

Who Were the Essenes?
         by

    LOUIS C. KING, MPS

    This arose years ago when the question of the origins of Freemasonry
was an active, debatable one. Was it Germany, France, Rome, or further
East and farther back in time? Masonry's first historian, the Rev. James
Anderson, kicked the door of conjecture wide open when, in his fabulous,
fictitious "History of Freemasonry from the Beginnings of the World,"
he stated that God must have transmitted the Secrets of Masonry to the
first man, Adam. With that for a starting point, any history, however
nebulous, of ancient rites, secret societies or the like, furnished a rich 
field of exploration for men with vivid imaginations. Some certain archaeologi-
cal discoveries furnished "undeniable proofs" to bolster their imaginations.
Others, more religiously inclined, turned to the Bible for inspiration. Lack-
ing anything in the Old Testament supportive of their theories they turned
to the New Testament and to writers like Flavius Josephus, a Jew, who
wrote, among other books, "A History of the Jews." He was a Roman
citizen but he wrote in Greek. He lived in the time when Roman power
had become well-entrenched in Israel. Much of what he wrote was reliable
but, at times he colored some of his excursions into more remote history
rather more than somewhat. His descriptions of Solomon's Temple, which
he never saw and which was a rather plain and very small edifice, he
described in terms more fittingly descriptive of Herod's Temple, which he
may have seen.
    At any rate, many of his stories found their way into Masonic rituals,
especially those of the degrees beyond those of the craft, although faint
touches may be discerned even there. Josephus wrote much about the
religious practices of his day and from them it is easy to see that all Jews
did not worship alike. The New Testament mentions two distinct sects,
Pharisees and Sadducees. Josephus named a third, the Essenes and also
said there were numerous other, splinter sects, spinoffs of the more predom-
inant ones.
    This may come as a surprise to many, but factions seem to have been
as common then as they are today among the great religions of the world.
He mentioned and described a few of the smaller sects, among which were
the Essenes. They were neither numerous nor important but these, some
of our more imaginative writers seized upon as the progenitors or, at least,
practitioners of a well developed system of Masonry. Josephus never made
such claims, but then, did he need to? These writers had all they required.
    As the writers would have it, the Essenes were a devoutly religious sect,
rather a bit Protestant as the writers would have it. They were a monastic
group who lived apart from the world, so they told us. They had three
degrees of membership. The apprentices, naturally. What else could they
be called? And there was a Second degree to which they were advanced
after having shown suitable proficiency. Now they were entrusted with
further secrets of the Craft. Then, after more study and still further examina-
tion, which, if they passed, entitled them to the Ultimate Secrets of the
Craft. What secrets, of what Craft? Josephus never said they had a craft.
They were farmers for the most part, doing whatever was needed on their
land. They were supposed to go about doing charitable works, helping the
poor. Yet they cooped themselves up in their monastic cells. But no matter.
They had their three degrees, used the square and compasses and practiced
all the rites of Masonry.
    Some of those Masonic writers accounted for the unrecorded years in
the life of Jesus of Nazareth by claiming that both he and John the Baptist
spent a part of their time as members of an Essene community. However,
be that as it may, to no one's discredit.
    Fortunately, time took care of this group of Masonic believers as more
real knowledge of our Craft's history was found. Nothing of significant
value, apart from what Josephus had written, had been found. Where had
the Essenes lived? What were their religious practices? What work did
they perform? What became of them? None of these questions were answer-
able, until ...
    Until the day in 1947, when an Arab boy, herding some goats in the
Wadi Qumran, chased an animal into a cave. Afraid to enter the cave
alone, he threw a stone after it. The stone shattered a pottery jar and the
noise of the falling fragments frightened the boy away. Soon, however, he
returned with another boy and together they entered the cave. There they
found some ancient scrolls, scrolls which electrified the theological world.
This is the story most widely accepted, of the discovery of the Dead Sea
Scrolls. This name was adopted from the proximity of the Dead Sea, about
a quarter of a mile distant. There were several caves in the vicinity.
    The discovery of the scrolls for what they represented soon attracted
archaeologists and they found more of them, in that and other caves. The
problem of unrolling those ancient scrolls of thin, dry leather called for
specialists in such work and of philologists to decipher and translate them.
They were copies of the books of the Old Testament, for the most part.
Although some few were extremely old, original books. There were other
scrolls though, containing more secular accounts, stories of people and
events of more recent times, some even of those who wrote the scrolls.
    Nearby, further from the shore of the Sea, upon the banks of the wadi,
were the remnants of a small town. Into these ruins the archeologists dug,
reasoning that some connection must have existed between the inhabitants
and the scrolls, the town was given the name of Khirbet Qumran, from
the Wadi Qumran. Khirbet means ruins as Wadi signifies a dry water
course through which a stream runs in rainy seasons.
    As they dug through the ruins they found signs of Roman occupation
but the story of the people came from the ruins themselves. Store houses,
living quarters and one large room in particular, which tables, long, narrow
and high were found, tables made for writers to stand at. To clinch that
supposition, ink pots were found there, one even containing dried ink.
Evidently these were the tables where the scrolls had been written.
    In the southeastem portion were cisterns for water storage and a large
bathing pool. The pool was cracked, probably by an earthquake. Josephus
reported one in 31 B.C. and others may have occurred later. It was evident
that the people practiced ritual bathing as part of their religious beliefs, 
all the buildings showed earthquake damage. Outside the town was a cemetery
which afforded the best information as to the inhabitants. The graves
yielded skeletal remains of men, women and children. None contained the
