[52] This paragraph almost embodies the sentiments uttered by our Saviour in Matth. chap. v . [↑]
[53] These ancient books on magical cures and exorcisms were the reputed works of Solomon, who, according to the Talmud as well as the Byzantine and Arabian writers, composed treatises on miraculous cures and driving out evil spirits. (Comp. Pesachim 56 a; Fabricius, Codex pseudepigraphus Vet. Test. p. 1042, &c.; Weil, Biblische Legenden der Muselmänner, p. 225–279). Josephus tells [[45]]us elsewhere that some of these Solomonic productions still existed in his own days, and that he had actually seen demons driven out and people cured by their aid. (Comp. Antiq. book viii. chap. ii. § 5.) This account most strikingly illustrates what Christ says in Matth. xii. 27 . [↑]
[54] This custom has its origin in the extension of a Mosaic law. The hosts of the Lord are commanded in Deut. xxiii 13, 15 , to have spades among the martial instruments in order to bury therewith their excrements without the camp, and thus to keep themselves pure from every pollution, and to be a holy camp, because the Holy One of Israel dwells in the midst thereof. Now as the Essenes strove to be, in a pre-eminent sense, the spiritual hosts of the Lord, every one of them was obliged to have this spade in order to guard their sacred camp from defilement. For this reason the apron was also given to cover their nakedness in their numerous baptisms, and thus to keep their thoughts from dwelling upon anything which might lead to impurity; whilst the white garment was the symbol of their holiness. This, however, was not peculiar to the Essenes, as the Talmud tells us that when any one applied to become a member of the Pharisaic order (חבר), he had to pass through a noviciate of twelve months, at the expiration of which he received a sort of garment called כנפים, and having duly qualified himself in this stage, he was afterwards admitted to the holier lustrations (מקבלין לכנסּים ואחר כד מקבלין לטהרות). (Comp. Tosifta Demai e. 11; Jerusalem Demai ii. 3; Babylonian Becharoth 30, 6). [↑]
[55] This was the only occasion on which the Essenes were permitted to take an oath. [↑]
[56] This does not refer to governments generally, as Gfrörer will have it (Philo und die jüdisch-alexandrinische Theosophie, vol. ii, p. 333, &c.), but to the office of overseer or steward among the brotherhood, as is evident from the immediately following statement, which most unquestionably pledges every Essene to retain his simplicity of character if he should ever attain to any official position or stewardship in the order. [↑]
[57] This is not peculiar to the Essenes. The Pharisees, too, would not indiscriminately propound the mysteries of the cosmogony and the theosophy, which, according to them, are contained in the history of the Creation and in the vision of Ezekiel, except to those who were regularly initiated in the order. Comp. Mishna Chagiga, ii, 1. [↑]
[58] This evidently refers to the secrets of the Tetragrammaton, and the angelology which played so important a part among the Jewish mystics from time immemorial. Comp. Wisdom of Solomon vii. 20 ; Mishna Chagiga, ii, 1. [↑]
[59] The reason why he ate herbs and not bread, or the simple dish which the order generally took, is that, being bound by an oath to observe the practices of the brotherhood, he could only accept meals from those who lived according to the highest degree of purity (על טהרת חטאת), and who, as a matter of course, kept their meals according to this degree. But as such a mode of life was of very uncommon occurrence, the excommunicated Essene was obliged to live on herbs or vegetables which he had to pluck himself; for, according to the Talmud, plants are only then considered unclean when they are cut off and water is poured upon them (משהוכשרו לקבל טומאה משנתלשו). As for Josephus’ saying that he died a miserable death, and that he could only eat grass (ποιηφάγων), this is simply another instance of his exaggerating and colouring his subject. [↑]
[60] The Pharisees, too, regarded ten persons as constituting a complete number for divine worship, held the assembling of such a number as sacred, and would not spit in their presence. (Comp. Berâchoth 51 a; Jerusalem Berachoth iii. 5; Aboth iii. 6.) [↑]
[61] This is not peculiar to the Essenes; for the Pharisees, too, would not remove a vessel on the Sabbath (comp. Tosifta Succa, iii); and the orthodox Jews, to the present day, will not even carry a handkerchief on the Sabbath; they tie it round the body to serve as a girdle, so that it might not be said that they carry the weight of even so small a thing on the sacred day. Comp. also Mark xi, 16 . [↑]