Essenes (Hastings' Dictionary)

In regard to the origin and nature of this sect very various views liave been held. It is therefore best to confine oneself to stating succinctly what is known about them from ancient authors. Our earliest witness is Philo of Alexandria, who, having visited .Jenisalem in his youth, may have come into personal contact witli tliem. In his treatise Quod Omnis Probiis Liber, which is one of •TIndale, In his tr. published in 1525-2fl, rendered the dr.

fAnrT%vthi<nii (Mt I'") by ' inaried,' and in tins he \» followed by Coverdale. In the ed. of 1M4, however, ho alteriKl it to ' hetroutheil." In 2 S 9 Gov. has ' ni:iric d,' and so have the Geneva and Bishops' lllbles. In the NT our translatorw were probably influenced by the Rbemish Version, which in Mt 1*8 hns 'siwused,' or by Udall's tr. ot Erasmus' PsnpbrVM (1&48! which nas ' esiH>use. 768 ESSENES ESSENES his earlier works, written probably before a.d.

20, he describee them as follows : — They were % sect of Jews, and lived In Syria Palestine, over 4000 in number, and called Esstei, because of their saintliness ; for /io(ao« = 8aintIy, U the same word aa Essaeus. Worshippers of God, they yet did not eacriflce animals, re^rdinp a reverent miod as the only true sacrifice. At first they lived in villages and avoided cities, in order to escape the contagion of evils rife tnereiu.

They pursued affriculture and other peaceful arts ; but accumulated not gold or silver, nor o\\'nea mines. No maker of warlike weapons, no huckster or trader by land or sea, was to be found among them. Least of all were any slaves found among them ; for they saw In slavery a violation of the law of nature, which made all men free brethren, one of the other. Abstract philosophy and logic they eschewed, except so far as it could sutwerve ethical truth and practice.

Natural philosophy they only studied so far as it teaches that there is a Gwl who made and watches over all things. Moral philosophy or ethic waa their chief preoccupation, and their conduct was regulated by their national (Jewish) laws. These laws they esp. studied on the seventh day, which they held holy, leaving oCF all work upon it and meeting in their synagogues, as these places of resort were called. In them they sat down in ranks, the older ones above the younger.

Then one took and read the Bible, while the rest hstenwi attentively ; and another, who was very learned in the Bible, would expound whatever was obscure in the lesson read, explaining most things in their time-honoured fashion by means of symbols. They were taught piety, holiness, justice, the art of regulating home and cit^y, knowledge of what is really good and bad and of what is mdiCferent, what ends to avoid, what to pursue, — in short, love of Ood, of virtue, and of man.

And such teaching bore fruit. Their life-long purity, their avoiding o( oaths or falsehood, their recognition of a good providence alone, showed their love of God. Their love of virtue revealed itself in their indifference to money, worldly position, and pleasure. Their love of man in their kindliness, their equality, their fellowship passing all words.

For no one had his private house, but shared his dwelling with all ; and, living as they did in colonies (fliactf-auf), they threw open their doors to any of their sect who came their way. They h.id a storehouse, common expenditure, common raiments, coninion footi eaten in Syssitia or common meals. This wa« made possible by their practice of putting whatever they each earned day by day into a common fund, out of which also the sick were supported when they could not work.

The aged among them were objects of reverence and honour, and treated by the rest as parents by real children. The most cruel and deceitful tyrants, says Philo, that had been the scourge of their country, had yet been moved to admiration of their quiet but invincible freedom, of their common meals, of their consummate fellowship. Perhaps in these last words Philo refers to Herod the Great, whose subsequent rise to great- ness was foretold to him as a child by an E.

named Manaemus (Menahem), and who in conscfjuence befriended and honoured the sect { Josephus, A nt. XV. X. 5). Eusebiua in his Prreparatio Evangelica has S reserved a fragment of Philo's 'Apology for the ews,* which repeats much of the information given by Philo, but also supplements it. Our lawgiver, he says, trains into fellowship and com- munion thousands of his disciples, who for their saintliness iiniri^rot) are called Essenes.

They inhabit many cities of ^udsa, as well as many villages and populous tract«. Their tenets are espoused by Uiem of free choice, and not as a matter of race. There are do children or youths among them, but only full- grown men, or men already m the decline of life. They have no private property, but put all they have into a common fund, and live as members of a thiasus or philosophic colony, having common meals.

