Essenes

Plin. l. 5. c. 17.ESSENES, or Essenians. We are not acquainted with the original of the Essenes, or the Etymology of their name. Pliny says, they had been many thousand years in being, living without marriage, and without any conversation with persons of the other Sex. Ita per sæculorum millia, incredibile dictu, gens æterna est, in qua nemo nascitur. The fourth book of Maccabees¹ calls them Hasdanim, and says, that they had been for some time established into a Society before Hircanus was High Priest of the Jews, about the year of the world 3894, before Jesus Christ 106, before the Vulgar Æra 110. The first of the Essenes mentioned by Josephus, was one Judas, who lived in the Antiq. l. 13. c. 19. Suidas in Πεδρονοι, &c.time of Aristobulus, and Antigonus, the son of Hircanus. Suidas, and some others after him, were of opinion, that the Essenes were a branch of the Rechabites, who, we very well know, subsisted before the Babylonish captivity.

Epiphanius² derives their name from Jesse, the father of David, or from our Lord Jesus Christ, whose name, according to his interpretation of it, signifies Physician, or Saviour. He says it was a Sect of the Samaritans, into whom Elxai had infused several errors. Drusius believes the Essenes to be a branch of the Pharisees. Salmasius will have it, that they derived their name from the town of Essa Serrar. in hæref. l. 3. c. 1.abovementioned. Lastly, Serrarius reports twelve opinions concerning the name only of the Essenes. We take the Chasidim spoken Pf. lxxviii. 2. lxxxiv. 9. Vulg.of in some of the Psalms, and the Assidians in the Maccabees³, to be the true source of the Essenes.

The description which Josephus gives us⁴ of the Essenes, is as follows. They live in perfect union among themselves, and abhor voluptuousness, as poison of the most dangerous consequence. They do not marry, but they bring up other men’s children with as much care, as if they were their own, and infuse into them very early their own spirit and maxims. They despise riches, and possess nothing but in common. Oyl and perfumes⁵ are not permitted to be in their habitations. They have an austere and mortified air, but without affectation; go always dressed in white. They have a steward, who has the care of distributing to every one what they want. They are hospitable to those of their own sect; so that when any of them go a journey, they are never obliged to take any provisions with them.

The Children which they educate, are all treated and cloathed in the same manner, and do not change their dress till the cloaths they have are intirely wore out. All the trade they have, is carried on among them by exchange, every one gives what is superfluous to receive that which he stands in need of. They do not speak before the sun rises, excepting that they pronounce some prayers taught them by their Fathers, which they address to this Luminary⁶, as it were to incite it to appear. After this, they go to work, and continue at it till the fifth hour, which answers pretty near to our eleven a-clock in the morning.

After this exercise, they all meet together, and putting on pieces of white linnen, they all bath in fresh water, then retire to their cells, where no strangers are permitted to enter. From thence they go into their common refectory, which is as it were a Sacred Temple, where they continue in profound silence. They are served with bread, and every one has his particular mess. The Priest says grace, after which they may eat; they finish their meal also with a prayer. Then they pull off their white cloaths which they wore, while they were at table, and return to their work until the evening. Then they come again to the refectory, and bring their guests with them, if they have any.

They are very religious observers of their words, and their bare promise is as binding to them as the most sacred Oaths. They avoid swearing, as they would perjury it self. The care which they take of their sick is very particular, and they never suffer them to want the least thing. They read carefully the writings of the Ancients, and by this study they acquire a very good knowledge of plants, stones, roots, and remedies. Before they admit any, who desire it, to be of their sect, they put them to a year’s probation, and during this time inure them to the practice of their most uneasy exercises. After this term, they permit them to come into the common refectory, and the place where they bath; but they do not admit them into the inner part of the house, till they have gone through another trial of two years. When these two years are expired, they are allowed to make a kind of Profession, whereby they engage themselves by the most horrible oaths to observe the laws of piety, justice, and modesty; fidelity to God and their Prince, never to discover the secrets of the Sect to strangers, and to preserve the books of their masters, and the names of Angels with great care. If any one violates these promises, and incurs the guilt of any notable fault, he is expelled the Society, and generally dies of want, because he can receive no food from any stranger, being tied to the contrary by those oaths we have been speaking of. Sometimes the Essenes, moved with compassion receive them, when they have given long and solid proofs of their conversion.

