Essenes - Research Article from Encyclopedia of Religion

This encyclopedia article consists of approximately 8 pages of information about Essenes.

Essenes - Research Article from Encyclopedia of Religion

This encyclopedia article consists of approximately 8 pages of information about Essenes.
This section contains 2,320 words
(approx. 8 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Essenes Encyclopedia Article

ESSENES. The Essenes were a sect of Jews during the Hasmonean and Roman periods of Jewish history (c. 150 BCE–74 CE). This group was noted for its piety and distinctive theology. The Essenes were known in Greek as Essenoi or Essaioi. Numerous suggestions have been made regarding the etymology of the name, among which are derivation from Syriac ḥaseʾ ("pious"), Aramaic asayyaʾ ("healers"), Greek hosios ("holy"), and Hebrew ḥashaʾim ("silent ones"). The very fact that so many suggestions as to etymology have been made and that none has carried a scholarly consensus shows that the derivation of the term cannot be established with certainty. No Hebrew cognate appears either in the Dead Sea Scrolls, taken by many scholars to be the writings of this sect, or in rabbinic literature (the Talmuds and midrashim). Only with the Jewish rediscovery of Philo Judaeus (d. 45–50 CE) and Josephus Flavius (d. 100 CE...

(read more)

This section contains 2,320 words
(approx. 8 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Essenes Encyclopedia Article
Copyrights
Macmillan
Essenes from Macmillan. Copyright © 2001-2006 by Macmillan Reference USA, an imprint of the Gale Group. All rights reserved.