In prior posts, I have discussed the possible connection between Enochian sects of Judaism and the Rechabite clans (or "guilds").
By referring to Boccaccini's marvelous _BEYOND THE ESSENE HYPOTHESIS_, I am careful to point out that Boccaccini would NOT agree with me that the Essenes came out of a Samaritan matrix. On page 29 he writes: "Epiphanius offers another piece of interesting evidence. As did other late Christian authors, he mistook the Essenes for a Samaritan sect, yet he located a "genos" of Jews with a strikingly similar name, the Ossaioi, in the vicinity of the Dead Sea (Haer. 19.1.1-4, 10)." The idea that the Essene movement had to be PARTICULARLY "Judah-ite" does not seem to cross Boccaccini's mind very seriously. And yet he notes comments about the ANTIQUITY of the Essenes that would, by definition, have to precede the emergence of Judah (the "son of Israel"): Page 24: "Pliny, takes pleasure in amazing his readers by saying of the Essenes "for thousands of centuries a people has existed that is eternal"..." Some modern readers are already quick to dismiss such comments as propaganda or error, and that the Essenes can only be defined within the confines of the JEWISH (i.e., Judah-ite) theology, if not the post-Maccabean Jewish theology! And yet the Boccaccini is perfectly comfortable discussing Enochian theology that precedes even the rise of the Zadokites. At some point, one has to wonder about the semantic confusion that could be standing in the way of seeing the multiple possibilities for interpreting the roots of Enochian sectarianism, and its influences on the rest of Hebrew thought. Historians point to the emphasis on Zadokites in the Dead Sea Scrolls as an indication that the Essenes were derived from group of Jewish Zadokite priests. In the past I have pointed out that another interpretation is that since the Essenes were a "voluntary" association, Zadokite priests could have elected to JOIN the Essenes, rather than the Essenes were established to protect Zadokite preeminence. But there are other solutions as well. After the rise of the Maccabeans and the Hasmoneans, the Samaritan temple was quite proud of the authenticity (which doesn't appear challenged) of their OWN Zadokite priesthood. This priesthood comes from a time that a Jewish high priest fled/moved to Samaria and established his lineage there. This is a slightly different "trajectory" from the rise of Dositheanism, where a devotion to the Jerusalem cultus is transplanted amongst Samaritans.... which creates "ethnically Samaritan" people who are "religiously Jewish". So now we have THREE possible avenues for the Zadokite presence moving into Samarian environs. And thus THREE possible ways for Samaritan Zadokites to become a part of the pan-Hebrew Essene movement. But *WAS* the Essene movement "pan-Hebrew"? The Suda/Suidas material explicitly says it was. It says that the Rechabites (certainly non-Jewish, but based on Jeremiah's discussion at least partly Hebrew) were the source of the Essenes. Here's a helpful URL on the Suda article: http://www.stoa.org/sol-bin//search.pl? Search for the "Epsilon" article number 3123. Search results for epsilon,3123 in Adler number: ------------------------------------------------ Headword: Essaioi Adler number: epsilon,3123 Translated headword: Essenes, Essaioi Translation: Jews, ascetics, who differ exceedingly from the Pharisees and scribes with reference to their mode of life;[1] progeny[2] of Jonadab, son of Rechab the righteous. They are fond of one another and more pious than others: they turn away from pleasure as from an evil, but they assume moderation, self-control, and the capacity not to succumb to passions as virtues. And marriage is despised among them, but taking to themselves other people's children while they are still young and teaching them, they consider them as kin, and stamp them with their own customs. And they reject all baseness and practice every other virtue. They cultivate moral speech, and are generally assiduous in contemplation. And hence they are called Essaioi, ["Sitters"][3] with the name signifying this, that is, [they are] contemplators.[4] Essaioi very much excel and are very much superior to the Pharisees in their mode of life.