The Dead Sea Scrolls Lawrence H. Schiffman, Texts and Traditions, Ktav, Hoboken 1998, p.517-518. The traditions of the fathers, or elders, mentioned by Josephus, are an important component of what the Rabbis later called oral law. The traditions were a hallmark of the Pharisaic approach to Torah and continued into Rabbinic tradition as it was […]
The Dead Sea Scrolls Evidence of the Halakhic Letter The Halakhic Letter, known in Hebrew as Miqsat Ma’ase ha-Torah (“some legal rulings pertaining to the Torah”), demonstrates that the sectarian schism came about as a result of conflict over sacrificial law and ritual purity. The text lists twenty-two differences between the way these laws were […]
Greco-Roman Period Lawrence H. Schiffman, Texts and Traditions, Ktav, Hoboken 1998, p.282-284. Another ancient source, Philo, who lived in Alexandria, Egypt between ca. 20 B.C.E. and 50 C.E., also describes the Essenes. Philo tells of a group of pious individuals who live in villages, and, like the Essenes of Josephus, practice communal ownership of goods […]
Greco-Roman Period In contrast to Josephus’ Essenes who marry for purposes of propagation, Pliny’s Essenes never marry. While Josephus says that this sect is found in every city, Pliny locates them on the western coast of the Dead Sea. This account has been a major linchpin in the identification of Qumran on the shore of […]
Greco-Roman Period Lawrence H. Schiffman, Texts and Traditions, Ktav, Hoboken 1998, p.276-281. The much more detailed description given here of a closed fraternity of Essenes living a simple, pious life has led scholars to identify Josephus’ Essenes with the Dead Sea sect. Josephus sought to picture the Essenes as a Greek philosophic school and therefore […]
Greco-Roman Period Lawrence H. Schiffman, Texts and Traditions, Ktav, Hoboken 1998, p.275-276. Josephus provides the most expansive contemporary description of the Essenes. He presents them as an agricultural, virtuous people worthy of admiration for their pious, peaceful ways, their communal economic life, and celibacy. (18) The doctrine of the Essenes is that all things are […]