Sophocles Beliefs On The Essenes

Essenes are Jewish just like Jesus. They believe that any pleasure is bad; they don’t engage in marriage because they think that a woman cannot be faithful to one man, but they agree that people can get married. They despise rich people and believe that everyone should be equal financially; they are all equal because it’s their law and they share everything that they have with each other. They are hard working men, so, to them, being sweaty is a good thing. When they travel to remote places, the only things that they carry with them are weapons to fight off thieves. Before sunrise they pray the prayers that their forefathers have for them and they don’t speak any profane matters. After they get done praying they go out and exercise their arts and skills; they use their …show more content…
In contrast, Jesus and the Disciples ate with other people including sinners and tax collectors ( Mark 2:13-17; Matt 9: 10-11). According to Josephus in section 8.5, the Essenes wash themselves before every meal. Jesus and his disciples did not always wash their hands before eating (Matt 15:2; Mark 7: 2-5). According to Josephus in section 8.6, the Essenes do not swear because they believe that if a person has to swear by God then he is already condemned. Jesus confirms that practice about swearing when He says, “But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool…All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No”(Matt 5:34-35, 37). Essenes themselves did not get married (Section 8.2). In the Gospels of Mark and Matthew it is clear that the disciples were not forbidden to get married since Peter had a mother in Law (Mark 1:8). Both the Essenes and Disciples made disciples, and those disciples did not have to be biological children or from the same sect. Jesus even told us, “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew