A study of the influence of Essenism upon early Christianity

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A
STUDY OF THE INFLUENCE
OF ESSENISM
UPON EARLY CHRISTIANITY
^5.
A THESIS
PRESENTED TO THE SOHOOL
OF RELIGION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF THE
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE
DEGREE OF
MASTER OF THEOLOGY
BY
WILLIS H. HARNER
January 18, 1932
UMI Number: EP65037
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P r 0 f e 8 8 0 r jOriog f.....
OOUTENTS
Page
CHAPTER
INTRODUCTION
I. THE ESSENES....................................... 1
Meaning of the word "Essene"................. 1
Origin of the sect. . ..................... 2
General principles.............................. ^4
How they lived............................... 6
Celibacy.............. 8
Avoidance of the temple..................... 9
Brotherhood, service, and attitude
against slavery............................ 10
Kindness to the poor......................... 11
Opposition to oaths............................ 11
Education................... 12
Their courts.....................................13
Doctrine of immortality..................... 15
Belief in Messianic hope........................16
Belief in pre-existence ..................... 16
Supression of passions..........................16
Resemblance to the other religions............. 17
End of Essenism in Palestine....................19
II. ESSENISM AND THE SYNOPTICS.......... 21
Jesus' birth ................................ 23
John the Baptist................................ 23
ii
Page
Jesus baptized by John........... 24
Jesus' contact with John............. 25
Jesus' temptation.......................... 26
Jesus' estimate of John....................26
Jesus' purpose.............................. 27
Jesus' attitude toward wealth .......... .. , 28
Simplicity, equipment of disciples......... 29
Jesus' prayer-life.............. 30
Jesus' respect for women.......................30
Jesus, temple, sacrifices and miracles. . . . 30
Swearing and oaths.......................... 31
Jesus and immortality......................32
His home-environment........................ 32
Essene teachings in the Sermon on the Mount . 35
Essenism and the "woe" passages of Luke . . . 36
Ideas in opposition to Essenism in
Christianity ........................... 38
His Way superior to Essenism................41
III. ESSENE, GREEK AND ORIENTAL INFLUENCE ............. 42
Desire for religion in the first century. . . 43
Mystery religions ........................... 43
Relationship of Oriental cults to Essenism. . 44
Buddhistic influence upon Essenism........ .’ 45
Essenism as a development of Judaûsm....... 46
Pythagoreans and the Essenes................47
Gnosticism...................................49
lii
Page
IV. WRITINGS OF ST. JOHN AND ST. PAUL.................. 52
Essenism and Gnosticism in the Oolossian
Ohurch............................... 52
Heresy at Ephesus............................... 53
Mysticism In Paul.............................. 54
Oharacter of St. John.................. 55
Revelation and Johannine Epistles.............. 59
V, ESSENISM AND THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH . ........ 58
Essene similarities in the Early Church
shown in Acts............................. 58
Essene tendencies in St. James............... .61
Clementine Literature and St. James............ 63
Result of the Fall of Jerusalem upon Essenism. 64
Asceticism.................................. :. 65
The Therapeutae.......................... 66
Essene views in Epistle of Pope Urban First, . 68
Emphasis upon Light in Syriac Documents. . . . 69
Lactantius' refutation of worship of heavenly ^
bodies .................... 70
Essenes'in Palestine 150 Â.D....................70
Hippolytus' account of Essenes in third
century .... 1 .. .......... 71
Ange logy and "aeons"................. . .... 71
Nestorius.......... 72
Council of Nicea ................... 73
CONCLUSION..................... . 75
Bibliography. ................................. 79
V
INTRODUCTION
The actual character of the intellectual environment
around the primitive Christian centres, humanly speaking,
settled the line of development which Christian thought
took, and quite naturally determined what was,' as a con
sequence, to be considered heresy. Two great influences come
into play from the earliest beginnings of. the expansion of
Christianity. The first converts to Christianity were either
Jews or Greeks, and the influences from these two sources
were paramount. The first group consisted of two classes,
Palestinian Jews and Hellenistic Jews.
The earliest transforming influence which wrought upon
the Galilean way of life and thought was of course, the
Jewish body of ideas and practices in the midst of which it
had come to birth, and especially the apocalyptic outlook
and expectations with which many contemporary minds were
saturated. It cannot yet be settled how far Christ Himself
shared in apocalyptic hopes. There are two extreme positions:
one of which makes Christ a teacher of the most intense apoc
alyptic and Messianic expectations; the other which insists
that His entire message was ethical and spiritual and wholly
devoid of apocalyptic content. Both these extreme views are
in rather violent conflict with large sections of the Gospel
accounts, and neither of them seems likely to gain the final
support of general expert judgment. But almost all scholars
are agreed that there was a steady growth of apocalyptic
Vi
material in the period of the life of the Ohurch during which
the teachings of Jesus were being brought into permanent
form. Among the Jews of this period the fountain of apoc
alyptic literature was in the Essene sect. There are many
other tendencies, too, of Jewish thought and practice, ten
dencies that have left their tint and color on the new spir
itual religion that was born amid ancient customs and habits
and ^that emerged only slowly into its own independent sphere
of life and truth. Regardless of the great efforts of men
like St. Paul to free the Ohurch from the yoke of bondage of
the past, the inheritance from the older Jewish stock remains
a large, and in some respects, a-heavy legacy, which along
some lines would no doubt have been larger had not Jerusalem
fallen in the year 70 A.D.
There has been a persistent feeling, a perennially re
curring faith throughout all centuries of the Christian
Church, that the culminating period of religion was in the
Galilean circle and in the Apostolic Age. Men have steadily
looked back to that period as the "golden age." The supreme
aspiration of the spiritual men and women who have travailed
for the regeneration of humanity, has been for a return, a
restoration of that golden time. The cry, "Back to Christ,"
or, "Back to Apostolic Christianity," is not a new cry.
The leaders of all Christian reform have asserted their
particular movement to be a "revival of primitive Christian
ity." The next question to be considered is: What is meant
by, "Back to Christ," or "Back to Apostolic Christianity"?
vii
Are they the same thing? And did the Apostles truly under
stand Christ?
This study is an attempt to realize certain Jewish
influences, the influences of the Jewish sect of Essenes which
were very active during the nascent years of Christianity,
The purpose is an unbiased critique of both positive and neg
ative influences of Essenism upon the early Christian Church.
The study's aim will be to remove certain impediments that
have prevented a clear and concise evaluation and knowledge
of Christ's teachings, so that an understanding may be gained
of what is meant by "Back to Apostolic Christianity," and
"Back to Christ," and a realization will be grasped of how
certain of the Essene beliefs became so nearly the heart of
Christianity, Knowing that much of Christ's teaching was in
accord with the practices of the Essenes, it therefore be
comes impossible to eliminate all Jewish principles, while
at the same time all Essene innovations in the Early Churcli
must not victimize the situation; thus one of the tasks of
all students of the Church is a study of the influence of
Essenism upon Early Christianity.
The term, "Essene influence," will be used in a large
or general sense, including direct and indirect influence,
in the following chapters. Essene ideas had their origin
as a result of environmental contacts, and much of the
thought which gave uniqueness to Essenism was still potential
in many peoples at the dawn of the Christian Era. When a
father and son live together, having common views, and a
third man visits the home and while there is persuaded to
viii
believe many of the doctrines held by fe.ther and son, it
becomes difficult to know to whom belongs the credit for the
conversion. This is true, also, of Essenism. Were the early
Christians disciples of the Essenes, or was Essenism merely
the parent-in-thought to much which is held in common by the
two religions? Should one look for a common ancestor to
both in other religions? In this discourse the Essene cus
toms and beliefs which were incorporated in Christianity or
vigorously opposed by Christ and the Church will be considered.
Dr. Slosson sand that he had been teaching the atomic theory
to his classes for a great many years, but never had he asked
any of his students if they believed it, A theory does not
have to be believed to be of service— it is a tool for the
ascertaining of facts and opening new avenues of discovery.
In the following chapters the theory will be that Essenism
did influence Christianity, This theory is not necessarily
to be believed; it is to be used merely as a tool in the
task of separating pure Christianity, "Back to Christ,"
from certain external forces which, for lack of a better
name, and because they are common to Essenism, will be
designated as Essene influences. In this study there is
no obligation to resurrect Apostolic Christianity, the pro
blem is the revealing and not the removal of any Essene
influence; therefore, honor demands the presentation of
both the positive and the negative, the good and evil in
Essenism— the Christian acceptance or rejection of Essene
customs and beliefs. The goal of this study id the know4
ledge of 'the origin of certain doctrines and practices
ix
in Christianity that men may not be slaves to the extraneous
and non-Christ elements of their "faith." "Ye shall know
the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
CHAPTER I
THE ESSENES
While the Pharisees and Sadducees were striving with
each other for the attainment of their ideals a third sect
was quietly seeking the realization of the highest conception
of religious purity. This was the sect of the Essenes. One
of the unfortunate happenings in the birth and passing of a
people is their neglect to provide posterity a direct account
of their achievements. This is true of the Essenes, They
are one of the perplexing problems in the history of the Jews,
Not alone have they mystified a phase of Hebrew life, but
they present a question as to the originality of early Chris
tian concepts.
The word "Essene" is as great an enigma as the habits
of the strange people with whom the term is associated,
c/
Philo connects the word witho "holy", Another Greek
derivation is(^<^-5 "companion," "associate." Several other
explanations have been suggested upon the basis of their
esoteric doctrine and practises. It has also been explained
as a derivation from proper names or places, as Jesse, the
father of David. Again, it is said to refer to the town of
Essa beyond the Jordan (a doubtful reading in Josephus -
Ant. XIII, 15, 3). Among the many attempts to reveal the
meaning of the word the following must be considered: asar.
"to bind,» chasid. "pious," chai, "bathers," tsanuae.
"retired or modest," chasin. "powerful, strong," asa. "to
heal," asya. "a physician," chazya, "a seer," easah, "to do,"
1
essenoi. "the modest or humble," and chasha, "to be silent,"
The generally accepted interpretation is "the pious ones,"
To sources outside the sect of the Essenes themselves is
credit due for information concerning this esoteric brotherhood.
Neither the Bible nor Rabbinical literature mention the Essenes,
but their mode of life is described by Jewish, Christian and
2
Pagan writers. Their first appearance in history is in the
time of Jonathan, the Maccabee (161-144 B.C.). How much older
they may have been cannot be determined. Many writers assign
to them a very early origin.
3
Dr. Kirkup assigns to the Essenes a dateless anitquity,
Lightfoot and Jackson attempt to explain their origin in the
following manner:
We meet with the Asiclaeans during the Maccabean
struggle, but there is no mention of Pharisees
1
For the above interpretations of the word, Essene, I am
indebted to J. B. Lightfoot: The Epistles of St. Paul.
Colossians and Philemon, pp. 347 ff.
2
The real important contemporary sources of information
respecting Essenism are Josephus, Philo, Eusebuis, Hip
poly tus (follows Josephus almost exclusively), the Chris
tian, Hegesippus, and Pliny, Pliny is the only Latin writer
who mentions the Essenes. His quotation is as follows :
"On the west side (Dead Sea) the Essenes avoid the baleful
shore line. They are a race by themselves, more remarkable
than any other in the wide world; they have no women, they
abjure sexual love, they have no money, and they live among
the palm trees. Still their membership is steadily recruited
from the large number of people who resort to their mode of
existence because they are wearied with life's struggle,
with the waves of adversity. ... Below them lay the town of
Engedi, once second only to Jerusalem in fertility and palm
groves, now simply a second sepulchre." From article by
James Moffatt, op. cit. p. 398.)
3
Kirkup, Thomas, "Essenes," Encyclopedia Britannica. IX:78, 11th ed.
or Essenes, and when, after that period, Pharisees
and Essenes come to our notice ther is no mention
of Asidaeans. There are therefore, three attract
ive hypotheses as to the course of events after the
Maccabean struggle. First, the Asidaeans split
into two groups, the Pharisees and Essenes, the old
name being kept by neither. Second, the Pharisees
are the direct desoendents of the Asidaeans, while
the Essenes have a separate origin. Third, the
Essenes represent the Asidaeans, and the Pharisees
are a new development. (1)
Phile, who palls the Essenes 'the Holy ones,' after
the Greek, <505 says in one place, as quoted by
Eusebuis, Praeparation Evangelica. VIII, 11, that
ten thousand of them had been initiated by Moses
into the mysteries of the sect which consisted of
men of advanced years having neither wives nor child
ren and practised the virtues of love and holiness
and inhabited many cities and villages of Judea,
living in communism as tillers of the soil or mechan
ics, according to common rules of simplicity and ab
stinence. (2)
If this be true and Moses was one of them they have a very
early origin. Against this early view there are writers who,
like De Quincy, explain the Essenes merely as early Christians,
He bases his conclusion upon the fact that Josephus never
mentions Christians and the Gospels are silent concerning
the Essenes, proving that it was a term applied to the early
3
followers of Jesus. Ritschl would explain them as a group
who desired to be priests. Other authorities pronounce the
Essenes to be a group of Jews who became greatly influenced
by eastern philosophies. A great exponent of this belief
1
J. B. Lightfoot, Epistles of St. Paul. Colossians and
Philemon, p. 353.
2
Kauimann Kohler, "Essenes", Jewish Encyclopedia, V, 225.
T. De Quincy, "Essenes," Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine.
Jan., 1840.
4
was Helgenfeld who for a time considered the Essenes as a
sect of Jewish mystics; then again he spoke of Persian and
even Buddhistic influences— later he concluded that what
ever foreign influences were operative, Buddhistic were not
among them, though Persian may have been. In a later chap
ter will be considered the similarity of Essenism and Pythag-
oreanism.
It is not the name of the origin of a nation or people
that influences the course of humanity— it is their practices
and beliefs. Perhaps no group of individuals ever lived a
more unique type of life than the Essenes. Their lives re
vealed their exact formalism and brotherly love in an attempt
to live in accord with their religious beliefs. • The Essenes
were exclusive and to be distinguished from the rest of the
Jewish nation in Palestine by an oragnization peculiar to
themselves, and by a theory of life in which a severe ascet
icism and a rare benevolence to one another and to mankind in
general were the most common characteristics.
