Essenes

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A religious group in ancient Judaism before the destruction of the Second Jerusalem Temple (70 AD) is referred to as Essene or Essene , whose main theological motives were the 'messianic imminence' and the 'criticism of the impure temple cult' in Jerusalem .

According to various statements by contemporary authors, they followed strict, sometimes ascetic, rules of life. There is no evidence of their existence other than this literary evidence. The thesis, which has been influential since 1952, that they are identical or related to the residents of Qumran ("Qumran Essenes") and the manufacturers and authors of some or all of the Dead Sea Scrolls , is today relativized or disputed based on the findings.

The grouping was described by Philo of Alexandria , Pliny the Elder, and Flavius ​​Josephus , and was one in the 2nd century BC. A Jewish religious order established in Palestine in the 4th century , which cultivated a form of increased Pharisaism , but was possibly also influenced by Parsism , Pythagoreanism and Buddhism . In addition to the Essenes and the Qumran group, the Nazorae group is also mentioned , which should have been close to the Essenes. The Essenes can to a certain extent be viewed as an association that was similar to the later monastic orders, but which did not correspond to the Jewish self-image of the time.

etymology

The origin and meaning of the names for the group are unknown. Some authors suggest that they are from the Hebrew expression ( Hebrew עוֹשֵׂה הַתּוֹרָה oseh hatorah ) to derive "perpetrators of the Torah". This expression is absent in the writings found at Qumran; where it appears from time to time, it is not assigned to any particular group, since all Jews had to obey the Torah.

Others suspect the origin of the name from the Aramaic hasin and the Hebrew equivalent hasidim (pious), so assume a proximity of the Essenes to the around 300 BC. Hasideans ("Hasidim") who emerged in Judaism .

The name "Essener" can be derived etymologically from Aramaic (Aramaic חזן ḥāzên "pure, holy"). According to the community rule (1QS) found in Qumran , the group there referred to itself as "unity" (Aramaic יחד jāḥad "unity").

In Greek this group was called Essaioi ( ancient Greek Ἐσσηνοί ) or Essenoi , in Latin Essei or Esseni . The Christian bishop Epiphanius of Salamis (315-403) differentiated Jessaioi , Samaritan Essaioi and Judean Ossaioi from one another.

Way of life

The male-dominated group of Essenes lived in the idea of ​​belonging to the “last true believers of their time” and thus also the “last believers at the end of time”. One of their end-time teachings was the idea of ​​the resurrection of the flesh. They also expected a world-shaking battle between the 'forces of good' and the 'armies of evil' as a portent of the end-time catastrophe.

Novices who wanted to join the community had to swear an oath in front of the members of the community that they would honor the deity, fulfill their duties to man, that they would not harm anyone, whether of their own accord or on command, always the unjust hated and stood by the righteous, and wanted to practice loyalty to everyone and especially to those of higher rank.

A central feature of their strictly defined everyday life were the daily ablutions , which were probably based on the mikveh , a daily cult meal and the precisely defined social hierarchy were also characteristic. The members brought their personal property into the possession of the group; all goods were shared. The groups lived far away from larger urban settlements. They wore white clothes and were sexually aversive; they rejected intimate physical contact with women. They are said to have segregated marginalized groups, such as the poor and invalids, from their grouping : “Anyone who was beaten on his flesh, someone paralyzed in feet or hands, or limping, blind, deaf, dumb or someone who was beaten with a visible flaw in his flesh, or is an old decrepit man, is not allowed to stay in the community. "

history

Ancient representations and literary sources

All early mentions of this group or groups are from 1st century authors.

Philo of Alexandria

Philo of Alexandria wrote in Quod omnis probus liber sit 72-91 ("On the freedom of the capable") of 4,000 Essenes in Syria :

  • They lived in villages and avoided cities
  • had neither money nor large estates, neither ships nor slaves,
  • didn't make weapons
  • did not operate a wholesale business.

He then described the therapists as a further special group with similar traits.

Pliny the Elder

The Roman historian Pliny the Elder reported in Naturalis historia (Book 5,73) of Esseni , who lived as a celibate group without money at the Dead Sea near the oasis En Gedi . In this context he also mentioned the Masada fortress .

