But the best .".mong the Jews felt the peril of Esse- nism as a system, and combined to discourage it. They shrank with an instinctive dread from the danger of connecting asceticism with spiritual power, and cher- ished the great truth which lay in the saying, " Doc- trine is net in heaven." The miraculous energy which was attributed to nnstics was regarded by them rather as a source of suspicion than of respect, and theosopliic speculations were condemned with emphatic distinct- ness (Frankel, Monatsschrift, 1853, p. G2 sq., G8, 71).
As to their connection with Christianity, there can be no difficulty in admitting that Christ and the apostles recognised those principles and practices of the Essenes which were true and useful. Though our Saviour does not mention them by the name Essenes, which Philo and Josephus coined for the benefit of the Greeks, 3'et there can be no doubt he refers to them in Matt. Six, 12, when he speaks of those " who al)stain from marriage for the kingdom of heaven's sake," since the}' were the only section of Jews who voluntarily imposed upon themselves a state of celibacy in order that they might devote themselves more closely to the service of God. Also 1 Cor. vii can hardly be under- stood without bearing in mind the notions about mar- riage entertained by this God-fearing and self-denying order. As to other coincidences. Matt, v, 34, etc., and James v, 12, urge the abstinence from using oaths which was especially taught by the Essenes. The manner in whicii Christ crfnmanded his disciples to depart on their journey (Mark vi, 8-10), is the same which these pious men adopted when they started on a mission of mercy. The primitive Christians, like the Essenes, sold their land and houses, and brought the prices of the things to the apostles, and they had all things in common (Acts iv, 32-34). John tlie Bap- tist was a parallel to this holy order, as is evident from his ascetic life (Luke xi, 22) ; and when Christ pro- nounced him to he Elias (Matt, xi, 14), he may almost be said to have declared that the Baptist had really attained to that spirit and power which the Essenes strove to olitain in their highest stage of purity. From the nature of the case, however, Essenism, in its extreme form, could exercise very little direct ioMu-
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cnce on Christianity. In all its jiractical bearings it ; was diametrically opposed to the apostolic teaching. The dangers >vhich it involved were far more clear to the eye of the Christian than tliey were to the Jewish doctors. The only real similarity between Essenism and Christianity lay in tlie common element of true Judaism ; and there is little excuse for modern writers who follow the error of Euscbiiis, and confound the so- cietv of the Tharapautaj with Christian brotherhoods. Nationally, however, the Essenes occupy the same po- sition as that to which John the Baptist was person- ally called. They mark the close of the old, the long- ini' for the new", but without political aspirations. In° place of the message of the coming "kingdom" thev could proclaim only individual purit}' and isola- tion. At a later time traces of Essenism appear in the Clementines, and the strange account which Epi- phanins gives of the Osssni ('Orraivoi} appears to point to some combination of Essene and pseudo-Christian doctrines (//fpr. xix). After the Jewish war the Es- senes disappear from history. The character of Juda- ism was changed, and ascetic Pharisaism becams al- most impossible.
IV. Bate, Settlements, ani Niimher of this Order. — The fact that the Essenes developed themselves grad- ualh', and at first imperceptibly, through intensifying the prevalent religious notions, renders it impossible to say with exactness at what degree of intensit}' they are to be considered as detached from the general bodj'. The Saviour and the ancient Jewish writers do not speak of them as a separate body. Josephus, how- ever, speaks of them as existing in the days of Jona- than the Maccabffian, B.C. 143 {Ant. xiii, 5, 9) ; he then mentions Judas, an Essene, wlio delivered a prophecj'^ in the reign of Aristobulus I, B.C. lOG {War, i, 3, 5; Ant. xiii, 11, 2). The third mention of their existence occurs in connection with Herod Qint. xv, 10, 5). These accounts distinctly show tliat the Essenes at first lived among the people, and did not refrain from frequenting the court, as Jlenachem the Essene was a friend of Herod, who was kindly disposed towards this order (('&.). This is, moreover, evident from the fact that there was a gate at Jerusalem which was named after them (^Erjaip'Cov Trv\i), War, v, 4, 2). When they ultimately withdrew themselves from the rest of the Jewish nation, the majority of them settled on the north-west shore of the Dead Sea (Pliny, Hht. Nat. v, 17 ; Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. ii, 17), and the rest lived in scattered communities throughout Palestine and other places. Their number is estimated both by Philo and Josephus at 4000.
The obscuritj' of the Essenes as a distinct body arises from the fact that they represented originally a tendency rather than an organization. The commu- nities which were formed out of them were a result of their practice, and not a necessary part of it. As a sect they were distinguished by an aspiration after ideal purity rather than by any special code of doc- trines ; and, like the Chasidim of earlier times, thej' were confounded in the popular estimation with the great body of th^ zealous observers of the law (Phari- sees). The growth of Essenism was a natural result of the religious feeling which was called out bj^ the circumstances of the Greek dominion, and it is easy to trace the process by which it was matured. From the Maccabaian age there was a continuous effort among the stricter Jews to attain an absolute standard of holiness. Each class of devotees was looked upon as practically impure by their successors, who carried the laws of purit}' still further ; and the Essenes stand at the extreme limit of the mj-stic asceticism which was thus gradually reduced to shape. The associa- tions of the " Scribes and Pharisees" (Qiian, "//te companions, the icise") gave place to others" bound by a more rigid rule; and the rule of thq Essenes was m ide gradually stricter. Those whom Josejihus speaks of as allowing marriage may be supposed to have be-