The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls: The ... - josephprestonkirk

436 DEAD SEA SCROLLS AND THE NEW TESTAMENT
Are the Essenes hidden behind another New Testament term? Were the
“Herodians” who are mentioned three times (Mark 3:6; 12:13; Matt
22:16) actually Essenes? 110 Did New Testament authors view the Essenes
as part of the Pharisees, who gained the leading position in Judaism after
70 C.E.? Or did they view Essenes and Sadducees as one group because
of the priestly elements in Essene rules? 111
b. The Issue of Historical Relations: Possibilities but Not Probabilities
On these issues one can only speculate. The sources—in the New
Testament or in the Qumran library—do not provide any safe evidence to
give an answer with certainty. In particular, there is no textual evidence
to postulate a close personal or historical relationship between the
Essenes and Jesus or earliest Christianity. There are many possibilities,
but hardly one of them can be made certain.
It is, of course, possible that Jesus met Essenes—at least in Jerusalem,
where an Essene presence is most likely. 112 But in Galilee, where Jesus
preached and chose his disciples (Mark 1:16–20), a presence of Essenes
cannot be ascertained.
It is also possible or even likely that primitive Christianity could have
come into contact with some members of the Essene party, especially in
Jerusalem. But we should consider that the Qumran Rule of the Community
and also Josephus’s account on the Essenes tell us that the members of
the community were bound to conceal “the secrets of knowledge” (1QS
4.5–6; cf. 10.24–25; Josephus, J.W. 2.141), and that the instructor should
110. This was suggested by Charles Daniel, “Les ‘Hérodiens’ du Nouveau
Testament sont-ils des Esséniens?” RevQ 6 (1967): 31–53; idem, “Nouveaux arguments
en faveur de l’identification des Hérodiens et des Esséniens,” RevQ 7 (1970):
397–402; Yigael Yadin, The Temple Scroll (3 vols. in 4; Jerusalem: Israel Exploration
Society, 1983), 1:138–39 (with mistaken reference to Mark 8:17); cf. Willi Braun,
“Were the New Testament Herodians Essenes? A Critique of an Hypothesis,” RevQ
14 (1989), 75–88.
111. Some scholars attribute the Qumran texts to a Sadducean origin; cf. Lawrence
H. Schiffman, The Halakhah at Qumran (Leiden: Brill, 1975); idem, Sectarian Laws in the
Dead Sea Scrolls: Courts, Testimony, and the Penal Code (Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1983);
idem, “The Sadducean Origins of the Dead Sea Scroll Sect,” in Understanding the Dead
Sea Scrolls (ed. H. Shanks; New York: Random House, 1992), 35–49; Joseph M.
Baumgarten, Studies in Qumran Law (SJLA 24; Leiden: Brill, 1977).
112. Independently from the theory of an Essene quarter, this might be confirmed
by the recent tomb finds at Beit Zafafa near Jerusalem. Cf. the articles mentioned in
n105 (above); and Bonnie Rochman, “The Missing Link? Rare Tombs Could
Provide Evidence of Jerusalem Essenes,” BAR 23, no. 4 (1997): 20–21.