Beyond the Essene Hypothesis: The Parting of the Ways between Qumran and Enochic Judaism [Paperback]

Gabriele Boccaccini (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 30, 1998

Respected scholar Gabriele Boccaccini here offers readers a new and challenging view of the ideology of the Qumran sect, the community closely related with the Dead Sea Scrolls. Boccaccini moves beyond the Essene hypothesis and posits a unique relationship between what he terms "Enochic Judaism" and the group traditionally known as the Essenes. Building his case on what the ancient records tell us about the Essenes and on a systematic analysis of the documents found at Qumran, Boccaccini argues that the literature betrays the core of an ancient and distinct variety of Second Temple Judaism. Tracing the development of this tradition, Boccaccini shows that the Essene community at Qumran was really the offspring of the Enochic party, which in turn contributed to the birth of parties led by John the Baptist and Jesus. Convincingly argued, this work will surely spark fresh debate in the discussion on the Qumran community and their famous writings.

Product Details

• Paperback: 252 pages
• Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (March 30, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802843603
• ISBN-13: 978-0802843609
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #351,593 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars At last something new and meaningful about the Essene, December 19, 2001

By 

Dall'orto Giovanni "Giovanni Dall'Orto" (Milan, Italy) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beyond the Essene Hypothesis: The Parting of the Ways between Qumran and Enochic Judaism (Paperback)

This is the *best* book I ever read about the Essene and Qumran to date. Dry, no-nonsensical, factual, sound... A bit "boring" here and there, but the matter is dry in itself, and the author is always essential and up-to-the-point, so the "boring" parts are always *very* short (never more than two pages).

The author begins by reviewing all we know about the Essene from ancient sources.

Then he thoroughly examines the literature that most resembles these features, the "Enochic" Jewish literature. He highlights a set of shared ideas in all of these texts, as well an important evolution in them along two centuries.

Next, he examines the ideology displayed by the Qumran literature, and compares it with the "Enochic" one. Boccaccini makes his point with great elegance and very convincingly: Qumran people were not "the Essene" at large, but just a schismatic (somehow fanatical) group that had parted from the Enochic tradition from which it derived, developing unique features and ideas. It is therefore an error using the Qumran texts to understand who "the Essene" were and what did they think.

Boccaccini proposes to rather identify "The Essene" with the "Enochich" tradition at large: if the Enochic party was not the "Essene" party, then it was its twin, he prudently suggests.

Most important is Boccaccini's memento about the fact that Enochic/Essene literature continued after "the parting of the ways" with the Qumran community. From this more recent tradition also Christianity stems, he hints.

And here is the most deceiving point in this book. The huge interest in Qumran was first caused, among other things, from the suspect it was sort of a "parent" community for Christianity. Christianity, Qumran texts seemed to suggest, might have had Qumranic, i.e. allegedly "Essene", roots.
What Boccaccini does, undercover, is showing that these roots were *not* planted in the Qumran tradition... but rather in the larger "Enochic" (Essene) tradition!

The lack of a chapter about Christian roots in Essenism is the weakest point in this book, at least to me (this was the first reason why I bought it). But by reading the title one realizes Boccaccini never promised to deliver such a chapter in the first place, hence my 5 stars.

However, prudence in an exceedingly "hot" issue, not lack of relevance of the issue, is the real reason why Boccaccini did not write such a chapter: all of the documents, and the reasoning, necessary to allow the reader to draw by himself this conclusion, are in this book. Simply, the author refrains from drawing this conclusion by himself, although he explicitly hints at it two or three times along the book.

I strongly recommend this work, but I warn about the need to complement it with other works if the Essene/Christian question is what you are interested in.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Don't Miss This One, May 1, 2000

By 

Robert Sloat - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beyond the Essene Hypothesis: The Parting of the Ways between Qumran and Enochic Judaism (Paperback)

For those who love studying ancient Judaism, Christianity, and the community at Qumran; this is a book that will help bring it all together. Boccanccini shows you a different side of Judaism. Different from the Pharisees and Sadducees we know from the Bible. This is the other side of Judaism, the Judaism of the Essense and their theology. It portrays a theology in Judaism that runs through the Essene community, Qumran, and Christianity and draws similarities between them all. It suggests that they all come from a common source and especially presents a theory that Qumran and what was later known as the Essenes, split from each other. I read this book over a year ago and can't wait to read it again.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Plausible yet simple, believable, December 2, 2002

By 

A. J. Valasek (Clemmons, NC United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beyond the Essene Hypothesis: The Parting of the Ways between Qumran and Enochic Judaism (Paperback)

This book does a fine job of collecting various sources of thought and religious tenets from the period prior to first century Israel to put forward the theory that the various sects of Judaism and Christianity have a very common origination. The differences are explained but the emphasis is on the commonalities with time being properly considered. Some distinguishing light is shed on the major problem of identifying the Essenes to a small community in Qumran considering various sources that identify certain contradictions. Although most will acknowledge a common root to the various sects of the time, Pharisees, Sauducees, Essenes, and Christians, this author ties the various texts available and places them in a convincing time-frame that allows for all the differences. The notion of various sects within the Essene movement is plausible yet simple and that is what makes this so appealing in my opinion. Overall, a nice piece of detective work.