Some scholars have described the Qumran settlement as “monastic," meaning that all the inhabitants were adult men. This is suggested by the excavated burials in the cemetery, which consist overwhelmingly of adult males, and by the testimony of Josephus, Philo, and Pliny, who describe the Essenes as a sect consisting of celibate men (although in one passage Josephus mentions a group of Essenes who marry and have children). The problem is that none of the sectarian scrolls from Qumran mandate celibacy, and, in fact, many include legislation concerning women and children (including marriage, childbirth, divorce, etc.). Because of such contradictory information, some scholars claim that the inhabitants of Qumran should not be identified with the Essenes described by outside sources (Josephus, Philo, and Pliny), but must belong to another (unidentified) Jewish sect.
In my opinion, the apparent contradiction is due to the different nature of our sources. The Dead Sea Scrolls represent the sect's own literature and contained their interpretation of biblical law, including the regulations that governed their everyday lives and shaped their beliefs and practices. This literature was intended for internal consumption. In contrast, Josephus,
Philo, and Pliny wrote for a nonsectarian audience. Let us consider Josephus and Philo, who were Jewish authors (Pliny's somewhat garbled account reflects the fact that he never visited Judea and derived his information about the Essenes second - or third-hand). Both Josephus and Philo can be considered as Diaspora Jews; Philo lived in Alexandria his entire life, and, although Josephus was a Judean, he composed his works after settling in Rome after 70 C. E. Therefore, both Josephus and Philo were members of a Jewish minority living in a world where Greco-Roman culture and religions were the norm for the majority of the population. Although Josephus and Philo composed different kinds of literature, they used their writings to try to influence their readers. Specifically, both attempted to demonstrate that Judaism was superior to Greco-Roman culture and religions. This message was intended for Jews (Judaism offers everything the others have, so there is no need to look elsewhere) and non-Jews (whatever Greco-Roman culture and religions have to offer, Judaism did it first and does it better). The writings of Josephus and Philo were shaped, at least in part, by this agenda.
Although the Essenes were the smallest and most marginal of the major Jewish sects, Josephus and Philo devoted to them a disproportionate amount of attention. For example, Josephus's description of the Essenes is much longer than his accounts of the Pharisees and Sadducees, who were far more numerous and influential. This is because as an ascetic sect, the Essenes served Josephus' and Philo's purpose of demonstrating the superiority of Judaism. The ascetic lifestyle — denying oneself physical or bodily pleasures in order to devote one's time to study — was one of the Greco-Roman philosophical ideals. Physical and bodily pleasures included diet, clothing, and sexual relations. Women were considered inferior to men in the ancient world and were viewed as a distraction from philosophical study. The Essenes served Josephus's and Philo's purpose because they lived an ascetic lifestyle (they pooled possessions, wore coarse clothing, shared meals, ate a simple diet, and constantly engaged in study [but of Jewish law, not Greek philosophy]) that approximated the Greco-Roman philosophical ideal. But does this mean that the Essenes were celibate?
The Dead Sea Scrolls indicate that the sect included women and children, and some members were married. However, the scrolls do not tell us whether women could join the sect voluntarily and undergo a process of initiation as men did, or whether women became part of the sect through marriage or by being born into it. Furthermore, the scrolls do not indicate whether women could become full members. There are hints that although some women might have attained some degree of status within the sect, their position was inferior to that of men. This makes sense because full members lived as if they were priests, and only Jewish men could be priests. Women, children, and men
With physical or mental defects could not serve as priests in the Jerusalem temple and therefore could not be full members in the Qumran sect.
Biblical Jewish law does not mandate celibacy. To the contrary, Jews consider the injunction to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:28) as God's first commandment. Ancient Jewish priests were married with families and lived in towns and villages throughout Palestine. The priests who officiated in the Jerusalem temple were divided into groups (“courses") that rotated on a weekly basis. During their course of service the priests stayed in the temple and had no contact with their families because of purity concerns. Because full members of the Qumran sect lived a priestly lifestyle, many must have been married with families. However, it may be that some members practiced occasional celibacy, by which I mean that like the priests serving in the temple, they left their families at certain times and had no contact or relations with them. Furthermore, although it is nowhere mandated, it may be that some members of the Qumran sect practiced permanent celibacy because of purity concerns.
Either way, it is the practice of occasional and perhaps permanent celibacy that Josephus and Philo described, because it served their purpose (although Josephus acknowledged that some Essenes were married). In other words, Josephus and Philo presented a partial picture of the Essenes, highlighting only the beliefs and practices that made it appear as though this Jewish sect lived according to the Greco-Roman philosophical ideal. They downplayed or ignored Essene beliefs and practices that did not serve this purpose. For example, the observance of biblical purity laws, which is so central to the sectarian lifestyle, is hardly mentioned by our authors. Pliny picked up information about the Essenes from an unknown source and included it as piece of exotica in his encyclopedic Natural History.
Recommended Reading
George J. Brooke, The Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2005).
Philip R. Davies, George J. Brooke, and Phillip R. Callaway, The Complete World of the Dead Sea Scrolls (London: Thames and Hudson, 2002).
Weston W. Fields, The Dead Sea Scrolls, A Full History, Volume 1 (Boston: Brill, 2009). Jodi Magness, The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002).
Lawrence H. Schiffman and James C. VanderKam (eds.), Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Vols. 1-2 (New York: Oxford University, 2002).
James C. VanderKam, The Dead Sea Scrolls Today (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2010). James C. VanderKam and Peter Flint, The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2002).
Roland de Vaux, Archaeology and the Dead Sea Scrolls (London: Oxford University, 1973). Geza Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (New York: Penguin, 2004).