A handbook of Freethought

by Unknown

Jesus an Essene.

“Of the resemblance between the Essenes and the followers of Christ in their principles and practices, I will let a Christian writer speak—Christian D. Ginsburg, LL. D., who is a leading contributor to Alexander’s new edition of Kitto’s Cyclopedia, the most orthodox of the chief English Bible dictionaries. I will read a few extracts from an essay entitled, ‘The Essenes Their History and Doctrines.’ Dr. Ginsburg says: ‘The identity of many of the precepts and practices of Essenism and Christianity is unquestionable. Essenism urged on its disciples to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; so did Christ. ([Mat. 6 : 33], and [Luke 12 : 31].) The Essenes forbade the laying up of treasures upon earth; so did Christ. ([Mat. 6 : 19, 21].) The Essenes demanded of those who wished to join them, to sell all their possessions, and to divide it among the poor brethren; so Christ. ([Mat. 19 : 21], and [Luke 12 : 33].) The Essenes had all things in common, and appointed one of the brethren as steward to manage the common bag; so the primitive Christians. ([Acts 2 : 44, 45]; [4 : 32, 34], and [John 12 : 6]; [13 : 29].) Essenism regarded all its members on the same level, forbidding the exercise of authority of one over the other, and enjoining mutual service; so Christ. ([Mat. 20 : 25–28], and [Mark 9 : 35, 37]; [10 : 42, 45].) Essenism commanded its disciples to call no man master upon the earth; so Christ. ([Mat. 23 : 8, 9].) Essenism laid the greatest stress on being meek and lowly in spirit; so Christ. ([Mat. 5 : 5], [29].)

‘Christ commended the poor in spirit, those who hunger after righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart and the peacemakers; so the Essenes.... Christ combined the healing of the body with that of the soul; so the Essenes. Like the Essenes, Christ declared that the power to cast out evil spirits, to perform miraculous cures, etc., should be possessed by his disciples as signs of their belief. ([Mark 16 : 17]; comp. also [Mat. 10 : 8], and [Luke 9 : 1, 2]; [10 : 9].) Like the Essenes, Christ commanded his disciples not to swear at all, but to say yea, yea, and nay, nay. The manner in which Christ directed his disciples to go on their journey ([Mat. 10 : 9, 10]) is the same which the Essenes adopted when they started on a mission of mercy. The Essenes, though repudiating offensive war, yet took weapons with them when they went on a perilous journey: Christ enjoined his disciples to do the same thing. ([Luke 22 : 36].) Christ commended that elevated spiritual life, which enables a man to abstain from marriage for the kingdom of heaven’s sake, and which cannot be attained by all men save those to whom it is given ([Mat. 19 : 10–12]; comp. also [1 Cor. 8]); so the Essenes, who, as a body, in waiting for the kingdom of heaven, abstained from connubial intercourse. The Essenes did not offer animal sacrifices, but strove to present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, unto God, which they regarded as a reasonable service; the apostle Paul exhorts the Romans to do the same. ([Rom. 12 : 1].) It was the great aim of the Essenes to live such a life of purity and holiness as to be the temples of the holy spirit and to be able to prophesy; the apostle Paul urges the Corinthians to covet to prophesy. ([1 Cor. 14 : 1], [39].) When Christ pronounced John to be Elias ([Mat. 11 : 14]), he declared that the Baptist had already attained to that spirit and power which the Essenes strove to obtain in their highest stage of purity. It will therefore hardly be doubted that our Savior himself belonged to this holy brotherhood. This will especially be apparent when we remember that the whole Jewish community, at the advent of Christ, was divided into three parties, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes, and that every Jew had to belong to one of these sects. Jesus, who in all things conformed to Jewish law, who was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, would naturally associate himself with that order of Judaism which was most congenial to his holy nature. Moreover, the fact that Christ, with the exception of once, was not heard of in public till his thirtieth year, implying that he lived in seclusion with this fraternity, and that though he frequently rebuked the Scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees, he never denounced the Essenes, strongly confirms this conclusion.... The accounts given by Josephus first mentioned their existence in the days of Jonathan the Maccabaean, B. C. 166; and they most unquestionably show that the Essenes existed at least two centuries before the Christian era, and that they at first lived among the Jewish community at large. Their residence at Jerusalem is also evident from the fact that there was a gate named after them. When they ultimately withdrew themselves from the rest of the Jewish nation, the majority of them settled on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, sufficiently distant to escape its noxious exhalations, and the rest lived in scattered communities throughout Palestine and Syria. Both Philo and Josephus estimated them to be above four thousand in number. This must have been exclusive of women and children. We hear very little of them after this period (that is, 40 A. D.); and there can hardly be any doubt that, owing to the great similarity which existed between their precepts and practices, and those of the primitive Christians, the Essenes, as a body, must have embraced Christianity.’”—Underwood, in Underwood-Marples Debate.