Dear George,
things seem to be extremely complicated concerning the distinction between
the three groups
(maybe four? maybe dozens, to speak with
Johanan ben Zakai, who attributes the fall of Jerusalem to sectarian
divisions).
Communal life for instance
is characteristic not only for the Essenes as described by Philo and
Josephus,
but also, in a sense, for the Haverim, belonging to the Pharisaic group.
The Zadokites, against whom much of the polemic of the Rabbis
and the NT is directed - are they only the resurrection- and/or- the- oral-
Torah -denying group known through
the Greek transliteration as the Sadducees or do they include Essenes as
well?
If the authors of the scrolls found in Qumran included Essenes, than this
should be the case.
The point is, I think, to reconstitute the puzzle
and gain a dynamic image of the progressive divisions of the postexilic
Jewish society,
starting with the dispute of Esra-Nehemiah with intermarriage, priests that
can´t prove their origin
and the Samaritans
and ending with the expansions of Christianity in theHellenistic world.
What the definition of Essenes is concerned, my guess is that we have to go
back to the time
Josephus ( clearly an Essene sympathizers, if not a member of a group that,
as we´are told
included married people) says things started to go wrong with the
highpriestly institution.
This should take us back even to times long before the Hasmonean era, which
brought about another dissidence of
priests deriving their descendance from Zaddok. Understanding the priestly
impact on the Judean society of
the first postexilic times (and its political and ideological context) seems
to me to be essential in explaining the various divisions
taking place throughout the second temple period.
Methodoligically, I agree with you that we should concentrate mnore on
probabilities than on absolute - and as such inexistant -certanties.
Peter Janku
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