Essenes

“ ESSENES, a Jewish sect, which maintained that rewards and punishments extended to the soul only, and considered the body as a mass of malignant matter, and the prison of the immortal spirit. The greatest part of them considered the laws of Moses as an allegorical system of spiritual and mysterious truth, and renounced all regard to the outward letter in its explanation. The leading traits in the character of this sect were, that they were sober, abstemious, peaceable, lovers of retirement, and had a perfect community of goods. ”

“ The Essenes were a sect outside the Jewish ecclesiastical body, bound by strict vows and [pg 24] professing an extraordinary purity. While there were no vows of extreme penance, they avoided cities as centers of immorality, and, with some exceptions, eschewed marriage. ”

“ The Essenes, with a note on Pharisees and Sadducees Jewish philosophy takes three forms. The followers of the first school are called Pharisees, of the second Sadducees, of the third Essenes.
149 The Essenes: their Asceticism, Simplicity of Life and Community of Goods A studied gravity [329] is the distinguishing characteristic of the Essenes. Of Jewish birth, they show a greater attachment to each other than do the other sects. They shun pleasures as a vice and regard temperance and the control of the passions as a special virtue. ”

“ Hardly numerous enough to be called a sect, nor of political importance sufficient to take rank as a faction, the Essenes yet form a feature in the period. The Essenes have been called the monks of Judaism, and they are the nearest approach to anything in the way of monks that Judaism has to show. They were men who in a sort of holy selfishness, and in utter weariness of the world, gave it up, so far as they could, altogether. ”

“ The Essenes were called physicians of the soul, or Therapeutæ; being resident both in Judea and Egypt, they probably spoke or had their sacred books in Chaldee. They were Pythagoreans, as is proved by all their forms, ceremonies, and doctrines, and they called themselves sons of Jesse. If the Pythagoreans or Conobitæ, as they are called by Jamblicus, were Buddhists, the Essenes were Buddhists. The Essenes lived in Egypt, on the lake of Parembole or Maria, in monasteries. These are the very places in which we formerly found the Gymnosophists, or Samaneans, or Buddhist priests to have lived ”

“ The Essenes were a true religious sect, originating during the Maccabean revolt, whose requirements were in some respects more exacting than those of the Pharisees. They had adopted many Persian beliefs and practices, lived as a brotherhood in monasteries, refrained from marriage, and had all things in common. They specialized in teachings about angels. ”

“ It is very surprising that the Essenes, whose exemplary Virtues elicited the unbounded admiration of even the Greeks and Romans, and whose doctrines and practices contributed so materially to the spread of Christianity, should be so little known among intelligent Christians. The current information upon this remarkable sect or order of Judaism, to be found in ecclesiastical histories and Cyclopædias, is derived from the short notices of Philo, Pliny, Josephus, Solinus, Porphyry, Eusebius, and Epiphanius. ”

“ Saying these words, the old man departed and left me still sitting by the well. But, as it was not yet the third hour of the day (and the Essene village was distant not much more than a two hours' journey, or three hours' at the most) , it came into my mind that I would hearken unto the voice of Jonathan, and visit the village of the Essenes that very day. So I arose straightway and set out on my journey. I rested often during the heat of the day, for I was weary with long watching and fasting ”

“ Palestine, and Syria too, which are inhabited by no slight portion of the numerous population of the Jews, are not barren of virtue. There are some among them called Essenes (Ἐσσαῖοι) ,—in number more than four thousand,—from, as I think, an incorrect derivation from the Greek homonym hosiotes, holiness (παρώνυμοι ὁσιότητος) , because they are above all others worshippers of God (θεραπευταὶ θεοῦ) . ”

“ If we consider that the Essenes, notwithstanding their wider divergence from the common type of Judaism, seem to have regarded themselves as within the pale of the church, and to have been so regarded by others—enjoying, indeed, with the people the reputation of peculiar sanctity—the schismatic character of our sect appears in a still stronger light. ”

