Can anyone tell me more about the Essenes? All I can find is that they were Jewish monastic group practicing ritual purity and personal holiness. Are they still in existence? What personal holiness do they practice?
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Essenes
- Thread starter sklippstein
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Nope they died out. No wives = no kids. 
They were a sect that separated out from mainstream Judaism a few centuries before Jesus when they felt that the purity and sanctity of the Temple worship was violated by non-Levite priests (namely, the Maccabee high priest). They instead instituted their own rituals centering around the communal meals which substituted for the Temple worship.
They believed that they alone would be saved out of all the Jews and that the Messianic age was at hand, I believe.
Now I just typed all that b/c I was too lazy to go look up a site for you... now I'm going to go look up a site LOL cause I don't remember more than that
They were a sect that separated out from mainstream Judaism a few centuries before Jesus when they felt that the purity and sanctity of the Temple worship was violated by non-Levite priests (namely, the Maccabee high priest). They instead instituted their own rituals centering around the communal meals which substituted for the Temple worship.
They believed that they alone would be saved out of all the Jews and that the Messianic age was at hand, I believe.
Now I just typed all that b/c I was too lazy to go look up a site for you... now I'm going to go look up a site LOL cause I don't remember more than that
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lol.......ok good, cuz i have more questions! Did they believe in Jesus or that he was the Messiah?
You mentioned that the had their "own rituals around the communial supper", what were these rituals?
You mentioned that the had their "own rituals around the communial supper", what were these rituals?
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on the ancient Essenes (particularly the subgroup at Qumran)
and... also what looks like a resurrection or adaptation of the Essene way in modern day: www.essene.com
One thing that bothers me (and so I'll of course mention it here ) is that a lot of TV people like to say that early Christians were really Essene converts because they ate communal meals and had a few other similarities in common. It's simply not realistic, and not in the least bit proven, so a caution to you - don't believe everything you read on them. It makes good publicity to emphasize the role of the Essenes - and I can even see John the Baptist being Essene - but the rest is, in my opinion, a big stretch. They were a separatist desert sect.
and... also what looks like a resurrection or adaptation of the Essene way in modern day: www.essene.com
One thing that bothers me (and so I'll of course mention it here
) is that a lot of TV people like to say that early Christians were really Essene converts because they ate communal meals and had a few other similarities in common. It's simply not realistic, and not in the least bit proven, so a caution to you - don't believe everything you read on them. It makes good publicity to emphasize the role of the Essenes - and I can even see John the Baptist being Essene - but the rest is, in my opinion, a big stretch. They were a separatist desert sect.
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MissytheButterfly
Back and Better than EVER!
Here is the definition of Essene from the Webster's Revised Unabrided dictionary.
\Es*sene"\, n.; pl. Essenes. [Gr. ?, lit., physicians, because they practiced medicine, fr. Chald [=a]say[=a] to heal, cf. Heb. as[=a].] One of a sect among the Jews in the time of our Savior, remarkable for their strictness and abstinence.
Here is some other info about Essenes just in case you don't want to have to sift through websites:
Since the archaeological discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1946, the word "Essene" has made its way around the world--often raising a lot of questions. Many people were astonished to discover that, two thousand years ago, a brotherhood of holy men and women, living together in a community, carried within themselves all of the seeds of Christianity and of future western civilization. This brotherhood--more or less persecuted and ostracized--would bring forth people who would change the face of the world and the course of history. Indeed, almost all of the principal founders of what would later be called Christianity were Essenes--St. Ann, Joseph and Mary, John the Baptist, Jesus, John the Evangelist, etc.
The Essenes considered themselves to be a separate people--not because of external signs like skin color, hair color, etc., but because of the illumination of their inner life and their knowledge of the hidden mysteries of nature unknown to other men. They considered themselves to be also a group of people at the center of all peoples--because everyone could become part of it, as soon as they had successfully passed the selective tests.
They thought, and rightly so, that they were the heirs of God's sons and daughters of old, the heirs to their great ancient civilization. They possessed their advanced knowledge and worked assiduously in secret for the triumph of the light over the darkness of the human mind.
