The Essenes
The Essene sect is not mentioned in Scripture, but is described in detail by Josephus (Wars, li. 8, sec. 2) as one of the "three philosophical sects among the Jews". Like the Pharisee "separatists" and the Sadducee "moralists", so the Essene "mystics" seem to have sprung from the Chasidim of the Maccabean time, the three representing as many tendencies of human thought. Many derivations of the word Essene have been proposed; the choice seems to lie between the Syriac chasi, "pious", and the Hebrew chasha, "to be silent", many preferring the latter. The first Essene mentioned is one Judas {Jos. Ant. xiii. 11, sec. 2; Wars, i. 8, sec. 54 about BC 110; but no specific reference is further made to them until the New Testament era, when they seem to have numbered about 4,000; some of whom dwelt in cities, but the majority in monastic retreats, chiefly in the desert regions west of the Dead Sea.
The Essenes have sometimes been described as a stricter sect of Pharisees, with whom they had some points in common, as the rigor of ceremonial observance — with the not unimportant exception of the Temple sacrifices — the careful avoidance of pollution, and the stress laid upon ascetic practices. But their divergencies were greater. Not only did they reject the Temple offerings, but they maintained a non-Levitical priesthood, and owned no sacrifice but that in their all vegetarian repast. They practised the arts of divination and Josephus, in giving instances ( Judas, as above; Manahem, Ant., xv. 10. sec. 5; Simon, ib. xvii. 13, sec. S), remarks that their predictions were generally accomplished.
Like mystics generally, they contomned the body, and held the immortality of the soul without a resurrection. Their standard of moral purity was high, long probation and discipline were imposed before admission into the fraternity; and four distinct classes in the order represented four successive stages of moral progress, the main difference being in the degree of asceticism. Abstinence from wine and meat was strictly enforced on all; the anointing oil was forbidden, as an enervating luxury. It was regarded as a mark of perfection to forswear the marriage state. Community of goods was carefully maintained; the keeping of herds and flocks was prohibited, the only secular employment sanctioned being the labour of the fields.
In their daily worship, the Eesenes were said to adore the sun ; but this may possibly bave been a misconception. Certainly there was in many points a great resemblance between their system and the Zoroastrianism of Persia; while in otber particulars—ae in the community of goods, in the sense of brotherhood, in the free hospitality, in the rigorous morals — the Eseenes were more nearly akin to the early Christians. In a well-known essay De Quincey argues for the identity of the two: but the resemblances adduced are superficial in comparison with the differences; and in the obligations of ceremonialism, and the merit of ascetic self-mortification, the two systems are at opposite poles. Jeusus and His Apostlee made it indeed to a great extent their business to rebuke such errors ae those into which the Essenes had fallen, inasmuch as errors which have their origin in high aspiration are sometimes the most dangerous, because the most specious of all.
The Epistle to the Colossians receives much valuable illustration from a reference to the known views of the Essenes. Thus, in ch. i. 28, the emphasis on "every man" is more felt when read with Josephus of the care taken by them to keep their doctrines secret, divulging them only to the few after a long novitiate; and on ch. ii. 18—23 a flood of light is thrown, when we find Essenism tending to angel-worship, professing likewise to treat the body with entire disregard, to ignore its cravings, to deny its wants ; not in the Pharisaic spirit, merely from fear of ceremonial pollution, but from the noble though mistaken idea of thereby escaping from the infection of evil.
From the practice of celibacy and other causes the Essene community rapidly diminished; nothing is heard of them after the destruction of Jerusalem, although their principles reappear from time to time, as in the Therapeutic and the early Manichœans. Some characteristics of the Essene community at Qumran were certainly not original. Many aspects of their theology, the coming war of the Sons of Darkness and the Sons of Light, for instance, are to be found in Zoroastrian religion.
It was hypothesized that Jesus was an Essene; even more, John the Baptist. Modern social radicals have made much of it, and of the early Church’s close connections, or even identity, with the Essenes. In the nineteenth century, the most balanced speculation on the relations between the Essenes, John, Jesus, and the first Christians was Ernest Renan’s. His ideas were to have great influence on the picture of primitive Christianity held by most radical socialists after the publication of his Life of Jesus. An unprejudiced reader, uninvolved in this controversy, reading the New Testament for the first time, would certainly form the impression that primitive Christianity was communal, like the Essenes.
At the close of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th, it was the fashion to explain Christianity almost entirely by the doctrine of the Essenes. Jesus, it was said, was an Essene, who developed certain features of the sect, and formed a group apart; the Gospel was nothing but a new edition of the moral maxims of the Essenes. An extreme difficulty rose at once against this hypothesis: not one word in all the Christian writings of the first or second century makes any mention of the name or the peculiarities, so strongly marked, of the recluse sect in question. The attempt to explain the origin of Christianity by Essenism has been almost entirely abandoned.
Between Christianity and Essenism the direct connection is doubtful; but the resemblances are deep.* Nearly two hundred years before Jesus, there was a serious attempt to draw out the moral tendencies of Judaism, and to develop the fruits of that prophetical preaching which pure pharisaism, confined to the observance of the Law, scarcely realized. Where Essenism had failed, Christianity was destined to succeed. The idea that "the meek should inherit the earth," had been already sketched out by the Essene. Jesus was to go further. Christianity is an Essenism which has had wide success.
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