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Re: The Essenes and War
On Thu, 19 Sep 1996, Jim West wrote:
> I regret that I deleted instead of replied to an earlier message which posed
> the question:
> "How do you know the Essenes did not fight in the Jewish war?"
>
> Let me reply with 2 presuppositions:
>
> 1) the word "essene" is the anglicized form of "hasid".
> 2) The hasid of the Qumran documents describe themselves in their documents.
Jim the Hasideans started wars. The Maccbean wars. The Essenes may have
been pius, but that does not mean they are not capable of violence.
Josephus even records how the Hasideans were convinced to fight the
<Greeks> on the Sabbath after many were being massecred. The Hasideans
were pius warriors also in Macc. And some like me believe that the name
<Essene> originated from <Hasidean>. I'll try to quote sources if desired
tomorrow
>
>
> If, on the other hand, one were to suggest that the Essenes DID participate
> in the Jewish War, one must present evidence of the fact.
>
>
> yours,
>
> Jim
>
We'll pick this up tommorow. I can only email in the computer lab and I
don't have any of my material handy. But there is a healthy chunk of
evidence to suggest that the Essenes or <proto-Essenes> did in fact fight
or atleast had a tradition of fighting.
Brad Harrison
kuleuven belgium