Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§9.3 The Historical Context
were drawn and who controlled the Temple. 74 Since Judea was a temple state,
that placed the levers of political, religious, economic, and social power firmly in
their hands, to the extent permitted by Rome and the Herods. 75 This is a fact of
considerable importance for any study of Jesus in his historical setting: it not
only reminds us that the Judaism of Jesus' time was a socio-political-religious
complex; but it also means that so far as Jewish involvement in the death of Jesus
is concerned we can speak realistically only of the high priestly faction. 76 At the
same time, despite their wealth and degree of Hellenisation, their very name suggests,
77 somewhat surprisingly, an origin similar to that of the Essenes, that is, in
partisan protest on behalf of the legitimate (Zadokite) priesthood, whose prerogative
had been usurped by the Hasmoneans. At all events their prominence and
power prior to 70 CE are clear testimony to the importance of the Temple in firstcentury
Judaism.
(3) As for the Essenes, there is a substantial consensus that Qumran was an
Essene community and that the great bulk of the Dead Sea Scrolls came from
their library. 78 But the evidence of Josephus (War 2.124) and Philo (Prob. 76) is
probably sufficient to demonstrate that Qumran was only one branch of the
Essenes and that other Essene groups lived in various towns, including possibly
Jerusalem itself. 79 And the disparity of the material in the scrolls is becoming
steadily clearer, with only some representative of the Qumran community's own
74. See Sanders, Judaism ch. 15. 'Priests themselves were a clan rather than a sect or
party' (Fredriksen, Jesus 63).
75. See further K. C. Hanson and D. E. Oakman, Palestine in the Time of Jesus (Minneapolis:
Fortress, 1998) 139-54; Meier, Marginal Jew 3.394-99. On the character, status, and
powers of 'the Sanhedrin' see particularly Sanders, Judaism 472-88; even if Sanders is again in
danger of overstating his case (Hengel and Deines, 'Sanders' Judaism' 58), it remains unclear
whether sunedrion in a passage like Ant. 14.171-76 should be translated as 'the Sanhedrin'
rather than as 'the Council'.
76. See, e.g., Dunn, Partings 51-53 and those cited there. See further below §17.2.
77. If indeed the 'Sadducees' took their name from Zadok the priest (Schürer, History
2.405-407; Porton, ABD 5.892; G. Stemberger, 'The Sadducees', in Horbury, et al., eds., Judaism
3.428-43 [here 430-34]; Meier, Marginal Jew 3.450-53).
78. Several editions of the complete scrolls have been recently published. I have used
mainly F. Garcia Martinez and E. J. C. Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition (Leiden:
Brill/Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), and G. Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English
(London: Penguin, 1997). The most useful introductions are currently F. M. Cross, The
Ancient Library of Qumran (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 3 1995), and J. C. Vanderkam, The
Dead Sea Scrolls Today (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994). For a description of the archaeology
of Qumran see R. Donceel, 'Qumran', OEANE 4.393-96.
79. B. Pixner makes the case for the existence of an 'Essene quarter' within the 'gate of
the Essenes' on Mount Zion; see, e.g., his 'Jesus and His Community: Between Essenes and
Pharisees', in Charlesworth and Johns, eds., Hillel and Jesus 193-224 (here 196-200).
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