FINAL WARNING: Setting the Stage for Destruction
rebuilt and enlarged from 110- 40 BC. They discovered evidence of an
earthquake which had been recorded as occurring in 31 BC, after
which they rebuilt the settlement and occupied it until 68 AD when it
was destroyed by Vespasian’s Roman legions.During the Maccabean period, in the 2nd century BC, there were three
main Jewish groups, the Pharisees, the Sadduccees, and the Essenes.
The Essenes were known to be the ‘strict’ Order. Early historians, such
as Pliny the Elder (the 1st century Roman writer), Josephus, and Philo,
indicated that the Essenes lived in the area between Jericho and Ein
Gedi, on the shores of the Dead Sea, which is where the Qumran ruins
are located.The Sadducees, whose religious principles differed from the
Pharisees, separated from them after the Maccabean revolt (168-164
BC). A document identified as Miqsat Ma’aseh he-Torah, or Some
Rulings Pertaining to the Torah (also known as the Halakhic Letter),
which was found in Cave 4, contains about 22 religious laws, and
appears to be the basis of the Qumran philosophy. Discovered in 1952,
its contents weren’t revealed until 1984, and it has led some
researchers to believe that the Qumran group seceded from the
established religious center in Jerusalem, and became the group
known as the Essenes. Yet the Essene name is never used.How this break occurred is not really known. According to one theory,
when Judea, under Judas Maccabeus, revolted in 165 BC against the
Syrian tyrant King Antiochus IV, thus beginning the Hasmonean line of
Kings with Judas (165-160 BC), his brother Jonathan (160-143 BC),
then his brother Simon (143-134 BC), maintained a friendly relationship
with Rome; and in 152 BC when Jonathan made himself the High
Priest, this upset the hardline Jews who chose to follow a man they
referred to as the “Teacher of Righteousness,” who was of the
Zadokite (who were descendants of the priestly line of Aaron) line.
They went to the desert where they could observe the laws of God.A document found at Qumran was an earlier version of the Damascus
Document, which was discovered (2 copies) in a Cairo synagogue in- Dated between 80 - 75 BC, a copy was found in Cave 6, and 7
copies in Cave 4. The fragments recovered at Qumran have proven the
Cairo text to be incomplete. The text refers to a contingent of Jews that