VARIETIES OF ESSENISM That the term Essenism was a general one, and applicable to a variety of forms of belief is clear. Thus while the Essenes as a whole belonged to Palestine and Syria, the Therapeutae (6Epa irEvral lit. "attendants" or "physicians" : hence "worshippers of God") were to be found in Egypt, on the shores of Lake Mareotis, by Alexandria. Philo, who is the sole authority for their existence and who speaks of them in De Vita Contemplativa, distinguishes the contemplative Therapeutae from the remaining Essenes who lived a more practical life. Philo cannot account for the origin of the name Therapeutae and this cii cumstance tends to show the antiquity of these ascetics. The Alexandrian community lived in mean and scattered houses, near enough to afford mutual protec tion when necessary, but not too close to disturb the solitude which was so greatly prized. Each house contained a chamber called vE.uEiou or .ovaarrlptov devoted to prayer and meditation (cf. Matt. vi. 6). During the week the Therapeutae lived apart and meditated in solitude, but on Sabbath they prayed and they ate in common. Their so-called feasts (where no flesh was served and only cold water was drunk) especially that held on the eve of Pentecost, were famous and formed a contrast to Greek revels. At these feasts the philosophical discourse was the chief feature. This was followed by hymns and by the pervigilium, celebrated with antiphonal and joint singing and with choral dancing in imita tion of Moses and Miriam at the Red sea. In view of the habits of the Therapeutae, the existence of pre-Christian monasticism cannot be denied. Already in Philo's days the Therapeutae were considered to be ancient. Strabo, who was born in 63 B.C. and who visited Egypt before 25 B.C., speaks of buildings at Heliopolis which the priests had taken over from the former guilds of phil osophers and scientists. He states that these learned men were consulted by Plato and Eudoxus but that the nvarrj.a and the ii mats were extinct. Philo, describing the Therapeutae, makes use of these same technical terms. The Stoic philosopher Chaere mon, a contemporary of Strabo, records the o'vya.a and aawvjcrts so that the line of continuity was not necessarily broken. Por phyry (De Abstinentia, iv. 6) preserves Chaeremon's account which resembles Philo's description of the Therapeutae, even in cluding details such as their posture, gait and habit of eating hyssop with their bread. Incidentally it may be remarked that F. C. Conybeare has vindicated the genuineness of Philo's account against P. Lucius's endeavour to impugn its authenticity. Euse bius, struck by the resemblance of the Therapeutae to Christian monks, claimed them to be Christians converted by Mark. He was followed by various patristic writers and mainly on this account Lucius maintained that Philo's book De Vita Contemplative was a later Christian forgery, intended to procure the sanction of Philo's name for the rising monasticism of the Church. It is, however, now generally acknowledged that Conybeare is correct and the Therapeutae are held to have been a variety of the Es senes, distinguished by a love of contemplative devotion.
Another division is that of the Hemerobaptists or Tobele Shaharith, whose daily ablutions were a matter of ritual—John the Baptist may have belonged to them. Epiphanius (Panarion, I, 17) mentions them as the fourth heresy among the Jews, and classes them doctrinally with the Pharisees but, like the Sad ducees, they are said to have denied the resurrection of the dead. Both Hegesippus and Justin Martyr speak of the Hemerobaptists.
Common to all the above mentioned varieties of the Essenes is the circumstance that each is described as forming a homogeneous body, ruled by officers acting in accordance with traditional laws and possessing initiatory oaths and ceremonies incumbent on the neophyte. The Greek sources make it clear that they are speaking of sects. On the other hand the Rabbinic writings speak of indi viduals or informal groups, lacking altogether the cohesion and permanence which the Greek imply. Probably both are correct, for allowance must be made for the fact that the Greek accounts are connected descriptions, possibly coloured by the desire to heighten parallels to other bodies, while in Rabbinic sources only incidental references occur and the comprehensive designation Essene is probably never met with. Little is said of the Essenes that does not fall within pharisaic category. Among the Pharisees were plenty of men who, singly, or collectively, lived the Essene life. (Biichlers Types of Palestinian Piety contains plenty of illus trations.) But they were not recluses. They were men of action who brought religion into life. Menahem, an Essene, predicted Herod's rise to power. Judas the Essene foretold the death of Antigonus. John the Essene was a general in the Roman War.
Probably the Essenes and Pharisees sprang from the pre Maccabaean Hasidim. In later times we hear of the Hasidim ha Rislzonim, brotherhoods (Haburoth) of pious men who waited in meditation before statutory services began "in order to attune their minds to their Father in Heaven" and who met also for com mon meals ; of the Neqiyye had-Da'ath, probably a more informal body of "pure-minded ones" who paid special reverence to the scroll of the law; of the cenu`im or "chaste ones" among the priesthood and the `Anawim or "humble ones," both elderly men who possessed and transmitted the secret of the divine name of 42 letters and who, copying Moses and Israel before Sinai, re frained from sexual intercourse in the hope of meriting a further revelation : of the Hash-shd-'im, or "reticent ones" to whom secret scrolls were entrusted : to the Wattiqim, or "men of exactitude" who so arranged their morning prayers that they finished the re cital of the Shema` at the time of the sun's first brilliance, and of other groups.
