Essenes

The Essenes are one of four groups attested as a Jewish sect by the first century Jewish Historian in Antiquities
18.18-22 (Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots are the others). The other
groups attested by Josephus there all existed, so there is no reason to
think Josephus created this group as has been recently claimed,
especially since there is no good reason for him to create such a group
and references in Philo predate Josephus. So besides Josephus, the

Easter approaches and so do stories about our Judeo-Christian roots. Time has a story on an Israeli scholar denying the Essenes existed (of course the other groups noted in Antquities 18 existed and were not legendary as she claims). There are numerous references to such a group and her "renegade sons of Zadok" are very much what the Essenes are described as being. What we may be dealing with here is a name that the group itself did not prefer and so it does not appear in the Scrolls. The reply by Charlesworth on the matter in Time is short and to the