[1613] War ii. 8.7.
[1614] Can this possibly have any connection in the mind of Josephus with the later Nationalist movement? This would agree with his insistance on their respect for those in authority. Otherwise the emphasis laid on abstinence from robbery seems strange in such a sect.
[1615] I venture to think that even Bishop Lightfoot lays too much stress on the affinity to Pharisaism. I can discover few, if any, traces of Pharisaism in the distinctive sense of the term. Even their frequent washings had a different object from those of the Pharisees.
[1616] For a similar reason, and in order not to affront the Divine rays of light' - the light as symbol, if not outcome, of the Deity - they covered themselves, in such circumstances, with the mantle which was their ordinary dress in winter.
[1617] Ed. Mang ii. p. 458.
[1618] Jos. War ii. 8. 12; comp. Ant. xiii. 11. 2; xv. 10. 5; xvii. 13. 3.
[1619] There can be no question that these Essene cures were magical, and their knowledge of remedies esoteric.
[1620] Bishop Lightfoot refers to a part of the Sibylline books which seems of Christian authorship.
[1621] ch. xxxi. - lxxi.
[1622] Comp. Lucius, Essenismus, p. 109. This brochure, the latest on the subject, (though interesting, adds little to our knowledge.)
[1623] See Appendix XIII. on the Angelology, Satanology, and Demonology of the Jews.
[1624] Ch. x.
[1625] Comp. also the Sepher Noach in Jellinek's Beth. haMidr. part iii. pp. 155, 156.
[1626] c. 48.
[1627] Only after writing the above I have noticed, that Jellinek arrives at the same conclusion as to the Essene character of the Book of Jubilees (Beth ha-Midr. iii. p. xxxiv., xxxv.), and of the Book of Enoch (u.s. ii. p. xxx.).
[1628] So Zeller, Philosophie d. Griechen, ed. 1881, iii. pp. 277-337.
[1629] So Bishop Lightfoot, in his masterly treatment of the whole subject in his Commentary on the Ep. to the Colossians.
[1630] By Bishop Lightfoot, u.s. pp. 382-396 In general, I prefer on many points - such as the connection between Essenism and Gnosticism &c., simply to refer readers to the classic work of Bishop Lightfoot.
[1631] Sepher Noach ap. Jellinek iii. p. 156.
[1632] As regards any connection between the Essenes and the Therapeutai, Lucius has denied the existence of such a sect and the Philonic authorship of de V. cont. The latter we have sought to defend in the Art. Philo (Smith and Wace's Dict. of Chr. Biogr. iv.), and to show that the Therapeutes were not a sect' but an esoteric circle of Alexandrian Jews.
[1633] Deutsch, Remains, pp. 359, 360.
[1634] As other instances may be quoted such as Istagioth ({hebrew}) = stge, roof; Istuli ({hebrew}) = stle, a pillar; Dikhsumini ({hebrew}) = dexamene, cistern.
[1635] Megill. 24 b, lines 4 and 5 from bottom.
[1636] The practice of beginning prayers before, and ending them as the sun had just risen, seems to have passed from the Essenes to a party in the Synagogue itself, and is pointedly alluded to as a characteristic of the so-called Vethikin, Ber. 9 b; 25 b; 26 a. But another peculiarity about them, noticed in Rosh haSh. 32 b (the repetition of all the verses in the Pentateuch containing the record of God in the so-called Malkhiyoth, Zikhronoth, and Shophroth), shows that they were not Essenes, since such Rabbinic practices must have been alien to their system.
[1637] Sanh. x 1.
[1638] In Sanh. 100 b they are explained as the writings of the Sadducees,' and by another Rabbi as the Book of Sirach' (Ecclus. in the Apocrypha). Hamburger, as sometimes, makes assertions on this point which cannot be supported (Real-Wörterb. ii. p. 70). Jer. Sanh. 28 a explains, Such as the books of Ben Sirach and of Ben La'nah' - the latter apparently also an Apocryphal book, for which the Midr. Kohel. (ed. Warsh. iii. p. 106 b) has the book of Ben Tagla' La'nah' and Tagla' could scarcely be symbolic names. On the other hand, I cannot agree with Fürst (Kanon d. A.T. p. 99), who identifies them with Apollonius of Tyana and Empedocles. Dr. Neubauer suggests that Ben La'nah may be a corruption of Sibylline Oracles.