Bibliography
| Title: A Misleading Statement of the Essene Attitude to the Temple (Josephus, Antiquities, XVIII,1,5,19) Secondary Title: RdQ Volume: 9 Pages: 555-562 Type: Journal Article Year: 1978 Abstract: "This note has the more limited concern of proposing an understanding of Josephus, Antiquities, XVIII,1,5,19 which, if correct, shows that this text provides for an Essene attitude to the Temple which is more positive than that which I suggest prevailed in the Qumran community".
"There was probably a time in the early history of the Qumran community when the Jerusalem Temple was still used by the Covenanters, and certain cultic regulations still survive in the Qumran literature as relies from this period. Sacrifice ceased when an unrepairable rift with the Jerusalem leaders led to a situation in which the Covenanters considered the Temple defiled and unfit for use. Thus deprived of sacrifice the Covenanters looked forward to restoring a pure cult and developed for the interim a spiritualized understanding of Temple and sacrifice. The present interpretation of Josephus, Antiquities 18:19 reading ouk epitelousin after stellontes on the basis of old Latin versions provides no evidence for a more positive Essene attitude toward the Temple. While sending offerings to the Temple, they do not offer sacrifices because of a dispute over the purifications which should be used and for this reason having been excluded from the common court of the Temple they purified their sacrifices among themselves. Josephus' portrayal of the Essenes is deliberately misleading, because he was embarrassed by the strict separation from the Temple practised by these his religious heroes". - M.P.H. Keywords: Groups and Religious Movements in Palestinian Judaism |