Also known as “the Elect” and “the Chosen Ones” the Essenes were the first people openly to condemn slavery, the use of servants, and the killing of animals for food. Viewing physical labor as a healing communion with the earth, they were agriculturists, living close to the land that gave them life. The Essenes viewed prayer as the language through which to honor nature and the creative intelligence of the cosmos, they made no distinction between the two. Strict vegetarians by today’s standards, members of the Essene community’s abstained from animal flesh, blood foods and fermented liquids, Perhaps one of the clearest explanations of their diet may be found in the following passages from the Dead Sea Scrolls “ Kill not the food which goes into your mouth. For if you eat living food, the same will quicken you, but if you kill your food, the food will kill you also. For life comes only from life, and death comes always from death. For everything which kills your foods: kills you bodies also” Their lifestyle permitted them to reach advanced ages, attaining 120 years or more with vitality and great endurance.
Posted on: Mon, 23 Sep 2013 16:06:47 +0000
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