The Essenes & The Dead Sea Scrolls

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Published 2022-11-13
In this episode, we explore the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Qumran community and ask the question whether or not this group can be identified as the Essenes.

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Sources/Recomended Reading:

Klawans, Jonathan (2016). "The Essene Hypothesis: Insights from Religion 101". Brill.

Magness, Jodi (2021). "The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls". Second Edition. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Vermes, Geza (Trans.) (2004). "The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English". Revised Edition. Penguin Books.

#essenes #archeology #deadseascrolls

All Comments (21)
  • @AsiandOOd
    the fact that sleeping during worship was a problem as old as religion itself never ceased to surprise me.
  • @sampagano205
    Your channel and religion for breakfast do such a good job in collaborations. I hope you keep working together.
  • @Fang-ju2uz
    As a child I was brought up in a psuedo-Essene church. I've spent decades trying to find digestible information about them in order to move forward with my life and remove what was essentially a coping mechanism for the adults in charge of raising me. Thank you, and the rest of the religious scholar community, for shedding a light on who these people were historically.
  • @Angayasse
    I am absolutely loving when academics work together for the knowledge of us all. This gives me hope <3 thank you Philip and Andrew, i love the channels of both of you <3
  • @RestingJudge
    I love Dr. John Bergsma's theory of John the Baptist being an excommunicated Essene. It really gives context for why he scavenged for food as the Qumran community took vows to not eat food prepared outside of the community, from what I remember, so eating locusts and wild honey was a neat little loophole when keeping that vow.
  • @eyobworku2042
    Please do a video on Ethiopian religious history. There are so so many fascinating stories.
  • @orsino88
    It’s a good day: a Let’s Talk Religion and Religion for Breakfast collaboration. All I need is a LTR-RFT-Esoterica meeting, and my life will be complete.
  • @potoole
    As always you do a masterful job. It manages to be just enough over my head to keep me on my toes and looking but not a black belt class that I couldn't even follow. Really appreciate your content. One of the true rare gems of youtube. Keep it up.
  • @bobSeigar
    Amazing, I was excited to see another video from you Filip. Andrew being in here was a great treasure as well.
  • @crazygrl1203
    This is my new favorite channel. The topics, content and your voice make the information easily understandable. Thank you for sharing!
  • @Delhi_Sultan
    Thank you, Filip. Another very interesting and informative video on a complex religious topic.
  • I love how respectful yet learned and all encompassing this guy is. Ive learned the nuances of many things from this fellow.
  • Thank you so very much for this very informative, knowledgeable video that you make to extend and share with your trusted teachings to the masses is so greatly appreciated. I've been researching the Essenes in detail along with The Dead Sea Scrolls or The Qumran Scrolls which excitingly still have much to decipher and discover. The Essenes (as a group of scholars) had an extremely important role in history, much more than known... And religion, which completely ruled the world in those days. The Essenes highly influenced the world, as we are uncovering and re-discovering. Interestingly, It has been suggested that Jesus Christ, himself, or maybe even John the Baptist, were members of the Essenes, or heavily influenced by them which separated itself from society at large and defined itself against Jerusalem, or more so The Temple in Jerusalem in protest, which does equate according to scripture, not to leave out other sects that have been influenced by them. The Essenes went to live in the wilderness, to live by themselves, totally isolated from the rest of the community. Jesus was known to verbally preach and spread his word for only 3 years, so perhaps during his missing years, he was living and learning as a part of the Essene sect or community being taught by them, learning and becoming a pundit, a rabbi, a priest (a Levite or a Cohen) even though he supposedly is known to come from the tribe of Judah) before he decided to leave to preach to society?! ...Just a thought. I sincerely thank you again along with Dr. Henry at 'Religion for Breakfast' who too has a very knowledgeable, learned, kind mind who is extremely credible and honorable. P.S. "Welcome to SCROLLS FROM THE DEAD SEA, The Ancient Library of Qumran and Modern Scholarship" https://www.ibiblio.org/expo/deadsea.scrolls.exhibit/intro.html An extensive "Outline of Objects and Topics in Scrolls from the Dead Sea"https://www.ibiblio.org/expo/deadsea.scrolls.exhibit/overview.html "The Qumran Library" (Scroll Fragments, Outline of Objects and Topics in Scrolls from the Dead Sea from the Qumran Library) https://www.ibiblio.org/expo/deadsea.scrolls.exhibit/Library/library.html This is a interesting and great article by PBS that gives much insight on "The Essenes and The Dead Sea Scrolls" (The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation by: Michael Wise Martin Abegg, Jr. Edward Cook, HarperSanFrancisco,'1996) : https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/portrait/essenes.html that connect to many of the scrolls to give insight on such as the "The Manual of Discipline" (The Community Rule): https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/portrait/community.html "The War Scroll" (an apocalyptic vision of the final battle between the Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness): https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/portrait/scrolltranslation.html "War of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness": https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/portrait/scrolltranslation.html
  • @exoplanet11
    Cool! It is about time these two excellent channels teamed up!
  • @KingdomIsNow
    I visited Qumran three times in one month. I went to some of the Dead Sea Scrolls caves. I enjoyed every moment. It is a very spiritual place. The Essenes were true believers. I encourage every believer to read and study the profound writings of the Dead Sea Scrolls. You will not regret it.
  • @ItisMoody
    I just want to say that it was a really nice surprise to see Andrew Henry on your channel! I love his channel and I follow it passionately, as do I yours! Thank you both for the very interesting work you do 🙏🏼
  • @jchi4life
    Love the little collaboration, both of y’all are my best YouTube channels
  • @JustSayin916
    Fabulous. As always, your broad and deep knowledge provides historical context and scholarly and sometimes surprising (a solar calendar!) details. And this time you included my other favorite religious scholar, Andrew Henry, and drawings from my favorite prophet, William Blake. So great. Thanks.