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Chapter 1 -The Essenes  
     
1.
 The most commonly accepted position by scholars concerning the Essenes is that they were the youngest of the three great sects of Judaism leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem in CE 70 and that they were formed by pious protectors of the Torah and Jewish law who rejected the accommodations made by the Sadducees during the reign of the Romans from 60 BCE.
  
2.
 There are a few scholar who reject this position and assert that while the Essenes were the youngest of the three religious sects (Pharisees being oldest, then Sadducees and finally Essenes), the date of their formation is more likely to be around 150 BCE after the High Priest Moreh Zedek (159-153 BCE), also known as “Teacher of Righteousness” was deposed by Jonathan Apphus 153-143 BCE at the start of the reign of the Macabeean Priest Kings.
  
3.
 This group of scholars use the existence of Qumran and the evidence discovered within the content of the scrolls as well as the believed date of the formation of the community (around 165 to 150 BCE) as proof of their position.
  
4.
 In contrast, Jewish historians have increasingly found success at disputing these claims pointing to the “gap” in official succession lines of High Priests and no official mention of Zedek and their assertions that Qumran was merely a pottery factory on account of the extremely large amount of pottery found there.
  
5.
 In all cases, virtually no credible arguments exist in the public domain that differ from the Pharisee first-Essenes last argument vigorously defended by their successors, the Rabbinical system of Judaism.
  
6.
 This is in spite of the fact that as more and more of the translated texts of Qumran finally see the light of day, this group increasingly has become less and less like the “true believers” in the Torah (Five books of Moses) and Babylonian Talmud as first thought.
  
7.
 In fact many of the texts finally released into the public domain point to the community of Qumran being thoroughly anti-semitic when it comes to their opinion of the books of Moses and jewish Bible (Old Testament).
  
8.
 Instead of embracing the Jewish belief of Jewish scripture being supremely sacred, the community of Qumran considered the books to be a fraud perpetrated firstly by Jeremiah and Baruch around 620 to 590 BCE and then a second wave of creation by Nehemiah and Ezra from around 455 to 420 BCE.
  
9.
 Instead of animal sacrifice as written in the Jewish scriptures, the community of Qumran like Essene tradition were vegetarian and believed in the sanctity of all life.
  
10.
 The Essenes instead referred to a much more ancient culture of the patriarchs originating from northern Syria (the site we now know as Ebla located in northern Syria, about 55 km southwest of Aleppo) which was the true birthplace of the Israelites.
  
11.
 Historic excavations have shown Ebla to be the birthplace of a proto-hebrew language called Eblaite and in 2300 BCE was the centre of the world with an astounding population of over 250,000.
 
12.
 No other city matched its size, nor brilliance until the height of Rome.
 
13.
 It is the first recorded location of the use of democracy in the election of elders, 2,000 years before the Greeks, in the abstaining of human and animal sacrifice, in the respect of wisdom, education and technology and development of ancient trade.
  
14.
 In fact, the people of Elba were trading and communicating with the first Pharaohs such as Khafra (2558 - 2532 BCE) and Pepi I (2332 – 2283 BCE) and the Mesopotamian cultural centres such as Kish at the very dawn of civilization.
  
15.
 The name "Ebla" means "White Rock", and refers to the limestone outcrop on which the city was built and there are strange references to this ancient connection throughout Gnostic texts, including the Book of Revelation.
  
16.
 Finally, there is the name Essene itself- from the Aramaic “Yssyn” meaning healer. A name that could not be more different than the Pharisees and Sadducees. A name more associated with health, than a political party or group of religious “purists”.
  

 
 
 

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