They are very industrious, and work hard from early sunrise to sunset, as tillers of the soil, or henlsmen, or bee-farmers, or as craftsmen. ^Tiatever they so earn they hand over to the elected steward (rctt^Jm xii^«T**}di»rt), who at once buys victuals for the common repast. No Essene, adds Philo in this account, marries, but all practise continence. For women are selfish and jealous, and apt to pervert men's characters by ceaseless chicanery and wile.

While, if they have children, they are pufi'ed up and bold Id speech ; driving their husbands to actions which are a bar to any real fellowship with other men. The next VNTiter who describes the Essenes is Pliny the elder (t A.D. 79), in hi& Natural Huitory^ bk. V. ch. 17. The Hessenes,' he says, live on the W.

side away from tlie shores (of the Dead Sea), out of reach of their baneful influences, A solitary race, and strange above all others in the entire world They live without women, renounc- ing all sexual love. They eschew money, and Utc among the palm-trees. Yet the number of their fellows (convenarum) is kept up and day by day renewed ; for there flock to them from alar many who, wearied of battling with the rough sea of life, drift into their system ' {ad mores).

* Thus for thousands of ages (strange to tell) the race is per- petuated, and yet no one is bom in it. So does the contrition felt by others for their past life enrich this set of men. Below them lay Engadi, a to^vn once second only to Jems, in its fertility and groves of palms. Now 'tis but one more tomb. Next comes Masada, a fort on a rock, and, like the former, not far from the Dead Sea. And here ends our account of Judoea.' There are two passages in Josephus in which the E.

are described at length, and many minor re- ferences. The following is an epitome of his infor- mation : — Josephus calls them Essenl in BJ n. viiL 2, Ant. xra. ▼. 9, X. 6, etc., and with Philo, Essai in Ant. xr. x. 4. They arose along with the sects of Pharisees {Aiit. xiii. v. 9) and Saddu- cees, about B.C. 144, and formed from the first an ajptrtf or sect. About B.C. 107 iAnt. xm. xi.

2) a certain Essene, named Judas, had a school, it would seem, in the temple, in which he taught his companions and pupils the art of predicting events. Again, about B.C. 21 we reaa (Ant. xv. x. 4) that Herod excused then: along with the Pharisees from taking the oath of fidelity tc himself. In the Jewish war (BJ i\. xx. 4> we hear of one John the Essene leading the Jewish rebels in Thamna. And at that time (c. A.D. 70) there was a gate at the S.E.

corner of the city of David called the Gate of the E. (BJ V. iv. 2), which is proof that they were tlit-n n numerous sect. The E. were so called because of their holiness (ri/»»»T*!T«) (BJ II. viii. 6 ; Ant. xvni. i. 5). They beheved that God controls all things, and committed all things to Him. Sometimes, how- ever, Josephus says that they re^rded Fate (iiLutput>^) as the supreme determinant of all human affairs (so a Mussulman believes in Allah and Kismet both at once) {Ant. xvui. i. 3).

There was no single city oi the E., but they were sojourners (utroiiceua;*)\n many, being in number over 4000 (^n(. xviii. i. 5). They eschewed marriage, and, adopting others' children as their own, imbued them with their own tenets (BJ lu viiL 2 ; Ant. xviu. i, 6). There was, however, another sect (rayua) of E., who made trial of women for three j'ears and tlien married them if they were fruitful (BJ n. viii. 13). They owned no slaves (Ant. XVII. i.

5), and were wholly devoted to agricultural pursuits. They despised wealth and shared their possessions, so th:it a rich man among them had no more enjoj-ment of his own property than had a member who owned nothing (BJ ii. viii 3 and Ant. xvin. i. 5). For in entering their sect (ajpttra) a man made over his property to the institution (tS rctyfxtt.T')(BJ ii. viii. 3).

There was no buying and selling between members ; but the elected stewards administered the common fund, impartially satisfying the needs of all alike (BJ w. ^-iii. 3). In every city a special re- lieving otRcer (xvHtujm) was appointed to take care of the gar- ments and supplies of the sect and entertain its travelling members. But though 80 knit together among themselves the Essenes succoured the deserxing, and pitied all men and fed the needy (DJ u. viii. 6).

This was a primary duty to be fuI611ed by each on his own responsibility, and without waiting for a hint from the overseer ^\Tiu.^\rTi.i or itirfi^-rrtt) ; without whose authority, however, they might do nothing else, nor even give to their own kinsmen. Their general mode of life (I'tcurm) Jos. in one place declares to be the same as that which Pythagoras instituted among the (Jreeks ; in another place he compares them to I)a<iatis.

pre surnably because of their sijuple and communal mode of Uving (AM. xV. X. 4, XVUI. i. 5). Hethusdescribesaday of an Essenes life inside his brotherhood :— As for their piety towards God. it is very extraordinarj'. For before the sun rises they speak not a word about profane matters, hut address to the sun certain prayers, which they have re- ceived from their forefathers, as if they supplicated it to rise (BJ II. viii. 6).