Joseph ben Mathitjahu ha Kohen alias Flavius ​​Josephus

Flavius ​​Josephus repeatedly named the Essenes as the third major Jewish “party” alongside the Pharisees and Sadducees . He wrote in De bello Judaico (2, 119–161):

  • They operated philosophy ,
  • "Loved one another" more than any other Jewish group,
  • lived ascetic,
  • rejected contact with women ( sexuality ),
  • refused oil (anointing),
  • wore white clothes,
  • transferred their entire property to the group upon entry,
  • an elected man administered the common property ,
  • did not inhabit a particular city, but formed groups in each city,
  • only take weapons with them when traveling to protect them from robbers,
  • prayed before sunrise
  • ate together after prayers for lunch and dinner,
  • acted as healers,
  • refused to swear
  • besides her oath on entry to "hate the unjust and fight with the righteous",
  • would have to serve a novitiate ,
  • would be excluded in the event of rule violations,
  • kept the Sabbath strictly,
  • buried their excrement,
  • be ready to die for the Torah ( martyrs ),
  • believed in the immortality of souls for salvation or eternal punishment.

Elsewhere (18.11.18-22) he added:

  • They didn't sacrifice to God
  • did not include marriages ,
  • possess no slaves ,
  • practiced agriculture,
  • have priests as administrators.

In his Antiquitates Iudaicae , Josephus compared the Essenes with the Pythagoreans . They had refused the oath of allegiance to Herod , and he had allowed them to do so. He also mentioned some people who had been Essenes: a soothsayer, a dream interpreter, a later commander in chief. The ascetic Bannus , with whom Josephus claims to have lived for three years before he became a Pharisee, may also have been an Essenes.

In an old Russian translation by De bello Judaico , the following information about the Essenes was added:

  • they prophesied
  • they had a secret book with angel names ,
  • a subgroup marry and have children, but live apart from the others,
  • they are very hospitable,
  • they sang at night.

Later authors

Later Christian authors described the Essenes mostly in quotations or summaries of earlier statements. Hegesipp added them to his list of Jewish heresies ; so also Hippolytus of Rome , who took over the description of Josephus. According to Eusebius of Caesarea ( praep ev 7:11 ), they lived in villages and towns - with this he probably harmonized the contradiction between Philo and Josephus on this point - they were older men with few possessions, who shared food and clothing. Synesius of Cyrene (370–412) quoted Dion Chrysostom (around 40–112): The Essenes lived in a “happy city” on the Dead Sea near the lost biblical Sodom . If authentic, this would be the oldest.

Dead Sea Scrolls (Qumran Texts)

Qumrân, formerly located on the south-west bank of the Dead Sea , was inhabited by members of a strictly ascetic, disciplined and order-like religious community until its destruction in AD 68, at the time of Jonathan Maccabeus , which although it showed similarities with the Essenes, this grouping was probably not identical with. The term “Essener” does not appear explicitly in any Qumran text. In the writings found at Qumrân from around 250 BC Between BC and AD 70 there were some texts that might indicate a special Jewish community: the “Community Rule” (1QS), as an appendix to it the “Community Rule” (1QSa), the “Damascus Script”, the “War Role "(1QM and 4Q491-496), the" Temple Scroll "(11QTa.b), the" Copper Scroll "(3Q15) and the" Habakkuk Commentary "(1QpHab) (Paschary of the Prophet Habakkuk). 1QS and 1QSa report on a group called jachad (unification) who knew a common cash register, meals, probation period for new members and threatened expulsion for those who violated their rules.

In none of the 850 or so scriptures were there any references to Esseni or Essaioi or terms that can be interpreted as their roots. There was just as little evidence of asceticism and celibacy as there was of a belief in fate and immortality. The variety of topics dealt with cannot be assigned to any specific Jewish group.

One of the caves at Qumran where scrolls were found.

Historical assessments

The group was probably founded around 165 BC. So around the time of the end of the Maccabees revolt from 168 to 164 BC. The Maccabees ended the rule of the Seleucid Empire over Judea and reintroduced traditional Jewish temple service. They eliminated the previously second Jerusalem temple erected Zeus - altar , the Hellenized Jews who YHWH with Zeus equated and Greek style revered, had built.

