FINAL WARNING: Setting the Stage for Destruction
remained faithful to the Law. A ‘Teacher of Righteousness’ came to
them, and led them into Damascus so they could renew their
‘Covenant’ with God. This Covenant is referred to in the Community
Rule. It is believed that there was an Essene community in Damascus.
In the book of the Acts of the Apostles, Saul was going to Damascus to
persecute these early Christians.Another theory says that after the destruction of the First Temple in
586 BC, when the Jews were exiled to Babylon, the Essenes were
formed as a strict Order because they believed they were being
punished by God for their disobedience. When the Jews returned to
Jerusalem after the Maccabean victories, they became disenchanted
and went to Qumran.It was believed that the Essenes were a pacifist, monastic Order who
wanted to separate themselves from the revolutionary-minded Zealots,
yet some of the evidence seems to indicate otherwise. Originally
thought to have been celibate, the graves of two women and a child
were discovered; plus the Community Rule contained marriage laws.
The Essenes did not engage in animal sacrifice, yet the Temple Scroll
contains instructions for such rituals, and animal bones have been
found. Thought to have been peaceful, their scrolls seem to indicate
the knowledge of military strategy; and the ruins of a military defense
tower and a forge have been excavated. Several manuscripts from
Qumran, were also found at the Zealot stronghold on Masada, and
there has been some researchers who believe that there was a
connection between the two groups.While de Vaux and his team were trying to distance the Scrolls from
Judaism and Christianity, saying there were no connections, the texts
which were already published seem to indicate otherwise. Either the
early Christians were just living at the Qumran community, or the early
Christians and the Qumran community were one and the same.
Though Essene in nature, the group in Qumran has been compared to
the early Church which was based in Jerusalem. The Habakkuk
Commentary said that Qumran’s governing body, the Council of the
Community, was in Jerusalem. In fact, it is believed that the scrolls
were taken to Qumran from Jerusalem for protection. Professor
Norman Golb of the University of Chicago has theorized that the
Scrolls were from the library of the Jewish Temple, and taken to