Questions about John the Baptist, Jesus and the Essenes

Were John the Baptist and Jesus members of the Essenes?

This is a very good question, which crops up frequently. Both of these famous men, John the Baptist and Jesus, shared interests and had personality characteristics in common with the ascetic, monastic like people called the Essenes. However, sharing in some personality qualities does not make a firm enough basis to say that it was definite or even quite likely that either one actually was a member. One needs to know something about the organization of the Essenes and their rules to come to any kind of logical decision about it. After careful study of the Essenes, my answer is that it is highly unlikely. The reasons vary by the person.

First, John the Baptist: while it's true he was an ascetic like the Essenes, the Dead Sea Scrolls indicate that the Essenes did not allow their members to own any property, whatsoever. The people in the Essene community did not even own personal clothing. Everyone wore a simple tunic. Once worn, it went into a communal container and was washed with the tunics of the other men. John the Baptist was known for his garment of camel hair and his leather belt, so he possessed his own clothing. That would not have been allowed by the Essene community.

Another factor against John being an Essene is that the Essenes did not interact with common people. They lived in communal isolation. John's ministry was preaching to common everyday people. However, it is quite likely that John was in communication with the Essenes since they both lived in the wilderness.

Some scholars believe John might have even lived with them for a while. In my novel, "The Humanity of Jesus and the Rebellion of John," I have John living with them off and on as a young person in his teen years, trying to live by their rules more than once, but not able or willing to handle the strictness of their many rules. John appears to have basically lived as a hermit for several years, until he started preaching and baptizing.

That leads to another good question: what would have inspired him to start preaching after living for so many years by himself? That is an issue I also explore in my novel. I imagine that despite John not being an Essene himself, when John did start preaching, the Essene people would likely have been excited to hear about it, possibly seeing him as the hopeful forerunner of the Messiah, thus fulfilling prophecies about a voice in the wilderness, making a way for the coming of a conquering Messiah who would finally set the Jewish people free.

Jesus (Yeshua) could not have been an Essene for other reasons. However, like John the Baptist, he also might have spent time with the Essenes. In my novel, he spends time with them, but parts ways before making a serious commitment (the Essenes had a two- step process of being a novitiate before making final vows to live with them for the rest of their lives). The main reason that Jesus could not have been an Essene relates primarily to their extremely strict observance of the Sabbath.

The Essenes were even stricter than the Pharisees, who by our standards were very strict in their interpretation of how to observe the Sabbath. The Essenes taught that even if a man were stuck in a well and would die if not rescued, that they could not rescue him on the Sabbath because that would be work. Jesus, however, was quite the opposite, running into opposition from the Pharisees over his lack of strictness concerning how to observe the Sabbath Day. Jesus healed on the Sabbath and allowed his disciples to go through grain fields and pick pieces of grain on the Sabbath, both of which angered the Pharisees. Jesus declared to the Pharisees that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Jesus’ interpretation of how to observe the Sabbath stands in stark contrast to that of the Essenes. He might have spent time with the Essenes, but he would not have joined them. He could not have been an Essene.

However, there is a good question regarding the idea that Jesus might have lived for a while with the Essenes. If Jesus had spent any time with the Essenes, why was that kept a secret? Here is my answer to that. If Jesus had spent even a part of a year as a novitiate, he would have been required to make a vow to never ever say anything whatsoever negative against their group. That vow was considered an extremely serious promise, which he would not have wanted to even risk breaking. Jesus might have realized that if people knew he had spent any time at all with the Essenes, that even if he refused to say anything bad about them, people would still assume something negative, thus giving off a negative view of the group. In my novel, Jesus spends enough time with the Essenes that he becomes very close to some of the people there and he cares about them. Therefore, he had two reasons to keep his former time with the Essenes a secret: He would not want to hurt any of the people there, and he would have refused to even take a chance of breaking his vow. This experience might have also influenced his teachings against making vows at all, although he could have had more than one reason to view the making of vows negatively.

Interestingly, the books I researched before writing my novel give fascinating clues to the likelihood that Jesus had spent time with them. Their government was formed by a top overseer with 12 assistants under him and three priests to help the overseer govern. These numbers most certainly could have been a coincidence, especially having 12 followers under Jesus (twelve tribes of Israel), but having three top disciples increases the strength of the coincidence.

Another similarity is the daily ritual of taking wine and bread that the Essenes took. Only those who were full members could partake of this daily spiritual observance. Of course, Jesus added much depth to the meaning of his ceremony that went beyond the meaning of that of the Essenes. Jesus likened the bread to his body and the wine to his blood that would be shed. He also told his disciples that the ceremony of breaking the bread and drinking the wine was instituting a new covenant.

A third interesting similarity relates to the ceremony of baptism. The Essenes practiced a daily ritualized washing which was a spiritual exercise of washing away any spiritual impurities. It was different from baptism, being one that was repeated daily, but it had spiritual significance, was similar in nature, and was partaken of only by those who had become permanent members.

Another area of coincidence is that when Jesus entered into Jerusalem in his triumphant arrival on a donkey, he entered by the Essene entrance which means he entered into the Essene quarters of Jerusalem (there were some Essenes living in Jerusalem). The meal in the upper room was in the Essene quarters of Jerusalem. Did Jesus know some Essenes and had he communicated with them secretly when he had the room set up? In preparation for the Passover meal, Jesus sent a few of his disciples ahead and told them that they would find a man carrying a water pot. As one Essene expert has pointed out, at that time usually only women carried water pots, but for a community of men, a man with a water pot would make sense. Was he an Essene? Why was Jesus sure someone would be carrying a water pot and would be happy to tell them where to go?

These are all fascinating thoughts and questions! I enjoyed exploring a few of these ideas and others in my novel, “The Humanity of Jesus and the Rebellion of John,” subtitled, '“Jesus, John and the Essenes.” which is currently in the process of being published.