ESSENES. (I) Meaning.—The Essenes, who included the Therapeutae and Hemerobaptists, were a body of pre-Christian Jews who lived a monastic life : whether they are to be regarded as a distinct sect is a matter of controversy. But there is general agreement that from the Maccabaean age and onward, if not earlier, there were individuals and brotherhoods known as Essenes and distinguished by characteristics such as the community of property, the practice of charity and the pursuit of virtue.
(3) Names.—Greek writers refer to the Essenes by names of which the most common are 'EvvnvoL and `Evaaioc. The deriva tions are disputed. The English Essene comes, through the Latin, from 'Ecanvol. This form is unknown to Philo who invariably uses the alternative. Josephus uses both names, the former more frequently. Other writers who generally or exclusively prefer 'EccWvol or Esseni are Solinus, Pliny, Synesius and Hippolytus, while Hegesippus and Porphyry favour `Ecenaioc. Epiphanius has forms peculiar to himself ; these are most probably corruptions or local variants. To what Hebrew or Aramaic equivalents may 'Eoanvoi, `Eaaaioc be referred? The problem is not easy to answer. Various solutions have been suggested but even after the Greek terms have been explained satisfactorily, there still remain the Rabbinic names, of a totally different style, which were applied to men who lived by a rule to all intent Essene and which must theref ore be deemed to be as accurate designations of Essenes as those preserved in the Greek and Latin writings.
Philo equates `EQaaZoc with ovcos: this is mere allegory and can hardly have been intended as etymology. The following deri vations are suggested. From the Hebrew :—Hashsha'im (the silent ones) : `Asah (he acted) and 'Anshe Ma`aseh (men of action) : Hazah (he saw visions) and Salzah (he bathed). The first is the most probable : apart from other considerations no suitable adjec tival forms exist from the verbs in the perfect tense given above. From the Aramaic :—Rase, Hasen with stat. emphat. Hasaya (pious), 'Asa (he healed), 'Eaanvol may come from cenu`im (chaste).
The Talmudic names are Hasidim (or Zeqenim) Ha-rishonim (the ancient Saints or elders) ; Neqiyye Had Da`ath (the pure minded) ; cenu`im (the chaste) ; Hashslia`im (the silent ones) ; Wattiqim (men of exactitude) : Banna'im (builders), etc.
(4) Description.—Philo (Quod omnis probes liber, secs. 12, 13), after describing the Persian Magi and the Indian Gymnosophists, reminds his readers that similar examples of virtuous people can be adduced from Judaism. He instances the Essenes, who lived in Palestine and Syria and who numbered about 4,000. He speaks again of the Essenes in his lost Apology for the Jews, which is preserved by Eusebius (Prep. Evang., viii. II). The Essenes were Communists : they supported themselves by manual labour (gen erally by agriculture, never by making weapons of war), the pro ceeds of which replenished the common fund. They were devoted to study, prayer, and acts of benevolence, especially towards the aged and sick. Some approved of conjugal intercourse under restricted conditions, i.e., until children had been born; others abstained from marriage altogether. They recruited their ranks by adopting children who were young enough to imbibe their teach ing or by accepting proselytes of a mature age who had reached a period when the allurements of the world would have lost their attraction. They condemned slavery in principle and practice : the younger ministered to the elder and the natural respect due to seniority and learning replaced the artificial claims of rank. They chose their rulers, maintained special codes, possessed their own secrets, traditionally preserved and imparted, in which angelology figured prominently. They had no single city of their own, how ever, but tended to congregate as a result of their mode of life and to concentrate in certain districts, notably on the western shore of the Dead sea. As a body they preferred the country to the city, yet we find individuals among them not infrequently taking part in po litical life. They despised pleasure and luxury, regarding anointing oil as particularly hateful and defiling. They wore simple white garments and did not own a change of clothes. They bathed in cold water, ate but a single dish and worked till sundown. They prayed before sunrise and at their meals grace was said by a priest. Their conduct was orderly and their conversation restrained.
In all their enterprises the leaders directed the procedure, and named the persons called upon to officiate; only in deeds of mercy and charity could the individual act independently. They objected to oaths, but an oath once taken was never capable of being an nulled. Herein lay the chief disciplinary power of their officers, for since they observed strict purity in their food and refrained from eating anything which others had prepared, anyone excom municated could soon be starved into obedience; cases of expul sion seem to have been almost unknown and instances of dis obedience seem to have been rare. A novitiate of three years, divisible into two stages of increasing asceticism, was demanded of the postulant for admission. Josephus, who states that he underwent this probationary period but then resigned, must there fore be trusted in his accounts of the external life and tenets of the Essenes, but he cannot be regarded as having possessed an inner knowledge of their secrets, which the Essenes revealed only to those who joined their order. The oath exacted from the initiate, before he was allowed to share the common meal, is given by Josephus : "to be pious to the Deity, to practice justice towards men; never to injure anyone, either of his own accord or under compulsion : always to hate the wicked and side with the just : ever to show faithfulness to all mankind and to be true to those in authority, for all power comes from God : never when in office, to force his personal views or authority or to assume a special dress or luxury : to love truth and hate falsehood : to keep his hands pure of theft and his soul from unrighteous gain : not to have any secret from his brethren and never to betray one of theirs, even at the cost of his life : to pass on the traditions he himself had received : never to be a brigand : to safeguard the sacred books and to pre serve with care the names of the angels that had been taught to him." Sabbath observance was very strict : non-statutory sacrifices were avoided : in the society there were four grades, based on learning and seniority. They lived long, as a result of their simple habits and diet and neither bribery nor torture could make them false to their principles. Pliny (Hist. Nat. v. 1 7) describes the cus toms of the Essenes and terms them "a race by themselves, more remarkable than any other in the wide world." Philo, deeming one proof alone sufficient to establish his definition of the Essenes as "champions of virtue" says : "From time to time their country has been seized by many rulers . . . some more ferocious than wild beasts, surpassing every form of savagery, massacring hordes of their subjects, severing them limb from limb while alive. Yet none of these bloodthirsty tyrants has ever been able to lay a single charge at the door of an Essene." Josephtis stresses the belief of the Essenes in the Resurrection and states that their doctrines were borrowed by the Pythagoreans and Stoics : he considers that the Essenes are the oldest of ascetics and that it was from Egypt that their doctrines spread abroad. He mentions also their addic tion to prophecy and the foretelling of events.
(5) History and Tenets.—The chief problems concerning the Essenes are the following: Were they a distinct sect? what was their origin? how and why did they arise and disappear? The circumstance that the Essenes are known by a variety of designa tions, all of which are epithets describing their aims or beliefs, and none of which incorporates the name of a founder or the place where he lived, goes to prove that the Essenes were not a dis tinct, well-defined body to be segregated from the general mass of Jews. That they were a separate sect used to be the accepted view. It was held that foreign influences, Persian or Buddhist or Pythagorean or Syrian, were responsible for the Essenes and that their characteristic beliefs and practices were derived from some non-Jewish source. The four theories enumerated above had, each one, their distinguished advocates. The preponderating mass of Jewish material which forms the foundation of Essenism, must not be overlooked. The opposite view, that of Kohler, is, in the main, true : he regards the Essenes as "a branch of the Pharisees who conformed to the most rigid rules of levitical purity while aspiring to the highest degree of holiness." Perhaps the extent to which non-Jewish thought is mirrored in Essenism is slightly greater than Kohler is disposed to concede, but Kohler is un doubtedly correct iii his main thesis that the Essenes were essen tially Jewish in origin, that they belonged to the Pharisees, and that they did not, on the whole, constitute a sect.