Oh, they existed. Josephus wrote of them fairly extensively and Pliny the Elder noted them as well although he was most likely referring to a writing by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa during his governorship of Syria c 15 BC.
The thing is that while they lived communally they seem to have been primarily agricultural workers who went out into the community to work and returned to the commune at night. No one suggested they spent a lot of time copying books. Josephus lived among them for 3 years without making reference to such an activity.
Roland De Vaux was a French priest who oversaw the early excavations at Qumran and as he was a Dominican he applied his own European concept of a monastery and concluded that the Essenes had a monastery at Qumran and wrote out all these scrolls.
The thing is that while they lived communally they seem to have been primarily agricultural workers who went out into the community to work and returned to the commune at night. No one suggested they spent a lot of time copying books. Josephus lived among them for 3 years without making reference to such an activity.
Roland De Vaux was a French priest who oversaw the early excavations at Qumran and as he was a Dominican he applied his own European concept of a monastery and concluded that the Essenes had a monastery at Qumran and wrote out all these scrolls.