They felt that they had been entrusted with a mission, which would turn out to be the founding of Christianity and of western civilization. They were supported in this effort by highly evolved beings who directed the brotherhood. They were true saints, Masters of wisdom, hierophants of the ancient arts of mastery.
They were not limited to a single religion, but studied all of them in order to extract the great scientific principles. They considered each religion to be a different stage of a single revelation. They accorded great importance to the teachings of the ancient Chaldeans, of Zoroaster, of Hermes Trismegiste, to the secret instructions of Moses and of one of the founding Masters of their order who had transmitted techniques similar to those of Buddhism, as well as to the revelation of Enoch.
They possessed a living science of all of these revelations.
Thus, they knew how to communicate with angelic beings and had solved the question of the origin of evil on the earth.
One of their major preoccupations was to protect themselves from any contact with evil spirits, in order to preserve the purity of their souls. They knew that they would only be on earth for a short time, and they did not want to prostitute their eternal souls. It was this attitude, this strict discipline, this absolute refusal to lie or compromise, that made them the object of so much persecution through the ages.
The Essenes considered themselves the guardians of the Divine Teaching. They had in their possession a great number of very ancient manuscripts, some of them going back to the dawn of time. A large portion of the School members spent their time decoding them, translating them into several languages, and reproducing them, in order to perpetuate and preserve this advanced knowledge. They considered this work to be a sacred task.
The above is an excerpt from "The Essenes" and the "Teachings of Jesus the Essene" by Olivier Manitara
\Es*sene"\, n.; pl. Essenes. [Gr. ?, lit., physicians, because they practiced medicine, fr. Chald [=a]say[=a] to heal, cf. Heb. as[=a].] One of a sect among the Jews in the time of our Savior, remarkable for their strictness and abstinence.
Here is some other info about Essenes just in case you don't want to have to sift through websites:
Since the archaeological discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1946, the word "Essene" has made its way around the world--often raising a lot of questions. Many people were astonished to discover that, two thousand years ago, a brotherhood of holy men and women, living together in a community, carried within themselves all of the seeds of Christianity and of future western civilization. This brotherhood--more or less persecuted and ostracized--would bring forth people who would change the face of the world and the course of history. Indeed, almost all of the principal founders of what would later be called Christianity were Essenes--St. Ann, Joseph and Mary, John the Baptist, Jesus, John the Evangelist, etc.
The Essenes considered themselves to be a separate people--not because of external signs like skin color, hair color, etc., but because of the illumination of their inner life and their knowledge of the hidden mysteries of nature unknown to other men. They considered themselves to be also a group of people at the center of all peoples--because everyone could become part of it, as soon as they had successfully passed the selective tests.
They thought, and rightly so, that they were the heirs of God's sons and daughters of old, the heirs to their great ancient civilization. They possessed their advanced knowledge and worked assiduously in secret for the triumph of the light over the darkness of the human mind.
They felt that they had been entrusted with a mission, which would turn out to be the founding of Christianity and of western civilization. They were supported in this effort by highly evolved beings who directed the brotherhood. They were true saints, Masters of wisdom, hierophants of the ancient arts of mastery.
They were not limited to a single religion, but studied all of them in order to extract the great scientific principles. They considered each religion to be a different stage of a single revelation. They accorded great importance to the teachings of the ancient Chaldeans, of Zoroaster, of Hermes Trismegiste, to the secret instructions of Moses and of one of the founding Masters of their order who had transmitted techniques similar to those of Buddhism, as well as to the revelation of Enoch.
They possessed a living science of all of these revelations.
Thus, they knew how to communicate with angelic beings and had solved the question of the origin of evil on the earth.
One of their major preoccupations was to protect themselves from any contact with evil spirits, in order to preserve the purity of their souls. They knew that they would only be on earth for a short time, and they did not want to prostitute their eternal souls. It was this attitude, this strict discipline, this absolute refusal to lie or compromise, that made them the object of so much persecution through the ages.