After this every one of them is sent away by their curators to exercise those arts wherein they are skilled, in which they labour with great diligence till the fifth hour (11 A.M.) After this they assemble together into one place, and when they have clothed themselves in white veils, they bathe their bodies in cold water.

And after this purification is over, tliey meet together in an apartment of their own, into which it is not permitted to any one of another persuasion to enter ; and they themselves being pure enter the dining-room as if it were some holy temple, and quietly sit down. Upon which the baker lays them loaves in order, and the cook also brings a single pfate of one sort of food anil sets it before every one of them.

But the priest says grace before meat, and It is unlawful for any one to taste of the food before prayer is offered. And when they have made their breakfast, he again prays over thfim. And when they begin and when they end, they praise God as • x'^'^^^ *' •■• ■»» ir(i*i. «•«*. ESSEN ES ESSE^ES 709 Him that bestoweth life. Afl«r which they lay aside their white ^mienta aa holy, and betjike themselves to their laboura a^iti till the eveniDjf.

Then Uiey return home to supper after tlio same maimer ; and if Uiere be any Htrun^ers there, they bit down with them. Nor is there ever any clamour or disturlmnce to pollute their house ; hut they give every one leave to speak in their turn. Which silence thus kept in tlieir house appears to outfiidere like some treuienduus mystery ; and tlie same is due to their unswerving; Bobriety, and to this, that their food and drink is measured out to satisfy them and no more.

Like I'hilo, Joeephus is full of praise for their mora) quaL ..<:8, and lauds their self-restraint in an;;er, their faithfulness, their peace-making, their trutlifuJness, which made all oaths to them a mere superfluity. The lUfKle of Joining the sect was this. The intending member remained outside the order one year, following, however, the same discipline, and invested with ita symbols, namely a spud wherewith to hide bis excrement out of sight of Go<l, the girdJe and white raiment.

After the lapse of a year, if he had given good proof of liis continence, he was allowed to join more closely in their way of life and partake of a purer quality of the water* of purification, though not yet to live entirely with them. Two years of moral probation must vet be passed before he was chosen a member of their band (»uj>j>t).

And then before he touched the common food he took tremendous oaths to them : first to reverence the Deitv, next to observe justice towards men, to hate the wicked and assist the just. To be loyal ever to all men, but in especial to those in authority, because none hath authority except by God's help.

He swore also, if he should ever be in authority, not to abuse the same, nor outshine those subject to him in his ganuents or in any other finery ; to love truth and repel falsehood ; to keep his hands clean from theft and his soul from unholy gain ; to conceal nothing from mem- bem of tile sect, nor reveal aught to others, even at peril of his life.

Moreover, he swore to communicate to none tiie dogmas of the sect, otherwise than as he received them himself, to abstain from brigandage, and to preserve with like care the books of their sect and tile names of the angels. Job. ^ves many indications that the E. were very strict Jews (BJ ll. viii. 9). They revered the name of tlie lawgiver next after God, and punished with deatli one that blasphemed again.st Moses.

Above all other Jews they observed the Sabbath, not only not cookin" on that day, and avoiding the lighting of a fire, out forbearing also to move a vessel, or even evacuate. In the Jewish war many died under torture at the hands of the Romans rather Ihiin blaspheme tlie lawgiver or eat unclean food. Many details supplied by Jcsephus prove how much importance they attached to ceremonial purity.

We have seen how they bathed before each meal, and wore linen garments ; linen, of course, being prescribed because it was a vegetable substance, and not made of dead animal refuse, as would be a leathern or woollen tunic. That the waters of purification in their purer quality were denied to novices, proves that the water of the bath was ceremonially cleansed, and probably exorcised, liy immersion in it they were themselves rendered Ka.Oa.

pol or pure before they sat down to meat, by contrast with the irepkio^oi, or persons of any other persuasion (liJ ll. viii. 10). Tliey were distin- guished ace. to their purity and seniority into four grades ; and a senior member was polluted by the very touch of a junior member, and had to wash after being so touchi'd, as if he had been jostled by Gentiles. So an Indian Brahman is polluted by the touch and even sight of a low-caste native.

