In the years following the Jewish war for independence, often called the Maccabaean Revolt, devout Jews faced increasing pressure on their particular way of life. First the Greeks, then later the Romans introduced Western culture through law, art, language, and architecture into Palestine as a tool for binding these outlying areas into the empire.
From a traditional Jewish perspective the tendency of the chosen people to adopt the abominable practices of their pagan neighbors had been the overarching cause of the Jew's long history of suffering. From the desert wanderings under Moses, to the pattern of conquest, repentance, and re-conquest under the Judges, to the ultimate destruction of the Temple of Solomon and the exile in Babylon, the influence of gentile impurities had been their downfall.
To the pious Jew, particularly to those who called themselves Essenes, obedience to the law of God was not only a religious duty -- it was a matter of national security. If God were displeased with them, they would not prosper. Therefore, it was critical for them to remain unspotted by pagan influences to retain the blessing of God.
The Essenes responded to the increasing Hellinization and corruption of the priesthood and society in the years following the war for Jewish independence by seeking to completely remove themselves from the corrupting influence of their society and obey the Law with a militaristic strictness. The Essenes were “convinced that they represented the true Israel; therefore, their adherents were striving to adhere meticulously to the entire purity code mandated by the law.”[1] To them, the separation of the Pharisees – to live among the people and teach them to be righteous – was not enough. They considered the land to be so polluted by compromise and sin that the temple itself in Jerusalem was desecrated and they refused to worship there.[2] Their religious practices “while fundamentally Jewish nevertheless contained many extraneous features…[They] advocated a rigid observance of the Jewish law together with severe asceticism.”[3]
In his Wars of the Jews, Josephus names the Essenes as one of the three leading Jewish sects during the first century AD. He describes them as those who, “reject pleasures as evil but esteem continence…They neglect wedlock, but chose out other persons’ children, while they are pliable and fit for learning…and form them according to their manners.”[4] He goes on to describe their piety as “extraordinary” as they carry out a monastic-like existence of prayers before dawn, days filled with labor, and meals and worship shared simply and communally.[5] The Essenes lived in community, sharing everything they had in common with each other.
Some of the Essenes’ choice of living arrangements reflected their desire to be far removed from anything unrighteous. A number of them formed the Qumran community and lived a monastic existence in the desert along the banks of the Dead Sea. Membership into this Essene sect required giving up all one’s possessions, and a commitment to fully keep a complex array of ritual purification rites along with the requirements of the law.[6] Members of this community spent considerable time copying sacred texts which were later discovered and have come to be known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. Not all Essenes were wilderness dwellers, however. Many chose to live in cities and villages. It does seem clear that wherever they lived they shared a communal existence.
Those are the historical facts of the matter regarding the Essenes. Now allow me to pause for some application. There are a number of striking parallels in the challenges the Jews in the time before Christ faced as they grappled with how to live inside a culture generally opposed to their beliefs and our own challenges as Christians living inside an unfriendly culture. Like these Jews, remaining distinctive inside a go-with-the-flow society is critical to our identity and our mission as God's chosen people. Like these Jews, we must respond to the pressures of our culture in a way that is informed by our faith and our understanding of the Scripture. And, like these Jews, we are presented with the option of withdrawing from the mix of ideas and beliefs and building our own sub-culture as a coping mechanism.
While our places of worship may stand in close proximity to the culture at-large, in practice we create communities of our own far from the evil influences of pagan life where we can read, interact, speak, dine, watch, listen, and attend events - yes, even wear clothing - that indicate our disinterest in mingling with the world. Like the prophet Jonah, we seek a high and mighty vantage point from which we wait for the fire of God to fall.
It's true that we are not to be "of the world." However, we are expected to be "in the world." Jesus' prayers for his disciples and for those who would follow after them (Jesus prayed for you!) specifically requested that we not resort to isolation as a method of responding to the challenges of our times. His prayer takes on even greater impact considering the Essenes' method of dealing with their times - a method well known to his disciples:
I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but that you keep them safe from the evil one. They do not belong to the world just as I do not belong to the world. Set them apart in the truth; your word is truth. Just as you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world (John 17).
How did God send his son into the world? As a person. A real, live, flesh and blood person with emotions and with a body that was not immune to fatigue. Jesus "humbled himself" and "made himself low" without thought for himself. And he hung out with a rough crowd in a backwater, far-flung speck on the Roman map. And he stuck it out until the time came to lay his life down. And he laid it down. He "emptied himself." That is how God sent Jesus. That is how Jesus sends us.
Jesus does not pray that we will construct elaborate alternatives to the evils of culture so that we can prevent all contact with the unwashed masses. Jesus does not pray for us to be safe from the world, but that we'll be safe in it. Jesus does not pray that we will be isolated from the world, but that we will be insulated from the eroding influence of sin by the truth. The truth from God about our purpose for being alive and about the unhappy ruin caused by living our lives for the passing pleasures of sin with no thought of the eternity that awaits us just beyond our final breath.
That kind of living - living with something more than satisfying our own thirst for entertainment, ease, and recognition in view - will, as Jesus prayed, "set us apart." How many people do you know that really live that kind of life, yet still manage to be friendly, interesting, compassionate, and engaged in the real world around them? Now that's different! So different, dare I say, it might even be something like a city on a hill? That sounds a lot like Jesus.
Next time....We'll take a closer look at the Essenes' theology...and their lasting legacy on New Testament study...
[1] Conzelmann & Lindermann 138
[2] Ibid. 138
[3] Guthrie 569
[4] Wars 2.8.2
[5] Ibid. 2.8.5
[6] Conzelmann & Lindermann 139
This is part of a series looking at the origins and nature of two important Jewish political parties active during Jesus' ministry, the Pharisees and the Essenes. To see the panorama of BibleDig info on this topic, check out the BibleDig 360: Pharisees & Essenes.
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