The Essene Brotherhood

The Essenes are thought to predate the Judaism which emerged out of the Babylonian exile in about 540BC. They were sun worshipping, bowing to the East on sunrise. The Jewish Encyclopaedia describes the Essenes as a branch of the Hasidim, from the Maccabean times. It is a name of great holiness, ascetic, pious and devout, and consecrated to God. They were Therapeutai or an offshoot of these healers, the novices wore blue, the adepts wore white. They sought to restore the rites of the First Temple of Solomon. They were Christian in theory and practice before the time Christ. 

 They honoured the Teacher of Righteousness, and were similar to, if not the same sect as the Nazoreans. They shared meals together, had baptism, believed that the kingdom of god was at hand, and took the Eucharist.The 8 pointed star was a symbol of the coming of the messiah, and palm trees were a symbol of the tree of David, a line they considered as their own. The priest king, Melchizedek was awaited and they believed in the eternal soul. They were not related to the zealots and did not bear weapons. They had no women or sexual desires, they had no money, and their numbers spread throughout Judea. They may have developed their beliefs from a Pythagoras who had a Jewish teacher in e school century BC. 

     Extract: “ The wilderness of Judea is an inhospitable mountainous strip some 20 km wide and 70 km in length to the immediate west of the Dead Sea. according to 1st century Roman historian Pliny the elder, the sparsely populated area was the stronghold of the Essenes, a Jewish sect to which many biblical scholars believe John the Baptist belonged. In the 1950s, a dry rocky terrace was excavated, Qumran, at the northern end of the Dead Sea. The Essenes were Jewish sect to which many biblical scholars believe John the Baptist belonged.  They believed that the Messiah was coming soon and withdrew into the seclusion of the desert to found various communities. At the time of Jesus and John, Qumran was a chief centre of learning for the Essene sect. Ritual bathing was a part of their daily life where they put on the lion cloth and a wash themselves and one of the communal baths. They renounced material wealth, and lived in communes, sharing all they had. They called themselves the Sons of Light and gathered under one called the Teacher of Righteousness.” The Marian Conspiracy by Graham Phillips.

Qumran is to the east of Jerusalem and Graham Phillips questions whether the ‘wise men’ came from Qumran to honour Jesus at his birth.