(printed p. 263 — Book III)
Since I have taught that the Essenes and Rechabites are the same, Benjamin in his Itinerary hands down that the Rechabites still exist, in these words: “The region of Sheba is now called the land of Aliman, bordering the region of Shinar on the north. Its tract contains twenty-one journeys to be made through solitudes; and in that region those Jews dwell who are called sons of Rechab, by another name men of Theima. For Theima
[margin: Jerome’s quotation concludes. Philastrius, Lyra, Abulensis, Drusius, Chytraeus, and Broughton are cited. Chapter XI begins.]
(printed p. 264)
is the beginning of their dominion, which Hanan Hanasi now governs. The city Theima itself is great and populous.” He adds many other things, by which he sufficiently indicates that they are Rechabites only in name, not in that old probity and justice. Indeed, I almost suspect that they are not called from that ancient Rechab, but from constant riding.
“Their region,” he says, “extends among the mountains called northern for a journey of sixteen days, cultivated with great and very fortified cities, subject to the yoke of no foreign people. Coming out from there, the inhabitants plunder all neighboring and even more distant peoples, as many as there are as far as the Arabs, with whom they have a treaty. The Arabs are those who dwell in tents and keep movable dwellings in the solitudes of their region, and invade foreign lands for plunder throughout that whole region of Aliman. And those Jews whom we have just mentioned cultivate fields and pastures and possess herds and flocks, holding a very broad and vast region; from all their produce they give tithes for the use of the disciples of the sages, who are perpetually occupied with doctrine, preaching, and the Pharisees.”
But the Jews tell many other fables about other Jews, whom some Sabbatic river, I know not what, and a marvelous vastness of mountains separate from the rest of mortals. For narratives about these men by the Hebrew Eldad the Danite, with some others, are extant in Genebrard. If you say that, nevertheless, by the promise made by the Lord to the Rechabites in Jeremiah 35, some must still exist,
[margin: Benjamin of Tudela is treated cautiously. Serarius doubts that these are ancient Rechabites in the old sense.]
(printed p. 265)
I say that very many exist in spirit, not in the letter. And just as from Saint Paul, Romans 11, some are called children of Israel according to the flesh and others according to the spirit, so also two kinds of Essenes and Rechabites must be established. Good religious among Christians are true Rechabites and Essenes.