changeable terms, but
more careful investigation does not bear out this conclusion, although
the two sects strongly resemble each other, and have many doctrines in
common; he says, however, truly: "The austere life of the Essenians,
their fasts and excommunications, the community of goods, the love of
celibacy, their zeal for martyrdom, and the warmth, though not the
purity of their faith, already offered a lively image of the primitive
discipline" ("Decline and Fall," vol. ii., ch. xv., p. 180). It is to
Josephus that we must turn for an account of the Essenes; a brief sketch
of them is given in Antiquities of the Jews, bk. xviii., chap. i. He
says: "The doctrine of the Essenes is this: That all things are best
ascribed to God. They teach the immortality of souls, and esteem that
the rewards of righteousness are to be earnestly striven for; and when
they send what they have dedicated to God into the temple, they do not
offer sacrifices, because they have more pure lustrations of their own;
on which account they are excluded from the common court of the temple,
but offer their sacrifices themselves; yet is their course of life
better than that of other men; and they entirely addict themselves to
husbandry." They had all things in common, did not marry and kept no
servants, thus none called any master (Matt. xxiii. 8, 10). In the "Wars
of the Jews," bk. ii., chap, viii., Josephus gives us a fuller account.
"There are three philosophical sects among the Jews. The followers of
the first of whom are the Pharisees; of the second the Sadducees; and
the third sect who pretends to a severer discipline are called Essenes.
These last are Jews by birth, and seem to have a greater affection for
one another than the other sects [John xiii. 35]. These Essenes reject
pleasures as an evil [Matt. xvi. 24], but esteem continence and the
conquest over our passions to be virtue. They neglect wedlock.... They
do not absolutely deny the fitness of marriage [Matt. xix. 12, last
clause of verse, 1 Cor. vii. 27, 28, 32-35, 37, 38, 40].... These men
are despisers of riches [Matt. xix. 21, 23, 24] ... it is a law among
them, that those who come to them must let what they have be common to
the whole order [Acts iv. 32-37, v. 1-11].... They also have stewards
appointed to take care of their common affairs [Acts vi. 1-6].... If any
of their sect come from other places, what they have lies open for them,
just as if it were their own [Matt. x. 11].... F