THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
According to Josephus they addressed their " ancient prayers to the sun, as if entreating him to rise. " After prayers, work commenced, followed by a meal for which they prepared by ablutions. After the meal they returned to work and at evening reassembled to partake of the evening meal. They observed the Sabbath strictly, rejected bloody sacrifices, but sent their oblations to the temple. Of the religious tenets and teaching of the Essenes little is known. They were no doubt Jews. The law was highly esteemed, and was expounded on the Sabbath and punctiliously observed. In this" respect the Essenes resembled the Pharisees. According to Josephus they occupied themselves only with the ethical side of philosophy. They believed in the immortality of the soul and in angels; not to divulge the names of the angels was a part of the oath taken by novices.
Essenism was an enigmatic phenomenon concerning which views differ. The name appears in different forms (Essaioi in Philo, Essenoi in Josephus, Esseni in Pliny), and has been variously interpreted. Some derive it from the Greek hosios, " pious "; others from the Semitic hasse, plural hassin, " pious,"; and others from assaya, "physicians "; Salmasius (according to Josephus, Ant. XIII. , xv. 3) derived it from the city of Essa, a hypothesis adopted by Hilgenfeld. Theories" As difficult as the explanation of the of Its name is the question of the origin and Origin and nature of Essenism. Some consider Character, it a purely Jewish development. Others see here extra-Jewish influences. Within these two views there is another difference of opinion over the peculiarities in which Essenism differs from Judaism and what influences were at work in its origin. There is no doubt as to the relation of Essenism to Pharisaism. Schiirer (English ed., II., ii. 210) thinks that " Essenism is merely Pharisaism in the superlative degree." But this is not sufficient to explain the peculiarities. Scholars like Ritschl would explain all peculiarities from the fact that the Essenes wished to be a ^people of priests. Others, like Bestmann and Lucius, think that in the time of the Maccabees the exclusive pious separated from the temple at Jerusalem and formed a community of their own. For a time Hilgenfeld considered the Essenes Jewish mystics, then again he spoke of Persian or even of Buddhistic influences, but in his later works he returned to his earlier position, and derived them from the original Rechabites (q.v.). Whatever foreign influences were operative, Buddhistic were not among them, though Persian may have been. The philosopher Zeller has endeavored to prove that Essenism has its parallels in Pythagorism (Geschichte der Philosophie der Griechen, iii. 277 sqq., Leipsic, 1881). Whether it is at all necessary to assume foreign influences depends upon the answer to the question whether Josephus' notes on the anthropology of the Essenes are correct. Whereas Essenism as far as its tenets and mode of life go may be explained from Judaism and may be considered an effort akin to that of Pharisaism completely to attain by isolation purity of life> the Essenic doctrine of man can be explained
only from foreign, most probably Pythagorean, influences. But then it can be assumed that other influences also, in which Essenism differs from ordinary Judaism, came from the same sources. Only scanty notices survive about the history of Essenism. The first Essene, Judas, mentioned by name lived about thetime of Antigonus c. 110 b.c. (Josephus, Ant. XIII. , ix.). In the time of Christ the sect seems to have been strong, but every supposed contact of Christ with it belongs to the realm of unfounded hypotheses. When and how Esse- *^e»nism was taken up by Christianity and its adherents were received into the Christian Church is not known. It may be supposed that some joined the Church, though they still retained some distinctive peculiarities. This is probably the kernel of what Epiphanius tells of the Essenes and Sampsaeans. In the system of the Clementines Essenic elements are probably contained.