They did not anoint themselves with oil, regard- ing it a.s a defilement ; prob. because they could not easily get oil prepared by members of their own caste. Josephus elsewhere assures us that no Jew would anoint hiiii.self except with Jewish oil. The same pursuit of ceremonial purity is to be noticed in regard to their meals. I'heir food and viands were scecially prepared by their priests (Ant. XVIII. i. 5); just as in s Hindoo pri.

son the cook must be a lirahman, because any lower-ca-ste man may eat what a higher-ca-ste man has cooked, but not vice versA. In each city a special ollicer [KTfitiJ.wi') was appointed to supjily travelling E. with their ceremonially pure garments and food. La-stly, an E. expelled for his sins by a court of 100 members from the brotherhood was still so held by its oaths and customs that he cotild not eat of food provided by others, and in consccpierico VOL. I. — xn starved to death.

To the same concern for cere- monial purity must prob. be ascribed tlieir attitude of reserve towards the temple sacrifices. ' They send ollerings (a.vadi)ijjj.Ta) to the temple and per- form siiciitices with superiority of purificatory rites,* which they clauu to practise (Ant. xvili. i. 5). And being for this reason excluded from the common court of the temple, they perform their sacrifices by themselves.'

t These words are ob- scure, and barely reconcilable with Philo's state- ment that the E. did not sacrifice animals (Philo, ii. 457 = Quod om. prob. lib. § 12). The oflerings sent, according to Jos., need not of course have been blood-oll'erings ; and as to the nature of the sacrifices (dvala.s) which they performed by them- selves, i.e. without the help of the temple priests, Jos. tells us nothing ; but we should certainly connect it with a practice, which he elsewhere attests, viz.

that they elected their own priests for the making of their own food and eatables. This much is clear, that the ordinair lustrations of the temple were not good enough for an E. , and were incompatible with his notions of ceremonial purity. Presumably, they were excluded from the temple court for thus flouting the usual lustrations. Un- able to enter it, they sent offerings, but did not go themselves. At tlie same time ' they performed their sacrifices by themselves.'

There seems to be some connexion between this statement and I'hilo's that they offered up the sacrifice of a devout and reverent mind. They could not possibly have offered up animal sacrifices save in the temple and in the ordinary way ; and Josephus' own statement elsewhere, that tlieir mode of life was I'ytha- gorean, is in favour of Philo's declaration that they did not sacrifice animals. It is natural to suppose that they regarded their common meals as of the nati.

re of a sacrifice, just as Christians regard the eucharistic elements. Only thus can we explain the fact that they elected priests to prepare tliose meals ; for a priest implies a sacrifice to be offered. Their abstention from marriage must also be set down to their desire for a levitical purity. For ace. to the Mosaic law sexual relations involved » defilement of the person, and the uncleanness lasted until the even (Lv 15'*).

Notwithstanding their attachment to the Mosaic law and striving after levitical purity, there were certainly many non, Jcwisli elements in their religious jiractices and beliefs. Thus they adored tiie sun, and |irayed to him to rise. In Appian and other writers we find the phrase, ' the god rose,' or ' the god set,' used instead of ' the sun rose,' or ' the s^in set' ; and Philo regarded the sun and stars as holy and divine natures.

The Esseue beliefs about the soul and a future life were also non-.Iewish. They believed that they received their souls back after death (/?./ lI. viii. 11), and so very cheerfully died for the faith. ' The body is corruptible, they taught ; and the matter of'^ which it is composed is not lasting. But souls are immortal, and last forever, and, pro- ceeding out of tlie most .subtle ether, are entangled in bodies as in prison-cells, being drawn down by some natural yearning.

But when tliey are set free from the bonds of the flesh, as being now- released from a long bondage, they rejoice and mount upwards. And in agreement with the opinions of the Greeks they declare that there lies away across the ocean a liabitation for the good souls, in a region that is oppressed neither with storms of rain or snow, nor with intense heat ; a region ever refreshed by the gentle breathing of a breeze blowing from the ocean. But they allot to bad .

souls a dark aniltempestuoas den full of never- ceasing piinishments.* 770 ESSENES ESSENES The Easenes had hereditary prayers to the sun, as well as the usual Jewish sacred books ; they liad purificatory rites of diti'erent sorts or degrees, and utterances of the prophets. By diligent study of these, some of them learned and protessed to read the future. And their predictions, says Jos.

