Re: orion-list Rethinking Essenes

[george.x.brooks]

Greg Doudna writes:
> 
> 6. Yet it is hardly likely that the Essenes would have come into 
> existence ex nihilo, from scratch, at the time of Herod. There are (a)
the > multiple  traditions that they existed forever, in large numbers;
(b) the 
> rabbinic  traditions have Menahem as a leading sage with many followers
before  he is exiled with his followers; (c) Josephus certainly considers

> the  Essenes  no less ancient than any of the other parties, etc.
[END OF TEXT]

I found Greg's points (including those that I do not quote above)
to be very important ruminations about the whole Essene problem.

And so I wonder if  there might be some profit to considering the idea
that "the Essenes" are NOT primarily a Jewish group.  How do I mean
this "wild" statement?

I mean this in the sense that the Essenes, in their "ancientness," may
well come from the time of Moses (or before)... BEFORE there
was something called "Judaism"..... even before there was something
that we might recognize as the Hebrew religion.

What if (and I know this is a big "if") the people we call Essenes
are an Israelite (or pre-Israelite) phenomenon that continued to operate
in parallel to the twists and turns in JEWISH religion?  We know
that there was still some sort of Hebrew religion (or more than
one) being practiced in the land north of Jerusalem.... even after
the Jews were exiled themselves.

What if the people WE think are "The Essenes" are, in fact, the
JEWISH wing of a much larger phenomenon?  When Josephus
describes his three sects, at one point he very oddly describes his
Jewish sect of the Essenes as JEWISH BORN.  But he does not
use the same description for the Pharisees or the Sadducees.
This is odd to the say the least.  He also goes on to say there is
ANOTHER kind of Essene that DOES marry.  But he does not
explain who these people are either.

After pondering this for a few years, and thinking about the few
patristic references that almost bizarrely link the term Essene with
a Samaritan sect, I began to wonder.  What IF the Essenes were
a regional development that is BIGGER than just the House of
Judah?  And it is the JEWISH practice of Essene-ism that we
**think** is the entire Essene movement?

Could the Hasidim that the Maccabee texts mention be an infusion
of this strange "Esoteric" non-Judah-ite group of Essenes?  I had
to wonder.  But when I stumbled across the Greek Suda's reference
to the Essenes it point blank attributes the source of the Essenes to
a little known people called the Rechabites.  Bunk?  What if it is
a correct statement?

The Rechabites were a non-Hebrew collection of clans that
the Bible wants to link to the Midianites (a pre-Moses source
of religious inspiration?).  They sojourned with the Hebrew.
A branch of these Midianites settled down with the Hebrew
(to eventually be called the Rechabites).  Chronicles mentions
them in association with the Bible's ONLY references to *clans*
of Scribes (three of them!).  And in Maccabees we find the Hasidim
mysteriously linked to a group called the Scribes.  Coincidence?

Talmud also specifically says that the sons and daughters of
the Rechabites married the daughters and sons of the High
Priest(s).   Now we have a *priestly* connection to at least
some of the Rechabites.

So there seems to be lots of interesting opportunities for the
Rechabites to have interacted with the Jewish history.  And
this is just the part of the Rechabites that became tied to the
Jerusalem cultus.

There is also the rather interesting connection of other
Essene-like semitic groups that are friendly to the Hebrew,
but NEVER join the cultus.  And perhaps some that are
NOT friendly.  The Nabataeans, for a few hundred years
before they become agriculturalists themselves, follow
the exact same prohibitions that the Jewish-linked Rechabites
follow:  1) no grapes, 2) no farming, and 3) no living in houses.

This "Rechabite style" of life may, in fact, be VERY ancient.
Perhaps this is the source of the Nazirite taboo against consuming
grapes?  This too is a very old layer in the Bible.... and it doesn't
seem to have anything to do with Moses' time in Egypt.  Could
this be one of the things that the Midianite Jethro taught Moses?

I know there is plenty of speculation in all of this.  But these ideas
do respond to the idea that the Essenes were ages old... and seem
to present a rather large presence (for just a group that is supposed
to be only 4,000 strong) ... while at the same time trying to explain
where they might have been during the time spans of the stories
related by Josephus.

It may be that The Essenes "fade into the background" during 
some of these stories because they, at one point or another,
blend into the "Samaritan" background of the period or the
region.  After all, they are not "really" Jewish.

I look forward to discussing the strengths and weaknesses
of this HUGE speculation!

George Brooks
Tampa, FL

For private reply, e-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
----------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from Orion, e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the
message: "unsubscribe Orion." Archives are on the Orion Web
site, http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il.