The Essenes = Part II

Historical Facts on Essene Culture

Essene image courtsey: miqel.com

Most of the available sources contain very little information of a historical nature.The Qumran documents are full of historical allusions, but they are notoriously ambiguous. Moreover, the history of the Qumran community may not accurately reflect the history of Essenism as a whole. By using a combination of sources, however, scholars have developed the following tentative outline of Essene history. The Essenes seem to have arisen after the Maccabean revolt (167-160 B.C.). Sometime between 152 and 110 B.C. at least some of the Essenes, perhaps only the leaders, retreated to Qumran, on the shores of the Dead Sea. There they stayed until the Parthian invasion of 40 B.C. or the earthquake of 31 B.C. forced them to leave. At that time they settled in the regions around Jerusalem. Soon after Herod the Great's death (4 B.C.) at least some of the Essenes returned to Qumran. Some seventy years later Essenes were involved in the revolt against the Romans. The survival and persistence of the Essenes as a separate group after A.D. 70 is still debated.

Many scholars have found traces of Essenism within such later sects as the Ebionites, the Mandaeans, and the Karaites. Also still undecided is the importance and influence of Essenism within pre-A.D. 70 Judaism and early Christianity. It has often been dismissed as a peripheral Jewish sect or hailed as the very seedbed of the Christian faith. Both of these positions are too extreme. It is more likely that the Essenes were one expression of a widespread pietistic reaction to the pragmatic and tepid spirit of the official Judaism. From the ranks of such a reaction the early church would have drawn heavily. The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in 1945, yet it took 50 years for the information to leak out about these extraordinary people. What was so shocking to the scholars who examined the ancient documents was that there was a community of people practicing Christianity, or something very close to it, for at least 200 years before the time of Christ. Both the practice of baptism and of the sharing of the wine are recorded as part of their practices long before Jesus and John the Baptist popularized them.

Location of Qumran - Qumran Map image courtsey: sundayschoolcourses.com

As you leave Jerusalem and go to the south and to the east, toward the Dead Sea, the terrain changes rapidly and starkly. You move off gradually from [the] ... rolling hillside, through the ravines, and it becomes stark and desolate. It's dry. It's arid. It's rocky, and it's rough. And all of a sudden, within a span of only about thirteen miles, the entire terrain drops out in front of you as you go from roughly 3400 feet above sea level at Jerusalem, to nearly 1400 feet below sea level at the surface of the Dead Sea. It is in that rugged cliff face, on the banks of the Dead Sea, in this arid, desolate climate, that the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered at the site known as Khirbet Qumran. The Scrolls were discovered, according to the story that, now, many people know, of a shepherd boy wandering along with his flocks and, as boys tend to do, throwing rocks in a cave. So the story goes that he heard a crack in one, went in to investigate and found a ceramic pot with what appeared to be pages inside. Those were then taken out and eventually found their way onto the market, and were only later rediscovered and deciphered as the Dead Sea Scrolls.


Subsequent to that first discovery, eleven different caves have been found at Qumran. And new discoveries are expected even now. Among the caves were found, then, thousand of fragments of manuscripts and quite a number of whole, or mostly complete, manuscripts in scrolls stored in these jars. Among the cache of scrolls that we now call the Dead Sea Scrolls, are three distinct types of material. First, we have a collection of copies of the actual books of the Hebrew scriptures.These people were copyists. They were preserving the texts of the Bible itself. Secondly, there were commentaries on these biblical texts. But these commentaries also show their own interpretation of what would happen. This is where we begin to get some of the insights into the way the Essenes at Qumran believed, because of the way they interpret the prophecies of Isaiah, or the prophesies of Habakkuk as well as the way they read the Torah, itself. So among the scrolls, then, we have a complete set of almost all the biblical books, and commentaries on many of them. "The Isaiah Scroll" is one of the most famous of the biblical manuscripts. And the commentaries on Isaiah is also very important for our understanding of Jewish interpretation of Scripture in this period.