[5] Greek Original: Essaioi: Ioudaioi, ask�tai, Pharisai�n kai grammate�n t�n ask�sin ex epimetrou dianest�kotes, progonoi I�nadab, huiou Rhichab tou dikaiou. philall�loi kai t�n all�n eulabeis pleion: hoi t�n men h�don�n h�s kakian apostrephontai, t�n de s�phrosun�n kai enkrateian kai to m� tois pathesin hupopiptein aret�n hupolambanousi. kai gamos men par' autois huperoratai, allotrious de paidas neous eti proslambanomenoi kai didaskontes h�s sungeneis h�gountai kai tois �thesin heaut�n entupousi. kai pan aischron apoballontai kai pasan all�n aret�n exaskousin. hoi epimelountai t�s �thik�s lexe�s, the�riai de ta polla paramenousin. enthen kai Essaioi kalountai, touto d�lountos tou onomatos, toutesti the�r�tikoi. hoti Essaioi huperteroi sphodra kai lian huperkeimenoi t�n Pharisai�n kata t�n politeian. Notes: [1] Cf. epsilon 1632. [2] pro/gonoi in the sense of 'stepchildren.' [3] The implied pun for the term Essaioi is not immediately obvious. The translator has attempted to approximate the pun by linking the specific form of the Greek word to the term for sitting. In Hebrew, "sitting" also relates to "holding office", or priestly duties, as well as, presumably, perceived as being related to a "thinking" lifestyle, instead of a non-sitting, "active" lifestyle. It could thus be a pun aimed at the assembly-oriented element of the Essene community. In the Bible the people who hail from the "Son of Rechab" (i.e., Rechabites) can also be related to the term "sitting" via the Hebrew for "sitter" or "sojourner". To "sojourn" can be as simple as to "sit down" in the middle of an unclaimed part of a foreign land. [4] George the Monk, 1.328.7-10; 329.11-17; 344.19-21. [5] Quoted from phi 94. ########################## [END OF ARTICLE] Jeremiah's discussion of the Rechabites [who elsewhere are connected with the region of Hamath] explains that the Rechabites had retreated to Jerusalem to avoid Assyrian predations. But how had they become so closely involved with the Yahweh cult to receive the commendations of Jeremiah? Was there faith a recent acquisition? Or had it been acquired a generation or generations earlier? The Old Testament provides a clue; in 2 Kings 17 we read: 2 Kings 17:24-31 "The king of Assyria brought people from ... Hamath... and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites. They [Hamathites and others] took over Samaria...Then the king of Assyuria gave this order: 'Have one of the priests you took captive from Samaria go back to live there and teach the people what the god of the land requires.'...Nevertheless, each national group made its own gods in the several towns... the men from Hamath made Ashima [which is probably "a-shai-ma" a reference to the Caravan god Shai al Qaum, the "Rechabite" god who prohibited the consumption of wine"]. But the text continues in a strange duality: 2 Kings 17:32-34a They [the deportees, including those of Hamath] worshipped the Lord, but they also appointed all sorts of their own people to official for them as priests in the shrines... to this day they persist in their former practices." This then alternates with the opposing view contained in verse 34b: "They nieghter worship the Lord nor adhere to the decrees and ordinances, the laws and commands that the Lord gave the descendants of Jacob." This is then followed by yet ANOTHER contradictory doublet: 2 Kings 17:41 Part A - "Even while these people were worshipping the Lord... Part B - "they were serving their idols". And this is concluded with "To this day their children and grandchildren continue to do as their fathers did." This appears to be an "on point" explanation for how and where this alien "Rechabite" guild comes from. Their ancestors, being deported by the Assyrians from the home territories of the Rechabites (i.e., Hamath) are settled in Samaria and are taught the cult of Yahweh. And that despite their interest in Yahweh, they continue to include "alien" elements in their religious life. Later, as Assyrian hostilities begin to creep south again, eventually to swallow up even Jerusalem, they flee southwards, to a safe haven for Yahweh worshippers. Jeremiah is obviously impressed with them. [And I find it conceivable that Jeremiah is, himself, a highly placed Rechabite. But let's not digress.] Ezekiel's pro-Zadokite writings also takes note of an "alien" form of Yahweh