The ancient data give the picture of an ascetic group, consisting almost entirely of men, predominantly celibate and almost without possessions, which was not limited to certain places of residence. In addition, there are few precise characteristics that indicate a specific group type and no places, dates or people that can also be attributed to Essenes from other sources.

An ascetic way of life and a temporary stay in uninhabited desert areas are also reported by other Jews of the time, including Josephus himself, John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth . Essenes or a group with the characteristics ascribed to them are not mentioned in the New Testament (NT) or in the later Talmud . The motifs of community of property and surrender of ownership ascribed to them were also known to the Pythagoreans and later to early Christianity . The common meal and the possible exclusion in the event of rule violations were characteristics of many ancient associations that did not require living together. This turned out to be precisely those features mentioned in ancient literature, which also contain the community texts of the scrolls, to be of little informative value.

Roland Bergmeier proved in 1993 that Josephus and Philo ascribed many traits to the Essenes that had previously been ascribed to the Pythagoreans. Hence, he assumes that they shared a common literary source on this. These features represented an ideal that was generally known in Hellenism and was contrasted with the patriarchal social order of the time. The Essenes were said to have ways of life and behavior that were desired for the majority society, but which were not necessarily actually practiced.

Her picture resembles that of other “dropouts” drawn later, such as the Rechabites or Elia disciples among the Jews, the Gymnosophists among the Greeks, the Carmelites among the Christians in the Middle Ages.

Speculative theories

Jesus and the Essenes

The Essenes are often used in popular fictional and esoteric literature to add speculatively to New Testament information about Jesus, to reinterpret them and to replace them with another image of Jesus. This concerns, on the one hand, Jesus' origin, which is non-Jewish, and, on the other hand, his crucifixion , which is supposed to be proven to be an apparent death.

Johann Georg Wachter (1673–1759) was the first to propose in 1713 the thesis that Jesus was a pupil of the Essenes. The Protestant theologian Karl Heinrich Georg Venturini (1768–1849) advocated the following theory from 1800 in the context of the rationalistic attempts at that time to explain the miracles and the resurrection of Jesus in a natural way: The Essenes were a particularly healing Jewish secret society . Jesus grew up with them and was trained by them to be a healer in his youth. With her superior healing art he performed the apparent miracles and survived the crucifixion. This theory is also supported by the Muslim Ahmadiyya teaching . After that, Jesus recovered in his grave and then emigrated to Kashmir to look for the lost tribes of Israel . After his death at the age of 120, he was then buried under the name Yuz Asaf in the Roza Bal in Srinagar .

In 1849 a book was published in Leipzig without an author's name, entitled Important Historical Revelations about the Real Death of Jesus. Based on an old manuscript found in Alexandria by a contemporary of Jesus from the Holy Order of the Essenes. Translated from a Latin copy of the original . The library belonged to the Egyptian branch of the Essenes, who were of Aryan origin. Jesus' family belonged to him and fled there after Jesus was born. After Jesus' alleged death, the Essenes inquired about him. The elder in Jerusalem replied by letter: He witnessed Jesus' crucifixion as an eyewitness. Jesus fell into a coma and was later secretly resuscitated by the medical arts of two Essenes - Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus . However, he died six months later as a result of the torture . The book had seven editions in two years and was included in many subsequent publications of this type. As early as 1849, the presumed author was Hermann Klencke (1813–1881), a professor of medicine , who was known as a plagiarist and who wrote other books about the Essenes.

In 1867 Friedrich Clemens Gierke published under the pseudonym Friedrich Clemens an "Original Gospel of the Essenes", which he also passed off as a sensational find. In it, a first-person narrator claims precise detailed knowledge of the crucifixion of Jesus: He himself got the remedies with which they would have saved Jesus' life. The book was proven to be a forgery based on the Essäerbuch of 1849 as early as 1868. The theory was taken up again and again and varied, for example with the well-known thesis "Jesus in India ". It also served some forerunners of the German Christians to claim an "Aryan Jesus".

Looking at the (early) ' Jesus ' words' it is striking that Jesus of Nazareth was far from cults , rituals or external piety practices. On the other hand, the Qumran religious community was strongly oriented towards priestly, ritual-cultic and thus externalized thinking. From the church order (1QSa) found in Qumran it can be seen that the coming Messiah would submit to the high priestly function and work in common connection. This contradicts the alleged attitude of the Essenes, who by no means valued the high priests, an indication that the 'Community of Qumran' was an independent group.

