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Essene name
On whether the Essene name appears in Qumran mss, here are two paragraphs
from an unpublished paper, in case it is of interest:
Inviting "proponents of the Essene hypothesis to make their case,"
Martin Goodman (JJS 46, 1995, 161-66) wrote that "none of the published
documents from Qumran refers to the sectarians as Essenes or by any Semitic
word of similar derivation or meaning." Though sentences similar to this
one are quite commonplace in the literature, such ubiquity does nothing
to diminish the fact that it serves as a clear case of circular reasoning
It begs the question of the derivation or meaning. In other words, it is
not logical to assert that the Semitic spelling(s) for "Essene" do not
appear in Qumran mss unless one has specified what spellings one would
accept. Since--along with others from at least 1532--I find the name essene
is derived from Hebrew 'asah, used in self-designations such as "observers
of torah" (similar to Samaritan self-designations), the name actually
proclaims several of these texts as Essene, rather than the converse.
Sociologically, it is not plausible that other Jews would have given
them this name (the Hebrew name--the sectarian texts are mostly Hebrew not Aramaic
after all--which was later put into greek, possibly by Posidonius.) The fact
that neither the rabbis nor orthodox Christians would allow that Essenes realized torah helps explain both the submerged understanding of the name as well as the sense
of ambivalence Essenes may evoke from some Jews and Christians today. this point
does not concern whether Essenes were actually exemplary torah observers, but that, in any case
most writers represented in Talmud and New Testament would have been disinclined to
say so. Some object that such a name is too general for a religious group, but
compares such names as the Society of friends, Karaites, Gnostics, Kabbalists,
Jesuits, Methodists, Muslimns, Therapeutae, Latter-Day Saints, Hasidim,
Taoists, Old-Believers, Cathari, etc.
Stephen Goranson