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CHAP. XII.

OF THE ESSENES.

THE Essenes, though no notice is taken of them, at least by name, in any part of the scripture history, were yet a considerable sect among the Jews, of whom both Josephus and Philo have given a large account; the former in the twelfth chapter of his second book of the Jewish war, where he professedly treats of the three principal sects of the Jews, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes. He likewise speaks of them occasionally in several other parts of his works. Philo, in his book entitled Omnis probus liber*, gives a very particular account of the dogmata and manners of this sect, nearly, though not quite, the same with that of Josephus. It is very possible there might be some little difference betwixt the Essenes in Egypt and those in Judea; and Philo, who was an Alexandrian Jew, was acquainted only with the former, Josephus, an inhabitant of Judea, only with the latter. Pliny, the natural historian, hath left us some account of the Essenes in the seventeenth chapter of the fifth book of his history +.

These are the only ancient writers, who speak of the Essenes, on whose narratives, as they were contemporary with them, we may depend. As for what Epiphanius, and other ancient and modern authors have said of them, it can only be by conjecture, any further than they have taken their materials from those above-mentioned.

The etymology of the name has given grammarians and critics no little trouble. Josephus is silent upon it. Philo derives it from orios, holy, because of the extraordinary sanctity of the Essenes, though he confesses that derivation is not

* See also Philo de Vitâ Contemplativâ.

+ The several accounts are inserted at large in Dr. Prideaux's Connection, part ii, book v, sub. fin.

grammatical*. Epiphanius goes the furthest for the etymology of any, deriving the name from Jesse the father of David+. Salmasius fetches it from a city called Essa, mentioned by Josephus, from whence he imagines this sect first sprungt. Serarius hath given us, at least, a dozen different etymologies §. So various and uncertain are the conjectures of the learned on this subject.

Godwin derives it from the Syriac word NDN asa, which signifies to heal or cure, because Philo calls those of the Essenes, who devoted themselves to a contemplative life, ɛpaTEUTAI, therapeuta, which is naturally derived from bepaπEVELY, sanare; yet not, as Godwin erroneously says, because they studied physic, according to the common acceptation of that word; but because, saith Philo, they cure men's souls of those diseases which they have contracted by their passions and vices. Or otherwise, as he adds, they have this name, because they have learnt to worship and serve that Being, who is better than good, more uncompounded than the number one, and more ancient than unity itself: for the word ɛpaTEUTYS signifies a worshipper, or servant, as well as a physician.

These therapeutæ are distinguished from those, whom Philo calls Practical Essenes, who were employed in the labours of husbandry and other mechanic arts; though only in such as belonged to peace, for none of them would ever put their hands to the making swords or arrows, or any other instruments of war**.

Both Josephus and Philo give a surprising account of their

* Philo in tractat. Omnis probus liber, Oper. p. 678, C. Colon. Allobr. 1613; vid. Serar. Tribæres. lib. iii, cap.i, p. 109; J. Scaliger. Elench. Trihæres. Serar. cap. xviii, in init.

+ Epiphan. Hæres. xix, lib. i, tom. ii, sect. iv, p. 120, edit. Petav.

Salmas. Plinian. exercitat. in Solinum, cap. xxxv, p. 432, edit. Ultraject. § Serar. Trihæres. Judæor. lib. iii, cap. i, p. 106-110, edit. Trigland.

1703.

|| Philo de Vitâ Contemplativâ, ab init. oper. p. 688, B. C.; Valesius, in his notes on Eusebius's Eccles. Histor. lib. ii, cap. xvii, p. 66, not. 3, endeavours to prove against Scaliger, that the Therapeutæ, so largely described by Philo, are not to be reckoned in the number of the Essenes.

Vid. Lexic. Constantin. in verb.

** Philo. Tractat. quod omnis probus liber, Oper. p. 678, E, D.

Y

austere way of life. Their houses were mean; their clothes made of wool without any dye; they never changed their clothes or shoes, till they were quite worn out: their food was plain and coarse, and their drink water: they neglected all bodily ornaments, and would by no means anoint themselves with oil, according to the fashion of those times. Nay, if any one of them happened to be anointed against his will, he would presently wipe off the oil, and wash himself, as from some pollution. They lived in sodalities, and had all their goods in common; their morals were very exact and pure, and they kept the sabbath more strictly than any of the Jews*.

In the account which Godwin gives of the dogmata of this sect, collected from Josephus and Philo, he asserts, that the Pythagoreans forbad oaths, and so, saith he, did the Essenes+. But this, I apprehend, is a mistake as to the Pythagoreans, and perhaps, also, as to the Essenes. The former, it is well known, used an oath on important occasions, and held it to be most sacred; swearing by the number four, which they wrote by ten dots, in the form of a triangle; so that each side consisted of four dots, thus: Some have imagined Py

thagoras took the hint of this from the Nomen Tetragrammaton of the Jews; and that having likewise acquired some notion of the Trinity, he intended to express it by the triangle, which is called his Trigonon Mysticum.

As for the Essenes, Josephus saith, that before any are admitted to eat at the common table, they bind themselves by solemn oath to observe the rules of the society §.

Godwin likewise maintains, that the Pythagoreans used

* Philo ubi supra, p. 678–680; Joseph. de Bello Judaic. lib. ii, cap. viii, sect. ii-xiii, p. 160-165.

+ Joseph. de Bell. Jud. ubi supra, sect. vi; Philo, ubi supra, p. 679, C. Diog. Laert. in Vitâ Pythag. lib. viii, segm. xxxiii; Lucian. Dialog. Vitarum Auctio, Oper. tom. iii, p. 103, cum Annot. Cognati. p. 131, edit. Basil.; et Galei Philosoph. General. lib. ii, cap. iii, sect. ii, p. 173, 175.

