(printed p. 171 — Book II)

I do not remember reading any, except this one saying of Sadoc in Eliezer, chapter 4 of Pirke Avoth: “Do not make a crown,” that is, do not observe the law, “so that by it you may become great; nor use it as an axe, so that by it you may obtain what you eat.” Yet this Sadoc does not seem to me to be the one from whom came the cesspool of the Sadducees. For a certain Pharisee named Sadoc is also read in Josephus, book 18, chapter 1.

(printed p. 172)

On the Essenes

This third book will pursue the third sect of the Jews, which I said was that of the Essenes. Since questions are usually raised about them not only on the smaller matters, such as nearly all those which Drusius merely touches upon, but also on great and weighty matters which concern the honor and adornment of the Christian religion, my explanation of them will be in two parts.

First, almost as if Philo, that good and ancient writer, had written either nothing or very little about them, I shall explain their name, discipline, customs, and the things connected with these in the same manner which I have so far followed in the two preceding sects. Then I shall come to the things handed down about them by Philo and discuss whether the Essenes in his account were Christians.