“ Whatever Cabalistic elements were introduced into Craft Masonry at the time of the Crusades appear to have belonged to the second of these traditions, the unperverted Cabala of the Jews, known to the Essenes. There are, in fact, striking resemblances betwen Freemasonry and Essenism--degrees of initiation, oaths of secrecy, the wearing of the apron, and a certain masonic sign; whilst to the Sabeist traditions of the Essenes may perhaps be traced the solar and stellar symbolism of the lodges.294 The Hiramic legend may have belonged to the same tradition. ”

“ There is some difficulty in determining how far the Essenes separated themselves locally from their fellow-countrymen. Josephus informs us that they had no single city of their own, but that many of them dwelt in every city. While in his treatise Quod omnis, &c., Philo speaks of their avoiding towns and preferring to live in villages, in his “Apology for the Jews” we find them living in many cities, villages, and in great and prosperous towns. In Pliny they are a perennial colony settled on the western shore of the Dead Sea. ”

“ But such a conviction was widely spread, as may be seen from the manner of life of the Essenes and Therapeutæ, who existed long before Christianity arose.
The Essenes were a secluded sect, living in Palestine, whose numbers at the time of Christ were estimated at four thousand. They formed a community which required that its members should lead a life which developed a higher life within the soul, and brought about a new birth. ”

“ The Romanists pretend, as Dr. Prideaux observes, without any foundation, that the Essenes were Christian monks, formed into a society by St. Mark, who founded the first church at Alexandria. But it is evident, from the accounts of Josephus and Philo, that the Essenes were not Christians, but Jews. ”

“ He is of opinion that “the Essenes and Baithusians are the same both in name and doctrine,” and that “the Essenes have four other names in history besides their proper name, viz.:—they are called, 1, Therapeutae by the Greek Alexandrians. 2. Hiketeans by Philo, in the superscription to the Treatise on contemplative life. 3. Ossenes or Ossens, by Epiphanius. And 4, Baithusians in the Talmud, and by several Rabbins. As this notion, which has been advanced by De Rossi three centuries and a half ago, has already been refuted, it would be needless to repeat the arguments here. ”

“ He soon found that what Philo and Josephus describe as peculiarities of the Essenes tallies with what the Mishna, the Talmud, and the Midrashim record of the Chassidim (‏חסדים‎) , and that they are most probably the so-called old believers (‏ותיקין‎) , who are also described in the Talmud as the holy community in Jerusalem (‏קהלא קדישא דבירושלים‎) . ”

“ Neither is there anything foreign in the opinion, that the power to foretel future events can only be obtained by leading a life of preeminent holiness, for this was the common belief of the Jews, though it is true that the Essenes were the only section of the Jewish community who as a body strove to obtain the gift of prophecy. ”

“ The expressive glance of the Assessor rested long on these trees; his eyes filled with tears; his peculiar, beautiful, but melancholy smile played about his lips, and kindly sentiments seemed to fill his breast. He spoke to Petrea of a people of antiquity who dwelt in deserts; he spoke of the pure condition of the Essenes, a morning dawn of Christendom, and his words ran thus:
"A thirst after holiness drove men and women out of the tumult of the world, out of great cities, into desert places, in order that they might dedicate themselves to a pure and perfect life. ”

“ This the Essenes pointed out, and at length, growing angry at the unreasonableness of a complaint made by persons of the worst character, drove him and his escort from their doors, bidding them take their story to the high priest Ananos, with the goods which they had stolen, or, if they preferred it, to that still greater thief, the Roman procurator, Albinus. ”

“ They do so every morning, and every morning their prayer is heard. You shall see my Essenes.”
128“Thy Essenes!” said Elisama. “Thou hast already thrown out hints of this kind more than once, Selumiel, greatly to my surprise. I remember when we were young together in Egypt, thou hadst a similar passion for the doctrines of the Therapeutæ; and an early passion, it seems, never dies.”
“I confess,” said Selumiel, “that in my youth I often looked with veneration towards the hill beside the lake Mareotis, where they had their favourite abode. ”

