, but these were different in wording and content, thus suggesting that they were not produced by a strict sect which allegedly thrived on uniformity.  Some have attributed them to the Zealots, some to the Sicarii (a probable later offshoot of the Zealots), and there have even been suggestions that they were composed in medieval times (although carbon dating tests exclude this as false).  Whence then could they have come?  Perhaps we shall never know, but I favor the idea that they were removed from the city of Jerusalem during the siege of the Roman Army c. AD 68-70.  We know from Josephus that the Jews were able, while the Roman armies were encamped around the city but before they built the siege walls around it, to sneak in and out under cover of darkness by means of secret tunnels and a good knowledge of the wells and springs of the area to get supplies and etc.  It may be that during this difficult period the priests made a list of the temple treasures and secretly hid them, fearing the collapse of the city, and sent this list out to the caves near Qumran for safe keeping.  It further may be the case that the various families of the city, also sensing the impending doom of their beloved abode, sent the books comprising their various libraries (and we know there were many such) out of the city for safe keeping until the siege was over.  Perhaps the writings found were the very scrolls contained in the temple itself sent by the priests for safekeeping, for they certainly knew what fate awaited them based on the reports of refugees from other besieged and subsequently destroyed Jewish strongholds.  This would account for the presence of the treasure word-map, and it would account for the many conflicting and contradictory doctrines in the scrolls themselves.  We may never know for sure, but as the scrolls gain even wider circulation, and as more and more scholars enter into open and free study of them, our knowledge of the ultimate origins will undoubtedly grow.

Tim Smith  1272 Enon Road    Webb, AL 36376  (334) 899-8131