This is a question to Jews or Messiannic Jews about the....?

Question

Essensses? Or is it spelled Eccenses? Well anyway, who were they? From what tribe of Isreal did they come from? Are they still in exsistance in this day and age. Is it true that John the baptist was raised and trained by them?

Answer 1

I am not Jewish but the Essenes were one of the sects of Judaism that were around in the late second temple period. Josephus spent time living as one of them. Based on what little we know of them, some speculate that John the Baptist may have been an Essene, and perhaps also the Qumran sect who left us the Dead Sea Scrolls, but there is still disagreement on the subject amongst scholars.

As for the tribes of Israel, the only tribes around by the time the Essenes appeared were the Jews, remnants of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin that formed the Southern kingdom centred on Jerusalem and which had been exiled by the Babylonians. All the other tribes, which had formed the kingdom of Israel with it s capital at Samaria, were dispersed by the Assyrian invasion, though the Samaritans may represent a mixed race remnant of them.

See the link below for more details on the Essenes.