February 13

Today’s lecture had continued the matters of the last week, by talking about Judith in the first hour. Judith is an apocryphal heroine who had saved Israel from the Assyrian army of Holofernes. Naturally, this is a very famous story, since in ancient times there were few occasions for women to decapitate men and became heroines of state especially on a semi-official basis, and consequently Judith was often depicted in more modern paintings. On this occasion, we saw five of the Renaissance paintings, each one depicting this warrior woman after she had decapitated Holofernes or was in the process of doing so. This is appropriate, seeing how that act was the zenith of Judith’s career as a heroine and literary character, but it also showed how little else there was about her – as a literary character Judith is rather finite. She is not unlike the heroic characters of the Roman republic, which would save their country from the foreign invader, and then return to their humble ploughs, or in case of Judith – humble widowhood. As a literary character Judith is more of a socio-political allegory than a well-rounded person.

The second half of the lecture was taken by the discussion of the Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes sects. All of them (and also the Zealots) arose after the failed Hellenization of Israel. The Pharisees and Sadducees are mentioned in the New Testament as well since they are religious opponents of Christ and the Apostles: the Pharisees believed in the immortal soul (according to Flavius Josephus), while Sadducees did not. Also, the Sadducees were popular only among the nobility of Israel, while the Pharisee cult was more widespread.

The other cult, the Essenes, were not mentioned in the New Testament directly, thought it is possible that John the Baptist belonged to them. While the Pharisees and the Sadducees were more of secular cults, the Essenes were monastic in their nature: they had no women or slaves among their number, their lives were dedicated only to study of the Torah and hard manual (agrarian) labour – this all brings to mind the lives of the Christian monks up to the medieval times at least.

It also should be noted that the Essenes, just like the Zealots, are not mentioned in the New Testament – certainly not as much as the Pharisees and the Sadducees and certainly not in such negative tones. Perhaps the apostles were on friendlier terms with them? However, the Essenes did leave a certain important mark in history – the Dead Sea scrolls that we began to cover on this lecture as well.

Found in Qumran these scrolls describe a self-sufficient community that is rather Essene in its essence rather than otherwise. It also creates an image of life in Israel at that time and as such the Scrolls are a valuable source of information, and not just of religious, for religion and society in Hasmonean Israel were tightly interwoven (and it is thought that the Dead Sea scrolls describe Pharisees as the enemies of the community, for example).

Today’s lecture was very interesting and has covered a wide range of topics. I have enjoyed following it and hope that the future lectures will be just as good.