THE ESSENES.
32
discovered that what Philo and Josephus describe as peculiarities of the
Essenes, tallies with what the Mislma, the Talmud, and the Midrashira record of the Chassidim,
and that they are most probably the so-called old believers, who are also described in the
Talmud as the holy community in Jerusalem}
critics," readily
This idea was followed up in 1846 by Frankel, who contends that the Essenes are frequently
mentioned in the Mislma, Talmud, and Midrashim as the original Assidcans, i.e., CJiassidim,
the associates, those
who have
enfeebled their bodies through
much
study, the retired ones, the holy
congregation in Jerusalem, and hemeroba2Jtists}
The Chassidim constituted one of the three chief Jewish sects, of which the other two were
Jewish writers^ have concluded that when the multitude
the nclknists and the Maccabcans.
Srew lax in the observance of the law, and
wheu
the reliiiion of their fathers
was
imminent
in
danger, it was natural that those who feared the Lord .should separate themselves more visibly
from their Hellenizing brethren, unite together by special ties to keep the ordinances, and
hedge themselves in more securely by the voluntary imposition of works of supererogation,
thus becoming an organised sect characterised by the special name Chassidim, in a peculiar
and sectarian
That
sense.
this old sect should first
come before us
Judas Maccabseus, and unite themselves with him, they consider
found in him an earnest defender of the ancient faith.
is
so late as the time of
owing to the
fact that they
In process of time their principles became too narrow, and they split up into two divisions,
the Essenes* who insisted upon the rigid observance of the old laws and customs, and devoted
themselves to a contemplative
Having
life,
whilst the moderate party retained the
proceeded so f ar, mainly under the guidance of
name
of Chassidim.
Dr
Ginsburg, three leading points
appearance of the Essenes on the field
appear worthy of our further examination. 1. The first
of history.
2. Their
And 3. Their origin or derivation.
disappearance.
These will be
considered in their order.
and Josephus all agree in ascribing
"
would be termed a " time-immemorial antiquity, and
1.
Philo, riiny,
to the sect
what by Masonic writers
ancestry, therefore, will only be
its
subject to historic curtailment, in the event of satisfactory proof being forthcoming, of its
This question we shall approach a little later, and I shall now
identity with the Cliassidim.
proceed with some general remarks bearing upon the distinctive usages of the brotherhood.
According to Creuzer, The Colleges of Essenes and IMegabyzaj at Ephesus, the Orphics of
Thrace, aud
branches of one antique and common religion, and that
the priests of the Ephesian Diana were called Essenes, or
says,
Hessenes from the Arabic Hassan, pure
in virtue of the strict chastity they were sworn to
observe during the twelvemonth they held that office. Such ascetism is entirely an Indian
tlie
Curetes of Crete are
Mr King
originally Asiatic.^
—
institution,
Dead
'
Sea,
—
fully in the sect flourishing
and springing from the same root
Hebrew Anmial {Bikure Ua-Ittim), Vienna,
Doctrines,
-
and was developed
all
"
under the same name around the
as the mysterious religion at Ephesus."
1829, vol. x., \\ 118; Ginsburg,
their History
and
p. 70.
Frankel, Zeitschrift
fiir
die religiosen Interessen des
Judenthums,
vol. viii., pp. 441-461.
=
Kitto, Cyclopajdia of Biblical Literature, 3d edit., 1862, p. 475 (C. L. Ginsburg).
*
The
purposes,
'
Crit.
The Essenes:
"
distinction
Synibolik, vol.
Du
is
thus alluded to in the Babylonian Talmud
and thereby reduces himself
Gnost., vol.
iv.
i.,
,
p. 433.
p.
134).
to beggary, is a foolish
:
"He who
Chasid"
gives
away
all
his property to benevolent
{Ibid.).
Jlatter concurs in this view except as to the Asiatic origin of the doctrine (Hist.
"
King, The Gnostics and their Remains, pp. 1-3, 171.