The strangest reports were spread about this myster
ious class of Jews, Pliny, speaking of the Essene
community in the neighborhood of the Dead Sea, calls
it the marvel of the world, and characterizes it as
a race continuing its existence for thousands of
years without wives or children, or money for support,
and with only the palm trees for companions in its
retreat from the storms of the world. (2)
Regardless of their eccentric ways, the Essenes introduced
a new principle destined to have a very powerful influence
1
G. Uhlhom, "Essenes," The New Sohaff-Herzog Encyclopedia
of Religious Knowledge, vol. IV, 180,
2
Kaufman Kohler, Jewish Encyclopedia, p. 225.
5
on the subsequent development of Ohristianity. The ideal
was the formation of the Kingdom of God isolated from the
world. They therefore withdrew themselves from all that
was profane in order to be near God,
In its most flourishing period the number of Essenes
was not large, perhaps not more than about four thousand
close adherents— and as a sect its whole career is of in
terest solely as a religious phenomenon. It did not enter
into vital relations with the national life as did the Sad
ducees and Pharisees, In common with the latter, it was
rigid in its observance of the law, and punctilious in its
care for ceremonial cleanliness.
The Essenes attempted to live a simple lifeÿ but in
their endeavors to reach their goal they built a compli
cated system of rules. It is this process of achieving
simplicity and the Kingdom of God that doubtlessly drove
many faithful seekers from their community. No one was
born into the group; so all members were convinced brothers.
Essenism was an order to which members were admitted after
passing through various degrees after |)robationary tests.
They adopted children when very young (generally not before
twelve of age) and brought them up on their own principles.
They endeavoured always to select children who were con
sidered promising. When the children reached maturity they
were given the privilege of deciding whether or not they
would remain within the order. Three years* time was given
them to decide; at the expiration of this time they either
6
severed connection with the organization and went hack, into
society or took the vows of membership which could not be
broken until death. They not only gained their membership
from the children, but the Essenes also proselytized super
ior adults.
It is hard to make exact statements concerning the
Essenes because it seems that there must have been different
groups within the major order. Philo says, "In the first
place, they reside in villages, shunning towns on account of
the lawless manner of townsfolk since they are well aware
that such associations are able to infect their souls with
incurable disorder as tainted air is'to infect their bodies
1
with deadly disease." Against this general statement
Josephus remarks as follows:
They have no one certain city, but many of them
dwell in every city; and if any of their sect
come from other places, what they have lies
open for them, just as if it were their own. ..
For which reason they carry nothing at all with
them when they travel into remote parts.
Accordingly, there is in every city where
they live one appointed particularly to care
for strangers, and to provide garments and
other necessities for them. (2)
We are also informed that they lived in small communities
3
near the Dead Sea. They doubtlessly expressed their reli
gious ideas differently because within the limits of the
1
James Moffatt, "Essenes," Hastings Encyclopedia of Religion
and Ethics. Vol. V, p.396.
2
Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book II, Oh. VIII.
3
Oliver J. Thatcher, "Essenes," The Library of Original
Sources, Vol. IV, 52.
7
society there were four grades so distinct that if one touched
a member of an inferior grade he was required to cleanse him
self by bathing in water.
A member of the order was not forced to give up his
learned trade, but he was not to pursue it for gain. It
seems that among many, especially in the communes, that agri
culture was the common occupation of the entire "little family."
2
The day's routine was made up of prayers in the morning,
3
working in the field until the fifth hour, purifying ablu
tions preparatory to the common meal which had been made
ready by their priest-cooks, further work in the field until
the evening mead, for which preparation was made as for the
fifth hour, then an evening of study or of intercourse with
strangers who came to them.
One of the great mysteries concerning the Essenes,
1
H.M.Loewe; "Essenes," Encyclopedia Britannica, vol.VIII,552.
2
"In order to render their prayer a real communion with God
as their Father in heaven, they spent an hour in silent
meditation before offering their morning prayer, and neither
the duty of saluting the king nor imminent peril, as for f
Jinstahce- a\"serpent close to their heels, could cause them
to interrupt their prayer." Jewish Encyclopedia, vol.IV,593.
3
"They were all clothed alike in white garments which they
did not change until they were worn out. . . Having worked
till the fifth hour, eleven o'clock, they assembled for
refreshments. First however they washed and put on a linen
garment; they then went into a room which no one might enter
into who was not of their sect. After a period of silence,
grace was said. To them the law of clean and unclean meat
was superfluous because they did not eat meat. Meals were
also followed by grace; then, putting off their sacred gar
ment (the linen garment), they returned to their toil till
evening, when they again assembled to supper." From
H. H. Milman, History of the Jews, vol. II, 188.
8
according to Philo, was their celibate life, . Celibacy seems
to have been the goal, but we have reasons to believe that
1
life did not always meet this ideal. "The Essenes rejected
pleasure as an evil; and as they feared woman, if indeed they
did not have in many cases an unmitigated abhorence of her
as a temptress, they esteemed continence and the conquest of
2 3
the passions to be a virtue," Hence, they forbade marriage.
There was a twofold principle underlying the neces
sity of perfect chastity. When God revealed Himself
to Moses and to the people of Israel they were en
joined to abstain from sexual intercourse, Israel
for the time being, Moses for all time (Ex. XIX: 15;
Deut. V: 27). Those in hope of divine revelation
consequently refrained from sexual intercourse as 4
well as other impurity (of. Rev.XIX:4; Enoch XXXIII:2).
But there wa.s another test of chastity which seems to have
been the chief reason for the name of "Zenu" (Essenes).
Î
"They refrained from all sexual intercourse except on
Wednesday, lest the birth of a child might take place on
the Sabbath and thereby cause the violation of the sacred
day." Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. V, 228. "And especially
rigorous were they in regard to Levitical purity; they
were pa.rticularly careful that women in the menstrual
state should' keep apart from the household, perform no
household duties and avoid attractiveness in appearance."
Ref. Ibid. These laws show that they must have had con
tact with women.
2
Edward Day;"Jesus* Contact with the Essenes," Open Court,58:343.
3
Philo says, "For no Essene takes himself a, wife, because
woman is immoderately selfish and jealous, and terribly
clever in decoying a man's moral inclinations, and bringing
them into subjection by continual cajoleries, . . For the man
who is either ensnared by the charms of a, wife (of. 1 Cor.7:23;
Rev. 14:4) or induced by natural affection to make his child
ren his first care is no longer the same towards others, but
has unconsciously become changed from a free man to a slave."
James Moffatt; Hasting's Dictionary, vol. V, 397.
4
Kaufman Kohler; Jewish Encyclopedia, p. 229.
9
The Law (Deut. XXIII:10-12) enjoins modesty in regard to the
covering of the body lest the Sherkinah be driven away by
immodest exposure. "Prayer was prohibited in the presence
1
of the nude"
A characteristic mentioned by both Josephus and Philo
is that they avoided the temple and did not offer temple
sacrifices. This peculiarity would seem to cut them off
from Judaism, Because of this practise it has been said
that they were not Jews. The reason for not visiting the
temple, which was the common practise of the most ascetic
Essenes, were; First, they did not believe in the temple
practises; Second, they had no offerings to give or sacri
fices to make; and Third, they did not find it convenient
to come to the temple and they preferred not to mix with
aertain other people who were not clean according to their
conception of cleanliness. "The Essene indeed was a most
strict observer of ordinances, but the law was to him the
starting-point of his mystical reveries, the foundation of
an ascetic practise by which he hoped to extract the soul
from the defilement of matter. Thus the Essenes could
abandon the law where it seemed to interfere with their
2
aspiration after purity, e.g. in sacrifice."
Philo points out their total freedom from money:
Others practise such arts and crafts as are con
sistent with peace and thereby benefit themselves
1
Kaufman Kohler; Jewish Encyclopedia, p. 229 and ff.
2
J, B. Lightfoot; Biblical Essays, p. 54.
10
and their neighbors. They do not treasure up
silver and gold, nor do they acquire large tracts
of land in an eager desire for income, but only
make provisions for the absolute necessities of
life. They are almost the only people who re
main destitute of money and possessions, by use
and want rather than by lack of prosperity;
yet they are esteemed wealthy, for they con
sider that to be frugal and contented is, as
indeed it is, ample abundance, (1)
And in addition to this account of Philo we have a similar
account from Josephus:
These men are despisers of riches, and so
very communicative as raises our admiration.
Nor is there anyone to be found among them who i.; - i
hath more than another; for it is a law among
them that those who come to them must let what
they have be common to the whole order— inso
much that among them all there is no appearance
of poverty or excess of riches, but everyone's
possessions are intermingled with every other's
possessions; and so there is as it were, one
patrimony among all the brethern. ... They think
sweaty is a good thing, as they do also to be
clothed in white garments. (2)
Their relations to one another were most friendly and
in consequence they were eager to serve one another. Such
service was the service they recognized as they had neither
slaves nor paid servants. They were the first organized
brotherhood that opposed slavery, Philo says:
There is not a single slave among them; all are
free and exchange offices with each other. They
condemn the position of master not only as unjust,
being a breach of equality, but as impious, since
it violates the order of mother nature, which
gives birth to all alike and rears them as gen
uine brothers, not as nominal, whereas crafty
covetousness disorganizes their natural kinship
by its desire to outshine others, it engenders
1
James Moffatt; op. cit. p. 396.
2
Josephus; Wars of the Jews. Book II, Ch. VIII.
11
hostility instead of affection, and enmity
instead of friendship, (1)
While they hated evil-doers they were not hostile to society.
They esteemed and even assisted those whom they deemed
righteous though they were not of their brotherhood, and
they manifested fidelity to all in authority. Their members
were required to treat the unfortunate mercifully, to assist
the poor and never turn the needy away unfed and unclothed,
though they themselves lived most simply, "Nor do they
either buy or sell anything to another; but everyone of them
gives what he hath to him that wanteth it and receives from
him again in lieu of it what may be convenient for himself;
and although there be no requital made, they are fully al-
2
lowed to take what they want of whatsoever they please,"
A peculiar attitude for their day was the attitude the
Essenes took regarding the taking of oaths. They esteemed
the word of a member of their brotherhood honestly and
frankly spoken enough, "They are eminent for fidelity and
are the ministers of peace; whatsoever they say also is
firmer than an oath; but swearing is avoided by them and
they esteem it worse than perjury; for they say that he who
cannot be believed without (swearing by) God is already
3
condemned," Herod excused the Essenes from the imposition
1
James Moffatt; Op. cit,, vol,V, 396,
2
Josephus; Wars of the Jews. Book II, Oh, VIII.
3
Josephus; op, cit., p. 274.
1. ^ 12
1
of taking certain, government oaths.
In education in many ways they departed far from the
Greek conception of the necessities in the attainment of
knowledge. To them, logic was a department of philosophy
which they left to the word-catchers, an unnecessary for
the acquiring of virtue. Physical science they regarded
as too lofty for human nature, and left this to the theorists,
except as it included the study of God's existence and the
formation of the universe. They applied themselves diligent
ly to the study of ethics under the guidance of their an
cestral laws, "which no human soul could have devised apart
from Divine inspiration."
In these laws they are instructed, particularly
on the seventh day (2), as well as at other
times. For the seventh day is held as sacred;
on it they cease all work(3), and repair to sacred
places called synagogues where they sit arranged
according to age, the younger below the older person,
and with due order and attention. (4)
Josephus; Antiquities of the Jews, Book XV, ch. X.
"These very Essenes who here do so Jealously avoid swear
ing, are said by Josephus to admit none into their brother
hood till they take tremendous oaths to perform their
several duties to God, and to their neighbors, without
supposing they thereby break this rule,not to swear at all.
2
William Smith; New Testament History, p. 172, "but a later
tradition mentions the existence of a congregation there
(Jerusalem) which devoted one third of the day to study,
one third to prayer, and one third to labor."
3
Hippolytus (Hoer IX) adds that some stayed in bed all the
Sabbath to avoid the temptation of work.
4
Here is a similarity to the fourth ode of Solomon: "Only
one, 0 my God, changeth thy Holy Place ... for thy sanct
uary thou hast established before thou didst make other
places; the older shall not be put below the younger."
James Moffatt; 0£. cit. vol. V, p. 397.
13
The Essenes were great students of their sacred books,
1
and especially of the prophetic writings. Many were endowed
according to Josephus, with the gift of prophecy. It was
because of this foreknowledge of future events that they seem
to have won Herod's respect. One of them had saluted Herod
2
when he was a child as king of the Jews. There are many
records of this type among the Essenes. They studied like
wise the nature and cure of diseases, and the medicinal
properties of herbs. They paid the highest veneration to age;
many of them because of their temperate habits lived to be
more than one hundred years old.
Hippolytus tells us that regarding judicial discussions,
the Esdenes were most accurate and impartial. And their
judgment when they had assembled together, (numbering at the
very least one hundred) and the sentence delivered by them
3
was irreversible. They honored the legislator next after God.
When one was found guilty by the Essene court of any great
crime he was expelled from the society, a fearful doom,for,
having sworn that he would receive no food but from his own
1
Josephus says, (Wars of the Jews. Book II, oh. VIII, p.12)
"There are also those among them who undertake to foretell
things to come by reading the holy books, and using several
sorts of purifications, and being petpetually conversant in
the discourses of the prophets, and it is but seldom that
they miss in their predictions."
2
E. P. Graham; "Essenes," The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. V,
p. 541; "Assembled in their meeting places they sat accord
ing to senority, the Scripture was read and explained,
generally in an allegorical manner by some wise member."
3
Hippolytus, "The Refutation of all Heresies," The Ante Nicene
Fathers.
14
sect, the outcast fed like a beast, on the grass of the field,
till at length he perished with hunger. (This was not Jesus*
way.) Sometimes, if at the last extremity and if the criminal
showed sincere repentence, he was readmitted, from compassion.
But this awful fate was inflicted with great reluctance, for
1
justice Was administered with utmost care. They not only
2
honored the legislator, but they were also taught to yield
obedience to rulers and elders; and if ten occupied seats
in the same room, one would hot speak unless it appeared
agreeable to the nine.
Man lives as he does either as a result of economic,
social, and political causes or because of an inward com
pulsion which is a philosophy built upon experiences, beliefs,
and doctrines. The Essenes lived as they did because of their
philosophy, built largely upon doctrines. Their laws were
external and not written upon the heart; had they lived lives
in accord to an inner law of life they would never have found
it necessary to rely upon oaths of conduct. They, like their
brethren, were living under a yoke of law, not as free men,
but as bond slaves to the extremes of Levitical law.
