[bcsco]

I wonder if he thought that maybe, just maybe, that was a nickname for the 'ousted temple priests'?

I had a similar thought; that Essenes was the name taken by the ousted temple priests, or a name applied to them...

[mnehring]

I’ve always understood that they where priests of the Maccabe tradition, versus, the Herodian appointed priests, so ‘ousted priests’ would fit.

[Radl]

Well, who we are going to believe, Flavius Josephus, who lived during this time or someone a few thousand years later with a degree......hmmmmm