Essenes

The Essenes were the third of the three schools of "philosophy" (the other two being the Pharisees and the Sadducees) that Josephus tells us were dominant among the Jews of Palestine during the 1st Cent BC-AD. Though their presence were also known to historians of the time—Pliny the Elder and Philo mention them in their work—little was known about them, except that they practised ascetism, communal living and reject animal sacrifices, because it was a rule of the sect to keep their tenets and ways secret from outsiders. It is interesting that the Essenes are not reported in the NT.

Modern scholars identify the Essenes with the ancient community at Qumran on the shore of the Dead Sea, and many think that they were responsible for the origin and the secreting away of the manuscripts we now know as the Dead Sea Scrolls.