In regard to their doctrine concerning immortality,
writers seem to have two views. Doubtlessly, the difference
1
H. H. Milman; op. cit.. p. 122.
2
Hippolytus; 0£. cit. p. 135. "He likewise swears that he
will always aid the just, and keep faith with all, especial
ly those wno are rulers. For, they argue, a position of
authority does not happen to anyone without God."
15
is due to their sources. It seems that Josephus and Philo
come nearer agreement than does Hippolytus with either of
them. Time often brings changes into doctrines, and this
may have been true in the case of the Essenes. The pecul
iar thing is that the account by Hippolytus is more anthro
pomorphic than the one given by Josephus. The Essenes
believed in immortality, according to Hippolytus, only as
a physical resurrection because the souls were already im
perishable: whereas, Josephus speaks of the bodies being
corruptible; that matter is not permanent, but that the
souls are immortal, and that in after life, great freedom
awaits the good individual. Because of their esoteric way
1
Josephus, op. cit.. (1) "That bodies are corruptible, and
matter they are made of is not permenent, but that the souls
are immortal, and continue forever; and that they come out
of the most subtle air, . . . but that when they are set
free from the bonds of the flesh, they then,as released
from a long bondage, rejoice and mo$nt upward."
Hippolytus,(op. cit., p. 136) says: "How the doctrine of
the resurrection has also derived support among these; for
- they acknowledge both that the flesh will rise again, and
that it will be immortal, in the same manner as the soul
is already imperishable. And they maintain that the soulÿ.
when separated in the present life (departs) into one place
which is well ventilated and lightsome, where they say it
rests until judgment. ...And this locality the Greeks were
acquainted with by hearsay, and called it ’Isles of the
Blessed*. ...Now they affirm that there will be a judgment
and a conflagration of the Universe, and that the wicked
will be eternally punished."
Again from Josephus, Op. cit. (1) . . ."and to the souls
of the wicked, the region~"o? the ungodly, in Hades, where
their fables relate that certain persons, such as . . . are
î > punished, which is built upon that first proposition that
souls are immortal, and thence are those exhortions to vir
tue and dehortation from wickedness collected; whereby good
men are bettered in the conduct of their life by the hope
they have of reward after death; and whereby the vehement
inclinations of bad men to vice are restrained by the ex
pectation they are in."
16
of life little is really known concerning their secret,
1
sacred doctrines. It seems that an all-disposing fate
was admitted, yet free-will apparently was not denied.
They also cherished, preached and labored for the fulfill
ment of the Messianic hope, which seems to have been a
much emphasized belief among some of the Essenes, Some
writers say they not only believed in the resurrection, but
2
also in pre-existence. It would be interesting to know
whether this pre-existence was merely a modified type of
transmigration of the soul as taught by the Hindu, or a
pre-existence similar to "before Abraham, I was." Their
practices, going to extremes not to pollute (in some cases)
the bright light of the sun, leads to the belief that
they connected this practice with a phase of their doct
rine of either pre-existence or future immortality. The
Essenes believed God was best served and their own sal
vation promoted by separation from the world and its indul
gences, by the curbing of all passions and lusts, by
1
E. P. Graham, "Essenes," The Catholic Encyclopedia.
V, 546. "If found satisfactory they were chosen full
members and bound themselves by oaths to honor God,
observe justice, to be loyal to all, but especially to
those in authority, . . . and to reveal nothing to
strangers, also to keep secret at all cost their books
and the manner of their angels . . . the only time
they took oaths,
2
James S. Higgs; A History of the Jewish People, p, 113,
17
abstinence from wine, meat and oil, and by pious penances
1
and common devotions.
In the study of the Essenes up to this point divergencies
have been reviewed from the normal development of Judaism,
of doctrines of the soul and a future state which so closely
resembles Pythagorean, Platonic, and even Zoroastrian spec
ulations, and the question naturally arises how far Essenism
was a native product of the Jewish mind, and how far it had
experienced the influence of the Greek and Oriental thought.
On the one hand it is clear, from the facts already noted,
that it must have completely passed the barriers of traditional
Judaism, and equally clear, on the other, that it could not
have reached its peculiar point of view in perfect isolation
from antecedent and contemporary speculation. For more than
a century before the Essenes appear as a factor (as far as
exact history relates) in Jewish history, the Jews had come
into close contact with Greek life; doubtless, they were
rather repelled than attracted by it. With the theosophic
speculations of Persia they had also been acquainted for
1
Dr, Moore (G. F. Moore, Judaism, vol, I, 457) has this
interesting elucidation concerning a belief thought by
some Jewish scholars to be Esssene in origin: "Heedfulness
leads to cleanness; cleanness to purity; purity to holiness;
holiness to humility; humility to the fear of sin; the
fear of sin to saintliness; saintliness to the (possession
of the) Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit to the restoration of
the dead; the restoration of Life brings him to. Elijah of
memory (the precursor of the age, Mai. 3: 23). Jellinik
was so impressed by this ladder of piety that he pronounced
it a precious remnant of an Essene Barsita, and of great
importance also for the primitive history of Christianity,
and the opinion has been confidently affirmed by others."
18
many centuries, first, during the Babylonian captivity, and
afterwards through the general diffusion of that way of thought
in the adjoining countries. All of these influences had
greatly modified the opinions of the Jews. Whatever they may
have acquired in their intercourse with Persia must have
already passed into Jewish thought generally, and probably
had no special connection with the origin of the Essenes,
but it may be assumed with Zeller, that some direct and
expressed influence of Neo-Pythagoreans gave Essenism its
distinctive character. As Josephus himself says, the Essenes
live the same kind of life as the Pythagoreans. The Essenes
certainly did realize the Pythagorean ideal. Their beliefs,
institutions, and tendencies, are striking in their close
resemblance. It is not impossible they were directly con-
1
neoted. Accordingly, while a general affinity to Greek and
oriental thought in the tenets and institutions of the Essenes
cannot fail to be perceived, still more clearly is Chown the
proverbial intensity of the Jews, seeking in an organized
seclusion from the world that satisfaction which they could
not find in a disturbed and decaying national life. The
Jewish people were unhappily hastening to the final catas
trophe; misrule, corruption, and fanaticism were everywhere
gathering momentum; good men despaired of controlling such
a headlong and turbulent movement. What could they do but
1
Relationship of Essenism, Greek and oriental thought will
be discussed again in a later chapter.
19
1
withdraw from it, and cultivate a purer life?
The story of Essenism in Palestine is cut short by the
fall of Jerusalem, The Essenes were cruelly persecuted by
the Romans, who probably entered their country soon after
the capture of Jericho, which was in the time of Herod.
"They were tortured, racked, had their bones broken on the
wheel in order to compel them to blaspheme their lawgiver
or eat forbidden meals. . . and in steadfast reliance on
the immortality of the soul, departed, rejoicing, from this
2 3
life." This group, small as it was, did not perish, many
of their ideals have proven immortal. Their practices,
their customs were followed not for the sake of the attract
iveness of the process, but because to them it was the way
to the attainment of a loftier purity. Their simple, orderly,
devout lives gave to the Jews some conception of the meaning
of the brotherhood of man that Jesus was soon to reveal.
They exhibited none of the pride of the Pharisees nor the
haughtiness of the Sadducees. They loved the humble, the
feeble, and the poor, and constantly ministered to their
1
Philo (Oliver J. Thatcher; Library of Original Sources,
vol. IV, 53) offers: "Others, however, assert that this
mode of life originated from the persecutions for the sake
of religion which arose from time to time, and by which
many were compelled to flee to the mountains and deserts
and forests, and adopt these customs."
2
H. H. Milman; op. cit. p. 122.
3
Kaufman Kohler; "Essenes," Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. V, 231,
comments thus: "It is as charitable brotherhoods that the
Essenic organization survived the destruction of the nation."
20
necessities. To them it was not self, but others. Like
Jesus, they realized that to be great in the kingdom which
was in accord with God meant being the servant to all.
Since this paper is not primarily a history of Essenism,
the subject has been treated briefly, and only those things
which were necessary to a further study of its relationship
to early Christianity-were selected. There are certain things
concerning Essenism which may not be expediently set forth
here and are reserved for a direct elucidation in connection
with data considered in later chapters.
21
CHAPTER II
ESSENISM AND THE SYNOPTICS
The fact that though the Essenes were in existence
during the opening years of the Christian era, they re
ceived no explicit mention in the Synoptics, the Book of
Acts of the Apostles, or the Epistles, leads to the in-
1
quiry, first, if Jesus was in no way opposed by them.
If he was not this might explain the failure to name them.
Both the Pharisees and the Sadducees in their personal • :
attitude toward Him and in their manner of life, and in
their thought opposed Him, It seems it was impossible for
them to have fellowship with Him; and at the same time
it was equally impossible for Him to overcome His repug
nance to them. Hence, His frequent criticisms and
1
Perhaps tne Essenes were too peaceful to oppose anyone;
Jesus was perhaps one of them. They lived in the region
of the Dead Sea instead of in Galilee where Jesus preach
ed. They were such a small group he may just have ignored
them. They never existed until His time and were one
section of His followers. Jesus refers to them by another
name. . , All of these and many more explanations have
been set forth to explain the reason Jesus never mentions
the Essenes.
The Synoptics present John the Baptist and Jesus in many
ways in accord to certain customs or teachings of the
Essenes; also these Gospels portray John and Jesus at var-
Aiance with the practices and beliefs of the Jewish ascetic
brotherhood. It therefore becomes necessary to present
these two widely different views. The task will be simpli
fied by presenting those principles in common (as a general
thing) between the Synoptic characters, John and Jesus, over
against the Essenes. The differences shall be treated more
briefly in the latter part of the chapter.
22
denunciations. Not so, it would seem, was it in the case of
the Essenes— if there was contact, and how could it have
1
been otherwise? It was not hostile contact. He must not
have crossed them and they surely did not offend Him. So,
in the second place, it may be asked if their influence was
not after all most potentially felt by Jesus and His followers,
if, in other words His teachings and labors were not in many
ways so thoroughly in accord with Essenism as to be generally
so understood and consequently to occasion no remark other
than those which have to do with His early contact with John
the Baptist and His frequent friendly allusions to Him? Or,
it may be, there was conscious effort to avoid, if not to
surpress, direct mention of the Essenes for some unknown
reason. Perhaps the new faith, as it began to make its
influence felt two or three decades after Jesus' death and
converts began greatly to increase and the earlier gospel-
narra.tives took literary form, was seen to be so much bigger
and finer a thing than Essenism that the Synoptic writers
2
feared they would compromise it, if not offend many, if
they mentioned Jesus* approval of the Essenes, for they
doubtlessly were but one of several sourcds from which the
Founder of Ohristianity drew His truth and inspiration.
1
As has been noticed in the former chapter, the group was
divided into sects, and a few of these sects were to be
found in almost any large city of Palestine or the region
about it.
2
It seems that to some the name Essene did not carry the
most pleasant connotation.
23
However, if Jesus came under Essene influence and was pro
foundly stirred thereby before He began His wonderful year
in Galilee, His life and teaching thereafter would reveal in
many ways and upon numerous occasions that influence. It is
important therefore, with this thought in mind, to examine
carefully the data which the Synoptic Gospels furnish.
Both Matthew and Luke begin the origin of Jesus in a
manner which would be most acceptable to an Essene, the
presentation of Jesus* purity because of a virgin birth.
Luke emphasizes the thing the Essene was proud of— his
ability to foretell events; the births of John and Jesus
were foretold. The events perhaps are not important, but if
these writers were subject to Essene influence they naturally
would write in a manner not to offend, if possible, this
order. It is well to note the possibility of Luke having had
an Essene background. Luke was a physician; the Essenes were
such skilled physicians that the name has been interpreted as
meaning a physician. He may have studied under them.
Many writers have claimed (upon circumstantial evidence)
that John the Baptist was an Essene. All three Synoptics
agree that John was in the wilderness just north of the Dead
Sea. That John was called the Baptist may only be a different
interpretation or translation of the name applied to the group
referred to as Essenes; as was pointed out in Chapter I, chai.
"bathers,* * was perhaps the origin of the word Essene. It is
peculiar that John would be in this region if he were not in
some way associated with the brotherhood of Essenes. John
24
was by the process of preaching attempting to prepare the way
for the kingdom of God. He taught that men must repent and
then undergo the process of ablution by baptism, that those
who were initiated into his group must divide up their cloth
ing and food, that in dealings they must be just, that they
should be peaceable, doing violence to no man, exacting noth
ing wrongfully and be content with their wages. His practice
of a simple life and baptism and his teachings were all cer
tainly not far from the ideal of Essenism.
"Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to the Jordan unto
John to be baptized by him." (Matt. 3:13) Why did Jesus come
to this far region? .How did he know of John's work? The
following verse says, "But John would have hindered him,
saying, I have need to be baptized by thee, and cometh thou
to me." How did John know of Jesus' greatness of his possible
greatness if one had been living in Galilee and the other
near the Dead Sea? It is possible that Jesus had been in
that region several months; yes, perhaps He came from Galilee
to the wilderness to learn what John was teaching. Or it may
have been the Essenic foresight of John that revealed to him
the greatness of Jesus. But it is said that Jesus came to
be baptized by John. The act of baptism allied Jesus with
the cause and the order of John. Jesus, by this act openly
approved of John's work . . . and order.
In view of the many apparent traces of Essene influence
(which shall be revealed later in this chapter) upon the
life and thought af Jesus, the inquiry arises that do not
35
the story of His contact with John and His expressed sympathy
upon different occasions in a manner thoroughly characteristic
of the time, reveal oh His part such an interest in the Essenes
as to warrant the conclusion that He spent some time among
them and in so doing came to sympathize with their thought and
manner of life? If John was, as Doctor Kohler in his Jewish
Theology, (p. 433) asserts, "a popular Essene saint," as
apparently he was, the story of Jesus' contact with him and
the narrative of the temptation which closely follows may be
taken as revealing such knowledge of the Essenes as came from
living among them for a time, and the psychological experience
which He had naturally followed such contact. He may have
seen and heard John and the fact that He had seen and heard
him and had in so doing come under his influence may have
overshadowed in the thought of His followers. if indeed it
did not in His own thought. His contact with other Essenes.
