the dead sea scrolls are usually thought to have been produced by a group known as the essenes. and the essenes are a group that literally abandoned jerusalem, it seems, in protest against the way the temple was being run. and they go to the desert to get away from what they see to be the worldliness of jerusalem and the worldliness of the temple. >> the manual of discipline, or in hebrew, sera-hayachad, envisages a community living in almost total isolation, a community that is self- contained, that is governed very strictly. there is an oath of entry. it is very much a monastic community. x the congregation of the elect must pledge himself to live according to the rule of theo community, to love all the children of light, and to hate all the children of darkness." >> the essenes are what we might best call an apocalyptic sect of judaism. an apocalyptic sect is one that? thinks of itself as, first of all, the true form of the religion. yt >> by apocalyptic expectation, i mean that some group has a... an apocalupsis in greek-- a revelation that god is going to finally solve the