Jesus and the Essenes

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One such group is the Essene Church of Christ, which declares itself to be “the authorized custodians and chief disseminators of the true teachings of Lord Christ and Lady Christ. Reflecting on the national disasters – foreign invasions – of the nation of Israel, the Prophets of Israel had predicted that God would intervene in human history one more time, in the final days.

The name 'Essene' remains a problematic debate among scholars; the word itself does not appear in Essene manuscripts but only in the writings of outsiders. Although based on what they understood as a form of Judaism at the time, Essene notions of ritual purification were infused with a sense of impending chaos and societal collapse. A further insight into Gnostic beliefs is provided by sources dealing with Manicheism, one of the most famous Gnostic sects in late antiquity. And certain features of the early Christian community in Jerusalem seem to have echos of Essene influence, as Capper has shown. xxii] Indeed, John the Baptist and Jesus were both raised within the Essene community although “John was more the Essene than Jesus.He is the author of Jesus, Q, and the Dead Sea Scrolls: A Judaic Approach to Q, The Nonviolent Messiah: Jesus, Q, and the Enochic Tradition, and Jesus and the Temple: The Crucifixion in Its Jewish Context.

Some modern scholars and archeologists have argued that Essenes inhabited the settlement at Qumran, a plateau in the Judean Desert along the Dead Sea, citing Pliny the Elder in support and giving credence that the Dead Sea Scrolls are the product of the Essenes. He regarded the Therapeutae as a contemplative branch of the Essaioi who, he said, pursued an active life. Ever since, the relationship between Jesus and the Essenes has been a prominent feature in western esotericism, which is presumably why it has attracted such academic disdain. The Magharians or Magarites ( Arabic: Al-Maghariyyah, 'people of the caves') [96] were, according to Jacob Qirqisani, a Jewish sect founded in the 1st century BCE.There was a community in Jerusalem; one of the gates into the city was known as the Essene Gate in the 1st century. The process of writing down the Oral Law, although primarily a scholarly activity, had tremendous implications for the next stage of Jewish history by providing a structure to replace Temple rituals.

The Essene movement likely originated as a distinct group among Jews during Jonathan Apphus' time, driven by disputes over Jewish law and the belief that Jonathan's high priesthood was illegitimate.xx] On one hand, however, these readings reflect what seems like genuine faithfullness to the Gospel narratives of Jesus’ birth, life, and death, especially the Nativity stories of the Virgin Birth, Jesus’ Davidic lineage, the Inn at Bethlehem, the visit of Wise Men, the Slaughter of the Innocents, and the Flight to Egypt. Jesus could simply refer to the more widespread practice with no awareness that some group opposed it.