, were rarely belied ; indeed he gives several instances up and down his history of the fulfilment of their pro- phecies {liJ II. viii. 12). They also had compositions of the ancients from which they chose out what- ever benefited soul and body ; and they inquired after such roots and peculiar stones as would w ard ofl' tlieir distempers. The regular books and dogmas of the sect, as we have seen, they took jath to carefully keep, as also the names of the angels.

These names, of course, were powerful weapons against evil demons, with a belief in which they must, like other Jews of the age, have been imbued. The stones and roots were the ordinary magic remedies against diseases. This IS the sum of what Jos. has to say about the Essenes. Hippolytus in the 9th Book of his Refutation vf Heresies, % 18-28, substantially copies out Josephus' account in the BJ ii. eh.

8, here and there adding Christian touches in a way which proves that he was not loth to assimilate them to Christians. Yet some of the information which he adds is not of this sort, but serves to intensify their Jewish complexion. Such are the statements that on the Sabbath some Essenes would not so much as leave their beds (§ 25) ; that some were so scrupulous that they would not carry a coin, de- claring it wrong to carry or look at or make an ima.'e (§ 26, cf.

Mt 22-") ; that no one of them would enter a city over the gate of wliich stood a statue (§ 26) ; that others of them, if they heard any one talking about God and His law, would waylay him when alone, and threaten to slay him unless he were circumcised, and slay him actu- ally if he did not submit ; for which reason, says Hippolytus, they got the name of Zealots and Sicarii ; that others would call no one Lord (Kipiov) but only God, submitting to torment and death rather than do so.

It is difficult to believe that Hippolytus had no authority for these state- ments ; which indeed might seem to be taken from Jos., since they are embedded in his long citation of that author. If so, they have been removed from all the MSS of Josephus. The same account of Jos. was excerpted by Porphyry in the 3rd cent, in his book on Abstinence from Meats, and later by Eusebius in his De Prcep. Evnng. The account given by Epiphanius of the E. is late, confused, and of little value.

It is clear that, even if the majority of the E. were cultivators and voluntarily poor, that did not prevent some of their number from occupying important posts in the court and camp ; for we hear of one Simon * the interpreter of Archelaus' dream (Ant. XVII. xiii. 3), and of John the strategus, and of Menaliem the friend of Herod. Nor did tlieir gospel of peace and their prejudice against arms, as reported by Philo, prevent them from taking part in the final stniugle against the Romans. Jos.

, more- over, iTii]ilies that they were constantly moving about from city to city ; and we can only suppose that the object of this travelling was to preach their tenets and secure recruits. We should like to know if the sect was not mainly recruited from Greek-.^peaking Jews, but on this point Jos. tells us nothing. In his autobiog.

( Vita, 10) he implies that as a youth he had tried the discipline of this sect, aa also of the Pharisees and Sauducees, and this inner acquaintance with them entitles his account to our entire credit ; but just because he and his countrymen knew the sect so well, he omits to inform us about so essential a point as in what language their books were written, and what tongue, whether Greek or Aramaic, they ueaaUy spoke among themselves.

Some writers, impressed with the fact that Jesus constantly inveighed against the Pliarisees and Sadducees, but never against the members of the third of the three great Jewish sects, who yet must have everywhere confronted Him, have in- ferred that He and John the Baptist, His pre- cursor, were Essenes. The silence of the Gospels about the E. is certainly remarkable ; and there are many striking traits in common between the E. and the earliest Christians. These are the following : — 1.

The community of goods and voluntary poverty. 2. The art of prophecy. In the earliest Church, as we know from Acta and from the DiJach^, there was a rej,'ular order of propliets. 3. The teaching about the future life, and about a hell. These tenets, however, were equally found among the Pharisees ; nor does Jos.

support Hippolytus in the latter's statement that the Essenes believed in the resurrection of the liesh, though the picture of the Islands of the Blest implies as much, and answers well enough to the Refrigerium of later Christian belief. As to the teachmg of future punishment, we also And it in Philo. 4. Abstention from marriage. This was equally a counsel o( perfection in the early Church, but was there held to be right in view of the impending second advent and end of the world (1 Co 725ff).

8. Obedience to established authorities. 6. In- ternal government. The officers of the E. community were vari- ously termed aTcJiTot tw» rooiroiMr receivers of the revenue,' itri/j-tXtiTiti 'curators,' xyM.u-ovtf 'relieving officers,' tk/mbu 'stewards' (in Philo). These otHcers were, like the bishops of the early Church, elected by show of hands (;(;i^«To*,)yi»Tic), ace. to the testimony of both Philo and Josephus.

