Endnote 1 – Did the Essenes Write the Dead Sea Scrolls?

The Essenes are also discussed by the first-century Alexandrian Jewish philosopher Philo. In a recent article Joan E. Taylor makes somewhat the same kind of argument with respect to Philo that I make here with regard to Josephus: “Archaeologists and historians wishing to understand Philo’s presentation of the Essenes cannot read a translation of Philo’s texts on this group in isolation, without a clear knowledge of his language, rhetoric and his works as a whole … Philo used the Essenes as a rhetorical tool. He did not intend to give a completely comprehensive view of Essene life … [Philo] used common models of philosophical excellence, with a dusting of the extraordinary, to cause his Roman and Hellenistic audiences to wonder at the excellence of Judaism as a whole.” Joan E. Taylor, “Philo of Alexandria on the Essenes: A Case Study on the Use of Classical Sources in Discussions of the Qumran-Essene Hypothesis,” in David T. Runia and Gregory E. Sterling, eds., The Studia Philonica Annual 19 (2007), pp. 1–28.