To Be or Not to Be Essene - That is the Question

An old debate brought back into the spotlight by Rachel Elior's comments as described in this article in the Jerusalem Post. Don't ever be fooled by a "scholarly" exterior. Scholars and archaeologists are the most passionate of beings! May 7, 2009 10:26 A priestly library By ABRAHAM RABINOVICH Prof. Rachel Elior set scholarly nerves jangling on several continents last month when she not only denied that the Dead Sea Scrolls were authored by the ascetic Essene sect, as is widely believed, but suggested that the Essenes never existed. "The whole story of the Essenes is imaginary," she said. "It's clear that the library at Qumran is a priestly library." Elior makes a convincing case that many of the scrolls found at Qumran reflect in terminology and spirit the worldview of the "sons of Zadok," priests who seceded from Temple service in the Hasmonean period because the high priesthood had been usurped by non-Zadokites. (This "secessionist" group is distinct, she points out, from those members of the Sadducee (Zadokite) aristocracy who remained in Jerusalem and who were described by Josephus and in the New Testament.) Elior is not the first scholar to argue against the Qumran-Essene connection. Half a century ago, Prof. Moshe Gottstein of Hebrew University rejected the idea and other scholars ascribed some of the scrolls to Zadokites. A decade ago, Prof. Norman Golb of the University of Chicago roiled the scholarly waters by asserting that Qumran had not housed Essenes and that the scrolls had not been written there. They had been brought to Qumran from the libraries of Jerusalem, he said, to be hidden in the surrounding caves as the Romans approached. In a curious episode reflecting the passions that still surround the scrolls, Golb's son, Raphael, was detained by police in New York recently on suspicion of impersonating other scholars on the Internet in an attempt to influence the Essene debate in support of his father. Two archeologists who excavated at Qumran for 10 years concluded that there was no Essene settlement there, contrary to the broad consensus that still prevails among other relevant archaeologists and scholars. What provoked headlines in the international press was Elior's questioning of the very existence of the Essenes. "The Torah forbids celibacy except in rare cases," she said. "It's inconceivable that there are thousands of men living like that and that there is not a single Jewish source referring to such a group. The name Essene does not even appear in any Hebrew or Aramaic text." The Essenes were first mentioned by the Jewish philosopher Philo who lived in Alexandria in the mid-first century CE. A few years later they were also mentioned by the Roman historian Pliny and then by the Jewish historian Josephus. "I believe that Philo was describing an ideal society he imagined," said Elior, "and that Pliny did likewise." It is more difficult to dismiss testimony by Josephus, generally a reliable historian, who not only lived in the country, unlike Philo or Pliny, but claimed to have been educated by Essenes during his youth. Elior supports the notion originally suggested by Prof. Steve Mason of Canada that Josephus, writing in Rome years after the destruction, may have promoted an Essene myth to depict the Jews to the Romans in a favorable light as idealists and spartan. Elior will have difficulty persuading her colleagues on this point but it is a marginal issue, in fact a non-issue, in the broad sweep of her groundbreaking work describing the reshaping of the Jewish religion as it turned away from the dictates of angels and toward human reason.