1
Almost nothing is known concerning John beyond the simple
facts that have to do with his life and work as an ascetic;
for as gleaners of facts only, students must reject whatever
the Fourth Gospel has that, is not taken from the Synoptic
Gospels. Even the words which the writer puts in the mouth
of John as he speaks of Jesus are open to suspicion, cast as
they are in the same molds as those elsewhere used by the
author. (Quotations similar to other quotations are merely
pseudo-quotations presented by the author, or are inter
pretations and indirect quotations mistakenly written as
direct quotations.) They have Neo-Platonic characteristics
■ and are far removed from the direct and forceful style which
the other gospel narratives represent him as using. There is
little reason to accept Luke's statement of John's birth;
shorn of all this and some of the doubtful statements found
in later narratives of his ministry there are left no traces
of blood relationship with Jesus, and no known antecedents,
an ascetic presumably of Jewish rather than of Galilean origin,
who played his part until he came into conflict with Herod
Antipas and brought his career to a tragic close. Because
John brought this calamity upon himself he must have left the
Dead Sea region in spreading his news of "the Kingdom ..at Hand."
26
Northward, in Nazareth, Jesus may have become fairly well
acquainted with the Essene thought and life; but this in
fluence merely awakened a desire to know more about their
way of life, and caused Him to leave His family and make the
long journey to the barren region of the Dead Sea to more
thoroughly study the movement at its center. Hence, like
Josephus, when the trend of events specially favored the
movement, Jesus may have spent considerable time among them.
One may approve of an organization to the extent of becoming
a member and at the same time have many ideals far superior
to the brotherhood. This was certainly true of Jesus.
After Jesus* baptism "He was led up by the spirit unto
the wilderness to be tempted by the devil." His temptations
were doubtlessly temptations that came to many an Essene—
the desire for bread, power, strength, and popularity; and
the test, whether to conquer by sword or spirit, to be an
Essene or a zealot. He answered all of these temptations
in what might be called a positive Essenic manner. Thus
Jesus began His great work not as a Roman or a Pharisee, but
very much in accord with the highest idealism of Essenism,
The people of today find it difficult to see how John
the Baptist by his preaching could have done much to prepare
the way for Jesus of Nazareth; but it may be evident to him
who seeks diliigently through the gospel narratives for the
facts that John made a deep impression upon Him. To the
very end of His ministry Jesus seems to have alluded to him
as one who was ever upon His mind; and His words concerning
27
him upon certain occasions revealed a real appreciation of
his person and work. To Him he was not a reed shaken by the
wind; nor was he a mere prophet. He was a stable personage
with a real message for his time, one more unique and greater
than a prophet, the most notable man that up to his time had
been born of woman. It would seem from the way He met John* s
disciples when they were sent to pass upon His work that Jesus
1
revealed His wish to stand well in the opinion of John.
Then, too, in His final clash of mind with the Jewish rulers,
Jesus drove them into a corner by His question concerning
the baptism of Joh^,whether it was sponsored by heaven or by
man. The very question revealed on Jesus* part belief in its
2
divine validity.
This is not a theological discussion of Jesus * teachings
but it is necessary to consider some of His teachings for
comparison with Essenism. Jesus was a practical man with
psychological understanding of human nature. The successful
founder of a new religion has always been a devotee of the
old, a more ardent disciple and a deeper lover of the an
cient ways than others. "Think not that I came to destroy
the law or the prophets; I came not to destroy but to ful
fill." His message purports to be a better interpretation
1
In the seventh chapter of Luke we see a mutual respect be
tween John and Jesus. Jesus never broke with John. At the
time of transfiguration he certainly identified John with
Elias— the idea of Elias coming to announce the Messiah
was fully in accord with the teachings of the Essenes.
2
He considered John a great prophet of the old, but he who
understands the new to the least degree is greater than
he.
28
1
of the ancient faith. It was expedient for Jesus to make
contact with the masses or a group, by using whatever they
had. The modern missionary has learned to utilize all of
the good in the primitive religions; not to destroy, but to
complete. Jesus phrased doubtlessly many of his ideals in
the common parlance of his day; the Essenes had already ex
pressed many of these ideals, many of their phrases may eas
ily have become the vehicle for his expression.
It is well to begin by noticing that Jesus» attitude
toward wealth and property appears in the main to have been
in accord with the Essene disparagement or contempt of pro
perty. (This is perhaps too strongly stated.) Jesus* teach
ing certainly can hardly be considered as revealing Old Tes
tament influence, for the Hebrews prior to the time of Jesus
very generally regarded the possession of wealth as evidence
of the favor of their God. This is so even in the late
prophetic writings which were friendly to those comfortably
circumstanced, especially if they remembered Israel's poor.
"Give to every man that asketh of you," (VI:30) finds place
in Matthew; the close of the exhortation is more strongly
put by Luke, "And of him that taketh away thy goods ask them
not again," and while in Matthew (VI:19) we have the words,
"Lay not up for yourself treasures upon earth where moth and
rust corrupt and where thieves break through and steal," we
do have in Luke (XII:33) "Sell that ye have and give alms,"
1
For this and the sentence preceding I am indebted to
E. M. Hulme; The Renaissance and the Protestant Revolution
and the Catholic Reformation, p. 239.
39
which finds no place in the other Synoptics. In Luke we also
have the parable of the rich man and Laza^rus. A somewhat
modified statement relates Jesus* approval if Zacceus gives
but half his goods to the poor. These are all in many ways
in total agreement with the extreme Essenes.
Closely connected with this low esteem of property was
Jesus* simplification of life and his disposition to reduce
it to its lowest terms economically, which savored of Essenism.
Like the Essenes, Jesus went about with his few trusted dis
ciples, or sent them forth depending upon charity or hhe en
tertainment of members of their new brotherhood in whatever
city or village they entered. (It was, however, contrary to
the custom of the Essenes to be accompanied in their evangel
istic tours by women whose circumstances permitted them to
minister unto them as Jesus and his disciples were said to
have been favored in Galilee.) In His instructions to His
disciples, as He sent them forth on their tours, Jesus cau
tioned them against providing amply for their maintainence.
Without money in their purses and without food in their
wallets and with but one outer garmeht which, after the
custom of the poor, must serve them as a cloak by day and
a blanket by night, they were to go forth and throw them
selves upon the charity of those among whom they labored, ■
(Mark VI:7 if.) This was not only a way of life but a sup
reme test of faith in God and their brethern.
Jesus himself upon certain occasions, which were per
haps characteristic of him, seems to have revealed in his
30
own mode of living a real Essene indifference to bodily com
forts, especially to rest and food, that cannot wholly be
explained by saying that He was deeply interested in His
work. By His rising a great while before daybreak and going
forth for solitary prayer He consciously or unconsciously
followed Essene custom. Doubtlessly He found this to be the
only time that He might be alone with His Father, perhaps He
did it as an example, and there is a possibility that it was
a habit formed from following certain Essene practices. His
life of prayer was certainly similar to the emphasis placed
on prayer by the small Essene group at Jerusalem which prayed
one third of the day; He, too, believed in praying not for
the mere sake of revealing piety, but like the Essene, He
believed in praying in secret.
Jesus was far from sharing with the Essenes their fear
of, or their contempt for women; nor was He hostile as they
to family life, despite his friendliness to celibacy. The
church has over emphasized Jesus* few teachings and his
practices in regard to celibacy.
The synoptic narratives are largely shorn of their sig
nificance if the narratives of the nature miracles of Jesus
are rejected, if allowance is not made for the unusual power
1
It is significant that Mary and Martha find no mention in
the synoptic narratives save in Luke X:39 f., in the story
of Jesus* Perean ministry, and that Lazarus, the supposed
brother, has no place in the authentic gospel story. Pre
sumably there was no warrant for locating the family in
Bethany and representing Jesus on friendly terms with
them.
31
on the part of Jesus over certain body ailments and it is not
admitted that he took himself'seriously as one possessed of
such power. His attitude toward the sick and the mentally
disturbed was essentially that of the Essenes, The Essenes
refused to use oil; and Jesus revealed no disposition to use
it upon any person, even the sick, though his disciples when
they went forth on their tours are said to have annointed the
sick therewith. As far as can be ascertained, Jesus was no
more inclined personally to offer sacrifices at the temple
than were the Essenes, Certainly there is no record of such
sacrifices on his part, and a passage found in Matthew (XIII:7)
disparages such offering. In accord with the prophets, (of,
Hosea, VI:2 and Matt. IX:13) he placed mercy above sacrifice
as the most pleasing to God. While in Mark (XIII:33) he
lauds love above all burnt offerings. It may be very frankly
admitted that this reveals sympathy and concurrence with
the prophetic thought as well as Essenism; but the fact must
not be overlooked that in this instance Jesus was also in
accord with the Essenes,
Jesus' exhortation against swea.ring and his assertion
that simple, emphatic statements were enough is thoroughly
in harmony with the Essene thought and practice. He seems
to have regarded oaths with the same repugnance. So, too,
were his exhortations to just dealings,and the merciful
treatment of the unfortunate, the emphasis which he placed
upon righteousness as a prime requisite of life,and his
frank allusions to the rewards of well-doing in accord
with Essene thought.
32
Finally, while the first three gospels represent Jesus
as saying little about life beyond the grave, there is no
question but that he shared the Essene belief in immortality;
for the little he is quoted as saying is very suggestive.
He, like the Essene, found his assurance of future life in
Moses and the prophets. "As touching the dead, that they
rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in a bush
God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the
God of Issac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the
dead, but the God of the living." (Mark XII:26G27) And in
John (XIV:1-3) he again asserts the belief in resurrection
similar to that set forth by the Essenes:
Let not your heart be troubled; Ye believed in God,
believe also in me. In my Father's house are many
mansions: if it were not so I would have told you.
And If I go and prepare a place for you, I will
come again, and will receive you unto myself; that
where I am there ye may be also.
Jesus always emphasized that He was the Son of Man.
To analyse His work, it must be femembered that he too lived
and moved according to psychological laws. The Divine Nature
of our Lord made it possible for Him to act normally— whioh
is perfection— in harmony with natural law. They greatly
err who suppose that Jesus on some fair morning laid aside
forever His coarse carpenter's tunic and went down to the
Jordan where a hasty interview with John followed; He was
baptized by John and after a couple of months of temptation
and self-searching rushed back north and began that glor
ious year of ministry in Galilee that somehow has deeply
impressed the heart of the world. Rational seekers of the
33
truth must presume there had been years of strenuops pre
paration, a long period of intellectual ferment and gesta
tion during which the carpenter's bench may have seen little
of Him, especially as there were brothers doubtlessly near
His own age to bear a part in the maintenance of the family,
ere He brought to birth those fundamental concepts over which
later there was on His part no wavering. In all the records
of His life Jesus was always one who considered things thor
oughly before acting, always was a meditative introvert prior
to all of His extrovertive acts, Jesus, (like Lincoln) was
a meditative mystic who thoroughly pondered upon questions
until arriving at a mental plan of action from which there
was no turning back. Having had these years of preparation
during which He had come to know something of the Essenes,
and wishing to know more of them. He may have visited them.
Perhaps he lived among them and became thoroughly conver
sant with their thought and manner of life, (though because
He was not initiated He came to know nothing of their speo-
1
ulative side which would have had no appeal for such as He,)
1
If He had taken the vows he would not have been permitted
to return to society to have lived as He did. In the
former chapter ti was shown that the Essenes invited indi
viduals to live with them for three years— and then if not
persuaded to take the vows, to return to the world. One
of the reasons nothing is known of Jesus from the age of
twelve until thirty may be that He was living some of this
time with different Essene orders. It seems as if John's
membership was a little more liberal than the rest, so
Jesus was willing to join it by being baptized by John and
thus openly announcing His approval and affiliation with
him.
34
and He was profoundly stirred. It certainly is worthy of
note that the one thing which the narrative of the temp
tation sets forth is this: that struggle taught the Nazarine
to ignore self, to take the narrow path of poverty and of
lowly service with no thought of self aggrandizement and
self-exaltation if He was to make His life count for some
thing worth while as a servant of His people. He was not,
as this struggle made evident to Him, to become a learned
rabbi expounding law to the cultured few or to those spirit
ually prepared, but one whose evangel (sent forth work) was
for the lowly,whose ministry of mercy was to be for the poor
and unfortunate in the real Essene fashion. In His stay
with the Essenes and during the following months. He was
not only capable of recognizing the valuable elements in
Essenism, but also its narrowness and inability fully to
make possible God's Kingdom on Earth, Therefore, in His
message of fulfil.Iment— not destruction. He registered a new
note of hope and confidence unknown to those ascetics, and
was also possessed of a loftier conception of the meaning of
the new sonship and brotherhood that was to usher in an
earthly Kingdom of God, A new kingdom for all who were
initiated into the Love and Mercy of God, and not merely for
a few who diligently kept certain vows and performed love
and mercy merely as perfunctory and ceremonious acts which,
to be efficacious, necessitated that the doer first be ini
tiated into an esoteric order.
The ideallife as pictured by Jesus is found most clearly
35
in "the Sermon on the Mount," and the "woeU passages in Luke.
By rapidly reading the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of
Matthew one cannot help being impressed by the great accord
between the teaching of the Master and hhe Essenes. Jesus
was like the Essenes in that He taught the value of being poor
in spirit; the idea of a Kingdom of Heaven; reward for meek
ness; the greatness of hunger and thirst after righteousness;
those who are pure in heart are so atoned to God thar they
understand Him; that mercy is rewarded by mercy; the God-like
qualities of the peacemaker; respect for the law and the
prophets; Both Jesus and the Essenes felt it necessary for
their righteousness to exceed that of the scribes and Phari
sees. The Essene also regarded anger as wrong; both empha
sized the danger of judgment. The Essenes lived up to Jesus'
principle of not lusting after woman; among the Essenes who
permitted marriage we have no record of divorce. Jesus and
the Essenes were one in their attitude towards simplicity of
speech and oaths; the Essene was the humble, suffering indi
vidual who refused to retaliate against persecution. No one
was more willing to serve and give his coat to the beggar or
to go the second mile than members of certain Essene orders.
The Essene never desired to display his alms; it was custo
mary for the Essenes to live away from the public as much as
possible, refusing to make a display of his righteousness.
No one knew better than they the reward of silent prayer—
hidden from the popular eye. No Essene horded traasure on
earth for himself; he sought the pea.rl of great price, God's
36
approval and eternal life. They labored daily to be free
from two masters and to serve God alone; they worried not
concerning their garments or food for the morrow. No group
was more careful in its pronouncement of judgment than the
Essene— "Judge not that ye be not judged," They were pru
dent in their proselytizing, not casting pearls before swine.
