Jesus and the Essenes

How to cite this article: David Flusser, “Jesus and the Essenes,” Jerusalem Perspective 26 (1999): 3-5; 27 (1999): 6-8 [https://www.jerusalemperspective.com/2473/].

There is a vast difference between the approach of the Essenes toward unbelievers, and that of Jesus and his disciples. The Essenes practiced extreme separatism, particularly forbidding economic relations with outsiders. Whoever wanted to follow Jesus, however, had to live in brotherly love with the outside world and not withdraw from society.

The Dead Sea Scrolls have demonstrated that the Essenes’ favorite name for themselves was “the sons of light.” In the synoptic gospels that term appears only in Luke 16:8, and a close examination of the text indicates that Jesus did not use “sons of light” to refer to his own followers, but rather to refer to the Essenes themselves.

I believe that Jesus’ Parable of the Unjust Steward (Luke 16:1-9) can best be understood as an attempt to teach his disciples not to behave like the Essenes. He further emphasized his warning not to emulate the Essenic separatism in his application of the parable as recounted in Luke 16:10-12.

---

Check out more JP posts by this author:

• 
  The Two Great Principles and Sefer Pitron Torah
  by David Flusser [1917-2000]
• 
  The Torah in the Sermon on the Mount
  by David Flusser [1917-2000]
• 
  The Times of the Gentiles and the Redemption of Jerusalem
  by David Flusser [1917-2000]
• 
  The Gospel of John’s Jewish-Christian Source
  by David Flusser [1917-2000]
• 
  The Decalogue and the New Testament
  by David Flusser [1917-2000]
• 
  The Apostolic Decree and the Noahide Commandments
  by David Flusser [1917-2000]

---

• ^[1] I. Howard Marshall, The Gospel of Luke: A Commentary on the Greek Text (NIGTC; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978), 614. ↩
• ^[2] David Flusser, Judaism and the Origins of Christianity (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1988), 102-125). ↩
• ^[3] Marshall, The Gospel of Luke, 622. ↩