Tag Archive for 'essenes'

Easter must be close. I know this because every magazine is publishing their annual “secrets of the bible” issues. I’ve read most of them or heard the same stuff on the History Channel, but this article at Time.com caught my attention.  It talks to Rachel Elior, a Jewish mysticism professor, who claims the Essenes, a mysterious Jewish religious sect, never existed.  The Essenes are most often credited with the authorship of the Dead Sea Scrolls.  Many also think they were where John the Baptist and even Jesus Christ himself got the basis of their radical views.  Should this view of their non-existence gain further traction, it has the potential to change the way Biblical scholarship is approached.