Jesus did not exclude any marginalized groups , rather he included them in the people of God , the poor , disadvantaged women , tax collectors , whores and integrated sick people , lepers , unclean and possessed . An attitude that made him clearly distinguishable from the Essenes.

Buddhist mission and Essenes

The Indian emperor Asoka (who ruled about 268 - . 232 BC. ) Sent the first time religious embassies and Buddhist monks to Asia Minor , the Seleucids - Ptolemies - and Antigonidenreich from which the news of the peaceful Buddhist should spread message (see also Edicts of the Aśoka and the Third Buddhist Council ).

One hypothesis is that the θεραπευτής were Buddha monks ( bhikkhu ) who ran monasteries in Egypt a hundred years before the birth of Jesus under the name “Theraputti” ( therapists ) as missionaries to the Indian ruler Ashoka, who had converted to Buddhism. According to the inscriptions of the 13th Great Edict of Aśoka, Ptolemy II Philadelphus stood with the third Indian king of the Mauryas, Aśoka, around 250 BC. Chr. In contact. The latter sent "religious commissioners" ( dharmamahāmātra ) to the kingdom of Ptolemy ( Tulamaya ), (so to Ptolemy II Philadelphos (ruler from 285-247 BC) and Ptolemy III Euergetes I (ruler from 246–222 BC) . Chr.)).

Philo of Alexandria saw the Essenes in relation to the therapists in primarily Alexandria .

Secret Gospel of Peace of the Essenes

Edmond Bordeaux Szekely (1905–1979) has published a “Secret Gospel” or “Peace Gospel of the Essenes” in ever new editions since 1968, which he claims to have translated from an Aramaic manuscript discovered in the Vatican archives .

literature

Ancient sources

Scientific representations

Popular literature

  • Cay Rademacher : The secret of the Essenes. A historical detective novel from ancient Rome. Nymphenburger, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-485-00959-8 .
  • Anne and Daniel Meurois-Givaudan: In the land of Kal. The way of the Essenes. Munich 1994, ISBN 3-88034-765-4 .
  • Anne and Daniel Meurois-Givaudan: Essen memories. The Spiritual Teachings of Jesus. Munich 1988, ISBN 3-88034-344-6 .

