The Essene Sect and Other Second Commonwealth Jewish Religious Movements: Sociological Aspects / כת האיסיים וזרמים דתיים בימי הבית השני: הגדרות סוציולוגיות

Based on the definitions of Bryan R. Wilson and Mary Douglas, the sectarian map of the Second Commonwealth period was subjected to a sociological analysis. Although most scholars regard the Essenes as a sect, some, like Albert Baumgarten, also define the Pharisees and the Sadducees as sects; others, like Shemaryahu Talmon, deny the Essenes the title sect. To my mind, the attributes cited by Wilson as characterizing a sect can be identified in the Essenes: a "sect... is a voluntary association; membership is by proof to the sect authorities of some claim to personal merit...; exclusiveness is emphasized...; its self conception is of an elect, gathered remnant...; it accepts, at least as an ideal, the priesthood of its all believers; there is a high level of lay participation...; the sect is hostile or indifferent to the secular society or to the state". Mary Douglas' succinct definition of sectarian bias is similarly shown to be applicable to the Qumranic literature: "Sectarian bias means polarized arguments, persons shown in black and white contrasts, evil and good, and nothing in between". The tendency of sects that adhere to absolute truths to split – and Protestant sects (e.g., the Mennonites, Jehovah's Witnesses) are a case in point – was also true for the Essenes. Of the little we know about them (they never bothered to write history books), we hear about painful splits and splinter groups such as the House of Peleg and the House of Absalom. If we apply the two above definitions, in the Hasmonean period only one sect existed in Palestinian Judaism: the Essenes; in the Herodian period there were two: the Essenes and the Zealots.