The Essenes considered themselves the guardians of the Divine Teaching. They had in their possession a great number of very ancient manuscripts, some of them going back to the dawn of time. A large portion of the School members spent their time decoding them, translating them into several languages, and reproducing them, in order to perpetuate and preserve this advanced knowledge. They considered this work to be a sacred task.
The above is an excerpt from "The Essenes" and the "Teachings of Jesus the Essene" by Olivier Manitara
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Missy and Ruhama, ty very much for this information. I was looking for them in the bible, but could not find them........are they mentioned? AND why did they die off.......what happened to them?
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Missy...
That was actually from the exact site I was trying to get him to avoid...
No offense, but some of that is completely untrue:
that and that they lived in communal groups of men and women (well - some appear to have tolerated some sort of marriage but by far it was not the dominant practice)...
As to why they're not in the Bible, well - they're not in the OT because the OT finished getting written before the Essenes appeared (i.e. after the Maccabbees). Not in the NT I expect b/c they were a fringe group, and not much that isn't directly relevant to the story line in the Gospels seems to make it in.
That was actually from the exact site I was trying to get him to avoid...
No offense, but some of that is completely untrue:
that and that they lived in communal groups of men and women (well - some appear to have tolerated some sort of marriage but by far it was not the dominant practice)...
....
As to why they're not in the Bible, well - they're not in the OT because the OT finished getting written before the Essenes appeared (i.e. after the Maccabbees). Not in the NT I expect b/c they were a fringe group, and not much that isn't directly relevant to the story line in the Gospels seems to make it in.
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as to the rest, sklippstein, I am going to leave you to do your own google searches... The sect died out around the time of the first Jewish Revolt I believe, kinda for obvious reasons. Hard to maintain a cult in the desert when there are Roman soldiers looking to kill you.
The sect died out around the time of the first Jewish Revolt I believe, kinda for obvious reasons. Hard to maintain a cult in the desert when there are Roman soldiers looking to kill you.
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MissytheButterfly
Back and Better than EVER!
Errr..I don't know if it's true or not..but no offense to you either but I don't know if what you have is true either.. I just copied and pasted it..that's it.. and since I am not an Essene couldn't tell ya. Just trying to help.. but you could always email the site...
Missy
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well... to start off with that site sounds kinda culty to me.
That to me sets off the bias of the site pretty clearly... I dunno, I didn't mean to be harsh, and you're right, I don't know everything about the Essenes, but I have studied them in some depth before and nothing on that site meshed with any of what I'd learned or seen, and in fact it made a big thing of one thing that I know to be pure media hype.
That to me sets off the bias of the site pretty clearly... I dunno, I didn't mean to be harsh, and you're right, I don't know everything about the Essenes, but I have studied them in some depth before and nothing on that site meshed with any of what I'd learned or seen, and in fact it made a big thing of one thing that I know to be pure media hype.
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Ruh:
That was actually from the exact site I was trying to get him to avoid...
him?.........i'm female
That was actually from the exact site I was trying to get him to avoid...
him?.........i'm female
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lol oh yeah... 
everybody's a he! I don't care if you have a little female symbol on your profile, no!
er... yes. My apologies.
everybody's a he! I don't care if you have a little female symbol on your profile, no!
er... yes. My apologies.
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IIRC the Qumran sect was entirely chaste but the main Essenes did believe in marriage. They were just always a small group and really wanted to replace the corrupt Sadducees. When Jerusalem was destroyed though there was nothing left to replace and the group was devestated. Hard to be a temple orientated sect when there is no temple.
Of all the figures in the NT, Yochanan (John) the Baptist was the most likely to be an Essene from the description.
Its been a long while and most of what I learned came from a tour of the Israel musuem where I saw sections of the dead sea scrolls.
Of all the figures in the NT, Yochanan (John) the Baptist was the most likely to be an Essene from the description.
Its been a long while and most of what I learned came from a tour of the Israel musuem where I saw sections of the dead sea scrolls.
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MissytheButterfly
Back and Better than EVER!
And as I stated, you could always email the site and let the writers know what you don't agree with..
Take care,
Missy
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