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Ever since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in caves near the site of Qumran in 1947, this mysterious cache of manuscripts has been associated with the Essenes, a 'sect' configured as marginal and isolated. Scholarly consensus has held that an Essene library was hidden ahead of the Roman advance in 68 CE, when Qumran was partly destroyed. With much doubt now expressed about aspects of this view, The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea systematically reviews the surviving historical sources, and supports an understanding of the Essenes as an influential legal society, at the centre of Judaean religious life, held in much esteem by many and protected by the Herodian dynasty, thus appearing as 'Herodians' in the Gospels.
Opposed to the Hasmoneans, the Essenes combined sophisticated legal expertise and autonomy with an austere regimen of practical work, including a specialisation in medicine and pharmacology. Their presence along the north-western Dead Sea is strongly indicated by two independent sources, Dio Chrysostom and Pliny the Elder, and coheres with the archaeology. The Dead Sea Scrolls represent not an isolated library, quickly hidden, but burials of manuscripts from numerous Essene collections, placed in jars in caves for long-term preservation. The historical context of the Dead Sea area itself, and its extraordinary natural resources, as well as the archaeology of Qumran, confirm the Essenes' patronage by Herod, and indicate that they harnessed the medicinal material the Dead Sea zone provides to this day.
List of contents
- I: The Essenes in Ancient Literature
- 1: A Peculiar Problem: A Short History of Scholarship on the Essenes
- 2: Philo of Alexandria
- 3: Josephus
- 4: The Herodians of the Gospel of Mark
- 5: Pliny
- 6: Dio Chrysostom, Synesius, and Julius Solinus
- 7: Jewish and Christian Literature of the 2nd to 4th Centuries
- 8: Conclusions: the Essential Essenes
- II: The Dead Sea, the Essenes, and the Scrolls
- 9: The History of the Dead Sea
- 10: Essenes beside the Dead Sea: Qumran
- 11: The Dead Sea Scrolls
- 12: Roots, Remedies, and Properties of Stones: Dead Sea Healing
- Conclusions
About the author
Joan E. Taylor is a historian of early Christianity and Second Temple Judaism. She is also known for her work in other areas of history, literature, archaeology, and biblical studies. A New Zealander, she currently lives in England, and works in the department of Theology and Religious Studies, King's College London.
Summary
The mystery surrounding the Dead Sea Scrolls remains, over 60 years after their rediscovery. Who hid them and why? This groundbreaking book reinvigorates the contested hypothesis that the Essenes were responsible. Rather than being a marginal esoteric sect, Taylor shows that this group acted as one of the leading legal schools of Judaism.
Additional text
This is an erudite book, full of rare information and bold suggestions.
Report
We owe Joan Taylor a great debt of thanks for bringing to life, with such detail and care (and with her own evocative photographs), a community, its setting, and the parts that it played, which have been for so long misunderstood. Rev. Robin Griffith-Jones, Church Times
