Beat me to it. I was going to mention that connection. Some say that John the Baptist was an Nazarene/Essene who left his isolated commune to prepare the Way.
"The first Christian sects could have been either Nazarenes like John the Baptist; or Ebionites, among whom were many of the relatives of Jesus; or Essenes (Iessaens) the Therapeutæ, healers, of which the Nazaria were a branch. All these sects, which only in the days of Irenæus began to be considered heretical, were more or less kabalistic. They believed in the expulsion of demons by magical incantations, and practiced this method. The Talmud indiscriminately calls all the Christians Nazari. Nazaraios means separation, alienation from other men."
JESUS A True Nazarene
“The Essenes lived on the shores of lakes and rivers, away from cities and towns, and practiced a communal way of life, sharing equally in everything. They were mainly agriculturists and arbor culturists, having a vast knowledge of crops, soil and climatic conditions which enabled them to grow a great variety of fruits and vegetables in comparatively desert areas and with a minimum of labor.
They had no servants or slaves and were said to have been the first people to condemn slavery both in theory and practice. There were no rich and no poor amongst them. They established their own economic system, based wholly on the Law, and showed that all man’s food and material needs can be attained without struggle, through knowledge of the Law.
They spent much time in study, both of ancient writings and special branches of learning, such as education, healing and astronomy. …..In the use of plants and herbs for healing man and beast they were likewise proficient.
They lived a simple regular life, rising each day before sunrise to study and commune with the forces of nature, bathing in cold water as a ritual and donning white garments. After their daily labor in the fields and vineyards they partook of their meals in silence, preceding and ending it with prayer. They were entirely vegetarian in their eating and never touched flesh foods nor fermented liquids. Their evenings were devoted to study and communion with the heavenly forces. …
Their way of life enabled them to live to advanced ages of 120 years or more and they were said to have marvelous strength and endurance. In all their activities they expressed creative love.”
In Hebrews 13, Paul explains that Jesus entered Jerusalem in triumph, but was betrayed and ended up dying outside the gates. The analogy is that it may be impossible to live the Christian life within the confines of ordinary society. Perhaps it is necessary to live in a separate encampment.
13 Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.
14 For here have we no lasting city, but we seek one that is yet to come.
Yes to my mind the Jewish Essene doctrine is the root for gentile Christianity.
The Essenes and Christianity
You can partly trace a California trend in vegetarianism back to the East. Yoga came to California in the 1960's and the Tassajara retreat in Big Sur, both preaching vegetarianism. The dietary practices were adopted in certain circles and eventually embraced by health educators, and now those dietary practices are wide spread while Hinduism and Buddhism are not.
Similarly, you can suggest that pre-Christian desert communities might have been influenced early Christian communities in certain cultural aspects, like communal living. It doesn't necessarily mean that Christianity was a scion of the Essenes in a doctrinal manner.
