Dear George Brooks,
About all one can conclude from from Pliny is that Pliny's source thought
the Essenes practices adoption. First, this was likely a misunderstanding.
One of the duties of the Mebaqqer of certain scrolls was the instruction of
youths entering the yachad. He was to be to them as a father to his children
(CD 13.9) and even addressed them as his sons (CD 2.14). This sounds like
adoption, though of course it isn't. Add the fact that the organization was
run by males (1QS lacks a role for females), an outsider might conclude that
the Essenes (who followed 1QS or a text like it) were an all-male society
(although the Essenes Josephus' source knew married - which led the source to
believe there were two types of Essenes).
The idea that a society perpetuated itself by adoption lent itself to
paradox: theoretically, by replacing lost members by adoption, a society
could perpetuate itself forever, generation after generation, for thousands
of ages, without sex or birth. This precisely the sort of novel social
institution paradoxographers loved. The celibate Essenes probably never
existed, but the paradoxographer liked to think _could_ exist; hence the
colorful little semi-imaginary idealized group portrait in Pliny.
Additionally, Pliny's portrait is influenced by Biblical materials. See
my posting
on Sodom.
Note the giveaway "incredible to relate" in the Pliny passage. "Thus
through thousands of ages (incredible to relate) a race in which no one is
born lives on forever." The reference to incredible matters is practically
stock phraseology in paradoxography (and in others describing doubtful
assertions by paradoxographers). Also, please observe that the reference to
"thousands of ages" in Pliny does not mean the Essenes historically had a
long past, though some have interpreted it this way. It could be equally
interpreted to mean Pliny's source thought they would have a long future.
With this adoption thing, they could go on forever!
Best regards,
Russell Gmirkin
> Why is it that you think this reference is of no historical value?
> Do you mean "historical" in some special or technical way? Or do you
> not think it really applies to "our Essenes"?
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