It is significant that Hippolytus calls them outright irpoiffriTit or presidents (lib. ix. § 25), the regular 2nd cent, equivalent of ' bishop.* 7. The common meals, with which we may compare the picture of the early Church of Jerusalem given in the Acts. But whereas the Es-^enes dined together because of their anxiety to eat no food but what was ceremonially pure, the Christians were chiefly actuated, it would seem, by charitable and communistic reasons.

Their love-feast, however, also had from an early date, if not from the very first, a sacramental character and con- clusion, and required, like the Essene common meal, the presence of a priest both to prepare it and to give thanks before and after it to God ' the Giver of Life." 8. The Eesene priests inpt7!) were elected to preside at the common meal, and viak^ the food eaten thereat.

Since the Essene common repasts had plainly a sacramental character, the function of their priests, as of Christian ones, was simply to prepare and preside over a sacramental meal, to which none were admitted save those rendered pure by previous baptism. 9. General organization, (a) Obedience to the Essene offlceiB. The brethren in their deportment and bodily habit were like children under the eye of a schoolmaster whom they feared (BJ ll. viii. 9).

(J3) They were all brethren, but the elder members were revered by the juniors as if they were their parents, (y) The entire^ body or class of Essenes (>-'*' ^ Jos. calls it) is a 8ieur»<, an «7^i*-if , an e^Xae, a Ttt-yMt. The two former were generic names for any body of co-reUgionists, and Christian congregations among the Gentiles were so described. (5) The travelling precepts of the E. resembled those enjoined by Jesus on the Seventy.

They were to take nothing at all with them, but only to go armed tor fear of robbers.*' (i) They were to wear their cloaks and shoes right out, never changing them till they were quite worn out. Hippolytus paraphrases this by saying that no E. owned two cloaks or two pairs of shoes (Hipp. I.e. } 20). (t) The four grades of E. resembled the steps of the catechumenate. Such a distinction, however, of grades of initiation was common to most ancient mysteries, and was not special to Christianity.

'The dUdpluia arcani of the E. was also reproduced in the Christian Church, but equally in the pagan mysteries. 10. Like the Christians, the Essenes were not content with the ordinary lustrations («>»!<'«<) of Judaism, but had superior ones of their oivn. Whereas, however, the Christian baptism was conferred once and for all, the Essene baptism was daily.

The Essene alTectation of a purity of food superior even to the ordinary purity of the Jews, also recalls the eucharistic meal of the Christians. From it the novice was excluded, just as was the catechumen from the Eucharist. And just as 'Jie priest among the E. was elected to make the food eaten in their syssitia, so the priest in the Or. Church, even to this day, him- self prepares and bakes the eucharistic loaves. Jos. expressly s.ays that the Essenes elected priests.

They were therefore not content with the hereditary Levites of Judaism. More analogies between the Essenes and the earliest Christians could no doubt be discerned. But it is a fatal objection to any real identilica. tion, that the Essenes were ultra-Jewish in the ob- servance of the Sabbath, and, if we may credit Hippolytus, in their insistence on the circumcision of converts. The most wo can say is that the • tllU fjXt #XJK \wmfju^bu^ti, '« li rout Anrriv U»r>.ct.

ESSEX ES E68EXES T71 Christians copied many features of their organiza- tion and propagandist activity from the Essenes. Tlie relation of tlie different sources on which aur knowledge of the E. depends requires further sifting than it has generally received. Of course there nave been attempts to prove the Philonean sources to be not authentic, but they are based on mere ignorance. There are occa-sional verbal re- semblances * between the accounts of Philo and Jos. which indicate that Jos.

, besides his own personal experience of the sect, nsed either Philo or else a document previously used by Philo. The accounts of the two writers, however, do not always agree. Thus Philo says that all the E. were full-grown men, or verging on old age ; but Jos. avers that they recruited their sect by adopt- ing other people's children wliile they were still supple and plastic to receive their teachings {BJ II. viii. 2). Vet in the same context Jos.

speaks of those who desired to become members of the .sect.t and also of th^ir period of probation, in words suit- able only to the view that these recruits were adult men. We may perhaps infer that the sect was recruited in both ways. Pliny's statement that the men from all quarters joined it when they repented of their lives, and left tlie world, agrees well enough with Philo's statement ; and, if we trans- late/K«ni?

en(ia as ' repentance ' rather than mere ennui, offers a striking parallel to Jolin the Baptist's preaching : Repent of your sins and be baptized, because the kingdom of God is at hand. There is reason to suspect some close affinity be- tween John, who came fasting, and the E. ; the more so as John's sphere of activity in the valley of Jordan lay close to the Essene settlement on the shores of the Dead Sea. The reclu.se Bannus, with whom Jos.

as a young man spent three years as a disciple, resembled the Essenes. For he lived in the desert, wore garments made of the bark of trees, and lived on anything he found growing about, washing himselt often day and night with cold water by way of purifica- tion. However, Josephus' context rather implies that he was not one. An almost certain reference to the E. is contained in an eloquent pa.ssage of Philo's, from the same treatise in which his longer description of the sect is preserved.

