The Essenes: Their history and doctrines

THE ESSENES:
THEIR HISTORY AND DOCTRINES.
AN ESSAY,
REPRINTED FROM THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF LIVERPOOL.
BY CHRISTIAN D. GINSBURG, LL.D.
ἑν παντὶ ἔθνει ὁ φοβούμενος αὐτὸν καὶ ἐργαζόμενος δικαιοσύνην δεκτὸς αὐτῷ ἐστιν
Acts X, 35 .
LONDON: LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, ROBERTS, AND GREEN. 1864.
It is very surprising that the Essenes, whose exemplary Virtues elicited the unbounded admiration of even the Greeks and Romans, and whose doctrines and practices contributed so materially to the spread of Christianity, should be so little known among intelligent Christians. The current information upon this remarkable sect or order of Judaism, to be found in ecclesiastical histories and Cyclopædias, is derived from the short notices of Philo, Pliny, Josephus, Solinus, Porphyry, Eusebius, and Epiphanius. These seven witnesses—of whom the first and third are Jewish philosophers, the second, fourth and fifth heathen writers, and the last two Christian church historians—are all who, till within a very recent period, have been subpœnaed before the tribunal of public opinion, to give evidence as to the character of these very much misunderstood and neglected Essenes.
The design of this essay is to give an impartial statement of the doctrines and practices of the Essenes; to show their rise and progress, their relationship both to Judaism and Christianity, their numbers and localities, to trace the most probable signification of their name, &c., &c. To do this, I not only appeal to the seven stereotyped witnesses, but to the information upon this subject scattered throughout the Midrashim and the Talmud. But not to incur the charge of partiality, as well as to enable you to test my conclusions, I have collected all that the ancients have written upon this subject, and append to this paper the whole account which Philo, Pliny, Josephus, Solinus, Porphyry, Eusebius, and Epiphanius give of the Essenes.