§ Joseph. de Bell. ubi supra, sect. vii, p. 163. In the former passage, sect. vi, his expression is, το δε ομνύειν αυτοίς περιιςαται, χείρον τι της επιορχίας υπολαμβάνοντες, though here he saith, πριν δε της κοινής αψασθαι τροφής, ορκος αυτοίς όμνυσι φρικώδεις, κ. τ. λ. And in sect. viii, he speaks of them as r όρκοις και τοις έθεσι ενδεδεμενοι, and the like in other places.

only inanimate sacrifices; and so, saith he, did the Essenes; they sent gifts to the temple, but did not sacrifice. But howwill this ascount of the Pythagoreans agree with the story mentioned by Diogenes Laertius and others*, that Pythagoras himself sacrificed a hecatomb, upon his discovering what is called the Pythagoric theorem, namely, that in a right-angled triangle, the square of the hypothenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the sides? As for the Essenes it is not easy to reconcile their not using animal sacrifices with the profound veneration which they professed for the five books of Moses, in which so many animal sacrifices are enjoined. Josephus indeed saith, they send their gifts, avadquara, to the temple, but offer no sacrifices there, by reason of the different rules of purity, which they have instituted among themselves. And therefore, being excluded the common temple, they sacrifice apart by themselves; τας θυσίας επιτελεσι: the word θυσιας imports animal sacrifices, that were slain†.

3dly, Godwin saith, the Essenes worship towards the rising sun; and this he grounds on a passage in Josephus; on the authority of which some have charged them with worshipping the sun itself. The words are, Προς γε μην το Θείον ιδιως ευσέβεις· πριν γαρ ανασχειν τον Ηλιον, εδεν θεγγονται των βεβηλων, παίριες δε τινας εις αυτόν ευχας, ωσπερ ικετεύοντες ανατείλαι 7. If HAO, indeed, be the antecedent to auroy, it must imply that they prayed to the sun itself. But this is not necessarily the construction; for though To lov, which is of the neuter gender, cannot be the antecedent to auroy, yet auto may very

*Diog. Laert. de Vitis Philosophorum, lib. viii, Vit. Pythagor. segm. xii, p. 497, Amstel. 1692. Cicero represents Cotta as giving no credit to this story, because, as he apprehends, Pythagoras never used animal sacrifices, Cicer. de Natura Deorum, lib. iii, cap. xxxvi. But it is related also by Athenæus, Deipnosoph. lib. x, p. 418, F, edit. Casaub. 1598. See also Plutarch. in Comment. non posse suaviter Vivi secundum Epicur, Oper. tom. ii, p. 1094, B, Francof. 1620.

+ Joseph. Antiq. lib. xviii, cap. i, sect. v, p. 871. Yet Dr. Ibbotson (see his note in loc.) renders the word, ' autwy Tag Duoias exitiλuoi, very differently from the translation used above, which is that of Dr. Prideaux: his version is," in seipsis sacrificia peragunt, i. e. sese ipsos Deo vovebant et consecrabant," edit. Haverc.

↑ Joseph. de Bello Judaic. lib. ii, cap. viii, sect. v, p. 161, 162.

well be supposed to agree with soy understood*. Accordingly Dr. Prideaux translates the words thus, " They are, in whatever pertaineth to God, in an especial manner religious; for before the sun is risen, they speak of no common worldly matter, but till then offer up unto God their prayers in ancient forms, received from their predecessors; supplicating particularly in them, that he would make the sun to rise upon them." If this criticism be not admitted, it is nevertheless much more easy to suppose an error in the copy, autoy for auto, than that the Essenes, who had a more than ordinary zeal for the law of Moses, should be guilty of such gross idolatry as to worship the sun.

There was a notion first started by Eusebius+, and eagerly embraced by many Roman Catholics, that the Therapeuta were Christian ascetics or monks, converted and instituted by St. Mark: which improbable suggestion Godwin refutes by the following arguments: In Philo's treatise concerning the Therapeutæ, or de Vitâ Contemplativâ, there is no mention of Christ or Christians, the evangelists or apostles. Again, the Therapeutæ are not mentioned as a new sect, as the Christians then were; on the contrary, he styles their doctrine "a philosophy derived to them by tradition from their forefathers;" and saith, "they have the commentaries of the ancients, who were the authors of this sect§." Again, the inscription of Philo's treatise is not only Tep B8 Sewρntine, but also περι ικετων αρετών, and Philo elsewhere calling the whole Jewish nation XSTIXOV YEVOS, it may from hence be inferred, that the Therapeuta were Jews, not Christians. However, it is not impossible, that some of these Jewish Therapeuta, becoming Christians, might still affect their former recluse

*See Waehneri Antiquitates Ebæor. vol. ii, sect. vii, cap. v, sect. lxii, p. 775, 776, Gottingæ, 1742.

+ Euseb. Eccles. Histor. lib. ii, cap. xvii, p. 66, ad fin. capitis.
Serarii Trihæres. lib. iii, cap. xvii.

§ Philo de Vitâ Contemplativâ, Oper. p. 691, C.

|| Philo de Legation, sect. iii, cap. xviii, ad Caium, ab init.

¶ See this opinion of Eusebius well confuted likewise by Valesius, Euseb. Eccles. Hist. lib. ii, cap. xvii, p. 68, not. i, edit. Reading, Cantab. 1720, and by Scaliger in his Elenchus Trihæres. Serarii, cap.

xxix.

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