They turned not away him who asked. The Essene agreed with
Jesus in the idea expressed in "Enter ye in at the straight
gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the?wp,y that lead-
eth to destruction," Men were to be known by their fruit ;
and theçL, like the Essene, Christ went down from the mount
and began teaching service by acts as well as by words.
The Essene in many respects had the seed of the teaching
which Jesus cultivated and permitted to blossom in all of
its beauty, though he, the Essene, was always too much
bound to the old to permit any great innovation of freedom.
The Essene seems never to have realized that emphasis should
only be placed upon that which cometh out of a man, and that
food does not defile a man. We have no record of the Essenes
eating with other people, and we are quite sure that at least
some of them refused to eat flesh. However, Jesus and John
surely had no scruples against flesh as it seems both used
at least fish and locusts'in their diet. The Essene had
many wonderful ideas, but it took the Messiah to develop
them.
It is the Gospel of Luke that portrays certain Ebonite
and Essene influences: "Woe unto the rich; Woe unto you that
37
are full;" "Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you;"
"Love your enemies; pray for them that despitefully use you,"
and other teachings in accord with Matthew the fifth and
sixth chapters. Then, again, Luke calls down woes upon that
neglect of judgment and those who forget the love of God;
"these ought ye to have done and not to leave the others
2
undone." This passage certainly describes the ideal Essene.
The next verse sounds as if it were taken wholly from an
Essene tenet, "Woe unto you, Pharisees, for ye love the
uppermost seats in the synagogue, and greetings in the mar-
3
kets," Woe against the lawyers(those who love to use words)
4
for their unkindness to those whom they can oppress. With
Gnostic ring he condemns the lawyers again, "Woe unto youi
for ye took away the key of knowledge; ye entered not in
5
yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered."
It need hardly be mentioned that his miracles of heal
ing, especially the casting out of demons, were not peculiar
to the Essenes (from whom He perhaps borrowed it). But it
seems that Jesus only adopted the essential feature of
Essenism, "such as a predilection for poverty, contempt for
riches and possessions, avoidance of oaths, and matrimony,
the healing of those who suffered from demons, somnambulism
and the like. On the other hand. He neglected the non-
1
From Luke 6:25 ff.
2
Luke 11:42
3
Luke 11:43
4
Luke 11:45 ff.
5
Ibid. 52
38
essential points, as baptism, the rigid Levitic washings,
etc. Even upon the baptism Jesus seems not to have laid
much stress since we find nowhere either that He baptized
1
or that he urged it upon His disciples." Regarding the
similarity between Jesus and,the Essenes, the theories which
favor a strong influence of Essenism upon Ohristianity may
be briefly summarized thus: Ohristianity is nothing else
than a modified form of Essenism (mixed with alien elements);
first, because its forerunner, John the Baptist was an
Essene; second, because its founder, Jesus of Nazareth,was
a modified Essene in theory.
Against this idea of Essenism greatly influencing
Christianity it would be desirable to consider a few ideas
advanced by the opponents of such a theory. They claim
that the picture of the hermit, John the Baptist, eating
locusts and wearing a dress of camel's hair, would exclude
him from the brotherhood. That John invited all to become
his followers is not in accord with the Essene rules; even
if John were an Essene it cannot be proven that Jesus ever
was initiated into the organization. If He did not admire
them enough to join them He would not have taken over their
ways. This last argument is rather weak, for Jesus was too
sincere a worker to spend three years in a period of initi
ation, yet many people are quite willing to acknowledge the
worthiness of an organization even thepigh they do not wish
1
Rudolph Wahl; "Essenism and Ohristianity," Unitarian
Review. XI: 595.
39
to be a member. Some claim that if the Essenes only numbered
about four thousand they could not have exerted a great in
fluence upon Christ or Christianity; but the influence of
the Pharisees was great upon both and Josephus said that they
numbered only about six thousand.
Jesus did not ask His disciples to carry out the per
functory ways of the Essene, such as bathing before sunrise
and before every meal. Furthermore, the sect made so great
a distinction between the junior and the senior members that
if a senior was touched by a junior he washed himself. Jesus
called the little children to Him and said that of such as
these was the Kingdom of Heaven, that they were the ideal.
His contempt for external cleanliness extended to vessels and
1
clothing. With the Essene order communism was a law based*
on the principle of equality and convenience, and, like every
law, was compulsory; none being admitted as a member of the
order except on condition of offering his whole property
for the benefit and use of every member of the community.
But in Acts 11:44, IV:32, and V:2 there was no law; the sur
render of property was not compulsory. Charity to the Chris
tian was to be an act of selflessnews and spontaneity, not
a law. Jesus and His followers had money, as Judas was the
treasurer of the group, but as in the case of the Essenes, it
was possessed by all, not by one; it was to be used for the
1
Levitically unclean, e.g., when a dead mouse was among fruit
or grain it made the whole mass unclean. A bone of a dead
man when not buried very deep made an Essene unclean when
he came within four yards of it.
40
poor and for necessities.
The Essenes did not regard the explicit command of
Jehovah to visit the temple at the principal festivals three
times every year, but Jesus adhered with great loyalty to
the temple. Yet, Jesus saw the overthrow of the temple.
The Essenes did not go to the temple; yet, if they believed
in the Messianic hope and were so versed in the scriptures,
why did they not attend the temple? “The Lord whom ye seek
shall suddenly come to His temple,“(Mai.3:1). This perhaps
is a result of their allegorical interpretation and explan
ation of the Old Testament passages which reveals Oriental
influence. That Jesus used a freedom that was unknown to
the Essene has caused many to proclaim no relationship be
tween the two. That Jesus* whole life of friendship with
all classes and all sexes was entirely foreign to any
Essene idea; this none can deny. But was not all of this in
harmony with the attitude of the Essene if he could have only
liberated himself from slavery to the Levitical law? Jesus
did not break with the Essene, but fulfilled with freedom
the essentials of their belief.
It would be almost an endless task to portray all that
is in common between the teachings of Jesus and the Essenes.
It was the Essenes that pictured the Messiah and Messianic
time in the most idealistic manner. It was John, the Essene,
who announced that the Kingdom was at hand. Jesus drew away
from the organization because He recognized the futility of
punring “new wine into old wine containers.“ He, like them.
41
had a message ("wine”), but it was new and must not be lost
by being fermented by the old. It can be said that Jesus,
with His new power and vision, took the best from Essenism
and other sources and made a new garb, or rather, Essenism.
coupled with other elements, kineticized with Christ, be
came Christianity.
After the death of John, if not before, Jesus must
have seen that he had evolved ideally, if not actually,
greater fellowship than that of the Essene brotherhood.
On the physical plane Christ did not get far from these
teachers, nor did He in His conception of life and chara
cter; but He proclaimed and incited into a fellowship,
membership in which was to be infinitely more worth while.
If He revealed sympathy toward the Essene exaltation of con
tinence, He nevertheless was to leave His brotherhood (the
Christian Church) the family, and so was to open up the way
to all those mutual services and rich satisfactions which
belong to the ideal family life of the Christian centuries.
The conquest of the world by the Essenes, as Jesus must have
seen, would have meant the ultimate extinction of it; while
the conquest of the world by His way of life would mean the
salvation and exaltation of society.
42
CHAPTER III
ESSENE, GREEK AND ORIENTAL INFLUENCE
The modern tendency is to see little originality or
good in those whom the public formerly regarded as illus
trious personages. With this attitude many have attempted
to condemn Christianity by comparing it with the best of
more ancient religions, declaring that Christ was a follow
er of one or more Greek or Oriental cults. That Christianity
is merely an eclectic system of beliefs and practices is
taught by many. The modernistic view in sociology declares
that an individual is what he is because of both his parent
age and his environment. There are few if any who doubt this
theory. Nor can a religion grow into maturity without re
flecting, through its organization and scars, the contact
with environmental phenomena. By understanding those things
which crystallized, directed and rebuffed Christianity, Christ
is not minimized, but loved and idealized the more. This
understanding facilitates the finding of a more perfect know
ledge of what He wishes His Church to do in establishing the
Kingdom, In the following pages the impact of certain ancient
influences is shown, but no disparagement of Christ is meant.
Since, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make
you free," the aim will be to more clearly understand that
“Christ came in the fulness of time" to make use of certain
philosophical vehicles which have been seldom recognized as
tools for Christianity in their mission, and to see that
43
certain of these elements had a centrifugal force within
themseltes for heresy.
There used to be a widespread theory that the first
century of this era was a period of irréligion and indiffer
ence, in fact of moral and spiritual collapse; that Christian
ity came to a world that had lost its faith and that was care
free and frivolous, without depth or seriousness. Almost the
exact opposite was true. It was a time of great concern over
the issues of life and death. Few centuries can be cited
that have been more marked by a spirit of serious search for
a way of salvation. After Alexander the Great had “married
the East and the West,“ and given the world a common language
and culture, there had been a steady interchange of ideas
between East and West. The West had shown a strong fascin
ation for the mysterious aspects of oriental religions, and
there were periodic “invasions" of the West by the religions
of the East. Especially keen was the western appetite for
“mystery religions," and for cults that offered a way of
salvation for the individual soul. Christianity was only one
of many religions which told men how they could be "saved,"
Everywhere it went it found rivals, but,in a very real sense,
it came to a world that was waiting for it and that was in
some degree prepared for its message.
The New Testament itself furnishes some glimpses of
the religious environment of primitive Christianity. The
background is dimly sketched into the picture. Here and
there are intimations of rival movements and hints of cross-
44
currents. It is plain enough that Saint Paul did not speak
or write to men on the Aegean whose minds were "empty, swept
and garnished." They did not hear of "salvation" for the
first time when they heard him preach, though the "way"
which he preached did, no doubt, sound to them new and strange,
as the Athenians noted. Looking below the surface, it is
evident that there existed religions, societies and associ
ations almost everywhere— societies, for instance, like the
Essenes, Orphic Circles, Pythagorean brotherhoods or mysteries
of Mithras, mysteries of Isis, devotees of "the Great Mother,"
all of whom believed that they were twice-born souls and were
in possession of a way of genuine purification and of deliv
erance from the body of death. Beside these cults of sal
vation there were beginning to appear new types of esoteric
societies professing to find another way of salvation, sal
vation by discovery of "the great secret" revealed through
magical knowledge, or Gnosis, which was set in contrast:to
1
"faith" that was assumed to be on a lower level.
The immediate problem is to discover if there were
any of these Grecian or oriental elements in Essenism. Was
Essenism itself largely a product of religions and philoso
phies outside Judea? Did any of those oriental cults employ
Essenism as their gateway for influencing Christianity, or
did they act separately? These problems are so difficult
that only consideration of tendencies and conclusions
1
Rufus M. Jones; The Church*s Debt to Heretics, ch. II, passim.
45
advanced by authorities shall be studied, rather than an
intensive study of each cult and its exact relationship to
other cults, viz. Essenism and Christianity.
If Josephus has given a correct account of the strange
customs and combination of teachings of the Essenes, it is
evident at once that their origin is outside merely Judeo-
Pharisaic tenets. Either Josephus* description of their
sun-mco rship and anthropology is incorrect or their explan
ation is in extra Jewish souces, such as Buddhism, Parseeism,
Syrian heathenism, Greek philosophy, and oriental "mysteries."
There are those who greatly emphasize the possibility
of Buddhistic influence upon Essenism. King says, "The
1
Essenes are so like the Buddhist monks in many particulars."
De Prëssense explains the influence of Buddhism thus:
The Greco-Roman religion, especially in Asia Minor
and Egypt, was largely transfused with oriental
pantheism, which with its elastic mythology,
would bear translation. Judaism had not es
caped the influence of this widespread movement;
even in the land of 'the prophets, . . Essenism
was a sort of Jewish Buddhism which carried
into the burning solitudes of the Dead Sea the
same craving for self-anihilation.
Helgenfield for a while greatly emphasized the thought that
Buddhism had exercised essential influence upon the formation
2
of Essenism.
Some scholars insist upon explaining Essenism wholly
1
0. W. King; The Gnostics and Their Remains.
2 ^
Emil Schurer; A History of the Jewish People. Second Div.,
vol. II, 206.
46
as a development of Judaism, or at least deriving it (with
all its divergences) from Ohasidaeic or Pharisaic Judaism.
"So especially the Jewish scholars, Frankel, Jost, Gratz,
Derenbourg, Geiger, and among Christian scholars, Ewald,
Hausrath, Tideman, Laurer, Clemens, Reus and Kuenen. Ritschl
advocates this standpoint in a peculiar manner. He regards
Essenism as only a consistent carrying out of the idea of
1
the .universal priesthood (Ex. 19:6)1* Against this entirely
Palestinean influence there are a great array of scholars
who very conclusively prove an inner relationship between
the Greek Orphic cults and Pythagoreanism with Jewish
Essenism. "It was especially Zeller who, in his discussions
with Ritschl sought, on the basis of his comprehensive ac
quaintance with Greek philosophy, to point out parallels
2
with Pythagoreanism in nearly all points." Herzfeld found
in Essenism and Pythagoreanism views which pointed to an
alliance with the rites of Egyptian priests. Since most
scholars admit a greater or lesser similarity between Essen
ism and Pythagoreanism, it may be beneficial for us to con
sider briefly this Grecian philosophy.
1
Emil Schurer; op. cit. 205-206
2 ---
Emil Schurer; op. cit. 207,
Dr. John M. Robertson.(Christianity and Mythology, p. 108)
eliminated foreign influence in this manner: "that there
was a Jesus Ben Pandira, who was stoned to death and hanged
on a tree for blasphemy or heresy on the eve/ of a pass-
over in the reign of Alexander Jannaeus (B. 0. 105-74).
Dr. Low, an accomplished Hebraist,is satisfied that this
Jesus was the founder of the Essene (or Jessean) sect,
whose resemblances to the legendary early Christians have
so greatly exercised Christian speculation."
47
Pythagorean:
Pythagoras was born in Samos (Greece) about
523 B.C. He was a great seeker after knowledge
and a great traveler. At Croton Pythagoras be
came the center of a widespread organization
which was, in its origin, a religious brother
hood or an association for the moral reformation
of society rather than a philosophical school.
