Bible Dig continues to look at the Essenes - an influential Jewish sect at the time of Christ. In this post we look into the Essenes' background to explore a couple of questions: How did their beliefs impact the content of Jesus' teaching and the New Testament? Did Jesus borrow some of His theology from this small but vocal group of religious purists?
The Essenes’ theology was the motivation for their quest for extreme perfection in their observance of the law. Central to their theology was their view that they were living in the final days of human history. To them, “light and darkness are in conflict with one another…the children of light are being separated from the children of darkness, and every individual ultimately must decide his allegiance to either of the two groups.”[1] They, who had removed themselves from the evil influences of a corrupt society, would soon be rewarded for remaining a faithful remnant. Like the prophet Jonah, they had found a place to watch the unfaithful masses bear the force of God’s righteous wrath.
Key to the Essenes’ beliefs was a messianic hope. The Essenes anticipated the advent of two messiahs – one priestly and one political – as well as a “Teacher of Righteousness.” These eschatological concepts bear a striking similarity to Jesus’ teachings. The notion of an impending separation of the righteous and unrighteous bears a striking similarity to Jesus’ parable of the sheep and the goats. And the emphasis on an individual’s responsibility to determine their own eternal fate seems to parallel the Christian idea of a personal salvation. This emphasis on the individual by the Essenes and Christians, it must be noted, is in contrast to the Pharisaic view that an increase of the total righteousness of the Jewish nation would result in the renewal of God’s favor upon his people.
The similarities between the Essenes and Jesus have caused some to posit a link between the two, or that Jesus was somehow informed by the eschatology of the Essenes. While no doubt Jesus was aware of their ideas, it may be more reasonable to observe that both Jesus and the Essenes were working from the same Torah. Since both were working from the same source material, it is possible that they were merely picking up on major themes in the Torah. Jesus’ insistence on interacting with sinners demonstrates that while he may have agreed with some of their theological conclusions, he soundly rejected their notion of segregation from any and all unrighteousness.
Qumran documents reveal that strong disagreements developed between the Essenes of that community and with the Pharisees on matters regarding the practice of the Jewish religion and portray a gravely pious, closely-knit sect who believed that God’s eminent judgment about to fall upon the sinful Gentiles and the apostate Jewish nation.
The Qumran scrolls show that conflict over the proper calendar (i.e., a solar or lunar calendar) for the conduct of Temple sacrifices was a major issue dividing the Qumran Essenes from their rivals, the Pharisees…They were strongly influenced by apocalyptic ideas and considered themselves to be living in the last times, just before God would intervene to restore proper order to the world. They supported their ideas in part by writing commentaries on biblical texts, which they read as referring to themselves and their opponents.[2]
They believed very strongly that by individual purity and righteousness, they would be numbered among the faithful when the messiahs came to exercise judgment on the earth against Israel’s enemies.
The language contained in some Essene literature has been used to support an earlier (more conservative) date for the authorship of John. More liberal scholars have suggested that John’s writings must have been penned sometime after the first century because of John’s use of language that seems to come from the later teachings of the Gnostics. However, examination of the Dead Sea Scrolls reveal that some of these themes such as light versus darkness and truth versus error were concepts familiar to the Essene tradition at the time of Christ.[3]
In his discussion of the background of John’s gospel, Guthrie later says that, “Some of the features of the Qumran literature find echoes in John and, although some scholars have made exaggerated claims…there can be no doubt that these recently discovered MSS have influenced the general approach to John’s gospel. It is no longer convincing to maintain that the gospel is wholly Hellenistic in view of the fact that many of the abstract concepts which were characteristic of Greek thought are also found in the Qumran literature.”[4] Though the Essenes are absent by name from the pages of the New Testament, their contribution to biblical study through the manuscripts they have left behind is vastly helpful to our understanding of the life and times of Christ.
[1] Conzelmann & Lindermann 139
[2] Coogan xxviii
[3] Guthrie 293
[4] Guthrie 339-40
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