worship, where "priests" turn their backs to the Temple and pray to the rising sun.... exactly the same devotional form as quoted by Josephus in his description of the Essenes of his day! Could Ezekiel and Jeremiah have represented rival priestly factions and traditions? Is there *ANY* evidence that there was opposition to Zadokites? Boccaccini does a brilliant job of showing that there WAS rivalry with the Zadokites. In fact, implicit in his writings is the idea that the Maccabees (and thus the Hasmoneans) could very well have been wrapped up in the Enochian brand of Judaism. This would explain why the last surviving Zadokite High Priest, Onias IV, never returns to his "rightful place" in Jeruslaem.... nor any of his heirs if he had any. It could be because the Enochian sect(s) had managed to assert their preeminence during the Zadokite moment of weakness. [This would be analogous to the Zadokites taking control from the Jerusalem "local elite" after returning from Persia. This remnant priesthood, probably connected in some way to the Tobiad family, had been literally driven out of the new Temple when they persistently tried to join in the newly re-invigorated Yawheh cult.] What does Boccaccini tell us about the conflict between the Zadokites and the Enochianism? And does it relate to the Essenes? On pages 77-78 he writes: "While the Samaritans were excluded from the Jerusalem temple and founded a schismatic community, a priestly opposition party took shape in Judaea and coalesced around ancient myths with Enoch as their hero....Whether Enochic Judaism emerged in the fourth or third century BCE [or before?!], one thing is certain: Enochic Judaism arose out of anti-Zadokite priestly circles that opposed the power of the priestly Zadokite establishment. The long debate in scholarship about whether the Enoch books come from priestly or antipriestly circles finds a consistent resolution when considering that the priestly nature of Enochic Judaism does not contradict its anti-priestly attitudes." "Enoch's "critique of the Jerusalem priestly establishment... takes seriously the priesthood's claim for itself and the importance of priestly duties and categories. This attitude is at once critical of the reality it sees in the temple and deeply devoted to the ideal of the temple understood in a quite concrete way." "At the roots of the Qumran community, therefore, is an ancient schism within the Jewish priesthood betwen Enochians and Zadokites. We do not know exactly who the Enochians were, whether they were gennealogically related to the Zadokites or were members of rival priestly families. Unlike the situation with the Samaritans, we have no evidence that the Enochians formed a schismatic community, in Palestine or elsewhere. The [early] Enochians were an opposition party within the temple elite, not a group of separatists." "[Enochian literature] .... testifies to a period of time when there was a dispute regarding the proper character of the priestly office, but when the discussion was still quite tame, and there was yet room for differences of opinion." [END OF CLIPS] The discussions over these differences would later become more polarized. But I recommend that a review of Enochian theology as it connects to the Essenes should not ignore the basic evidence that suggests Enochian thought, as well as Essenic thought, extended BEYOND the limits of the Judah-ite people..... into the Samaritan area where there was ALSO 1) a Rival Zadokite priesthood; 2) Samaritan devotees to Jewish theology (i.e., the Dositheans); 3) and a tradition of Rechabite/Samaritans, some of whom appear (per Ezra and Nehemiah) to have not only been part of the exile to Babylon, but also part of the RETURN from Persia! One might be in the habit of thinking Essene thought is UNIQUELY Judah-ite. And so I can understand the hesitancy to think that Jewish Essenes were just a sub-set of a general Essene movement. But I don't think a person can safely say that Enochian sectarianism is ALSO "uniquely" Judah-ite. In fact, it might be more of a hall-mark of NON-Jewish schools of devotion to Yahweh! George Brooks Tampa, FL For private reply, e-mail to George Brooks <[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. (PLEASE REMOVE THIS TRAILOR BEFORE REPLYING TO THE MESSAGE)
