(1) Was James anEssene? — We may, however, deal with an assertion, sometimes made, that James, the writer of the canonical Epistle, was an Essene. Those who believe so found their belief upon the account of James given by Hegesippus (in Euseb. HE ii. 23), who flourished about A.D. 170. He asserts that James abstained from flesh, wine and strong drink, and the bath ; that he allowed no razor to touch his head, no oil to touch his body, and that he wore only tine linen (which was the dress of the Essenes). If this account were reliable, it would not prove that James was an Essene. Those who believe so must hold the common, but quite wrong, opinion that all Jews were Pharisees, Sadducees, or Essenes, and that all sliowing asceti- cism were Essenes. James might be an ascetic with- out being an Essene, as one may to-day be an abstainer without bein» a Good Templar. In the notice of Hegesippus itself we have conclusive evidence that James could not be an Essene, for he abstained from the bath, which to the Essenes was of such importance. Besides, as Lightfoot shows [Col. p. 168), Hegesippus is far from trust- worthy here. There is no evidence at all for the identification of James with the Essenes.
(2) Did the Apostolic Church copy the Order? — The resemblances are striking, and we shall mention and examine the most important.
(a) The temporary communism of the early chapters of Acts reminds us of tlie communism of the Essenes. But the Christians were a brother- hood, not an Order, and the surrender of property was a voluntary act, not necessary for recognition as a brother (Ac 5''). Tlie Christian communism admits of easy explanation from the belief in the almost immediate Return of the Lord. (6) Celibacy is recommended as a 'counsel of perfection' in 1 Co 7'* *. It is clear from v.'® that this too depends on the belief in the nearness of the end. (t) The Essenes substituted a, sacramental for a sacrificial worship. The importance of this has very seldom been appreciated, though it is a point which makes the Order of great interest in the liistory of religion. Apart from their multitudinous ordinary lustra- tions, there was the solemn initiatory ablution at the end of tlie tirst novitiate. It cleansed outwardly and inwardly and made the ordinary man an Essene (so Bousset, Reliqion des Judentums, p. 436). Here we have a parallel with Christian baptism and baptismal regeneration. In their common meal
we have a parallel with the Christian love-feast, if not with the Eucharist. We quote Josephus's description :
'They assemble together In one place, and having clothed themselves in white veils, they bathe their bodies in cold water. After this purification, they assemble in an apartment of their own, into which it is not allowed to any stranger to enter . . . They enter as if it were some holy temple, and sit down quietly. . . . The priest prays before meat, and none may eat before prayer is offered, and when they have made their meal, he again prays over them. . . . And when they begin and when they end, they praise God. . . . Nor is there ever any clamour or disturbance . . . which silence appears to outsiders as some tremendous mystery ' {BJ u, viiL 6 ; of. Ant. xviii. i. 6).
As noted above, novices were not admitted to the Table ; similarly Christian catechumens retired before the celebration of the Eucharist. It must be admitted that here we have a striking resem- blance, but to conclude that the Church owed its sacraments to the Essenes is a rash proceeding. The love-feast has many other parallels elsewhere, and could grow up independently of any of them. Any association of men will naturally develop something similar. Baptism, too, is no rare phe- nomenon. We conclude that, while the parallel is interesting, the Christian development cannot be shown to be borrowed from Essenism, and is intel- ligible without any reference to it.
Other resemblances have been noted (a list will be found in HDB, art. 'Essenes'), but they are trifling and unconvincing. The fact, e.g., that Christians are admonished to obey them that have the rule over them gives a point of resemblance to the Essenes certainly, but also to every human as- sociation that ever was organized on principles of common sense. It is useless to draw out laborious parallels of this sort. We may hold that the early Church cannot be proved to have owed anything to Essenism, and can be explained without it. On the other hand, Essenism, in its super-Pharisaism, its retirement from the world, its avoidance of the Temple (cf. Ac 3^ 21-"), its views of the body, its sun-worship and magic, is in sharpest contrast to Christianity. Of the silence of the NT regarding the Essenes there are only two possible explana- tions. One is that Christianity is one with Essen- ism— a view we have rejected. The other is that Essenism was so uninfluential, so entirely out of re- lation to Christianity, or any active movement of the time, that there was no occasion to mention it. When we remember that Pliny knows of Essenes only as inhabiting the desert shore of the Dead Sea, we are contirmed in choosing this alternative.