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First: “Nor is Syria, which is in Palestine, barren of honesty and virtue, since no small and very numerous part of the Jewish people possesses it. Certain men among them are called by the name Essaeans, more than four thousand in number. In my judgment, they derive their name not from an exact form of the Greek language but from holiness, because among these men above all there are worshipers of God, not those who sacrifice animals, but those who strive to adorn their own minds with holiness.
Second, they first live by villages and flee cities because of the familiar vices of the citizens there, knowing that danger comes from those who live with us no less than from corrupt and pestilential air, because of the incurable contagion that is cast into souls.
Third, some of them practice agriculture,
[margin: Chapter XV begins Philo’s On the Freedom of the Good Man: number, name, village life, and work. Source page 300 ends mid-sentence.]
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while others practice those arts which are aids of peace and thus profit themselves and their neighbors. They do not guard silver and gold in treasuries, nor do they possess great divisions of land or estates because of desire for revenues, but they acquire what pertains to necessary uses of life.
Fourth, these alone, from almost all human beings, are without all money and all possession, and by institution rather than by lack of good fortune they are judged most wealthy, since they judge, and rightly, that to be content with few things and to be by no means fastidious in foods is to abound in the greatest riches.
Fifth, among them no one makes missiles, javelins, swords, helmets, breastplates, or shields, just as no one makes other arms, engines, or anything else useful for war. Indeed, you would not even find there those pursuits which are easily abused in peace. They have not seen merchants, shopkeepers, or shipmasters even in a dream, removing the material of greed.
Sixth, there is not even one slave among them, but all free men serve one another in turn. They condemn domination as unjust and impious, opposed to the law of nature, which bore and nourished all equally as a mother, as brothers truly, not only in name. That kinship has been weakened and torn apart by the plots of greed, through whose work alienation of spirit was introduced in place of familiarity,
[margin: Peaceful occupations, voluntary poverty, no weapons or commerce, and no slavery. Source page 301 ends mid-sentence.]
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and hatred in place of benevolence.
Seventh, they leave the reasoning part of philosophy to the hunters of words, since they think it unnecessary for acquiring virtue; and the part that investigates nature they leave to the tellers of lofty tales, as being above human comprehension, except insofar as it discusses the existence of God himself and the creation of his universe. They exercise themselves in moral philosophy alone, using the laws of the fathers, which the human mind cannot conceive without the breath of the divine power, as teachers and masters.
Eighth, these ancestral laws are taught to them also at other times, but excellently on the seventh days or Sabbaths. For this seventh day is considered sacred by them.
Ninth, on that day they come to sacred places, which are called synagogues. According to age they sit in certain ranks, the younger below the elders, and with fitting modesty they bear themselves as is appropriate for hearers or disciples.
Tenth, one man takes the books and reads; another from among those most skilled explains and teaches the obscure things. For, out of love and imitation of the ancient custom, they philosophize for the most part through symbols.
Eleventh, they are taught piety, holiness, justice, household order, civic order, and knowledge of the things that are truly good and evil,
[margin: Their philosophy, Sabbath instruction, synagogues, and allegorical interpretation.]
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and also of indifferent things, so that they may choose what is fitting and flee the contrary. For this they use three laws and rules: love of God, love of virtue, and love of humanity.
Twelfth, countless signs of the first love, toward God, are supplied throughout their whole life by continuous and never-interrupted chastity, purity, flight from every oath and lie, and by that opinion concerning the divine power: that it is itself the cause of all good things and of no evil.
Thirteenth, the signs of the second love, which was toward virtue, are these: not loving money, glory, or pleasure; continence itself, fortitude, and in addition endurance, simplicity, ease of conduct, humility, constancy, a manner of living in agreement with the law, and things similar to these.
Fourteenth, the signs of the third love, the love of humanity, are benevolence, equality, and a communion or society of common life greater than all speech, about which it will not be untimely to say a few things.
Fifteenth, therefore, no one has anything of his own which does not belong to all; not even a dwelling. For besides the fact that they live together by certain common dwellings, their houses are open even to those who come
[margin: The three rules: love of God, virtue, and humanity. Community of life begins. Source page 303 ends mid-sentence.]
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from elsewhere and are of the same institution as themselves.
Sixteenth, the storeroom is one and the same for all, the expenses are the same, the garments are also common, and the foods are common to all who eat together. No one could find the society of the same roof, life, and table more firmly established among others by any work. And rightly so.
Seventeenth, whatever they gain from the wages of their daily labors, each does not keep for himself, but, by placing it in the middle, they make it possible for whoever wishes to enjoy it.
Eighteenth, those who are ill are not therefore neglected because they are now unable to seek their livelihood; from the common goods they have ready at hand remedies and helps for diseases.
Nineteenth, their reverence for the elders and care for the gray head is such as can belong to genuine free children toward their parents. With innumerable hands and services they nourish and sustain them in an abundance of all things in old age.
Twentieth, this philosophy makes such athletes of virtue, exercising them without all the curious and ambitious words of the Greeks, in actions worthy of praise, by which sure and perpetual freedom is established. This was clearly shown in many and various difficulties of the times,
[margin: Community of dwellings, goods, wages, sick care, and elder care.]
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under the tyranny of more powerful men endowed with diverse dispositions. Some of these tried to surpass fierce beasts in savagery and omitted no kind of cruelty, driving their subjects in herds and cutting living men into pieces like butchers; nor was there an end before they fell into the same calamities, divine providence taking vengeance. Others, concealing their rage by another kind of malice, gave bitter disasters, disguising hatred with placid speech and secret whispers, like wicked dogs flattering and then fastening incurable bites, so that they might leave to cities monuments of their impiety as a perpetual remembrance of afflictions.
Yet no one from either the cruel or the disguised and deceitful was able to bring the aforesaid assemblies of the Essaeans or holy ones into guilt. Rather, all departed conquered by the virtue of these men, praising them as free and self-governing people, which proceeds from nature, and celebrating their common life and community of goods, which is beyond all speech and is the clearest proof of a perfect and very happy life.
[margin: Philo’s praise of the Essenes’ virtue under tyrants concludes chapter XV.]
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