Next to God, they have the greatest respect for Moses, and old men. The Sabbath is very regularly observed among them; they not only forbear to kindle any fire, or prepare any thing upon this day, but they do not so much as stir any moveable thing belonging to them, nor even ease themselves of the superfluities of nature. Upon other days, when they are obliged to do this office, they retire to some place at a distance, and after they have dug an hole of about a foot deep, with a spade, which they always carry along with them fastened to their girdle, they do what is necessary, stooping, and covering themselves all round with their cloaths, lest they should pollute the rays of God; says Josephus. After this, they fill the hole which they had made with earth, and purity themselves after this action, as if they had contracted some pollution.

The Essenes generally live long, and many reach the age of an hundred years; which is said to be owing to the simplicity of their diet, and the great regularity of their lives. They shew an incredible firmness under torments, whereof there were some eminent examples during the war between the Romans and the Jews. They hold the souls of men to be immortal, and believe that they descend from the most elevated part of the air into the bodies, which are animated by them, whither they are drawn by some natural attraction, which they are not able to resist. After death, they return with rapidity to the place from whence they came, being as it were freed from a long and melancholly captivity. Concerning the state of men’s souls after death, they have the same sentiments almost as the Heathens, who place the souls of good men in the Elysian fields, and those of the wicked in Tartarus, and the kingdom of Pluto, where they are tormented according to the quality of their faults.

There are some among them, who are married; in every other respect they agree with the other Essenes. They take no wives till after they have been well assured for three years together that they have enjoyed a good state of health, and are likely to produce sound Children. As soon as their wives are breeding, they come no more near them; slavery is esteemed by them as an injury done to human nature, wherefore they have no slaves among them. Many of them have the gift of prophecy, which is ascribed to their continual reading of the Sacred Writers, and their simple and frugal way of living. They believe that nothing happens in the world but by the Decrees of God; and their sect is very nearly related to that of the Pythagoreans among the Greeks. Besides the men, who professed to live in the manner we have described, there were women too who observed the same institution, and the same practices.

Philo lib. quod omnis probus liber. Plin. l. 5. c. 17.Altho’ the Essenes were the most religious of their nation, they nevertheless did not go to the Temple of Jerusalem, nor offered any bloody sacrifices. They were afraid of being polluted by the conversation of other men, whose lives were not so pure as theirs. They sent their offerings thither, and themselves offered up to God the sacrifice of a clean heart, free from the guilt of any great offences. Philo says, the Essenes were in number about four thousand in Judæa; and Pliny seems to fix their principal abode above Engedi, where they fed upon the fruit of Palm trees, which were common in those parts. He adds, that they lived at a distance from the Sea-shore, for fear of being corrupted by the conversation of strangers.

Philo assures us, that in several cities there were some of them, but they chose rather to dwell in the fields; applied themselves to agriculture, and other laborious exercises, which did not take them out of that solitude whereof they made profession.

Their studies were neither Logick, nor natural Philosophy, but Morality, and the Laws of Moses. To these they applied themselves principally upon Sabbath-days, upon which they assembled in their Synagogues, where every one was seated according to his rank; the elder above, the younger part of them below. One of the company read, and another of the most learned of them expounded. They made use of symbols very much, of allegories and parables, after the manner of the Ancients. This is the Idea which Josephus and Philo give us of the Essenes. We do not see any where in the Gospel, that Jesus Christ hath spoken of them, or that he preached among them. It is not improbable that St. John Baptist lived among them, till the time Vide Epiphan. hæref. 29. de Nazaræis.when he began to baptize and preach repentance. The wilderness where Pliny places the Essenes, was not very far from Hebron, which is thought by some to be the place of St. John’s birth. See above Philo l. quod omnis probus liber.ASSIDEANS.

You have here the description which Philo gives of the Essenes, who may be called Practical, to distinguish them from the Therapeutæ, whom we may term Contemplative Essenians. The number of the first is about four thousand, they live in Palestine, remote from the conversation of other men. “Their name is borrowed from “ the Greek word Hosios, which signifies “ Holy, and denotes their great piety; but “ this etymology is not altogether exact. “ Tho’ they are very religious, and very “ much devoted to the worship of God, “ they sacrifice nothing that hath life to “ him. They content themselves with ofsering the sacrifice of a pure and holy “ Soul, which to this end they endeavour “ by all means to purify. Their abode is “ in the country, they avoid great cities, “ because of the corruption which generally reigns there, being persuaded, that “ as people contract diseases by breathing “ an infected air, so the bad examples of the “ inhabitants in the places where we live, “ make often such impressions upon the “ mind as are not to be effaced.