Dead Sea Scrolls image courtsey: maxwellinstitute.byu.edu

The third major type of material found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, though, in some ways is the most interesting insight into the life of the community that lived there, because this material includes their own sectarian writings, that is, their rules of life ... their prayer book. Included then, is the book of the rule of the community or sometimes called ‘ The Manual of Discipline’ which talks about how one goes about getting into the community. The rules for someone who wants to be pure and a part of the elect community. We also have something called ‘ The War Scroll”and the War Scroll seems to be their own battle plan for the war that will occur at the end of the present evil age. And so this is something that really is real in their mind ... that this coming end of the age will be a cataclysmic event in their view. Also was found something called "The Copper Scroll". Quite literally, with the letters incised, in Hebrew, into soft, burnished copper. And the contents of the Copper Scroll are still a source of great interest among many people, because people think it may be a treasure map of their own holdings.


The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception is a book that details the explosive contents of the Dead Sea Scrolls and how the Church conspired to suppress them.Another startling fact was that the type of society that the Essenes had practiced for 200 years was very similiar to early Christianity recorded in the book of Acts. This important scriptural document shows that the early christian sect lived in communities and encouraged its members to hold all of its possesions in common, just like the Essenes did for the previous two
centuries!


Another amazing discovery was made in 1923. Edmond Bordeaux Szekely was able to discover Essene documents in the secret archives of the Vatican. In his book The Discovery of the Essene Gospel of Peace, he tells the story of how two chess players helped him meet the renowned Monseigneur Angelo Mercati, Prefect of the Vatican Archives. He told the Prefect of his desire to learn all he could of the Saint called Francis. He was allowed to research the vast 25 miles of bookshelves containing scrolls, parchments, paper manuscripts and codices. Within the labyrinth he found an aramaic translation of The Essene Gospel of Peace as well as the The Essene Book of Revelation. His research led him to seek out the Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino. He was allowed, because of a letter of Monseigneur had written granting access to the large vitrines in the Scriptorium. There he found the original Hebrew codices of The Essene Gospel of Peace, the source for the Aramaic version found at the secret Vatican Archives.


The Essenes were a third religious sect during the time of Christ that lived away from the towns. Instead they lived in simple communities. The Essenes practiced the seventh day sabbath, believed in reincarnation, non-violence to all living creatures and the sharing of all material possesions. They were uninvolved in the politics of the Sadducees and Pharisees and shunned publicity. Because of the discovery of dead sea scroll material, this ancient sect and their teachings are back alive. The dead sea scrolls were hidden by this ancient people long ago in the caves of Qumram. Josephus writing around 80 A.D. said that the Essenes were Jews by birth but seemed to have a greater affection for one another than they did for the Pharisees and Sadducees. Their piety toward God was extraordinary. They wore hand woven garments. They used no profanity. They were ministers of peace and they spent a great deal of time studying the writings of the ancients.

Related Reading

• The Essenes

Dead Sea

The Dead Sea – Don’t Let It Die!

Dead Sea image courtsey: wikipedia.org

‘Tirus and Tiriac’!

“In this (the Dead Sea) ‘Tirus’ the serpent (a mythical one) is found, and from him the ‘tiriac’ medicine is made. He is blind and full of venom that there is no remedy for his bite except cutting of the bitten part. He can only be taken by striking him and making him angry, then his venom flies in his head and tail” Bernard Breyden Bach. Dean of Mainz Press of Schoeffer (Mainz is a city in Germany on the bank of River Rhine).

Chimney of Hell!

This statement illustrates how intriguing this lake was (it still is). There are many other statements about this desolate sea; here is one ‘Dead Sea is a chimney of hell, the holy water of Jordan does not mingle with the cursed water of the infernal sea” (the holy water just gets sunk in to the bowel of the mother-earth without joining Dead Sea!). There are many other curses this poor lake has to bear!

A small big lake!

The Dead Sea is a medium sized lake situated between Israel and the West Bank, in size it is not comparable to the other biggies of the world like Lake Superior or the Caspian Sea; yet it is with some uniqueness no other water-bank on earth is endowed with. The Dead Sea plateau is the Earth’s lowest point of earth not covered by water or ice (only ocean floors are deeper) and it is the deepest among ‘hyper saline’ (with excessive salt content) with a depth of 1083 feet (330 meters).

Asal no match!

