� 30. The Essenes

§ 30. THE ESSENES
THE LITERATURE
Triglandius, Trium scriptorum illustrium de tribus Judaeorum sectis syntagma, 2 vols., Delphis 1703.
Job. Gottlob Carpzov, Apparatus historico-criticus antiquitatum sacri codicis (1748), pp. 215-240.
Ugolini, Trihaeresium, etc., in his Thesaurus antiquitatum sacrarum, vol. xxii.
Bellermann, Geschichtliche Nachrichten aus dem Alterthume über Essäer und Therapeuten, Berlin 1821.
Credner, Ueber Essäer und Ebioniten und einen theilweisen Zusammenhang derselben, in Winer’s Zeitschr. für wissenschaftl. Theol. vol. i. No. 2 (1827), pp. 211-264, and No. 3 (1829), pp. 277-328.
Gfrörer, Philo und die alexandrinische Theosophie, vol. ii. (1831) pp. 299-356.
Dähne, Geschichtliche Darstellung der jüdisch-alexandrinischen Religions-Philosophie, vol. i. (1834) pp. 439-497. The same, art. “Essäer,” in Ersch and Gruber’s Allg. Encyklop. § 1, vol. xxxviii. (1843) pp. 173-192.
Frankel, Die Essäer. A Sketch (Zeitschr. für die religiösen Interessen des Judenthums, 1846, pp. 441-461).
Frankel, Die Essäer nach thalmudischen Quellen (Monatsschr. für Gesch. und Wissensch. des Judenth. 1853, pp. 30-40, 61-73).
Lutterbeck, Die neutestamentlichen Lehrbegriffe, vol. i. (1852) pp. 270-322.
Uhlhorn, art. “Essener,” in Herzog’s Real-Enc. vol. iv. (1855) pp. 174-177 (2nd ed. iv. 341-344).
Zeller, Die Philosophie der Griechen, Pt. 3, Div. ii. (1st ed. 1852), 2nd ed. 1868, pp. 234-292 (3rd ed. 1881, pp. 277-338). The same, Ueber den Zusammenhang des Essäismus mit dem Griechenthum (Theol. Jahrbb 1856, pp. 401-433).
Ritschl, Ueber die Essener (Theol. Jahrbb. 1855, pp. 315-356). The same, Die Entstehung der altkathol. Kirche (2nd ed. 1857), pp. 179-203.
Mangold, Die Irrlahrer der Pastoralbriefe (1856), pp. 32-60.
Hilgenfeld, Die jüdische Apokalyptik (1857), pp. 243-286. The same, Zeitschr. für wissensch. Theol. vol. i. 1858, p. 116 sqq.; iii. 1860, p. 358 sqq.; x. 1867, p. 97 sqq.; xi. 1868, p. 343 sqq.; xiv. 1871, p. 50 sqq.; xxv. 1882, p. 257 sqq.
Herzfeld, Gesch. des Volkes Jisrael, vol. iii. pp. 368 sqq., 388 sqq., 509 sqq.
Jost, Geschichte des Judenthums und seiner Secten, vol i. pp. 207-214.
Grätz, Geschichte der Juden (3rd ed.), vol. iii. pp. 99 sqq., 657-663 (note 10).
Ewald, Geschichte des Volkes Israel, vol. iv. p. 483 sqq.
Harnischmacher, De Essenorum apud Judaeos societate, Bonn 1866 (Gymnasialprogramm).
Keim, Geschichte Jesu, vol. i. pp. 282-306.
Holtzmann in Weber and Holtzmann’s Gesch. des Volkes Israel, vol. ii pp. 74-89.
Derenbourg, Histoire de la Palestine (1867), pp. 166-175, 460-462.
Hausrath, Neutestamentliche Zeitgeschichte, vol. i. 2nd ed. pp. 132-146.
Tidemann, Het Essenisme, Leiden 1868. The same, Esseners en Therapeuten (Theologisch Tijdschrift, 1871, pp. 177-188). The same, De apocalypse van Henoch en het Essenisme (Theol. Tijdschrift, 1875, pp. 261-296).
Westcott, art. “Essenes,” in Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible. Abbot gives additional literature in the American edition.
Ginsburg, art. “Essenes,” in Kitto’s Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature. The same, The Essenes, their history and doctrines, London 1864.