“ Some employ themselves in husbandry, others in trades, and manufactures “ of such things only as are of use in time of “ peace their designs being to do good only, “ to themselves and other men. They heap “ up neither gold nor silver, nor make any “ large acquisitions of land to increase their revenues, “ revenues, they are satisfied with possessing what is requisite to relieve the necessities of life. They are perhaps the only men who without land or money, by choice rather than necessity, find themselves to be rich enough, because their wants are but few, and as they understand how to be content with nothing, as we may say, they always enjoy plenty. You do not find an artificer among them who would make an arrow, a dart, or sword, or helmet; a cuirass, or shield, or any sort of arms, machines, or warlike instruments. They make none of those things even in time of peace which men apply to bad uses. They concern themselves neither with trade nor navigation, lest this should engage them to be avaritious. They have no slaves, but serve one another; they condemn the dominion which masters exercise over their slaves, not only as something unjust, and repugnant to society, but likewise as impious, and contrary to the law of nature, which like a common mother has produced all men at their birth brothers and equals; but covetousness, which has got the superiority, destroys this relation, and sows hatred and indifference between them, instead of that friendship and familiarity which should prevail among them.

“ As to philosophy, they leave logick to those who are pleased with disputes about words, and look upon it themselves as absolutely useless towards the acquiring virtue. They give up likewise physicks, and metaphysicks, except so much as relates to the existence of God, or the original production of all things, to those who have leisure to apply themselves thereto, or are fond of nice and fine -spun speculation. But they study morality with great diligence, the rules and foundations whereof they discover in the laws of their country, which are such as could not proceed from the mind of man without a particular inspiration from God. In this they are instructed every day, but principally on the seventh, which is holy among them; upon this day they abstain from all kind of labour, and repair to their Synagogues, or places of Assembling, where every one seats himself according to his rank from the time of his admission into the Body; the latest always take the lowest places, and there compose themselves with a becoming decency to hear the word of God. This being done, one of them takes up the book and reads; another, who is generally one of the most learned of them, explains what has been read. The method which they follow in their explanation, is to unfold the allegorical meanings of the Scriptures.

“ Their instructions run principally upon holiness, equity, justice, œconomy, policy, the distinction of real good and evil; of what is indifferent, what we ought to pursue or avoid. The three fundamental maxims of their morality, are the love of God, of virtue, and our neighbour. They demonstrate their love of God in a constant chastity throughout the whole course of their lives, in a great aversion to swearing, and lying, and in attributing every thing that is good to God, without ever making him the author of evil. They show their love to virtue in their disinterestedness, in their dislike to glory and ambition; in their renouncing pleasure; in their continency, patience, and simplicity; in being easily contented; in their mortification, modesty, respect for the laws, their constancy, and other virtues. Lastly, their love to their neighbour appears in their liberality, in the equality of their conduct towards all, and in their community of fortunes, upon which it may be proper to enlarge a little in this place.

“ First, no one among them in particular is master of the house where he dwells; any other of the same sect, who comes thither, may be as much master as he. As they live in society, and eat and drink in common, they make provision for the whole community, as well for those who are present, as for those who come not looked for. There is a common chest in every particular society, where every thing is reserved which is necessary for the support and cloathing of each member. Whatever every one gets is brought into the common stock; and if any one falls sick, so as to be disabled from working, he is supplied with every thing necessary for the recovery of his health out of the common bank. The younger pay great respect to the elder, and treat them almost in the same manner, as children treat their parents in their old age.

Joseph. Antiq. l. 18. c. 2.“ Josephus informs us, that the Essenians attribute every thing to God. They hold the souls of men to be immortal, and believe justice to be of all things the most deserving of our pursuit and concern. They send their offerings to the Temple, but offer no bloody sacrifices there. They are refused admission there by reason of the purifications in use among the Jews, (to which probably they will not submit, because they believe themselves to be so much purer than others,) and are obliged to offer their sacrifices in their own particular society. They are for the rest very honest people, whose principal employment is husbandry. Their justice is admirable, and exceeds all that we know “ of it among the Greeks and Barbarians; they exercising themselves in it continually, and never interrupting the course of it. Their fortunes are common, and he who enters rich into their society, possesses no more than the poorest of them all. Their number is above four thousand: they allow of neither women nor slaves to be among them, looking upon the latter as a perpetual source of injustice, and women as the cause of much perplexity and division; thus living separately from other men, they serve one another as they have mutually occasion.

“ They chuse Priests of the most distinguish’d merit to be receivers of the estates and common revenues of their society, who likewise have the charge of issuing out what is necessary for the table of the house. There is nothing singular or affected in their way of living; it is simple, and the same almost as that of the Pleists among the Dacians. In another place Josephus says, that the Essenians maintain all things to be governed by fate, and that nothing happens to mankind but what is regulated by it.” Concerning the Essenians, the Reader may consult those Authors who have treated of the Jewish Sects. See our Bibliotheca Sacra, under the title, Sects of the Jews.

Read this article in its place on the printed pages