Another View: Do Josephus’s Writings Support the “Essene Hypothesis”?

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In a recent issue of BAR, Steve Mason challenges the traditional “Essene hypothesis”—the belief that the Dead Sea scrolls and the archaeological site of Qumran are connected with the Essenes—based on the writings of Josephus. Accusing Scroll scholars of being “less sensitive to the nuances of Josephus’s historical narratives,” he argues that the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls remain a mystery. In this brief response, we will explain why, with the exception of the scrolls themselves, Josephus remains our best evidence in support of the “Essene hypothesis.” Both of Josephus’s two great works, The Antiquities of the Jews […]

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Footnotes

See Sidebar: “A Toilet at Qumran,” BAR 34:06, p. 64.

Endnotes

See further, Steve Mason with Honora Chapman, Flavius Josephus Translation and Commentary: Volume 1B Judean War 2 (Leiden: Brill, 2008), pp. 84–135.

CD 12:15–17; 11QT 49:11. Joseph M. Baumgarten, “Liquids and Susceptibility to Defilement in New 4Q Texts,” Jewish Quarterly Review 85 (1994), pp. 91–101.

1QS 6:10–11; also see 7:9.

See Jodi Magness, Debating Qumran, Collected Essays on Its Archaeology (Leuven: Peeters, 2004), pp. 99–106.

Yigael Yadin, The Temple Scroll, vol. 1 (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1983), p. 298.

Todd S. Beall, Josephus’ Description of the Essenes Illustrated by the Dead Sea Scrolls (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1988), p. 125.