The hypothesis of this paper will be to attest that the Essenes were a separatist Jewish sect who formed an ascetic monastic community at Qumran. The writer will also attest as a second point that it is possible from the accounts of various writers studied for this research paper (Lohse,1974 et.al) to formulate a theory supporting the Essenes copying or collecting the scrolls at Qumran and depositing them in the caves of the adjacent hills for safe keeping. .
The next section of this paper will focus on providing an outline of the contents of the scrolls and the identification system of the Dead Sea Scrolls and fragments of the manuscripts. The emphasis will be placed on those scrolls, which are seen to relate to the Essene community and those scrolls, which are books of the Bible. .
The writer will expand on the theory that the Essenes may have believed they were living their last days and may have interpreted writings by the prophets in the Old Testament as relating to the end of the world as they knew it. A further point, which is only a notion of the writer and certainly only conjecture, will be that because the Dead Sea Scrolls are the oldest known copies of Jewish scripture in existence, that the study of the community who lived at Qumran may provide us with further evidence in the scrolls of the coming of Jesus Christ. Because of the time the Essenes dwelt at Qumran there may even be links to the Essenes having met with Jesus and studied Jesus words as well as the words of the Old Testament which were preserved in the scrolls although this is not within the scope of this .
paper to enter into such an advances theological and historical debate, These points will be raised as points of interest only.
This paper will rely upon the first hand reports of three writers of the historical period to provide a glimpse into the lifestyle of the Essenes. These writers being the Jewish philosopher of Egyptian dispersion "Philo of Alexandria, Egypt, Flavius Josephus, the famous Jewish historian and priest-general at the time of the Jewish War and Pliny the Elder who died in 79 A.