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The Essenes (/ ˈ ɛ s iː n z, ɛ ˈ s iː n z /; Hebrew: אִסִּיִים , ʾĪssīyīm; Greek: Ἐσσηνοί, Ἐσσαῖοι, or Ὀσσαῖοι, Essenoi, Essaioi, Ossaioi) or Essenians were a mystic Jewish sect during the Second Temple period that flourished from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century CE.
(The other schools were the Essenes, who were generally apolitical and who may have emerged as a sect of dissident priests who rejected either the Seleucid-appointed or the Hasmonean high priests as illegitimate; the Sadducees, the main antagonists of the Pharisees; and the Zealots. [21])
The following is a list of people who were in the position of the leaders of the Jewish nation, heads of state and/or government in the Land of Israel. Because of the position of the Land of Israel in Judaism, the leaders of the inhabitants of the land had a priority status also over Diaspora Jewry, although there were periods when this status weakened due to the weakening of the Jewish ...
Josephus' Jewish Antiquities [3] states that there were three main Jewish sects at this time, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes. The Zealots were a "fourth sect", founded by Judas of Galilee (also called Judas of Gamala) in 6 CE against the Census of Quirinius, shortly after the Roman Empire declared what had most recently been the ...
New leaders such as Israel Jacobson, father of the German Reform Judaism movement, launched an egalitarian, modernist stance that challenged the Orthodoxy. The resulting fractures in Jewish society has translated into a situation whereby there is no single religious governing body for the entire Jewish community at the present time.
The Essenes community believed gentiles, including proselytes, were ritually impure, but the Essenes were even stricter and regarded other Jews as impure until they completed a prolonged initiation ritual. Likewise, the Zealots and Sicarii held xenophobic views but were willing to ally with Idumeans (or Edomites).
In the latter years of the period, Jewish society was deeply polarized along ideological lines, and the sects of the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Zealots, and early Christianity were formed. Important Jewish writings were also composed during the Second Temple period, including portions of the Hebrew Bible, such as the books of Ezra, Nehemiah ...
This is an accepted version of this page This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 10 January 2025. Semitic-speaking Israelites, especially in the pre-monarchic period This article is about the Hebrew people. For the book of the Bible, see Epistle to the Hebrews. For the Semitic language spoken in Israel, see Hebrew language. Judaean prisoners being deported into exile to other parts ...