Was Jesus instructed or otherwise influenced by the Essenes?
Joseph Sievers of the Pontifical Biblical Institute
This question has been answered affirmatively in a good number of books. One of the latest is by Barbara Thiering, an Australian researcher who in her book even includes a photograph of the supposed place of the crucifixion, not in Jerusalem but in Qumran. (1) She offers a timetable of Jesus' life that is, as one reviewer noted, more precise than a Swiss railroad schedule: During Jesus' trial the cock crowed at 3:05 am on Friday, March 20, of the year 33. At 8:55 am Pilate ordered Jesus' Crucifixion. On Tuesday, June 6, of the year 30, at 6pm, Jesus got engaged to Mary Magdalene at Ain Feshcha near Qumran and married her there on Saturday September, 13, of the same year, at 6pm. Although this book has some of the trappings of scholarship, with frequent Scriptural references and quotations in Greek, its chronology and its "facts" are pure fantasy, with no basis in any historical sources. (2) A book that has made waves especially in German speaking countries was written by two journalists, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh. They claimed not only that the vicissitudes of the early Christians are reflected in the scrolls but that because of this the Vatican was preventing their publication. (3) This book remained on the bestseller lists for a long time even though in the meantime photographs of all Qumran manuscripts had become available to any interested scholar. The delay in publication had much more prosaic and complicated reasons than a Vatican conspiracy to withhold the truth. There were questions of Jordanian and Israeli rights, several wars, legal ownership of the scrolls, limited financing for the study and publication of the documents, difficulty of deciphering and comprehending fragments of text, teaching and other commitments of the editors, ill health, and sometimes sheer procrastination. At last, since the fall of 1991, open access to photographs of all the scrolls is available.
Interested scholars can also inspect the original manuscripts, mostly in Jerusalem. Since then some very interesting fragments have been published. Some of them are important for a better understanding of early Christianity as well as Judaism. However, they are not Christian but Jewish documents, from a time period ranging from the third century BC to about 68 A.D. From a historian's perspective our first question in its present form is unanswerable. In order to be able to give a reasonable answer we need to rephrase it somewhat as follows: "Do we have evidence which plausibly suggests that Jesus was influenced by Essene teachings or teachers?"
While many scholars see a possible and even probable Essene influence in the life and teachings of John the Baptist, no direct involvement of Jesus with Essenes and Essene teachings can be demonstrated. John the Baptist's ministry of preaching and baptizing for all who came to him is in stark contrast to the strict membership and purity requirements evidenced by various writings from Qumran that reflect Essene teachings. Even more so, Jesus' frequent contact with tax collectors, prostitutes and people considered public sinners is irreconcilable with Essene ideas about purity and about the distinction between sons of light and sons of darkness. Also, his interpretation of Sabbath observance would have been even more problematic to Essenes than to Pharisees. There is no doubt that Jesus may have been aware of the Essenes and their teachings. Some of his remarks may have been specific responses to questions raised by Essenes, and thus one may speak of a possible Essene influence on his teaching. (4) The idea of Jesus having spent an extended period of time with Essenes in Qumran or elsewhere, however, has no support whatsoever in the ancient sources, Christian or non-Christian.
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