Essenes and Cistercians

“Essene and Cistercians alike maintained a belief in the founding of a “New Jerusalem”.” A. Butler and S. Dafoe The following interesting passages are taken from the book, The Knights Templar Revealed. The Secrets of the Cistercian Legacy (Magpie Books, 2006), by A. Butler and S. Dafoe: Pp. 43-44: …we can find no monastic institution anywhere near as similar to the Essene communities as that of the … Cistercians. … it is worth itemizing some of these similarities: • The Essene specifically chose remote desert locations for their settlements, as did the Cistercians, for the word “desert” is specifically mentioned in the Order of the Cistercians. Both groups deliberately sought seclusion and redemption through both work and prayer. • Both brotherhoods wore white. It isn’t known if the Essene placed the same reliance on sheep rearing as did the Cistercians, but the likelihood is that they did, and their garments, like those of the Cistercians, were undoubtedly of non-dyed and possibly bleached wool. • Cistercians and Essene alike showed a great obsession with cleanliness and sanitary living conditions. This was not an exclusive consideration of all monastic settlements by any stretch of the imagination. The Essene may or may not have practised total immersion as a form of repeated baptism. There is no written evidence that this was the case and the cisterns found at Qumran and other locations may merely have been a means of retaining water in an extremely arid area. The Cistercians were expected to wash their heads, hands and arms daily. This might seem a perfunctory accession to cleanliness when seen from our modern perspective, but in medieval terms it was viewed with surprise and even alarm by some agencies. Like the Essene, the Cistercians made superhuman efforts to supply all parts of their monasteries and other establishments with ample water for all manner of uses. The layout of a typical Cistercian abbey might incorporate a modified stream, as at Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire, England, as well as waste water channels and other indications of an ingenious effort to supply every part of the establishment with running water. Similar efforts were made at Qumran as well as at the Minoan palace of Knossos, where the supply of fresh water to all parts of the building were broadly similar, as were precautions taken for drainage and the disposal of sewage. We dare to suggest the Minoan/Philistine know-how, amassed over many centuries, might easily have been employed in the planning and building of settlements such as Qumran. • Essene and Cistercians alike maintained a belief in the founding of a “New Jerusalem”. …. • By their very nature both the Essene doctrine and that of the Cistercians harked back to the dawn of Judaism and the founding of the First Temple by Solomon. It should be remembered that the Templars were actually named after this institution (the poor Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon). Comment: Judaism never called it the Temple of Solomon, but the Temple of Yahweh. The article continues: House of Solomon … The fascination that both the Cistercians and the Templars held for this early period of Jewish history is quite without parallel and set the standard for the Old Testament interest prevailing in Europe at the time. • Both groups believed that the final battle, preparatory to the creation of the New Jerusalem, would represent a physical as well as a spiritual struggle. … one of the documents found at Qumran is known as the War Rule Scroll and it details the last and greatest battle that would have to be fought against the forces of darkness. This is not simply a hypothetical document based on spiritual beliefs. On the contrary, it gives very specific military advice and instructions. … the form of armaments to be carried, together with the clothing and headgear that should be worn. Beyond this, it specifies a system of signals to be used at times of war. This is a strange document to have been compiled by a body that generally existed to wage spiritual rather than tangible war against its enemies. Nevertheless, it is more than paralleled in the case of the Cistercians …. [End of quote] For a compelling identification of the Essenes as the (Herodians)-scribes of the New Testament, see Marvin Vining’s Jesus the Wicked Priest. How Christianity was born of an Essene Schism (2008). See also my (Damien Mackey’s) article: The “Essenes” in the Bible (5) Damien Mackey | The University of Sydney - Academia.edu