Rohm 2/17
>Well, yes, they were. But the difference between the Qumran sect and the
>"Christians" was that they did not follow Paul's pagan-influenced teachings
>of a Christ/Messiah being a divine redeemer. Rather, they believed the
>Christ was what Judaism taught - a God-favoured king who would save the
>Jews from Gentile persecution and destroy the Roman Empire's grip on the
>Jews, and make Israel its own country again, under the rule of this
>offspring of David.
<snip>
CASEY (2/18)
It seems that there is some question as to whether or not the Essenes actually
had anything to do with the scrolls.
For a slightly different 'take' on the Essene question, the following is
from the book *Testament:The Bible and History* by John Romer, (Henry Holt
and Co., 1988).
"Pliny had described the Essenes as living under palm trees, without money
or women, and at Khirbat Qumran the archaeologists had found exactly the
reverse.
Women were buried in the settlement cemetery, money was stashed under the
floors, and there had never been any palm trees growing on the dry desert
bluff." (pg.140)
"Slowly, as more of the Dead Sea Scrolls are studied, younger scholars are
questioning the connection of the scrolls with the Essenes. There is a
growing belief that the scrolls were not written in the Qumran scriptorium,
nor were they placed in the caves by the members of a schismatic sect; in
the words of
one doubting scholar, 'that was nothing but science fiction.' The ancient
Essenes, it has been pointed out, were quite a large, probably international,
organization. They were sufficiently well-known for Pliny to have heard of
them, and Josephus describes them as people of the 'third way' after the
Sadducees and the Pharisees. Even if Khirbat Qumran could be proved to have
belonged to the Essenes, it must have been an extremely insignificant part of
their organization. The Essene headquarters were certainly at Jerusalem. Quite
possibly the Dead Sea Scrolls had connections with an Essene library, and
several other religious libraries, but this is pure speculation." (pgs.142-143)
Chuck Casey
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