Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes (oh, my)

21 hours ago

5 min read

Okay, I left off last time with Michael finally showing up--first, in the Bible, in the Book of Daniel, and then, second, in the non-canonical but incredibly influential Book of Enoch. This was all taking place between (very roughly) 300 BCE and the time of Christ.

And Michael comes on the scene just when things are bad. Really Bad. Really, REALLY Bad. There’s war, death, and destruction. And people need someone...a good guy...to believe in. And in *that* role, Michael the Archangel excels.

Unfortunately, he’s going to get even more popular...because things are going to get still worse.

By this time, the Second Temple and its priesthood have lost the respect of the people. It is more or less obvious to everyone that the Temple is just a waste of money, and the priests? Corrupt. When they aren’t the puppets of kings and foreigners, they’re greedy and power-hungry in their own right.

As we’ve already seen, thoughtful men and women responded by developing three (and later more) religious sects. The Sadducees were conservatives, supporting the Temple and the aristocracy when they could, but they still sometimes produced fairly cogent critiques of the Powers That Were.(1)

About the image: This is “The Fall of the Rebel Angels” by the Flemish painter Frans Floris (1519 – 1570). It can only be described as a truly bizarre and fabulous work in which the angels are presented as heroic winged humans where-as the the fallen angels are weird mutants with an unsettling mix of human and animal features. Note, for instance, that most have bestial heads, and that one of them has an eagle’s beak in lieu of genitalia.

This particular photo of the famous painting is in Wikimedia and was taken by Alvesgaspar, who has generously posted it for reuse under a Creative Commons mark: Frans Floris (I), CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons. You may find it here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fall_of_rebel_Angels_(Frans_Floris)_September_2015-1a.jpg

Second was the Pharisees, which was “the party of the people,” or at least the middle classes. They rejected the Temple and its priesthood, calling instead for a Judaism based on sacred texts (the Torah) and belief. Unlike the Sadducees, they would have a legacy. Modern Rabbinic Judaism took a great deal from the Pharisees.(2)

Third was the Essenes, who were rather mysterious. What is known about them is they rejected the Temple and the excesses of its Priesthood and they were famed for their uncompromising morality. (3)

None of these groups really liked each other, and sometimes, the tensions between them could boil over into actual violence.

Then, sometime around 100 BCE, a group of dissident Essenes, or some sect like them, turned its back entirely on what it considered a corrupt temple and a flawed society. This group established a settlement on the banks of the Dead Sea at a place called Qumran. We don’t know much about the Qumran settlement, but it seems to have been like a religious commune, or perhaps a monastery (though we don’t know if the inhabitants were celibate). (4)

What we *do* know is that apparently the settlement had a library -- a big one, containing the religious texts of the Essenes and also other sects, and perhaps other works that were just popular at the time. Further, it seems that the inhabitants ...at some point...realized Qumran was in danger. So, they took a goodly portion of their books, sealed them in clay jars, and hid them in near-by caves.

These were, of course, the Dead Sea Scrolls.(5)

The Essenes, or whoever they were, were quite correct. Qumran *was* in danger. There was a Jewish revolt against Rome in 70 CE (we’ll get to that later), and Qumran was in the path of a Roman army. Apparently, Qumran was taken and destroyed.

But the Scrolls remained, hidden safely for nearly 2000 years...until, in fact, 1946, when they would be rediscovered by shepherds and, later, archeologists. Today, they are under the control of the modern Israeli government. I’ll spare you, though, the disgraceful story of how governments, scholars, and collectors battled for long years over control of them. Suffice to say that it was only in the early 2000s...decades after their discovery...that they were finally made widely available for study.

Which is good for me, and for this blog, because if you glance even briefly at the Scrolls, guess what you find...

You got it.

Michael.

Michael everywhere.

With his flaming sword, and snow white wings.

More to come.

Footnotes:

1. “Sadducees,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadducees

2. “Pharisees,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharisees

3. “Essenes,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essenes

John the Baptist *may* have been an Essene, or at least had connections with them. Clearly, John and the Essenes shared certain rituals and doctrines. Both talked about an imminent Messiah, for instance, and both practiced ritual baptism (obviously).

And--while this is very controversial-- Jesus Christ sometimes *sounds* like an Essene. Like them, Jesus praised meekness, non-violence, and purity. He differed from them, however, in that his was a message of mercy and forgiveness, where-as the Essenes could be a bit harsh.

4. I gather this is the majority opinion among scholars about Qumran, but it is not the universal opinion. Some individuals believe that Qumran was just a villa or a commercial establishment. But, for now, let’s go with the majority and say it was a commune. See “Qumran,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qumran

5. Again, I gather that this is the majority opinion, but there are those who think the scrolls had no connection to Qumran and were in fact brought from someplace else, maybe Jerusalem. See “Dead Sea Scrolls,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea_Scrolls

***

Care to help out?

I provide these blog postings for free. That’s fine and I’m happy to do so. But, long ago and far away, I was told that if you give away your material, that means you don’t really think it has any value.

So, to get beyond that, I’ve decided to make it possible for you to leave me a “tip” for my posts.

If you like what I write or the videos I produce, and feel you could make a small contribution to support my efforts, please go here:

https://michaeljaytucker.gumroad.com/l/lzumj

That will take you to a Gumroad page where you’ll have the option of leaving me a few pence by way of encouragement.

Again, I don’t mind if you don’t. I just want to provide you with the option so that I won’t feel quite so much like I’m just tossing my works into the wind.

Either way, thanks hugely for dropping by the blog :-)

~mjt

#StampOutEnnui #MichaelJayTucker #MarthaTucker #MarthaAndMichaelChronicles #StompEnnuiLikeItWasABug #explosive_cargo #Xcargo #StampOutEnnui #MichaelJayTucker #MarthaTucker #MarthaAndMichaelChronicles #StompEnnuiLikeItWasABug #explosive_cargo #Xcargo #Saint_Michael #Michael_The_Archangel #Angels #The_Bible #Bible #Biblical_Archaeology #Book_of_Daniel #Angelology #Apocalyptic_Literature #Ancient_Religion #Ancient_Israel #Israelite_Religion #Religion #Church_History #Religious_History #Folk_Religion #Popular_Religion #Archangel #Archangels #Christianity #Judaism #Jewish_History #Theology #Resheph #Hasmoneans #Maccabees #Daniel #Book_of_Daniel