Even in our own day, he writes, there are fltill men whose only ffxiide in Ood ; men who live by the true reaBon of nature, not only theniaelveti free, but tilling their nt^i^jhlMjura with a ■pint of freedom. They are not very numerouH indeed. But that ifl not Htranf^e. For the highest nobility is ever rare ; and then these men have turned aside from the vulgar herd to devote Iheinselvea to a contemplation of nature's verities.

They pray, if it were powible, that tnoy may reform our fallen lives ; out. If they cannot, owing to the tide of e\nls and wrongs which ■ur^'es up in citiea, they flee away, lest they too be swept off Lbeir feel by the force of its current.

And we, he continues, if we hod a true zeal for self-improvement, would have to track them to their nla^-es of retreat, and, halting as suppIianU before them, would fjeseech them to come to us and tame our life, frown too Aerce and wild ; preaching, instead of war and slavery and untold ills, their gospel of peace and freedom, and all the fulnea of other blessings.

The Therapeutw of Alexandria, of whom Philo has left so striking a description in his tract iJe Vita Contemplativfi, in many ways resembled the Pal. Essenes ; but were, as was natural in an Egyp. sect, more addicted to contemplation. Here is not the place for a detailed comparison between them and the E. ; nor is it possible to review the numerous theories which have been framed with regard to the origin of the E. It, however, deserves to l>e remarked that ace. to the evidence of Jos. * B.g.

Ant, znil. i. 5 : t«9i r^tirrtvrif k<iflt irifi Ttrfituurx'i^* T»> kp46^Ui ifTU, Cf. Philo, II. 4ri7 : wXriUet irwip rirpiuurx'^'t- It is not likely that their numlH-rs were the same at the veiy bea. of our era as in a.d. 70. Again Jos. writes ^B7 ii. viii. 4): t#,< tH^mSlt {ia«v#<> nlpfrtWTM T»tT' iimwiwratvau r» rfi' s^rcTf. Cf. Philo (11. 468) : «t«cjrr«r«4 Ji«i r«« Iri^it Ji^i»imfMi**f rmt they arose just at the time when the friendship between Lacedaimon and .lerus. was at its highest.

Areus the king of Sparta had written as early as B.C. 309-300 to Onias the high priest in these terms ; ' It is found in writing that the Spartans and the Jews are brethren, and that they are of the stock of Abraham' (1 Mac 12='). And in B.C. 144 Jonathan the high priest, in renewing the relations of his country with Laceda;mon, reminded the Spartans of this long-standing friendship based on ancient kinship. Is it possible that the E.

sect was partly an outcome of this contact with the Peloponnese — an attempt to imitate on Jewish soil, and in a re- ligious and moral sense only, the Syssitia and organization of the Lycurgean polity ? That most of the Jews mentioned in Jos. as belonging to the Maccabiean period have Greek second names is good evidence of the wide diffusion in Pal. at that time of the Gr. language. And the very informa- tion proH'ered by Jos., that the E. were .

Jews by race, almost implies in its context that in language tlicy were something el.'ie. So Philo assures us tli;it the holy places in which the E. met on the Sabbath were calle<i (rwa-yorya/, stjnngogues. Un- less they spoke (ireek, why .sliould this term rather than the usual one aaSfio.Tetoi' * have been employed? Friedhinder {Ziir EntsteliunffSf/e- sr/iirhte des Christenthums, Wien, 1894) has re- marked that the very circuinstaiK'e of Jos.

having used, if not Philo's account, at least a Gr. descrip- tion of the sect already used by Philo, is some indication that they were a Gr. sect of Jews. Their Pythagorean regime, their belief in the pre- existence of the soul, their view of its nature and incarnation, all point the same way. The state- ment also of Philo, not repeated by .los.