In view of the foregoing it is hard to believe that the Essenes remained pent within a watertight compartment and that they are strictly to be differentiated from the mass of primitive Judaism, all the more as no comprehensive Hebrew name for them can be produced to justify such an assumption. An anonymous corporation can scarcely be conceived : supporters and opponents alike, would have felt the necessity for precision: an appellation or a taunt-word that would be indisputably applicable must inevi tably have won popularity, just as the terms "Society of Friends" or "Quakers" unambiguously designate a definite religious body, and just as no doubt is entertained as to those to whom the term Pharisee refers. No such categorical epithet in Hebrew is known for the Essenes. The term Pharisee sufficed to cover all their subdivisions. For it cannot be argued that the Essene tenets lie far off the beaten track of Judaism. Abstinence is possibly the only exception and too much must not be made of the Greek writers' emphasis on this element. Nor is it unknown in the Tal mud. Private fasts and asceticism are mentioned on many occa sions. That they are deprecated is another matter. Judaism pos sesses enough official disciplinary abstinence to render it desirable to check the common impulse towards optional asceticism. But the desire of the individual to add to the statutory prescriptions was Jewish as well as Essene because it was natural in saints : it is found at all times and deprecated at all times by those who guide the common worshippers and who wisely strive to guard them against excess. Essene tenets can certainly not be detached. It is only by carefully gathering all instances of individual holiness and by segregating them as unusual in Judaism that the Essenes can be isolated. Having abstracted all the sweetness, the remain ing drab gloom and ugliness is said to represent normal Judaism : this forms an agreeable foil to the Gospels. Not infrequently the motive for exalting the Essenes has been the desire to decry the spiritual outlook of Jesus' contemporaries.
Moreover, the Essenes were drawn from all classes, they had their priests, which merely means that their ranks included pious Cohanim. In the same way their insistence on the immutable nature of oaths recalls the Sadducees and their objection to an nulling vows. The often misunderstood "Corban" episode of the Gospels would show that Jesus followed the Pharisee view. for it was they who insisted on dissolving, wherever possible, rash vows adversely affecting parents while the Essenes or Sadducees stood for the letter of the bond. The gospel writer has confused the controversialists and made Jesus appear to be blaming the Phari sees for the very principle on which they and he were in agree ment against the Sadducees. If, therefore, Essenes included priests, Pharisees and Sadducees, they cannot have formed a definitely separate body. The term Essene can denote nothing more than "pious," in the vaguest sense of the word, allowing for all manner of divergencies according to the personal tastes of individuals and groups.
When we read that the Essenes accompanied the reading of the Law by expository homilies, we cannot doubt but that the refer ence is to Haggadic Midrash of which their secret books may well have consisted. Their angelology is not necessarily more foreign than much similar material contained in the Haggadah and which later developed into Qabbalati. Perhaps it is begging the question to take a Jewish origin and Jewish angelology for granted. Be this as it may, the presence of angelology among Essene beliefs is no argument for the foreign origin of general Essenism, just as little would it be logical to argue that Judaism as a whole is foreign because Judaism contains angelology which is foreign.
What is perhaps the most conclusive argument against the isola tion of the Essenes is their imperceptible disappearance. The Sad ducees vanished silently after A.D. 70 because the raison d'etre of the priests disappeared with the Temple. But no such reason can explain why no more is heard of the Essenes, either in Judaism or in Christianity. They seem to have faded from history. The answer is that they assimilated their environment, they did not succumb to it. They imposed their mark on their contemporaries so impressively that they conquered. The communistic groups and the ascetic practices were a means to an end : the practice of vir tue and the cult of saintliness, being part of the teaching of Judaism as of Christianity, ceased to be the distinctive mark of the Essene. When paganism lapsed, Essenism had achieved its purpose. The Essene, or his convert, became the good Christian or the good Jew. That a number of men of extraordinary piety should have influenced their generation and gradually raised the general level to their own height need excite no wonder. That the first men in the world to condemn the institution of slavery should have carried the teachers and saints of their age with them and should have merged and become lost as virtue spread and morality prevailed is no more surprising than that the groups which con stituted the apostolic Church and which exhibited considerable varieties of outlook should have blended imperceptibly and with a gradual loss of individuality into the harmonious background of universal Christianity.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.—See relevant articles and bibliographies in Hastings, Bibliography.—See relevant articles and bibliographies in Hastings, Encycl. Relig. and Ethics and in Jew. Encycl.; G. F. Moore's Judaism (Harvard, 1927) ; A. Biichler (op. cit.) (London, 1922) ; A. Marmor stein, Old Rabbinic doctrine of God, pp. 208 sqq. (London, 1927) .
(H. M. J. L.)