The Pythagorean brotherhood had much in common
with the Orphic communities which sought by
rites and abstinence to purify the believer's
soul and enable it to escape from the "wheel
of earth." The Pythagorean brotherhood had a
rule of abstinence from eating flesh. They
believed in the doctrine of the transmigration
of the soul, practiced asceticism and it seems
that much of their religion centered around
an esoteric interpretation of numbers. (1)
Did the Pythagoreans influence the Essenes, or were the
teachings of Pythagoras a result of contact with them, or
was there any connection at all? These questions cannot be
answered with certainty; but it is known that he had been
to Egypt, and doubtlessly to Palestine, before he began his
teachings and the formation of the Pythagorean brotherhood.
Were the Essenes in existence at this period? Neither can
this question be answered positively. The Egyptian elements
in Essenism may have been brought in through either Pythag
oreanism or they may have been carried back to the Essenes
in Palestine by the Essenes who settled in Alexandria and
were known as the "Therapeutae." Bishop Lightfoot, in
The Epistles of St. Paul, p. 38 ff. remarks:
In the first place the two distinguishing character
istics of the Pythagorean philosophy are wanting to
1
H. M. J. Loewe; "Essenes," Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 18,
803, 14th edition.
48
tibie Essenes. The Jewish sect did not believe in
the transmigration of souls; and the doctrine of
numbers, at least so far as our information goes,
had no place in their system. Yet, these constis
tute the very essence of the Pythagorean teaching.
Thus, for instance, the demons who in the Pytha
gorean system held an intermediate place between
the supreme God and man, were the result of a com
promise between polytheism and philosophy, have
no near relation to the angelology of the Essenes
which rose out of a wholly differnt moive. Nor
did the Pythagoreans reverence the sun, as des
cribed to the Essenes. One group honored Moses,
the other Pythagoras, Priority of the Essenes
would seem to say if either group influenced the
other that it wa.s the Essenes. Their tenets are
much more highly developed than the code of con
duct of the Pythagoreans.
While on the other hand, there was resemblance in
Essenism to Parsism: Dualism, sun-worship, angel-
olatry, magic, striving after purity. The great
Buddhist characteristic was the monastic life of
many of the Essenes. HHlegenfeld says that there
were Buddhistic monsteries in Egypt at least as
early as 157 B.O. This is doubtful. There were
Egyptian monks and monasteries before this period,
and it is perhaps to Egypt instead of India that > :
Essenism owes the idea of its monastic life.
There is not time to emphasize these different religious
views which must have left an indelible impression upon
Essenism. The names of Parsee and Mystery Religions which
have been mentioned in passing played as great a role in the
preparation of the stage for the esoteric Jewish brotherhood
and Christianity as did the Grecian cults and philosophies.
"Thus the w^ay was paved for the rise of Gnosticism in the
1
heart of Judaism." Graham has very compactly summarized
all these influences upon Essenism in the following manner:
"Suffice it to say that Persian-BabyIonian influence through
1
Pa.ule Wernle; The Beginnings of Christianity, vol. II, 195.
49
the C3.ptivity, and Hellenism filtering in through Alexandria,
and the use of the Greek tongue, can amnly account for for-
1
eign influences and elements."
The "thorn in the flesh" of early Christianity is that
which is generally referred to as Gnosticism. There is a
wide difference of opinion among scholars as to the date of
the beginning of the Gnostic movements, and also as to the
origin df them, but those who know the facts cannot doubt
the importance of them or the extent and variety of the new
faiths and the immense influence which they exerted. It is
no exaggeration to say that by the middle of the second
century the Church found itself engaged in a life and death
struggle with the multitudinous forms of Gnostic religion,
"Christianity has throughout all its history borne the
marks of its conflict with this miàànge of rival faiths,
for, while it was ostensibly victorious over them, it was
at the same time , in some degree, * led captive * by those
2
whom it conquered," A great many of the Gnostic societies
are of course, not rightly called heretical. They were
often wholly outside the sphere of the church. But to
those within the church there seems to be a direct relat
ionship between Essenism and these Christian Gnostic sects.
The false asceticism which we have already pointed
out as corrupting the Church of Colossae, the jud
ging in meat and drink, the * touch not, taste not,
handle not,* may here be discerned in the command
1
E. P, Graham; 0£. cit., 548.
2
Rufus M. Jones; The Church's Debt to Heretics, p. 31.
50
to abstain from meats, though it may be that the
prohibition of marriage which afterwards formed
a conspicuous feature in the teaching of Satur-
ninus and Marcion, had not yet extended itself
from the Jewish Essenes to any body claiming the
name of Christians. (1)
There are other writers who claim that Essenism even influ
enced Gnosticism, which was outside the early Christian
society;
The influence of Jewish Essenism upon primitive
Christianity (as to rules of life, at least) is
a thing that will not be disputed by any who have
read, with a wish to learn the truth, not to evade
it, the account given by Josephus. But over the
semi-Christian Gnostics of Syria such long estab
lished authority must have had a still stronger
influence. It is easy to discover how the source
of the slavish notions about the merits of ascet
icism, penances, and self-torture (of which Simon
Stylites is the most conspicuous illustration),
was the same one whence the Indian fakirs drew
their practice— for even in their methods they
were identical. (2)
Dr.King continues his chapter by showing the influence
of Buddhism, Zorastrianism and other oriental religions upon
Essenism, which in turn shaped Gnosticism and Christianity
in many repeats.
In conclusion it must be admitted that there is much
to cause the belief that Essenism was largely a product of
influences outside Palestine. That this brotherhood (which
1
H. G. Mansel; The Gnostic Heresies of the First and Second
Centuries, p. 65.
2
0. W. King; The Gnostics and Their Remains, p. 52.
This is not a discourse upon Gnosticism, thuss the subject
is treated briefly here. Certain elements and characteristics
will be mentioned in the next two chapters, but only as part
of the main subject.
51
formed a central element in early Christianity) was the
carrier of many oriental beliefs and practices over into
early Christianity. As will be pointed out later, it was
this group that gave to Roman Monasticism its Egyptian color.
Through its influence upon Gnosticism, Essenism forced the
Church to set forth its beliefs in dogmatic statements. The
Essenes were but a small group, but they exerted a tremend
ous force— a force which is still swaying Christianity, if
it is accepted that they greatly influenced the Church of the
first century. It is true that a thought once expressed
and utilized becomes a foundation stone in building of all
future society; and Essenism laid many foundation stones.
^2
CHAPTER IV
WRITINGS OF ST. JOHN AND ST. PAUL
In the Epistles it is but natural to find opposition
from the Essenes even though many had become members of the
Christian group; the greatest opposition a new organization
must meet is that of internal disapproval. From either the
Essenes within or outside Christianity the Church was due
to face criticism. A system of belief that proceeded from
a contempt of the body and adl that is material, in some
manner identified the Divine manifestation with the sun,
denied the physical resurrection, the temple-priesthood and
sacrifices, preached abstinence from meats and from marriage,
and was so ceremonially clean that its adherents would starve
before eating that which they believed to be unclean, was
bound to come into conflict with the liberal Christianity
taught by Paul.
It is very difficult to differentiate between Gnos-
1
ticism and Essenism since they were so inter-related. In
the days of the Apostles, signs of incipient Gnosticism
1
A comparison of Gnosticism and Essenism: "This Jewish sect
(the Essenes) exhibits the same exclusiveness in the commun
ication of its doctrines. Its theological speculations take
the same direction, dwelling on the mysteries of creation,
regarding matter as the abode of evil, and postulating cer
tain intermediate spiritual agencies as seconda.ry links of
communication between heaven and earth. And lastly, its
speculative opinions involve the same ethical conclusions,
and lead in like manner . . to a rigid asceticism. . . Yet
read in the light of the heresies of the Apostolic age and
in that of subsequent Judaeo-Gnostic Christianity, their
bearing seems to be distinct enough; so tha,t we should not
be far wrong if we were to designate Essenism as Gnostic
Judaism." J. B. Lightfoot; op. cit., p. 91.
53
were not wanting, as is evidenced by St. Paul's epistle,
written about 63 A.D, from Rome to the Oolossian Church,
1
which Was threatened as a heresy and was characterized by
B. Lightfoot as "Christian Essenism, as distinguished from
2
the Christian Pharisaism of the false teachers in Galatia."
That the heresy at Colossae was Judaic in character is evi
denced from such a passage as, "Let no man therefore, judge
you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or
3
of the new moon, or of the sabbath days." Again, in the
twenty-first verse of the same chapter is, "Touch not;
taste not ; handle not," and also in the preceding and fol
lowing verses is a combination of Essene and Gnostic teach
ings.
The great heresy at Ephesus was doubtlessly far more
1
Concerning this heresy, McGiffert (Apostolic Age, p. 368)
remarks: "At the same time it is evident that they were
not Pharisaic legalists; and it is almost equally clear
that they were not Essenes as some scholars have supposed."
2
J. B. Lightfoot; op. cit.,p.91, points out that: "When St.
Paul visits Ephesus, he comes in contact with certain stroll-
ling Jews, exorcists, who attempt to cast out evil spirits.
Connecting this fact with the notices of Josephus, from
which we infer that exorcisms of this kind were especially
practiced by the Essenes, we seem to have an indication of
their presence in the capital of proconsular Asia. If so,
it is a significant fact that in their exorcisms they em
ployed the name of our Lord. (Acts 19:13) 'Then certain of
the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over
them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus,
saying. We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.* We
must regard this as the earliest notice of those overtures
of alliance on the part of Essenism, which involved such
important consequences in the subsequent history of the
Ohurch."
3
Col. 2:16.
54
Gnostic than Essene, and yet, in Ephesians 1:20, Paul is
certainly dealing with an Essene stumbling-block. The
attempt made by Jewish exorcists, like the sons of Sceva,
to form an alliance with the Christian teachers boded no
good; and at a later date St, Paul in his speech at Miletus
says to the elders of the Ephesian Ohurch,"Ilknow that after
my departing grievous wolves shall enter among you, not
sparing the flock; and from among your own selves shall men
arise speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after
them." In his letter to Timothy we see these forebodings
of St. Paul were fulfilled. The false teachers "desire to
be teachers of the Law," they share with the Essenes a dis
like for marriage, and, like the Oolossiannheretics, they
command abstinence from meats. In the Epistle to Titus,
of the same period as I Timothy, the heretics are expressly
3
styled Jewish.
With the use of imagination it is possible to find rnahY
elements in Paul's teachings which were both anti and pro-
Essene. After Paul's conversion and seeming break with
1
Acts; 19:14.
2
Acts; 20:29-30.
3
I Cor., 7 can hardly be understood without bearing in mind
the notions about marriage entertained by this God-fearing
and self-denying order.
Neander, Augustus, (Planting of Christianity and Anti-
Gnostikus. vol. I, p.320) After speaking coneering abstin-
ence, chastising the body, etc. says, "yet all this is too
general . . . we must find nothing which marks the whole
peculiar character of the Essenes."
For a full account of the Colossian heresy, read Lightfoot,
J. B., Golossians and Philemon.
55
the Apostles, until Barnabas found him and brought him to
Antioch, he could not have been idle if he could have
detected any Essene influence in Christianity; very likely
he studied the brotherhood carefully. Paul from this time
on was a deep mystic; doubtlessly caused by the vision on
the way to Damascus, and this would tend to make him sym
pathize with the mystical element in the Essenes, He saw
in Essenism strong and worthwhile elements; he, like them,
believed in celibacy and disapproved of slavery, while at
the same time he was able to realize and condemn their
narrowness, and with all boldness to strike at their un
necessarily heavy yoke of law.
St. John, like Paul, had many characteristics similar
to those of the Essenes, He was a supreme mystic who dealt
not a great deal with the physical side of Jesus, but em
phasized the spiritual, . . A man who spoke in a mystical
and esoteric language; one who had such a background that he
felt at home only in expressing Jesus as the "Word or logos,"
"life," "light," etc. . . a man who was so kind that he
lived in another world, with simplicity like the Essene, to
1
a very old age. For whom was his gospel written? Was it
the language of those about him? Was it the only way he
could express himself? Was he writing for the Essenes?
1
J. B. Lightfoot; (Biblical Essays.-p. 54) says, "Of St.
John himself we are told that he lived to the time of Trajan
(the date of Trajan accession is A.D, 98, according to the
Ohronicon Paschole, St. John survived until A.D. 104). In
Ohristian Essene sources, the age of Symeon, bishop of
Jerusalem, is given as 120 years."
56
Who was better prepared to understand apocalyptic literature
1
than the Essene? Did he obtain his style from them? All of
these are merely interesting problems for speculation. These
questions, with the exception of the first perhaps, could be
truthfully answered both positively and negatively. He wrote
for all, doubtlessly using vehicles of expression either most
commonly used by him or those which he felt the times made ex
pedient to use. Did he write Revelation? That is non-essential
to considering this type of fanciful, esoteric literature.
It could have been written by the Essene, or by a Ohristian
educated in apocalyptic literature who had never known of the
existence of Essenism, But it is most likely that Johnis
style was influenced by Essenism as was the writers of Reval-
ation. This does not mean that John necessarily was ever an
Essene, for in many of his doctrines he is quite different
from them, John wrote his gospel from Ephesus, a region full
of heresy. He reflects his environment; speaks in their lan
guage and condemns many of their false views. To the Gnostic
and the Essene John's words (John 1:14) were surely far differ
ent from their conceptions. He dealt with wisdom and light,
but in a far higher sense than the environmental heresies had
ever read into these words. All of his works approve and
utilize the best in Essenism and condemn the narrowness of
1
G. F. Moore; (Ibid. p. 380) says: "The opinion entertained
by some scholars that the apocalyptic literature originated
with the Essenes lacks evidence." The principal apocalyptic
writings before 70 A.D. are Daniel and the various writings
collected under the name of Enoch, after 70 A.D.— Fourth
Esdras, Apocalypse of Baruch and the Revelation of John in
the New Testament.
57
the philosophy. His Epistles have much in common with
Essenism. To put it correctly, the highest conceptions of
Essenism were similar to much of the teaching in the Johan-
nine Epistles,
68
CHAPTER V
ESSENISM AND THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH
As has been previously noticed, the silence of the
Gospels concerning the Essenes is remarkable; while at the
same time there was such a similarity between many of the
practices and beliefs of the group and the teachings of
Jesus, In a study of the Book of Acts and histories of the
early Christians there are many more similarities, which are
as follows: (l) The community of goods and voluntary pover
ty; (2) T he art of prophecy. In the earliest church,
according to the Acts and the Didache. there was a regular
2
order of prophets. (3) Teaching concerning the resurrection;
the emphasis upon a future life, both a heaven and a hell.
