[98.] Edersheim (op. cit., I. 325) ably refutes both Graetz and Ginsburg on this point, and shows that "the teaching of Christianity was in a direction the opposite from that of Essenism." M. Vulliaud (op. cit., I. 71) dismisses the Essene origin of Christianity as unworthy of serious attention. "To maintain the Essenism of Jesus is a proof of frivolity or of invincible ignorance."
[99.] Luke xvii. 7-9.
[100.] Ginsburg, op. cit., pp. 15, 22, 55.
[101.] Ginsburg, op. cit., p. 12.
[102.] Fabre d'Olivet thinks this tradition had descended to the Essenes from Moses: "If it is true, as everything attests, that Moses left an oral law, it is amongst the Essenes that it was preserved. The Pharisees, who flattered themselves so highly on possessing it, only had its outward forms (apparences), as Jesus reproaches them at every moment. It is from these latter that the modern Jews descend, with the exception of a few real savants whose secret tradition goes back to the Essenes."--La Langue Hebraïque, p. 27 (1815).
[103.] Matter, Histoire du Gnosticisme, I. 44 (1844).
[104.] Jewish Encyclopædia, article on Cabala.
[105.] Matter, op. cit., II. 58.
[106.] Ragon, Maçonnerie Occulte, p. 78.
[107.] "The Cabala is anterior to the Gnosis, an opinion which Christian writers little understand, but which the erudites of Judaism profess with a legitimate assurance."--Matter, op. cit.. Vol. I. p. 12.