jewelry and ornaments usually found in such graves, which was taken as
evidence that these people scorned such things.
    Now, Josephus recorded that the Essenes were not all celibates, living
in monasteries. Nor were they concentrated in one community. Many, he
said, were married and had families. Also that there were many groups of
these Essenes living in widely separated towns with others, Jews, like
themselves but not their particular persuasion.
    Josephus described the Pharisees as following the law and ancient obser-
vances in orthodox fashion. The Essenes followed all these laws and con-
ventions even more strictly, making sacrifices at the Temple at Jerusalem
with money but not with living creatures. Ritual ablutions were part of
their daily routines. They were distinguished by the long, plain garments
they wore. No fabrics of any sort were found in the Qumran graves but
wrappings around some of the scrolls were identified by their weave and
texture and by carbon dating as at about the time of Roman Ascendancy
in Israel. From this, it was the consensus that all of the scrolls that were
not unquestionably ancient were written at Qumran. They were probably
concealed in the caves to protect them from destruction by the Romans.
All this may seem to have wandered from the original subject of this
study but Qumran has given us more light on the Essenes than anything
we have encountered before. In fact, from the evidence unearthed at Khirbet
Qumran, the writings translated from the secular or non-Biblical scrolls,
coupled with the accounts given principally by Josephus and also by Philo
of Alexandria and by Pliny, men who had lived in those years and had
much first-hand knowledge, all these combine to give us the best answers
to "Who were the Essenes?"
    Let us view the Essenes in this new light, as opposed to the stories of
old Masonic writers. They were an off-shoot of the Pharisees, only more
rigid in their observances. They were more orthodox than the thoroughly
orthodox Pharisees. The other important sect were the Sadducces, who
were the aristocracy of the Jews. Largely, they were the upper class of the
nobility of Jerusalem. Restricted to the families of high priests and aristo-
crats, one had to be born into the exclusive sect. So, in point of comparison,
the Essenes were most closely related to the Pharisees. But, as always with
extremists, they were a much smaller group. One writer's estimate was
about four thousand members.
    Becoming an Essene was not a simple matter. An applicant was more
closely investigated than any who applied to a Masonic Lodge. He was
not considered until every aspect of his life was scrutinized. Many months
could pass before he was called on for initiation. All our available informa-
tion concerns the monastic groups. How and when they married will have
to remain unanswered. Josephus, while admitting there were married men
in their membership, tells us mostly about those who lived in monasteries.
Qumran apparently had both.
    Admission was a long series of lustrations and religious rites. Once
completed, they were in for a hard life. They worked long hours, ate the
simplest food, lived apart from the professed. They were not permitted to
converse not even touch their white garbed brethren. For one whole year
they lived thus before being closely examined. Their work records were
gone over thoroughly and their attitudes questioned. If there was any doubt
in the minds of their superiors, they were told to go. Those who passed
were in for another year of this existence. There was no advancement in
grade. There were no grades or degrees. At the end of the second year
they underwent a still more severe examination, but if they passed this
time, they were accepted into full membership, assigned a place at table
and in the councils, garbed in the white robes of the elect. Now, what they
studied. Josephus never recorded, but it is a safe bet it was not rituals as
we might expect. They were a strict religious order, and had no time for
anything beyond the laws and the scriptures. Indeed, the long tables found
in the scriptorium indicate that long hours were spent there transcribing
the old, worn out scrolls onto new leather. What their purpose was, possibly
to replace the old books that were faded and falling apart. Old scrolls were
never thrown out. They were put away in a storage designed expressly for
that purpose.
    Another thing might account for the scrolls in the caves, these were the
final years of the old calendar and the opening of a new era. Not that they
were aware of this. To them, these were years of distress in Israel. The
Romans had taken over the government and had appointed puppet rulers
who danced as the real rulers pulled their strings. The people revolted and
were punished cruelly. It was a time when men thought of selling out and
getting away. This the Romans approved as they had less to contend with.
This may have been in the minds of the leaders at Qumran. They feared
leaving their sacred scrolls to the merciless Romans so they hid them in
the poorly accessible caves at the end of the Wadi. There they remained
safely until 1947. They may have been visited at times by wandering Arabs,
but they found no gold and their scrolls were of no value to them.
    The Romans accomplished their purpose. The Jewish people were widely
scattered but not all the hardships ever made them to desert their ancient
faith in their One God, rejecting the many and more accommodating gods
of Rome. The Romans had driven out the people of Qumran and made it a
military outpost, being located some forty miles east southeast of Jerusalem.
They remained there until 68 AD, when they destroyed and abandoned the
town. Two years later, Titus ordered the destruction of Jerusalem. Herod's
magnificent Temple, everything! While the Pharisees retained certain cohe-
siveness, even though widely scattered, the Sadducees, being of the once
ruling class and easily identifiable, were simply blotted out. The myriad
splinter sects, the Essenes among them, simply vanished.
    The Essenes were never numerous nor were they noticeably influential
on the history of the times. Nowhere are they mentioned in the Talmud
nor either Testament of the Bible. Only in the writings of Josephus, Philo,
and Pliny can any information be obtained, and that only casually. With
such information as we have, for more than the early Masonic writers had,
it is difficult to conceive how they fastened upon the Essenes as progenitors
and exemplars of the highest form of primitive Freemasonry. Even the
rosiest of rosetinted glasses cannot color the accounts to be found in the
scrolls of Qumran sufficiently to relate Essenism to Freemasonry.