These tenets however were likewise found among the Pharisees.
Nor does Josephus support Hippolytus in the latter's state
ment that' the Essenes believed in the resurrection of the
flesh, though the "Islands of the Blest" implies as much
and answers well enough to the Refrigeiium of later Ohris
tian belief. Philo also mentions the belief in future pun
ishment. (4) The early Church also emphasizes abstention
from marriage; this was perhaps only advocated because of
the strong belief in an immediate second advent and the end
1
"And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart
and of one soul; neither said any of them that ought of the
things which he possessed was his own, but they had all
things common." Acts, 4:32
2
Acts, 2:17; 13:9; 27:9 ff.
59
of the world. (I Cor, 7:25). (5) Obedience to the existing
political phase of life and the secular authorities. (6) The
early Church believed, as did the Essenes, in an internal
government of their own. The officers of the Essenic com-
mumityrwere variously termed "receivers of revenue," "cur
ators," "relieving officers," "stewards" (in Philo), These
officers were, like the bishops of the early Church, elected
democratically by the show of hands according to the testi
mony of Philo and Josephus. It is of supreme importance
that Hippolytus called them outrightTU/TiFJor "pres
idents," the regular second century equivalent of bishop.
(7) The common meals, which may be compared to the picture
of the early Church at Jerusalem given in Acts. But whereas
the Essenes dined together because of their anxiety to eat
no food but what was ceremonially pure, the Christians were
chiefly actuated by charitable and communistic reasons.
Their love-feast, however, also had from an ea^rly date, if
hot from the very first, a sacramental character and con
clusion, and required, like the Essene common meal, the
presence of a priest both to prepare it and to give thanks
befb’ re and after it to God, "the Giver of Life," (8) The
Essene priests were elected to preside at the common meal,
and make the food eaten thereat. Since the Essene common
repasts had not only a physical but also a sacramental
character, the function of their priests, as of the Chris
tian, was simply to prepare and preside over a sacramental
meal, to which none were admitted save those rendered pure
60
by previous baptism, (Our closed communion service today
seems to be founded upon the same idea.) (S) General con- -
duct: A. The travelling precepts of the Essenes resembled
1
thos enjoined by Jesus on the Seventy. They were to take
nothing with them; they were to wear their cloaks and shoes
without changing them until they were quite worn out, Hip
polytus paraphrases this by saying tha.t no Essene owned two
cloaks or two pairs of shoes. B. The four grades of the
Essenes resembled the steps of the catechumenate. Such a
distinction, however, of grades of initiation was common to
most ancient mysteries, and was not special to Christianity,
"The disciplina arcani of the Essene was also produced in the
Christian Church, but equally in the pagan mysteries."
0. The Essenes baptised daily, whereas the Christian bap
tised once and for all. The difference merely being that
the Christian had greater faith in the durable efficacy of
his baptism. D. The Essene affectation of purity concern
ing food surpassed that of the Jews; it recalls the euchar
istie meal of the Christians. From it the novice was ex
cluded just as the catechumen from the Eucharist, Just as
the priest among the Essenes was elected to make the food
eaten in their sysslta. so the priest in the Greek Church,
1
Dobschutz, Ernest; in Christian Life in the Primitive
Church, p. 168, points out that the Christian confession
involved the obligation to spread the Gospel. "The people
who followed the Lord's directions . . without purse of
script, and living on hospita.lity, did not desire to real
ize a new moral ideal and establish among their compatriots
such moral ideal. There i/^as not to be any glorification of
beggary or a new order of Essenes,"
61
even to this day himself prepares and bakes the eucharistie
loaves, Josephus expressly says the Essenes elected priests.
They were therefore not contented with the hereditary Levites
of Judaism,
Many more analogies between the Essenes and the Early
Christians could no doubt be discerned. But perhaps all that
it is necessary to discover is that the great number of sim
ilarities make the realization sure that the Christians were
deeply indebted to the Essenes for many features of their
organization and propagandist activity.
If great weight has been attached to the supposed con
nection of John the Baptist with the Essenes, the case of
James, the Lord's brother, has been alleged with even greater
confidence. Through John, it is sadd, there is an undis-
putable Essene connection by the closest family ties with
the Founder of Christianity,
James is reported to have been holy from his birth;
to have drunk no wine or strong drink; to have eat
en no flesh, to have allowed no razor to touch his
head, no oil to anoint his body; and lastly to have
worn no wool, but only fine linen, (l)
Against the tendency to link James with the Essenes
there are many scholars who see in James‘ writings Pharisaic
but not Essene syr^ipathies.
In the Epistle of James one may notice phrases or ex
pressions that seem to be related to Essene beliefs. In
the first verse of the Epistle his salutation is only to
1
J. B. Lightfoot; 0£. cit. p. 405.
62
the Jews; other expressions that catch the attention in the
1
first chapter are those referring to the wisdom from God,
a common Essene belief; honoring of the poor and the:Essene
2
idea concerning lust and sin. He commands men to be slow
3
to speak and slow to wrath, and in connection with this idea
he later points out the difficulty of mastering the tongue.
In the second chapter his theme deals with the equality of
the poor and the rich and says that man is not merely justi-
4
lied by faith, but that works too are necessary. In the
third chapter he emphasizes self-control and heavenly wisdom,
all important to the Essene, In the fourth chapter he con
tinues to teach the repression of passions, cleansing, puri
fication, seriousness, humility, judging not, nondemnation
of boasting, doing good and not over-evaluading life. "It
is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then
5
vanisheth away." In the last chapter again he condemns the
oppression by the rich. He says, "But above all things, my
brethern, swear not," and here places supreme emphasis upon
one of the Essene tenets, using the well-loved Essene prophet,
6
Elias, for an example. Against these purely Essene beliefs
1
James, l:b.
2
Ibid.. 1:9,10,15.
3
Ibid., 1:19; 3:2-10.
4
Ibid., 2:14. This idea has greatly influenced the whole
program of Ohristianity. It made possible the sale of in
dulgences.
5
Ibid.. 4:14.
Ibid. , 5:17. The only 0.T. cha,racters mentioned except
Abraham and Rahab.
63
it should be noticed that he advocated the use of oil in
1
times of sickness. With the Essenes he condemns those who
2
fight and war, and expresses great disapproval of pleasure
and worldliness. Dr. Mayor, referring to James* attitude
towards the heavenly bodies remarks, "It is perhaps a confir
mation of the idea that St. James had at one time been in-
3
fluenced by the Essenes."
4
It is perhaps the Clementine literature that gives,
the conception of the possible Essene influence as exerted
by St, James. This Clementine literature was widely spread
doubtlessly during the second and third century of the Chris
tian Church. Clement, in his letter to James, states James'
position in the church in the following:
Clement to James, the Lord, and the bishop of
bishops, who rules Jerusalem, the holy church bf
the Hebrews-, and the churches everywhere excellently ^
founded by the providence of God, with the elders
and deacons, and the rest of the brethren, peace
be always.
Accordingly, James must have exerted a supreme influence in
the Church, and àccordingita the thought of Clement in his
letter to James, they must have been close friends. Reading
1
James, 5:14.
2
Ibid., 4:2; 4:3-5.
3
Joseph B. Mayor; The Epistle of St. James, p. 55.
4 1
The name "Pseudo-Clementine Literature," or more briefly,
"Clementine" is applied to a series of writings closely
resembling each other, purporting to emanate from the great
Roman father. The entire literature is of Jewish-Christian
or Ebonitic origin. The position accorded to "James, the
Lord's brother," in all writings, is a clear indication of
this ; and so is the silence respecting the Apostle Paul.
64
the discourse leads to the thought that they are one in be
lief. Clementine literature gives an opportunity for better
understanding of James, In this literature the writer also
reveals many supposed direct quotations from Peter. It shows
1
many Jewish and Essene tenets , . . whereas in the Protevagel-
3
ium of James one can find very little of Essenism, James'
influence upon the Jewish element among the Christians was
great and they in turn strongly influenced the whole church.
Through James many ideas which he held that were similar to
those of the Essenes,, found their way into the heart of the
early Church.
There are many reasons to believe that a balance-eonsid-
eration of all evidence would cause us to conclude that
Essene peculiarities are the objects neither of sympathy nor
of antipathy during the first half of the first Christian
century. But this indifferent attitude (if ever so) was
soon to change. As early a,s 58 A.D. when Paul wrote to the
Romans, there were practices in the Christian community of
3
the metropolis which possibly were due to Essene influences.
Their presence at Colossae,, exertèd' a dangerous influence
over doctrinal purity of the early Church of the Colossians.
Then in 70 A.D, came the great convulsion— the overthrow of
the Jdwish polity and nation. The Essenes were very great
1
"Recognitus of Clement," The Ante-Nicene Fathers, pp. 70-350.
2
Ibid., pp.3b0-3b7.
3
Romans, 14:2-21.
65
sufferers in the Roman war of extermination. The organ
ization was almost entirely broken up. Thus cast adrift
they were free to enter into other combinations, while the
shock of the recent catastorophe would naturally turn their
thought into new channels.
At the same time .the nearer proximity of the
Christians who had migrated to Perea during the
war would bring them into close contact with
the new faith and subject them to its influences
as they had never been subjected before. But,
whatever may be the explanation, the fact seems
certain, that after the destruction of Jerusalem
the Christian body was largely reinforced from
their ranks. The Judaizing tendencies among the
Hebrew Christians, which hitherto had been wholly
Pharissàic, are henceforth largely Essene. (1)
The practice of asceticism asserted itself at an early
date in Christian life, but it did not originate with the
Christians, Long before the Christian era a highly organized
monasticism existed in India and other parts of Asia.
Greek asceticism and mysticism seem never to
have produced a monastic system; but among the
Jews both in Judea and Alexandria, this develop
ment took place. In Judea the Essenes before
the time of Christ lived a fully organized
monastic life; and the same is true in regard
to the Therapeutae in the neighborhood of
Alexandria. (2)
It was St. Anthony who was the father of Christian monast
icism. (It is not true that he was the first Christian
hermit, but to him goes the credit for the first Christian
monastic order.) He took up his ascetic life about 270 A.D.
in solitary retirement in the neighborhood of the towns and
1
J. B. Lightfoot; p£. cit. p. 407,
2
0, Hardman; The Ideals of Asceticism, p. 34.
66
villages of the lower Kile region. About 285 A.D. he moved
on up the Kile to a deserted fort opposite the Fayum; it
was here that Christian monasticism first took organized
form. At first it is said to have retained many of the
characteristics inherited from its predecessor, the Thera
peutae, Soon other Christian orders were formed in Egypt.
It was the Egyptian Christian monasticism that was to give
the form to early western monasticism, and it was carried
to Rome by Athanasius about 340 A.D. Thus an Essene stamp
was placed upon the Western Medieval Church. We have a
right to accredit the monasticism in the Eastern Church
to Egyptian parentage, for it was St. Basil of Caesarea
who, after visiting Egypt, established himself at the head
of a monastic system in Asia Minor, and his sister, Macrina,
founded a monastery for women on the banks of the Iris in
Pontus, Through these different channels the Christian-
Essene influence of Alexandria found its way to the dominat-
1
ing position in the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages.
The Therapeutae: These were a group'of Jewish ascetics
settled on Lake Marecotia in the vicinity of Alexandria
at the time of Philo. The members of the sect seem
to have branched off from hhe Essene brotherhood;',
hence the name has two meanings: worshippers and
physicians. The Therapeutae differed from the Essenes
in that they lived each in a separate cell, called
monasterium, in which they spent their time in mystic
devotion and ascetic practices, and particularly in
the study of the Torah, "the Law and the Prophets”,
and in reciting the Psalms as well as hymns composed
by them. While in retirement they indulged ^^in
neither meat nor drink, nor any other enjoyment of
the flesh. Like the Essenes, they offered every
1
0. Hardman; The Ideals of Asceticism, pp. 36-40.
67
morning at sunrise a prayer of thanksgiving to God
for the light of day as well as for the light of
the Torah, and again at sunset for the withdrawal of t
the sunlight and for the truth hidden in the soul.
In many ways they were similar to the Essenes, yet,
in one respect they were like the early Christians;
they admitted women. The women were advanced in years
tout were regarded as pure virgins on account of
their lives of abstinence and chastity; they seem
to have been of service in nursing and educating
waifs and non-Jewish children who took refuge in
such Essene communities.
The women and men members of the Therapeutae society
did not live or eat together. They, like the Essenes,
wore white rainment. Pentecost was the only festival
they commemorated to any great degree. It seems that
it was probably to this group of Essenes that the
Christian Church is largely indebted for its music—
they having borrowed it from the Egyptians. , .This
society so greatly resembled Christianity that even
Eusebius called them Christians, while modern schol
ars like Gratz and Lucius also feel they were Chris
tians. (1) But the weight of authority seems to place
them only as a, division of the Essene brotherhood.
Ko one can question their great influence upon early
Christian writers at Alexandria. Their ascetic ,
mystical, musical tendencies, ideas on the equality
of the sexes and monastic life all have left a stamp
on Christianity— perhaps mainly because Eusebius and
many of the Churchifathers thought they were Chris
tians; so great was this belief that Philo is reckon
ed by Jerome among the ecclesiastical writers of the
Christians(2).
Ok^Hardm^;The Ideals of Asceticism, p. 35. remarks; "Kor
was Judaism altogether wanting in precedents for the Chfis-
tain monastic life, . . . but the Essenes of Palestine,
appearing in the second century B.C., and the Therapeutae
of Egypt, described by Philo at the beginning of the Chris-
ian era, deserve to be reckoned as true fore-runners of the
Christian monastic communities." Then again, Hardman ex
plains: "In the fourth century persecution ceased and when
profession of Christianity began to be generally approved
and comparatively easy, many found scope for their ascetic
enthusiasm only by abandoning the world and living in a
sternly disciplined seclusion. In the Egyptian desert her
mits were already to be found who, like St. Anthony, had
withdrawn themselves from the world for the practice of
holiness."
2
For the above upon the subject of Therapeutae I am indebted
to an article in Encyclopedia Britannica, wol. 22, p. 71;
and to Kohler Kaufman; The rep eutae, " Jewish Encyclopedia,
vol., 12, pp. 138-139.
