"PARA SEPARAR LO PURO DE LO IMPURO ... ": LA IDEOLOGÍA ESENIA Y SU SIGNIFICADO EN EL CONTEXTO CULTURAL Y RELIGIOSO DE LA PALESTINA DE JESÚS

Resumen

-- This paper provides a summary of the latest consensus on the history and meaning of the community oj the Essenes in the Jirst century Palestine. This purpose is to illuminate the understanding of the historical figure oj Jesus and his Gospel within the context of the controversies around the notion of religious purity as central to the establishment of Jewish identity, in opposition and resistance to "globalization" ofthe ecumene of the Hellenizing Roman era. To this end, we present,first, a summary of sorne historical and cultural aspects that explain the origin of the Essene community. Then, we proceed to expose the central axes of their way of lije and, above all, its religious ideology.

Finally, we offer a comparison between sorne texts found at Qumran expressing this ideology, and sorne pericopes from the Synoptic Gospels, revealing how what we now know about the mentality of the Essenes allows us to have a better understanding of the message and practice of Jesus and his Jewish world; but also and above all, the radical and important novelty of this religious view grounded in an ideology of purity as the core of man's relationship with God.