7
Sectarianism and Heresy: From Qumran
Calendars to Christian Easter Controversies
This chapter concerns the fragmentation and diversification of calendars
resulting not from political states’breaking loose from the great empires (as
in Chapter 5), nor from political or cultural dissidence within the great
empires (as in Chapter 6), but from divisions internal to religious groups.
This draws us somewhat away from the political domain of empires and states
(which has been dominant, for good reason, through most of this book),
but raises fundamental questions about the relationship between calendars,
society, and social cohesion. I shall consider to what extent sectarianism and
heresy could lead to calendar diversity, and conversely, to what extent calendar
diversity could lead to the rise of sectarianism, heresy, and social schism; and
finally, to what extent the attitude and relationship of mainstream societies
towards sects and heresies could have an effect on the development of their
own calendars.
Some definitions are needed. The terms‘sect’and‘heresy’tend to be poorly
and variously defined, and as a result, their meaning is often left unclear. As a
matter of principle I do not dispute the usefulness of these terms, but they
need to be given from the outset a working definition, or better a working
description, that—albeit somewhat arbitrary—is sufficiently precise to be
meaningful, yet sufficiently neutral to be compatible with most of their
common uses. Full discussion of these terms is outside the scope of this
study, but as I shall be using them repeatedly in this chapter, a brief statement
about them is necessary.
‘Sect’and‘sectarianism’are terms more commonly used in the study of
Judaism than of early Christianity. They are modern terms, which do not have
direct equivalents in the ancient sources (Josephus refers in Greek tofirst-
century Jewish religious groups ashaireseis—a forerunner of the term‘heresy’,
to be discussed below—and what he means is quite different from‘heresy’or
‘sect’; the Latinsectahas also different connotations from‘sect’). In our
modern language, ‘sects’tend to apply to minority religious groups (by
‘religious’I mean social groups that are generated and sustained by common