The Dead Sea is about 42 miles in length and the broadest portion is just 11 miles. It has got a total shore-length of 84 miles (135 kilometers) and about 8.6 times saltier than the ocean; there is only one water body on earth saltier than the Dead Sea, the Lake Asal of Djibouti which is much smaller and no match for Dead Sea!

Vanishes in the desert air.

The holy River Jordan is the only source of water on which this lake gets its life blood, but numerous irrigation projects set up on its banks rob the much needed water for the survival of this besieged lake. There is no problem of any outlet as this lake is situated in the deepest part of earth. The arid wind and the sizzling temperature of the area sucks whatever water it gets and much more; leaving it in a fast depleting state. The water level of this lake falls down by one meter in a year. Experts say by 2050 the present Dead Sea will get reduced in to a mere ugly salt pit; Heaven forbid!

Can’t drown!

The hyper salinity of the lake allows no living things (except some micro organisms) to thrive in it a fish put in to it will die of dehydration within minutes – hence the name Dead Sea, there is no fishing or a related activities existing on its shore. As the water of the sea contains numerous minerals in high concentration, is so dense and one cannot dip in to it as usual, the heavy water will eject him to the surface.

It is presumed that there are some medicinal properties to this water and the mud beneath. This belief has made health tourism flourish in this area and there are numerous spas providing healing service to tourists who flock from all parts of the world. There are one or two companies engaged in the business of extracting minerals to make fertilizer and some chemicals.

A cruel irony!

Moses image courtsey: abbeynews.com

References about the Dead Sea in the Bible are numerous and this lake is the epicenter of all the holy events and the related locations of all Semitic religions. It is on its shores that Moses along with his disciples wandered in search of the promised land. (Christianity, Judaism as well as Islam). It is a rare phenomenon that a particular location has given rise to three prominent religions that have played most prominent roles in shaping the destiny of the world (it remains a cruel irony that all these religions which preach peace and harmony miserably failed to establish a congenial atmosphere in these holy locations).

Salt rocks; Lot’s wife somewhere?

Salt Rock in Dead Sea image courtsey: einbokek.com

The story of Lot as described in the Bible is arises in the mind of a visitor to the shores of the lake. The ubiquitous salt rocks remind the cursed wife of Lot (who did nothing wrong other than just looking back) had to pay heavily for the feminine curiosity! Many still see a salt rock in the shape of that woman! (She should have spared at least considering the fact that she was a poor woman with some inquisitiveness, but there is no remedy to fate – man proposes god disposes; we are mere butterflies in the hands of children!)

An old soap opera.

Off late a set of scrolls found near to the Dead Sea has gained a lot of attention thanks to the book ‘The Davinci Code’. These scrolls are believed to be those gospels of the Disciples of Christ that were not included in the Bible. Known as the Gnostic gospels (esoteric (a knowledge shared by only limited number of people of a group) knowledge preached by a prominent heretical movement of the 2^nd century), there is much speculation among academics and scholars as to whether it shows the relationship between Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene in a more personal and intimate light.

Save The Dead Sea don’t let it die!

Whatever said and done the world cannot be a silent spectator when the Dead Sea is undergoing a slow death. It is time to pool in at least some of the resources and do something to save this ‘liquid history’ before it getting solidified! Fifty years of life forecast for this lake is too small a span for a great lake like Dead Sea. This Sea should be there for generations to see, as the locations around are associated with the events that shook and shaped the history of the world. They all still stand tall as if frozen; unaware of the time that has passed.

Build channels Aqaba and Mediterranean are not far away.

Map of Dead Sea courtsey: bible.ca

It is proposed to construct a tunnel or a channel from either Gulf of Aqaba or The Mediterranean Sea to this lake and refresh this lake with cool and clean sea water - making the Dead Sea ticking with life! Let us enjoy the sight of seeing happy fishermen casting their nets in this ‘living’ sea which is no more ‘dead’. A project that can be executed with a few billion dollars, a fraction of what is now spent for fighting wars in this forsaken land (not God-forsaken).

The author is requesting the co-operation of all bloggers’ communities for raising this idea for the prosperity and well-being of this portion of the land as well as for the whole earth. This article is dedicated to the idea of revival of this ‘sea’, an idea the time of which has come. Save the Sea that not yet dead!