Web links

Wiktionary: Essener  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Klaus Berger : Qumran. Finds - texts - history. Reclam, Stuttgart 1998, p. 115ff.
  2. ↑ Prob 72-91
  3. ↑ Naturalis historia 5.73
  4. ↑ Bell. 2,119-166; Ant. 13, 171-173; 15,371f .; 18, 11-25 [1]
  5. ↑ Walter Schmithals : The Essenes. Pp. 1–11 ( [2] on walterschmithals.de)
  6. ↑ Oliver Freiberger: On the comparison between Buddhist and Christian religious orders. ZfR 4, 1996, 83-104 ( [3] on puls.uni-potsdam.de), here pp. 96-97
  7. ^ Klaus Berger: Qumran. Finds - texts - history. 1998, pp. 108 and 111.
  8. ↑ Hildegard Temporini, Wolfgang Haase: Rise and decline of the Roman world . 3 volumes. Walter de Gruyter, 1979, ISBN 3-11-007968-2 , pp. 730f.
  9. ↑ compare Sheol ( Hebrew שְׁאוֹל Šəʾōl )
  10. ↑ compare Netilat Jadajim and Tevila
  11. ↑ Wolfgang Haase : Religion (Judaism: General; Palestinian Judaism). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-1108-3856-5 , p. 723 ( [4] on books.google.de)
  12. ^ Klaus Berger: Qumran. Finds - texts - history. 1998, pp. 108-111.
  13. ↑ Arend Remmers : The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible. 2nd revised and expanded edition, Christian Written Distribution, Hückeswagen 2003.
  14. ↑ Jörg Frey : Essener. Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich, first publication Jörg Frey: Essener. German Bible Society, Stuttgart 2017 ( [5] on zora.uzh.ch) here p. 7
  15. ^ Klaus Berger: Qumran. Finds - texts - history. Reclam, Stuttgart 1998, p. 112 f.
  16. ^ Matthias Klinghardt: Community meal and meal community. Tubingen 1996.
  17. ↑ Roland Bergmeier: The Essen reports of Flavius ​​Josephus. Kok Pharos Publishing House, Kampen 1993, ISBN 90-390-0014-X .
  18. ^ Siegfried Wagner: The Essenes in the scientific discussion from the end of the 18th to the beginning of the 20th century. Berlin 1960.
  19. ^ Winfried Schröder (Ed.): Johann Georg Wachter: De primordiis Christianae religionis: Elucidarius cabalisticus; Origines juris naturalis. (“Two books on the origins of the Christian religion, the first of which is about the Essenes who laid the foundation for the Christians, the other about the Christians, the successors of the Essenes”; 1713) New edition, Frommann-Holzboog, 1995, ISBN 3772816126
  20. ^ Karl Heinrich Venturini: Natural history of the great prophet of Nazareth. Copenhagen 1800-1802; depicted by Joachim Finger: Jesus - Essenes, Guru, Esoteric? New Gospels and Apocrypha felt on the letters. Mainz / Stuttgart 1993, pp. 37-47.
  21. ↑ Online at Google Books .
  22. ↑ Example: Hermann Pillower (Ed.): Who Was Jesus? The Essene letter from the year 40 AD. Authentic information from a contemporary of Jesus about birth, youth, life and death, as well as about the mother of the Nazarene. Drei Eichen Verlag, Engelberg / Munich, 1st edition. 1968; 11th edition 1993, ISBN 3-7699-0452-4 .
  23. ^ Theodore Brieger, Bernhard Bess: Journal for Church History, Volume 106. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1995, p. 359
  24. ^ Journal of Religious and Spiritual History, Volume 38. EJ Brill, 1986, pp. 34 and 46 (list of works)
  25. ↑ Friedrich Clemens (pseudonym): Jesus, the Nazarenes. The wisest of the wise life, teaching and natural end. Recounted to reality and dedicated to the German people. Hamburg 1868.
  26. ^ Rainer Henrich: Rationalist Christianity Criticism in Essenian Garb. The dispute over the "revelations about the real way of death of Jesus". Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1995
  27. ↑ Heinzpeter Hempelmann : The Jesus grave in Shrinagar and other flowers of the apparent death theory. Ockham's razor put at the root of rampant hypothesis formation. In: Theological contributions 34/2003; Issue 2, pp. 88-104
  28. ↑ Norbert Klatt: The Essenes Letter. For the historical classification of a forgery. In: Zeitschrift für Religions- und Geistesgeschichte 38. Brill, Leiden 1986, ISSN  0044-3441 , pp. 32-48.
  29. ^ Johann Maier (Ed.): The Qumran-Essener: the texts from the Dead Sea. Vol. 3. Introduction, time calculation, index and bibliography, (= UTB für Wissenschaft 1916), E. Reinhardt, Munich / Basel 1996 ISBN 3-8252-1916-X , p. 50 f.
  30. ↑ Dieter Potzel: The Essenes and the writings of Qumran. The Theologian (1992), Issue No. 15
  31. ↑ Ulrich Luz , Axel Michaels ; Jesus or Buddha. Comparison of life and teaching. (= Beck'sche Reihe 1462) CH Beck, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-406-47602-3 , p. 52
  32. ↑ Michael Witzel : The old India. Volume 2304 from Beck'sche Reihe, CH Beck, Munich 2003, ISBN 978-3-406-48-004-1 , p. 83
  33. ↑ Heinz Greter: Budjas Buddhisten - Ways and Worlds of early Buddhism: About the cult of a great sage. Elster Verlag, Zurich 2015, ISBN 978-3-9060-6556-4 .
  34. ↑ Elmar R. Gruber , Holger Kersten : The Ur-Jesus: the Buddhist sources of Christianity. Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main 1996, p. 262 f
  35. ↑ Edmond Bordeaux Szekely: The secret gospel of the Essenes. Neue Erde GmbH, 2003, ISBN 3-89060-130-8 ; The Essenes' Gospel of Peace. ISBN 3-921786-01-0 and other editions.