“ Herod, rejoicing on it, gave Menahem his hand and dismissed him, and from that time continued to honour the Essenes. I thought of relating this to the readers (though to some it may seem incredible) , and of making [52] it known, as it concerns us, because many of the Essenes are highly esteemed for their virtuous conduct and knowledge of Divine things.”
Josephus also relates instances in which Essenes foretold future events, in Antiq., book xviii., chap, ii., § 2; book xviii., chap. xiii. § 3; and Jewish War, book 1, chap. ”

“ As contact with any one or with anything belonging to any one who did not live according to the same degree of purity, rendered them impure according to the strict application of their laws, the Essenes were in the first place obliged to withdraw from intercourse with their other Jewish brethren, and form themselves into a separate brotherhood. ”

“ Josephus, 37 A. D., and who was also at one time a member of the Essenian Brotherhood, furnishes another fragmentary account of the Essenes in his "Jewish Wars," of which the following is the substance:—
"They love each other more than others (that is, are "partial to the household of faith") ; they despise riches, and have all things in common, so that there is neither abjectness of poverty nor distinction of riches among them; they change neither garments nor shoes till they are worn out or become unfit for use; they neither buy nor sell among themselves; their piety is extraordinary ”

“ I can despatch a soldier, but your Marcus is with the Essenes, who for their own sakes will keep him fast enough as a hostage, if they have cured him. Also the Essenes live, according to your story, in some hyæna-burrow, opening out of an underground quarry in Jerusalem, that is, if they have not been discovered and killed long ago. How, then, will any soldier find their hiding-place? ”

“ The affiliation of Essenism to the Jewish-Alexandrian [72] philosophy brings it into most intimate relationship with Therapeutism, and necessarily devolves upon Dähne to define this family connection which he does in the following manner.87 “The difference between the Therapeutae and the Essenes, both of whom are followers of the Jewish-Alexandrian moral philosophy, is that the former devoted themselves entirely to a contemplative life, whilst the latter gave themselves more especially to a practical life. ”

“ Selumiel was the first to resume the discourse. “You remarked,” said he to Helon, “that the Essenes are Jewish Pythagoreans; and there are in truth many points of resemblance between them. Both practise community of goods, both hold in abhorrence every kind of effeminacy and voluptuousness, both love white garments, forbid to take an oath, drink only water, pay extraordinary reverence to old age, enjoin silence for a stated time upon their novices, offer only unbloody sacrifices, and teach that destiny is supreme and uncontroulable in human affairs. ”

“ Food was placed before the strangers, Essene fare, bread and hyssop. No women were to be141 seen: for the Essenes on this Oasis belonged to the highest class, in which marriage was forbidden: it was allowed in the inferior classes, only with strict limitations and restraints. They must speedily have become extinct, had it not been that they received many children among them for education, and that many grown-up persons constantly joined their society, weary of the cares and vicissitudes of busy life. Thus they formed a society which never died out, although no child was born among them. ”

“ It was equally opposed to the feelings of the Arabic or at least Semitic races, that superseded the Coptic in that country, and could consequently hardly have existed at all, unless introduced from some foreign source and maintained by some extraneous influence. The Essenes are the only sect to whom in the ancient world in the West anything like the peculiar institutions of monasticism can be traced ”

“ Philo’s second account, which has been preserved by Eusebius in his Praep. Evàng., viii, 11, from the lost treatise entitled Apology for the Jews, is as follows:—31
“Our lawgiver, Moses, formed innumerable (μυρίους) disciples into a fellowship called Essenes,32 who, as it appears, obtained this appellation by virtue of their holiness (παρὰ τὴν ὁσιότητα) . They dwell in many cities of Judea, and in villages, and [37] in large and populous communities. Their order is not founded upon natural descent, but upon admiration for virtue and sincere love for man. ”