, that they philosophized most things in the Bible allegoric- ally or in a symbolic way with old-fashioned zeal,-t is an almost certain proof of their Hellenism. And Philo's own allegorization of the passage I)t 2311'. is, as Friedhinder has seen (p. 118), an allusion to the Es.sene probation and discipline (Philo, Legw Allerj. i. 117). Again, Philo, when he states that the E.

were taught the art of regulating home and state, and a knowledge of what things are really good and bad and indifferent, how to choose what is right and avoid the opposite courses, seems to inijily a familiarity on tncir part with Greek, especially with Stoic, moral i)liilo.sophy, inconceivable among Jews who spoke Aramaic only. But here we must be cautious, for Philo would naturally de- scribe any sect in terms of his own Gr. culture. That he twice over described this Pal.

sect, yet apparently left unnoticed the purely .Jewish schools of Pal., is in any case significant, and suggests that they had a Gr. culture which inter- ested him, and leu him to couple them, as he does, with the Alexandrine Therapeutic. Jos. eiiually implies that they were more or less Hellenized. Would he have conspired with Philo to misrepresent them ? Nothing is more im- probable.

The conclusion, then, is probable that they owed their origin to the introduction and diffusion of Greek culture in the early part of tlie 2nd cent. B.C. They woj-" in some respects very strict Jews, and even fanatical observers of the Mosaic Law j but in others, notably in their election of their own priests,* and in the thereby implied super- session of the Levite hereditary priesthood, and in • Jos. uses ff-«^^«Ti7»» {Ant. xvi. vi. 2).

It la found In a very earlv Onooo-Jewish papyrus, edited by Mr. B. P. Grenfell, of Oxford. t rk ^9f wXitrrm tik rvftfiiXjn i^mvrfiwp ^tikmrv v«^' •un4l X Ant, XVIII. 1. 6; aw^ytHTui rSt w^triimi x"'"^^^' • ■ • it^^t it ivi vaitirii rtrm rt ■«« Sfi>u*rtii. If the h>senea di» carded sacrifices, they had no need for priests of the old kind. 772 ESTATE ESTHEK their repudiation of animal sacrifices, they were a new dupai'ture in Judaism, and very closely akin to Jesus and His disciples.

The literature relating to the Essenes is so vast as to defy detailed reference. The student may be advised to study for himself the very limited documentary sources relating to them, and then to draw his own conclusions.* F. C. Conybearb. ESTATE In AV (1611 and mod. edd.) 'estate' occurs 19 times, ' state ' 14 times, without diUer- ence of meaning ; thus Col 4' ' All my state (to. Kar (fii rdfTa) shall Tychicus declare unto you,' but v.' ' that he might know your estate ' (TR rd jrtpl i/j.

Qr) ; and again, Ph 2''- * ' your state ' (to Trepl iiiiCir). Cf. Melvill, Diary, 289, ' We fand him in a miserable esteat ' ; Calderwood, History, 144, ' I, Mr. Andrew Melville . . most earnestly hath prayed at all times, and specially in the fore- said Sermon, for the preservation and prosperous estate of his Majestie.' The meaning is either ' condition ' as in those examples, or ' position ' as Ps 136^ ' Who remembered us in our low estate ' (uSep?)

, Ec 1" ' I am come to great estate ' (■fi'rijn). Cf. T. Elyot, The Govemour (Croft's ed. 1. 26),' 'a man of the base estate of the communaltie ' ; Calderwood, History, 149, ' They declare how some of low estate, borne to no heritage . . have creeped in favour with the King.' But in Dn 11'- >■ »J- > the meaning seems to be ' high rank,' •dignity,' as 11' ' Out of a branch of her roots shall one stand up in his estate.' The Heb.

is [j kSn, which means ' place ' (as RV here) or ' office ' (as RVm), and the favourite translation before AV was 'in his stead' (Cov. Gen. Bish.); once, how- ever, the word is translated ' state ' (Pr 28', AV and RV). Akin to this meaning is Mk 6-' ' Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee ' (toU irpuirois, RV ' the chief men '), where, however, the word is used of the men to whom the dignity belongs. Cf. Fuller, Ch. Hist V. iii.

28, 'Item, that God never gave grace or knowledge of Holy Scripture to any great estate or rich man.' See also Ac 22° ' The high priest doth bear me witness, and all the estate of the elders,' Gr. irav ri vpeff^vr^pioy, lit. ' all the presbytery,' i.e. the Sanhedrin (which see). Compare Communion Office in Pr. Bk. 1549, ' the whole estate of Christ's Church militant here in earth,' changed in 1552 into ' state.' In Ezk 36" ' I will settle you after your old estates,' the plu.

is used simply because the ref. is to more than one person ; so Pref. to AV 1611, 'support fit for their estates.' J. Hastings.