Benamozegh, Storia degli Esseni, Firenze 1865.
Lauer, Die Essäer und ihr Verhältniss zur Synagoge und Kirche. Wien, Braumüller 1869 (a separate reprint from the Austrian Quarterly Paper for Catholic Theology, 7th year, no. 4).
Lipsius, art. “Essäer,” in Schenkel’s Bibellex. vol. ii. pp. 181-192.
Clemens, Die Quellen für die Geschichte der Essener (Zeitschr. für wissenschaftl. Theol. 1869, pp. 328-352).
Geiger, Jüdische Zeitschr. für Wissensch. und Leben, vol. ix. 1871, pp. 30-56.
Clemens, Die essenischen Gemeinden (Zeitschr. für wissenschaftl Theol. 1871, pp. 418-431).
Sieffert, Christus und die Essäer (Beweis des Glaubens, 1873, pp. 481-508).
Hamburger, Real-Enc. für Bibel und Talmud, ii. 172-178 (art. “Essäer”).
Delaunay, Moines et sibylles dans l’antiquité judéo-grecque, Paris 1874.
Lightfoot, St. Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon (2nd ed. London 1876), pp. 82-98, 349-419.
Pick, Die englische Literatur über die Essäer (Zeitschr. für die lutherischs Theologie, 1878, pp. 397-399).
Demmler, Christus und der Essenismus (Theologische Studien aus Würtemberg, 1st annual course, 1880, pp. 29 sqq., 122 sqq.).
Bestmann, Geschichte der christlichen Sitte, vol. i. (1880) p. 308 sqq.
Lucius, Der Essenismus in seinem Verhältniss zum Judenthum, Strassburg 1881.
Reuss, Gesch. der heiligen Schriften Alten Testaments, §, 547.
Klöpper, Der Brief an die Colosaer (1882), pp. 76-95.
Kuenen, Volksreligion und Weltreligion (German ed. 1883), pp. 197-206.
Hilgenfeld, Ketzergeschte des Urchristenthums (1884), pp. 87-149.
Apart from the great high road of Jewish life, there lived in Palestine in the time of Christ a religious community which, though it grew up on Jewish soil, differed essentially in many points from traditional Judaism, and which, though it exercised no powerful influence upon the development of the people, deserves our attention as a peculiar problem in the history of religion. This community, the Essenes or Essaeans, is generally, after the precedent of Josephus, placed beside the Pharisees and Sadducees as the third Jewish sect But it scarcely needs the remark, that we have here to deal with a phenomenon of an entirely different kind. While the Pharisees and Sadducees were large political and religious parties, the Essenes might far rather be compared to a monastic order. There is indeed much that is enigmatical in them as to particulars. Even their name is obscure. Josephus generally calls them Ἐσσηνοί,[1922] but also Ἐσσαῖοι.[1923] In Pliny they are called Esseni, in Philo always Ἐσσαῖοι. When Philo asserts that their name is identical with ὅσιοι, this is but etymological trifling.[1924] In truth it is in any case of Semitic origin, though but very little has with any certainty been ascertained concerning it.[1925] The explanation formerly accepted by many, אָסַיָּא, “Physicians,” too little suits the peculiarity of the order, and has no support in the Greek θεραπευταί, the Essenes being never called “physicians,” but only θεραπευταὶ θεοῦ (servants of God).[1926] The derivation, advocated e.g. by Ewald, Hitzig, Lucius and others, from חֲסֵא, pious, in the plural stat. absol. חֲסֵין, stat. emphat. חֲסַיָּא, which though not indeed occurring in either Hebrew or Chaldee, is only the more usual in Syrian, is that which is most suitable. The form Ἐσσηνοί corresponds with the former, Ἐσσαῖοι with the latter.[1927] The origin of the Essenes is as obscure as their name. Josephus first mentions them in the time of Jonathan the Maccabee, about 150 B.C.,[1928] and speaks expressly of one Judas an Essene in the time of Aristobulus I. (105-104 B.C.).[1929] According to this, the origin of the order would have to be placed in the second century before Christ. But it is questionable whether they proceeded simply from Judaism, or whether foreign and especially Hellenistic elements had not also an influence in their organization. To answer this question, we must first of all bring forward the accounts of our authorities, viz. Philo,[1930] Josephus,[1931] and Pliny,[1932] for the purpose of making upon these foundations some approximation to the origin and nature of Essenism.
