THE ESSENES.
The
cardiual doctrines
Law
inspired
God with
of
and
practices of the sect were as follows
the utmost veneration.
the temples of the Holy Ghost,
27
The highest aim
:
They regarded the
was to become
of their life
when they could prophesy, perform miraculous
cures, and, like
This they regarded as the last stage of perfection,
which could only be reached by gradual growth in hoUness through strict observance of the
law.
They abstained from using oaths, because they regarded the invocation, in swearing, of
anything which represents God's glory, as a desecration.
Elias, be the forerunners of the Messiah.
According to
tradition,^ there
were four degrees of purity
of every worshipper in the temple
The
;
2.
The higher degree
:
1.
The ordinary purity required
of purity necessary for eating of the
higher degree requisite for partaking of the sacrifices and 4. The
of purity required of those who sprinkle the water absolving from sin.
The first
degree
was obligatory upon every one the other grades were voluntary.^
degree
The strictness of their ceremonial law, thus rendered still more rigid by traditional
heave-offering
3.
;
still
;
—
explanations, ultimately led to their forming a separate community.
They practised celibacy,
"
"
weak brethren were allowed to take wives,^ which, however, debarred them from
although
advancement
to the highest orders of the brotherhood.
There were no distinctions amongst them, and they had all things in common.
They
Trials were conducted
were governed by a president, who was elected by the whole body.
by juries, composed of at least a hundred members, who had to be unanimous in their
verdict.
They always got up before the sun rose, and never talked about any worldly matters until
Some
they had assembled and prayed together with their faces turned towards the sun.^
themselves with healing the sick, some in instructing the young but all of them
occupied
;
devoted certain hours to studying the mysteries of nature and revelation, and of the celestial
At the fifth hour (or eleven o'clock A.M.) the labour of the forenoon terminated,
hierarchy.
In
and they partook of their common meal, each member taking his seat according to age.
had a baptism in
the interval between labour and refreshment, they all assembled together,
cold water, put on their white garments, the symbol of purity, and then made their way to the
which they entered with as much solemnity
refectory,
as if it
were the temple.
During the
over the works of the seven "stereotyped" witnesses, enumerated above, but also summarises in chronological order the
modern
down
literature
on Essenisra
;
the works of
i2«c»i<^'0Kfi
modern
writers being carefully reviewed, from
De
Rossi, 1513-77,
to Milnian, 1862.
'
I.e.,
Jewish tradition.
takes the identity of the Esscnes with the Chassidim as proval, and explains
Dr Ginsburg
the classification of the former accordingly.
" some
^
Hirschfeld, in his work on the Hagadic Exegesis (1817) affirms that
Neo-Platonic, Pythagorean, and Persian
ideas found their way among the Essenes, and brought with them some practices and institutions wliich this brotherhood
mixed up with the Jewish views of
religion,
and amongst which are
to bo classed their extension of the laws of
"
purification
{Ginsburg,
p. 81).
^
This statement rests on the authority of Josephus, who, in his Jewish AVar (Book ii., cliap. viii., § 13), says, that
one set of Essenes allowed marriage, " trying their spouses for three years before marrying them." But as in another
work (Antiquities, Book xvii., chap, i., § 5) he observes, "they never marry wives," his evidence is hardly to be relied
on, especially since all the other ancient writers
who
discuss the subject (Eusebius, Pliny,
and Solinus) pronounce the
Essenes to have been a celibate brotherhood.
to have been grounded in this theosophy (of the Essenes) a certain veneration for the sun, which
"
from the intermingling of Parsee rather tlian of Platonic doctrines (Ncauder, General History of the
"There seems
we have
to explain
Christian Religion and Church
—Trans,
by
J.
Torrey
— 1851-58,
vol.
i.,
p. 58).