As for the author, he was no Essene, for he recognizes animal sacrifices and cherishes the Messianic hope; he was not a Sadducee, for he looks forward to the establishment of the Messianic kingdom (x.); nor a Zealot, for the quietistic ideal is upheld (ix.), and the kingdom is established by God Himself (x.).
But we are also told that " the Pharisees characterized the Essene as ` a fool who destroyed the world.'
Christianity was to some extent a popularization of Essenism, but there is little reason for believing that Jesus himself was an Essene.
It is highly probable, too, that from these Essene Ebionites there issued the fantastical and widely read "Clementine" literature (Homilies and Recognitions) of the 3rd century.
It seems rather to represent a later and modified Essene Christianity, already half-Catholic, such as would suit a date after 250, in keeping with Eusebius's evidence.
It seems that a ritualized form of the defeat of Belial was part of much Essene ceremonial.
Jesus expected the miracle to end a forty year cosmic battle, assuming him to be an Essene.
Marriage and property had already been eschewed in the Jewish Essene and Therapeutic sects, and in Christianity the name of Encratite was given to those who repudiated marriage and the use of wine.
Of the three main Jewish sects, John the Baptist 's eschatological orientation is closest to the Essene position.
The author was not an Essene, for he recognizes animal sacrifices and cherishes the Messianic hope.
The language is purely Essene and messianic--just what we would have expected a Nasi like John the Baptist and now Jesus to be proclaiming.
The standpoint is that of the peculiar Judaizing or Ebonite Christianity due to persistence among Christians of the tendencies known among pre-Christian Jews as Essene.
Then, having spent three years in the desert with the hermit Banus, who was presumably an Essene, he became a Pharisee.