[1922] So on the whole fourteen times, Antt. xiii. 5. 9 (twice), xiii. 10. 6, xiii. 11. 2, xv. 10. 4, xv. 10. 5 (twice), xviii. 1. 2, xviii. 1. 5; Vita, c. ii.; Bell. Jud. ii. 8. 2, ii. 8. 11, ii. 8. 13, v. 4. 2 (comp. Harnischmacher, p. 5).
[1923] So Antt. xv. 10. 4, xvii. 13. 3; Bell. Jud. i. 3. 5, ii. 7. 3, ii. 20. 4, iii. 2. 1.
[1924] Quod omnis probus liber, § 12 (Mang. ii. 457): διαλέκτου Ἑλληνικῆς παρώνυμοι ὁσιότητος. Ibid. § 13 (Mang. ii. 459): τὸν λεχθέντα ὅμιλον τῶν Ἐσσαίων ἢ ὁσίων. Mang. ii. 632 (= Euseb. Praep. evang. viii. 11. 1, ed. Gaisford): καλοῦνται Ἐσσαῖοι παρὰ τὴν ὁσιότητα, μοὶ δοκῶ, τῆς προσηγορίας ἀξιωθέντες. It seems to me improbable, that Philo was in these explanations thinking of the Semitic chasê (see Lucius, p. 89). On the contrary, he really derives the word from the Greek ὁσιότης.
[1925] See the list of the different views in Keim, Geschichte Jesu, i. 285. Zeller, Philosophie der Griechen, iii. 2. 278, 3rd ed. Lightfoot, St. Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon (2nd ed.), pp. 349-354. Lucius, Der Essenismus, p. 89 sq. Hilgenfeld, Ketzergeschichte, pp. 98-101.
[1926] Philo, Quod omnis probus liber, § 12 (Mang. ii. 457).
[1927] That an initial ח followed by a sibilant may be represented in Greek by ἐσσ or ἀσσ is seen e.g. from ἐσσήνης = חֶשֶׁן (Joseph. Antt. iii. 7. 5, 8. 9), ἀσσιδαῖοι = חֲסִידִים, Ἐσσεβών = חֶשְׁבּוֹן. The formations by ηνός and αῖος are in Hellenistic Greek used promiscue; hence an appeal to the Semitic status absolutus and emphaticus is not necessary to explain them; still a certain amount of influence upon the structure of the Greek forms may probably be attributed to them.
[1928] Antt. xiii. 5. 9.
[1929] Antt. xiii. 11. 2; Bell. Jud. i. 3. 5.
[1930] Quod omnis probus liber, § 12, 13 (Opp. ed. Mang. ii. 457-459); and the fragment in Eusebius, Praeparatio evangelica, viii. 11, accepted by Mangey. On the genuineness of the work, Quod omnis probus liber, see Lucius, pp. 13-23, and § 34, below.
[1931] Bell. Jud. ii. 8. 2-13; Antt. xiii. 5. 9, xv. 10. 4-5, xviii. 1. 5.
[1932] Hist. Nat. v. 17. The other authorities are either quite dependent on the three above named, or so scanty and unreliable as to be of scarcely any value. See generally on the authorities for the history of the Essenes, Bellermann, Geschichtliche Nachrichten, pp. 36-145. Clemens, Zeitschr. für wissensch. Theol. 1869, p. 328 sqq. Lightfoot, St. Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians, etc., 2nd ed. p. 83 sq. Lucius, Der Essenismus, pp. 12-34. Hilgenfeld, Zeitschr. 1882, pp. 266-289. Ketzergeschichte, pp. 87-149. In Rabbinic literature (Mishna, Tosefta, Talmud, Midrashim), the Essenes are apparently nowhere mentioned, at least not under this name. When Jewish scholars (Frankel, Herzfeld, Jost, Grätz, Derenbourg, Geiger, Hamburger) have insisted on discovering them under other names, such identifications are some of them decidedly mistaken, some at least very questionable, as has been in most instances admitted by Geiger. See especially, Jüdische Zeitschrift für Wissenschaft und Leben, 1871, pp. 49-56.