I did read the article (quite some time ago.)
There was a group of ascetics that lived in Ein Gedi and Qumron around the 1st century (undisputed.) What did the priests of the temple complex call these people? We know that the priests of the temple complex knew they existed. Surely they had a name for them. Maybe they called them "Minim" because to write their real name with holy writing would be blasphemous.
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I am content with the word 'Essene' and do not see a problem with not knowing their Hebrew name. I am not doubting you about Ein Gedi back i do not see the correlation between the two. There were many asetic groups and still are today, so you need to make your point.
Are you saying the Essenes did not exist because 1 scholar decided there wasn't enough hebrew references to them for her liking or are you saying they were part of this Ein Gedi group? We know the Essens existed
Several important archeological findings have verified the existence of the Essenes, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, which have been identified as part of an Essene library. The famous historian Josephus also confirmed their existence, stating that they comprised one of three major Torah schools – the other two being the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The founders of the movement, Josephus said, were Jewish high priests who came from the house of Zadok during the time of Solomon.
http://www.jesusfamilytomb.com/back_to_basics/early_christianity/essenes.html
The Dead Sea Scrolls, bear the names of the sons of Zadok, the great grandsons that split off from the Temple and Jerusalem, when the Hellenistic priests took over, they were the only Levites that could serve God in the Holy of Holies, (Ezek. 44:5-16). Their names were, Jehoiarib, Jedaiah, Seorim, Jeshua, Maaziah, as listed in (1 Chron 24:7) as written in the sequence of 1st, 2nd, 4th, 9th, and 24th. And Jehoiarib Mattahias as noted in (1 Macc 2:1) his son Chasmon, (Asmonaeans, or Hasmonaeans) the great grandfather of Joseph Mattathias, and his sons, Eleazar, Judas, Johanan, Jonathan, and Simon.
Consider that it was Chasmon, Johanan, Simeon, Mattathias, the sons of Zadok that built up Khirber Qumran, above En Gedi, called the Essenes which is a misnomer of etymology from [[ L Esseni < Gr Essenoi, said (by Philo) to be < hosios, holy, pious, but < Syrian hsen, pl < hsi, pious, holy]] the Levitical sons of Zadok were building it's walls 250 years before the birth of Christ Jesus. These scribe's were copyists of the Torah and scrolls daily, not fifty years or 150 years later. The dating methods of sixty years ago are obsolete, it's the ink of the scrolls and the DNA of the pollens microspores in the ink, that will reveal the where and when, the scrolls were written.
Any more than Daniel's writing down the prophetic message given to him, of the times of the Maccabean wars, that critics say were written much later, and yet the holy and pious sons of Zadok at Qumran knew Daniel had written about their times, and the coming of the Massiah, the hope of all Jews. These sons of Levites, as non-Hellenized priests and scribes, wrote their Manual of Discipline, verifying their exsistance, the copying of the Scrolls in Old Hebrew, and placing them in caves for safekeeping, confirms their Levitical duties. The sons of Maccabaeus were of the same discipline, to the point they had to fight back, to preserve a nation, and themselves as keepers of the temple. As their written accounts attest to also. Their depositories of scrolls and books, were safe for over 2000 years, even the long lost ones, were in their possession, Jubilees and the Copper scrolls, that only the true Levites appointed by God would have, and protect.
Maybe this scholar, Rachael Elior, is correct, if even this sect never used the term themselves. But even the scholars that kept the Dead Sea Scrolls, to themselves for many years, searching for the same thing this Jewish sect was looking for, and never truely understood the message of the Seventy sevens/weeks given to Daniel, which was not a book hidden in a cave.
Peace
OldSage
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