The Essenes Are Baloney! Claims Archaeologist

Nothing like Middle East archaeology to stir up a little controversy among the usually pretty laid-back realms of archaeology! The mental images of "scholars in uproar" makes me double over laughing! And that the archaeologist putting forth the new hypothesis causing all of the uproar is a female - well - PRICELESS! I can hardly wait to see how this all works out - but I'll probably be dead by then (50 to 100 years from now). Drat! I need a crash course in reincarnation... From The Times On Line (where else???) From The Times March 18, 2009 Scholars in uproar over challenge to Dead Sea Scrolls For more than 60 years scholars have believed that the Dead Sea Scrolls were the work of an ascetic Jewish sect called the Essenes, who lived in the 1st century in the mountains and recorded their religious observances on parchments. Now a new theory challenging the broadly accepted history is sending shockwaves through the archaeological community, even leading to the arrest of one prominent scrolls scholar’s son in the United States. Rachel Elior, a professor of Jewish philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, claims in a forthcoming study that not only were the 930 scrolls written by Jewish priests living in Jerusalem but that the Essenes as a sect did not exist. In her new book Memory and Oblivion, Professor Elior says that the scrolls were written by the Sadducees, a class of Jewish priests dating back to the time of King Solomon. The scrolls were found by a shepherd in a cave at Qumran, on the edge of the Dead Sea, in 1947. One of the most important archaeological finds of the century, their significance was enhanced by the discovery of an untouched version of the Hebrew Bible dating back to 300BC. Some scholars believe that the obscure sect may have had an impact on early Christianity, positing that John the Baptist or even Jesus may have spent time with them. Professor Elior argues, however, that an analysis of the scrolls shows that the authors were recording the routines and practises of the cohanim, or priests, descended from Zadok, the first high priest in Jerusalem after the conquest of the city by the Israelites hundreds of years before. She believes they were taken to Qumran some time during the 2nd century BC after the Sadducees turned their backs on the Temple of Jerusalem, which they said had been defiled by the conquest of the Seleucid Greeks, the descendants of one of the generals of Alexander the Great, in 175BC. “I believe any serious scholar truly can’t but admit that the law reflected in the scrolls is a Sadducee law,” she said, pointing out that there were no corroborating historical records, either in Jewish or early Christian literature, to indicate that a large sect of celibate men lived in the area over a long period of time. “The Essenes are only a literary invention of a Utopian society that lived a most benevolent and chaste life,” she told The Times. The confusion arose from scholars using other, later texts as their sources, she said, noting that the Jewish-Roman scholar Josephus mentioned them, but that he was writing hundreds of years later. The professor also noted that when the texts were unearthed in 1947, the area around Jerusalem was caught up in the war that created the Jewish state, and that early hurried assessment of their origin set scholars on the wrong track for decades. The theory has stirred controversy in academic circles, with established scrolls experts vehemently rejecting the new interpretation. “Almost seventy scholars accept the statement that one of the Essenes’ groups lived in Qumran, and some say we’re all morons and only they understand,” Hanan Eshel, a professor at Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv, told the Haaretz newspaper. The debate has even led to the arrest of the son of one proponent of the theory that the Essenes did not write the ancient scriptures. Raphael Golb, the son of Norman Golb, a professor at Chicago University, was arrested in New York this month for allegedly creating online aliases and conducting a campaign of harassment against academic opponents of his father’s theories. Father and son claimed that members of mainstream academia were trying to silence the professor. The younger Mr Golb reportedly accused his father’s critics of being anti-Semites trying to deny the link between the scrolls and established Jewish institutions. Monastic mystery — The Essenes are believed to have been a religious sect in Palestine from about the 2nd century BC to the end of the 1st century AD — The New Testament makes no mention of them, and accounts by Pliny the Elder, Philo of Alexandria and Josephus differ in significant details — Pliny, in his day, fixed their number at 4,000. They are thought to have moved to the desert in opposition to the powers in Jerusalem and lived in secluded monastic communities — It is believed that they considered themselves to be a chosen elect and that messianic figures would appear to them and usher in a new age, and that they spent their days engaged in manual work or study of Scripture — After a year’s probation, converts received emblems but were banned from common meals for two years — Those who qualified then swore piety to God, justice towards men, hatred of falsehood and faithful observance of the tenets Source: www.britannica.com ****************************************************************************** I found this first comment on the story made online at the newspaper's website point on - and it happens to coincide with the philosophy of the researchers at Goddesschess who are exploring the origins of chess and other ancient board games: a lot of accepted antiquities "standards" eg chronology are based on surprisingly flimsy evidence, often just some 19th century German theorist's opinion, who had information second or third-hand. The Egyptian chronology is a good example and David Rohl has done a great job of demolishing it. Justin Toffmann, Cologne, Germany Jan says: Just because it's accepted as "truth" today does not mean it's correct; what is accepted as "truth" today is tomorrow's discarded hypothesis. We've seen this over and over again in the world of science (both hard and "soft" sciences) and chess historians should keep this in mind.