Who were the Essenes

The Essenes were one of three religious hebrew Jewish sects along with the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

The JewishEncyclopedia claims that the Essenes were " a branch of the Pharisees who conformed to the most rigid rules of Levitical purity".

The word Essene comes from the Greek language and it's adapted to the earlier Aramaic word "hasya" which means pious.

The Essenes are mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls which were discovered only in the last century in caves on the Jordan/Syria border.

Previous to these discoveries only Greek writers such as The elder Pliny, Philo of Alexandria, Josephus, and a few others mentioned the Essenes and only in passing.

They seem to have been seperatists and some go as far as saying the Essenes were communists who lived semi nomad lifestyles in communes.

To become an Essene it seems as though one had to progress through stages. The initiate would find a master and learn the rules of being an Essene. Then would come a period where the initiate lived outside the commune and showed himself worthy of the ascetic values within the community.

Having passed the objective the initiate took an oath and joined the "meal" of the Essenes.

The ascetic lifestyle of an Essene was similar to that of other monks where all material possession was deemed unworthy. Any material, including lodging, was shared on a per need basis.

The Essenes were perhaps founded by a powerful lawgiver or Teacher of Rightfulness. They seem to have been founded in the second century BC.

Some believe they were men who wanted to separate themselves from the pagan lifestyle.

Others believe they were Pharisees who split from the Jewish sect to form an order of their own.

Who were the Pharisees and what does this have to do with Egypt ?

In this part of the world somehow everything leads back to either Mesopotamia or Egypt.

The Pharisees originate in c. 550 BC along with the Sadducees with the conquest of Babylon in Mesopotamia by the Persian. Cyrus the Great allows Jews to rebuild temples in Judea. The Jewish priests are exiled from Babylon and immigrated to Judea. When Cyrus the Great took over power his rules gave priests a high political rank where they controlled both religion and monarchy.

Different Jewish sects emerged. While the Sadducees where the elite priests they had a strong competition from the Pharisees.

Egypt is conquered from the Persians by Alexander the Great in 332 BC and the Hellenistic Greek period begins. The Jewish priesthood was struggling between it's Aramaic roots and the Hellenistic Greek pagan values.

The Aramaic language comes from c. 800 BC at about the same time Remus and Romulus are struggling in a political pursuit to separate the Roman ideology from the Greek ideology. The Aramaic language is an offshoot of the Phoenician language. The Aramaic language is however only one of the Semitic AfroAsiatic languages.

The Phoenician language is an attempt at unifying the hieroglyphs of Egypt and likely one would not have to dig very deep to find a path between the Phoenician language and the stories of the Greek god wars of Mount Pelion and Mount Olympus where the story of Chiron ( Chi Rho ) and the centaurs or Nephilim plays out.

If such a connection could be made then it becomes really interesting to think of the implications of the Essene Dead Sea Scroll Roman influence found on the Jordan/Syria border in caves and the caves at Mount Pelion where the Greek evolution stories are playing out.

Likely the Greek Pelion stories are older therefore it would seem that the Phoenician who were seperatists in their own right might have had a role in the settling of the Greeks at Mount Olympus.

Who were the Phoenician ?

The Phoenician alphabet is believed to have been invented c. 1050 BC. The center of Phoenicia was located north of ancient Canaan, the land promised to the Jews according to some. The Phoenician culture started to form in c. 1500 BC or even c. 2000BC and was prominent all the way to 300 BC in some parts of Lebanon, Israel, Syria, Greece, and other parts of the land from Jordan to Egypt, and to Persia (Iran), and Babylon(Iraq). They called themselves Kenaani or Kinaani which is synonymous to Canaanites.

A map of old Phoenician city-states would show names like Meggido near Egypt, Alakh near Turkey and Jordan, Kition on the Greek island of Cyprus, and Byblos somewhere around Israel.

The Phoenician were active traders and made use of or exploited all the Silk Road trading routes which reached all the way to Spain, East Asia, India, Egypt.....

Meanwhile, back the the question of who were the Essenes?

They were a Jewish priest order who became ordained after having passed certain initiation rites.