68
1
The Epistle of Pope Urban First emphasizes the holding
of things in common by Christians, a justification of the
Church holding property, a condemnation of the love of money,
the sinfulness of physical pleasures, the necessity for elevat
ed seats for bishops, and
Furthurmore, as to the fact that in the churches of
the bishops there are found elevated seats set up
and prepared like a throne, they show by these that
the power of inspection and judging, and the author
ity to loose and bind, are given to them by the Lord.
Whence the Savior Himself says in the Gospel, * What
soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in
heaven.» (2)
In this EpistlQ the writer stresses those things which would
be natural for an Essene-Christian to believe as nesessary.
Even though "In the Power of the Keys," was set forth by
Jesus, it has a very close forerunner in the Essene attitude
towards the sacredness of the judgments passed by their courts,
Christianity has the Church instead of the Essene court, with
a governing body which was paralleled in power with the
hundred legislators who composed the Essene tribunal. The
early Church followed the practice of the Jews in elevating
the clergy to a sacred position which gave them in majiy
respects absolute control over the laity.
1
It is not purposed to argue as to the genuiness of the
Epistles; if false, and a pseudo-writing of a later period
it would not detract from its importance from the stand
point of this study. It matters not whether it was written
in the second or the ninth century; it shows certain ideas
present in the early church, and it advocated practices
which were in harmony with Essenism.
2
"The Epistle of Pope Urban, First," The Ante-Kicene Fathers,
vol. VIII, 619-623.
69
In the Syriac Documents are found many ideas which show
an Essene influence. In the "Teachings of the Apostles,"
1
are such examples.
The Apostles therefore appointed: Pray ye towards the
East, because, as the lightening which lighteneth from
the east is seen even to the west, so shall the coming
. of the Son of Man be; that by this we might know and
understand that He will appear from the east suddenly.(3)
And in agreement with this eastern idea we have the western
3
Church father, Lactantius, writing:
How much better, therefore, is it, leaving vain and
insensible objects, to turn our eyes in that direct
ion where the seat and dwelling-place of the true
God is— who bespangled the heaven with shining stars;
who lighted up the sun, the most bright and match
less light for the affairs of men in proof of His
own single majesty,— for they regard as gods only
the sun and moon, but you regard as gods the stars
also— Make known to us, therefore, the mysteries
of the stars, that we may erect altars and temples
to each; that we may know with what day to worship
1
The Syriac Documents were selected by Dr. Cureton from manu
scripts acquired by the British Museum from the Hitrian
monastery in Lower Egypt. Dr. Cureton said, "I have found
among the Syriac MSS in the British Museum a considerable
portion of the original Aramaic document which Eusebius cites
as preserved in the archives of Edessa, and various pass
ages from it quoted by several authorsÿ with other testi
monies which seem to be sufficient to establish the fact of
the early conversion of the inhabitants of that city. . .
Those, together , . . forming a most interesting accession
to our knowledge of the early propagation of Christianity
in the East down to about 300 A.D."
a
"The Teaching of the Aoostles," Ante-Hicene Fathers, vol.VIII,668.
3
Lactantius (A.D, 260-330) has always held a very high place
among the Christian Fathers. He was sent as what might be
called a bishop to Gaul, probably about A.D. 315. He was the
tutor of Emperor Constantine » s son, Crispus. He did much in
the West during his life and afterwards. He maintained pecu
liar opinions on many points, and he appears more success
ful as an opponent of error than a teacher of the truth.
Lactantius has been charged with a leaning to Manicheism, but
this charge appears to be unfounded.
70
each, with what names and prayers we should call
upon them.
Lactantius goes on in his document and shows the error of
such practice; it seems from his discourse that he is com
bating some type of heresy which did to some degree worship
the heavenly bodies; he refers to the foolishness of the
Stoics in this respect. The discourse merely shows how far
1
west certain eastern cults and ideas had invaded Christendom.
In the Syriac Document we have the following interesting com
mands: "Let there be elders and deacons, like the Levites;
whosoever lendeth and receiveth usury, let not this man
2
minister again." The whole document shows either a combat
with Jewish ideas of the incorporating of them in the com
mands of the early apostles.
Hegesippus, in his writing "Concerning his journey to
Rome, and the Jewish sects," gives some interesting new
material. After reflecting upon contacts with the Marcian-
ists, Garpocratians, Valentinians, Basilidlans and the Saturn-
itians, he summarizes concerning all of these Gnostic sects
thus: ."From these have come false Christs, false prophets,
false apostles— men who have split up the one Church into
parts through their corrupting doctrines, uttered in dis-
3
paragement of God and His Christ," He states that among
1
Lactantius, "The Divine Institutes," Ante-Nicene Fathers,
vol., II, 47-5.S.
2
"The Teaching of the Apostles,"Ante-Nicene Fathers,vol.,VIII,
666-672.
3
"The Teaching of the Apostles," Ante-Kicene Fathers, Vol.VIII,
764-765, Hegesippus (A.D. 170) one of the sub-Apostolic age,
a contemporary of Justin.
71
the Children of Israel, there were various opinions concern
ing circumcision; among those who opposed the old idea were
the Essenes, the Galileans, Hemerohaptists, Mashothaei,
Samaritans, Sadducees and Pharisees, It is interesting to
note that he mentions the Essenes first. The fact that he
mentions them as late as this (150 A.D.) is very illuminat
ing. as to their existence as a separate group until this
time. That they are of first importance reveals that they
must have been very strong at this time or he was very sym
pathetic with them. From other sources we are led to believe
that they were very weak in numbers as a brotherhood by this
time . . . he then must have favored them. Against the idea
of the total collapse of the Essene brotherhood are the words
of Hippolytus, "The Essenes have, however, in the lapse of
time, undergone divisions; and they do not preserve their
system of training after a similar manner, in as much as they
1
have split up into four parties." While another early
Church Father contributes the following (after speaking con
cerning the Ebionites): "There are those that separate
themselves from all these, and observe the laws of their
2
fathers, and these are the Essenes," The order was still
of such importance in the second and third centuries in
certain regions to command the attention of Christian writers.
The Essene emphasis upon Angelogy made possible the
1
Hippolytus; op. cit. p. 136.
2
"Constitution of the Holy Apostles," Ante-Nicene Fathers,
vol. VII, p. 452.
72
whole emanation theory of "aeons" of the Gnostics. A large
element of Cerinthian doctrines seems to reveal its deriva
tion from Essene and oriental beliefs. This belief in servants
of God ministering to men lasted all through the Medieval
Church, George Eliot, in her book, Silas Marner, has set
forth the Essene view over against the more modern and more
Ohristlike attitude:
In old days there were angels who came and took men
by the hand and led them away from the city of des
truction. We see no white winged angels now; but
yet men are led away from threatening destruction.(1)
A stone cast into the sea causes-a change in the motion of the
sea to the most distant shore. The Essenes cast thoughts .
upon the ocean of time which crea.ted a wave that will in
fluence the waters of thought to the extremity of time.
There is one subject outside the scope of this study
because of its lateness in date which should be considered.
The fruit of the thought at Edessa, as noticed briefly in
the Syriac Documents, ripened under the leadership of Kestor-
ius, (about 431 A.D.ÿ concerning Mary'being called "Theltokos,"
"Mother of God;" for Mary was but human, and it is impossible
for God to be born of human kind. For those who had been
brought up according to the Essene belief that the physical
or material was evil, it was impossible for them to accept
a creed which said a physical woman could be the mother of
God. If they were to accept the statement that Mary was
1
George Eliot; Silas Marner,
73
the mother of God, they would first have to make a Goddes of
Mary; this they could not do, Kestorius took the only course
open by repudiating "Theotokos," In this manner oriental
Essenic philosophy caused the separation and establishment
1
of the Nestorian Church.
This study ends with the great Council of Kicea, 325 A.D.
Arius had been educated in both Alexandra and Antioch. He
opposed Sabellian influence, stating that Christ was not the
offspring of the Divine nature, but of the Divine will. This
view was heartily in accord with that of the Essenes who
emphasized the ethereal instead of the physical side of the
2
Divine, and who at times explained God as Will, Arius
started with the conception of God as a being— absolutely
apart from His creation: the Father was therefore essentially
isolated from the Son, Jesus; At this point one cannot but
be impressed by his Gnostic tendency towards Jesus being a
type of "angel" or "aeon." In the great Homoiousian con
troversy, Arius never could admit that Christ was of the
"same substance" as the Father, but always maintained He was
only of similar substance. In the famous creed set forth by
Eusebius of Caesarea:
We believe in One God, Father, all-sovereign,
creator of all things whatsoever, b&th visible
and invisible; and one Lord Jesus Christ, the
Word of God, God of God, Light of Light, Light
of Life, only-begotten Son, the First-born of
all creation, begotten of God, the Father, etc.
1
See Barnes, L. 0.; Two Thousand Years of Missions Before
Carey, pp. 80-83.
2
Zenos, A. 0^; Compendium of Church History, pp.83086.
74
There was no room left for those who believed as Arius and
many of the Gnostics and this was therefore a great blow at
the oriental conception of God being apart from His creation.
Even in this creed, however, there are phrases which have an
Essene connotation: "Light of Light," "light of Life," lit
would have been hard for the Essenes to have formulated the
phrases with higher adoration to "Light" than these set forth
in the Nicene Creed.
When the evening sun leaves us in darkness, the Chris
tian world calls forth its god, Mazda, "Light of Light,"
and then in one gigantic fight between Ahura Mazda and
1
Angra Mainyu, the light of Mazda shall reign supreme. Thus
in an artificial world of light the Christian reads diligent
ly his Bible, "This then is the message which we have heard
of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him
3
is no darkness at all." At dawn, the Mohammedan with his
belief in one God shall kneel and greet the new light of day—
Oh, Ye that thought and prayed beside the Dead Sea still
live in our hospitals and idealism of brotherhood.
"There is no death 1 The stars go down
To rise upon some fairer shore.
And bright in Heaven's jewelled crown
They shine forevermore." (3)
1
E. D. Soper; The Religions of Mankind, p. 145.
3
I John, 1:5.
3
Lord Lytton; There Is No Death, first verse.
75
OONGLUSION
Each influence of time adds a tinge or hue to the
future. Man is the product of all he has met. History
reveals that many conquered nations become the victors.
A group of people may willfully incorporate into their or
ganization the philosophy and mores of another group, and
thus become very similar. Or the first group may so oppose
the second group that it builds its traditions irreconcilably.
But in both examples the second group has been the determin
ing force. This study of the influence of Essenism upon
Christianity has produced many examples in which Christian
ity patterned its beliefs and practices according to Essenism,
while at other times they were diametrically opposed to
those principles emphasized by the Jewish sect. Did Jesus
directly borrow from the Essenes? It need not be said that
He did borrow from the Essenes directly since He so widely
differed from them in many points essential to their system.
But is it not probable and altogether logical to conclude
that where He found helpful elements among them. He incor
porated these into His teachings, and where He found prac
tices which He considered detrimental to the best interests
of the Kingdom He opposed them vigorously? Thus the Essene
did— as did other Jews— influence Jesus in His program of
acceptance and rejection of those qualities that were in
harmony with God. The same was true after the Early Church
began to make its selections. The Essene order always fur
nished the Church with problems; the problem of how much to
76
accept and the problem of what and how to reject certain
unfavorable Essene influences.
At times Christianity appears as a ship at sea being
driven in all directions by undercurrents; it was quite
often those influences which were Essene that most seriously
threatened the safety of Christianity, and at other times
these same influences became the anchorage of the Church.
As truly as Gnosticism threatened the Church, the monastic
element preserved it while Arias bombarded with Essene
opposition to the "same substance," Eusebius and Athanasius
preserved the Trinity with an Essene counter-attack of
"Light of Light,"
As was presented in the introduction, the problem of
this paper is not to arrive at any conclusion, but is to
point out the sourçes of innovations and certain attitudes
and practices found in Christianity which were common among
the Essenes so that the phrase, "Back to Christ," may be
more clearly understood. Early Christianity was much as
it is today— an organization taking from its environment
what it believed it could incorporate profitably, absorbing
other ideas unconsciously and building a defensive program
against those things it deemed to be detrimental. The
Church has always maintained for its central goal "The
Kingdom of God." In the attainment of this desired end
in the past it often indulged in Essene language to ex
press its thought, in Essene manner of life, and Essene
organization; while at the same time it has met its greatest
opposition from these same Essene principles. The slave,
77
Essene influence, has often become the master. One cannot
say "lo here" or "lo there," or "lo this" and "lo that" as
being a direct influence of Essenism; but those principles
which were common to the Essenes steadily gave direction
to Christian practice and creed.
In conclusion the Essene influence may be summarized thus;
Essenism in its extreme form could exercise very little
direct influence upon Christianity. In most of its practical
bearing it was diametrically opposed to Christianity. It
was only modified Essenism that could influence Christianity
positively. The Essenes, like John the Baptist, merely made
way for the higher Christianity. They mark the close of the
old, the longing for the new. In place of the message of
the coming "Kingdom" they could only proclaim individual
purity through isolation. It cannot be claimed that Essen
ism had any influence upon the Early Church after the third
century except indirectly, as Moses and Christ influence
modern Christianity, In the first centuries they doubt
lessly furnished great numbers to the early Church. For many
principles of Early Christianity they had provided the labor
atory of the advance-explorers for higher ethical and relig
ious ideas. They failed in many respects in establishing an
ideal society, but these failures were valuable as examples
for Christ and the Early Church. The Essene in his worthy
attainments paved the way for Christianity; in his failures
he was the signal light which prevented destruction; while
at other times he led the Church far from the spirit of
the teachings of the Master. Many of the practices and
78
doctrines of the Early Church are a result of direct and
indirect contacts with some form of Essene influence.
"If the red slayer think he slays,
Or if the slain think he is slain.
They know not well the subtle ways
I keep, and pass, and turn again.
Far or forgot to me is near;
Shadow and sunlight are the same;
the vanished gods to me appear;
And one to me are shame and fame.
They reckon ill who leave me out ;
When me they fly, I am the wings;
I am the doubter and the doubt,
And I am the hymn the Brahmin sings.
The .strong gods pine for my abode,
And pine in vain the sacred Seven;
But thou, meek lover of the good ! 1
Find me, and turn thy back on heaven."
1
Ralph Waldo Emerson; "Brahma."
79
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Creator Harner, Willis H. (author)

Core Title A study of the influence of Essenism upon early Christianity

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