Bibliography
| Title: A Note on the Qumran Sectarians, the Essenes and Josephus Secondary Title: Journal of Jewish Studies Volume: 46 Pages: 161-166 Type: Journal Article Year: 1995 Abstract: IZGB 41 (1995/1996), 353: "I suggest that the logical response of scholars to the chance discovery of texts in the Judaean Desert should not have been to try to fit the information from them into what was already known through the texts preserved by Jews and Christians by regular copying since antiquity. Rather, the new evidence has revealed aspects of Judaism previously unknown. The Dead Sea sectarians had many important preoccupations in common with other contemporary Jews such as biblical interpretation, eschatology, halakha and purity; the similarities should not surprise, since all forms of first-century Judaism derived ultimately from the Torah and were subjected to similar cultural and social influences. The details which have most impressed adherents of the Essene hypothesis - common ownership and the celibacy of some members of the sect - are in fact found only in one of the Qumran documents, the Community Rule. It is notorious in studies of other societies that to sectarians themselves the differences which seem to the outsider least significant may often appear the most important factor in their self-definition. In sum, the details which have led scholars to identify the Qumran sectarians with other Jewish groups can be most plausibly explained by the common origin of all such groups in first-century Judaism".
JSJ 27 (1996), 213: "Après avoir montré qu'aucune des listes de groupes juifs transmises par les auteurs ancients, y compris Josèphe, ne prétende être complète et qu'on ne doit donc pas identifier forcément le groupe qumrânien avec aucun des groupes mentionnés dans ces listes, Goodman conclut: "In sum, the details which have led scholars to identify the Qumran sectarians with other Jewish groups can be most plausibly explained by the common origin of all such groups in first-century Judaism".
Wagner, J. Ross in: OTA 20.3 (1997), 505-506: "The Essene hypothesis first presupposes that extant literary sources provide a complete listing of first-century Jewish groups and the argues that it is the Essenes who most resemble the Dead Sea sectarians. Of these sources, however, only Josephus might be presumed to provide a complete picture of first-century Judaism. Surprisingly, in C.Ap. 2.179-87, Josephus denies variety within Judaism altogether. In BJ 2.119-66 and AJ 18.11-22 (cf. 13.171) by contrast, Josephus mentions three haireseis in order to introduce a fourth philosophy that emerged in 6 C.E., while in Vita 10-11, he reverts to enumerating only three such groupings. Yet, Josephus shows knowledge of still other varieties of Judaism (Bannus, Philo, John the Baptist, Jesus, etc.). When it is recognized that Josephus did not intend to provide an exhaustive list of contemporary Jewish groups the fact that the Dead Sea sectarians most closely resemble his description of the Essenes becomes a much less compelling argument. G. argues further that archaeological evidence provides little positive support for the Essene hypothesis. He suggests that the Dead Sea Scrolls come from a hitherto unknown Jewish sect; consequently, they dramatically increase our knowledge of the variety within first-century Judaism". Keywords: Qumran |