ESSENES (es-sene), (Gr. 'Eaenvoi, es-se-noi'), one of the three great Jewish sects, of which the other two were the Pharisees and the Sadducees (1) Name. The derivation of the name Es senes is by no means certain. Philo (Quod omnis trobus Tiber, sec. 22) deduces it from Saws, 'holy.' Some have found its origin in the Hebrew 'to heal,' supporting their opinion by reference to the fact that the Essenes were a class of men who professed to heal both mind and body. De %Vette gives the preference to the Syriac word signifying 'pious.' (2) Origin. These sects sprung tip in the de cline of the Jewish state, after the Babylonish cap tivity, influenced in their rise and spread not less by ascetic philosophy than by the national degra dation and the decay of morality. In all states re ligion comes first, for it is spontaneous, the nat ural answer of the heart to God.
NVhilc the Pharisees gave their countenance to sustain the past, with all its transmitted influ ences, indiscriminately, and the Sadducees ad hered to the rejection of what was traditionary and adventitious, the Essenes attempted to form a third way, which, without neglecting the past, should bring new and powerful appliances to bear on the actual ills of society, seeking not merely to reform and repair, but rather to heal and revive. For this purpose they gave them elves up to a contemplative mode of life, as well as to those labors by which only thought and prac tice can be united in harmony, and the good which God designed he wrought out for man. Making small account of the outward ohservances of the Pharisee, and standing religiously aloof from the skepticism and narrow worldly spirit of his oppo nent the Sadducee, the Essenes aimed at some thing practical—sought to originate an influence which should stem the advance of corruption and pour a sanatory and life-giving power into the veins of society.
(3) Organization. For this purpose they founded a brotherhood, devised institutions, and became the earliest example, if not the actual par ent. of all the teeming brood of hermits, monks, friars and nuns, which have since been seen.
They were a moral and religious order, while the Pharisees partook more of the character of a party (in the modern and political sense of the word), and the Sadducces exhibited not a few of the features of a sect.
(4) Ethics, Manners and Customs. (a) The Essenes were ascetics. The ordinary pleasures of life they avoided as something morally bad, and held self-control and freedom from the slav ery of the passions to be virtue. Marriage they despised. Selecting among the children of others those whom they considered the most promising, they endeavored to form them according to their own model. Neither riches nor poverty were known in their body. None had less, none more than enough.
(b) Stewards were appointed by them, whose business it was to take due care of what in each case was entrusted to them, not for their own individual advantage, but for the common good.
(c) Buying and selling, as might be expected, were unknown among them; give and take was their simple plan, which appears to have been observed no less between the members of different communities than between those of the same.
(d) Their entire manner of life, indeed, was subject to the strictest rule. Only in their min istrations of charity were they left free to the spontaneous movements and impulses of their breasts.
(e) Next to God, Moses was the object of their reverent homage. To blaspheme the name of Moses was a capital offense. As might be expected, their observance of the Sabbath was more strict than ordinary. Their food they cooked the day before. On the Sabbath day they would not re move a vessel from its place, even for the most pressing wants of nature.
(f) Their pursuits, trades and professions were such as conduce to human good. They tilled the ground; they made useful articles; they bred and pastured cattle, but in the fabrication of arms they took no part. Even peaceful pursuits which ministered to vice they carefully avoided. It must not be concealed, however, that some of their notions bordered on extravagance, and that some of their practices betrayed a fastidiousness which amounts to the ridiculous.