There were three main groups of Jews in the Greek and Roman periods – the Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes. The Pharisees were the Sages of Israel and they promoted what was to become normative Judaism.  The Sadducees did not believe in the authenticity of the oral tradition but only that of the Torah. They were very influential politically and in the Temple, but their viewpoints were very much opposed by the Pharisees. The Essenes believed in an aesthetic approach to Judaism. The historian Josephus records from personal experience that they concerned themselves with piety, celibacy, absence of personal property and of money, the belief in communality and commitment to a strict observance of Sabbath. They ritually immersed in water every morning, ate together after prayer, devoted themselves to charity and benevolence, forbade the expression of anger, studied the books of the elders, preserved secrets, and were very mindful of the names of the angels kept in their sacred writings. 

 

Their approach was never adopted by mainstream Judaism. Christianity, however, was more influenced by these ideas.  The presented movie suggests that John the Baptist visited Qumran and this is based on a belief in Christianity that he spent 2 years here.  Jesus of Nazareth, who was baptized by John the Baptist, was not an Essene, but may have been influenced by some of the ideas of this movement. 

 

The importance of Qumran also comes from the discovery of 900 “Dead Sea scrolls” in the caves around the settlement. This has been one of the most, if not the most important, discovery in Biblical research, in that these scrolls are the earliest known documentation of parts of the Bible. Their analysis has spawned its own journal and numerous academic careers. The scrolls were likely placed for safe keeping in the caves around Qumran by the inhabitants of Qumran, possibly hiding them from the Romans.  They could also have been kept in these caves for storage. The Essenes in Qumran were heavily involved in the writing of scrolls –the Bible, Apocrypha and their own writings.

 

In these ruins, one can see the buildings and objects revealing how this group led this lifestyle. Qumran was primarily in use from the time of John Hyrcanus, who was a Maccabean in the Hellenistic period (134-104 BCE or somewhat later), and it continued in use until its destruction by Titus in the Great Jewish Revolt in about 68 CE.  During the time of Herod it was abandoned after an earthquake, but was resettled after about a quarter of a century.