Essenes (sources)

Survey of ancient sources on the Essenes

Overview

Our knowledge about the Essenes depends mainly on the writings of Flavius Josephus, Philo of Alexandria, and Pliny the Elder. Accepting, with the majority of scholarship today, the existence of some kind of connection between the Essenes and the group that lived in the site of Khirbet Qumran and between the latter and the Dead Sea Scrolls, these texts too can be accounted among the primary source available on the Essene movement.

Primary Sources

Philo, Quod Omnis Probus liber sit, 75-91

75 XII. Moreover Palestine and Syria too are not barren of exemplary wisdom and virtue, which countries no slight portion of that most populous nation of the Jews inhabits. There is a portion of those people called Essenes, in number something more than four thousand in my opinion, who derive their name from their piety, though not according to any accurate form of the Grecian dialect, because they are above all men devoted to the service of God, not sacrificing living animals, but studying rather to preserve their own minds in a state of holiness and purity. 76 These men, in the first place, live in villages, avoiding all cities on account of the habitual lawlessness of those who inhabit them, well knowing that such a moral disease is contracted from associations with wicked men, just as a real disease might be from an impure atmosphere, and that this would stamp an incurable evil on their souls. Of these men, some cultivating the earth, and others devoting themselves to those arts which are the result of peace, benefit both themselves and all those who come in contact with them, not storing up treasures of silver and of gold, nor acquiring vast sections of the earth out of a desire for ample revenues, but providing all things which are requisite for the natural purposes of life; 77 for they alone of almost all men having been originally poor and destitute, and that too rather from their own habits and ways of life than from any real deficiency of good fortune, are nevertheless accounted very rich, judging contentment and frugality to be great abundance, as in truth they are. 78 Among those men you will find no makers of arrows, or javelins, or swords, or helmets, or breastplates, or shields; no makers of arms or of military engines; no one, in short, attending to any employment whatever connected with war, or even to any of those occupations even in peace which are easily perverted to wicked purposes; for they are utterly ignorant of all traffic, and of all commercial dealings, and of all navigation, but they repudiate and keep aloof from everything which can possibly afford any inducement to covetousness; 79 and there is not a single slave among them, but they are all free, aiding one another with a reciprocal interchange of good offices; and they condemn masters, not only as unjust, inasmuch as they corrupt the very principle of equality, but likewise as impious, because they destroy the ordinances of nature, which generated them all equally, and brought them up like a mother, as if they were all legitimate brethren, not in name only, but in reality and truth. But in their view this natural relationship of all men to one another has been thrown into disorder by designing covetousness, continually wishing to surpass others in good fortune, and which has therefore engendered alienation instead of affection, and hatred instead of friendship; 80 and leaving the logical part of philosophy, as in no respect necessary for the acquisition of virtue, to the word-catchers, and the natural part, as being too sublime for human nature to master, to those who love to converse about high objects (except indeed so far as such a study takes in the contemplation of the existence of God and of the creation of the universe), they devote all their attention to the moral part of philosophy, using as instructors the laws of their country which it would have been impossible for the human mind to devise without divine inspiration. 81 Now these laws they are taught at other times, indeed, but most especially on the seventh day, for the seventh day is accounted sacred, on which they abstain from all other employments, and frequent the sacred places which are called synagogues, and there they sit according to their age in classes, the younger sitting under the elder, and listening with eager attention in becoming order. 82 Then one, indeed, takes up the holy volume and reads it, and another of the men of the greatest experience comes forward and explains what is not very intelligible, for a great many precepts are delivered in enigmatical modes of expression, and allegorically, as the old fashion was; 83 and thus the people are taught piety, and holiness, and justice, and economy, and the science of regulating the state, and the knowledge of such things as are naturally good, or bad, or indifferent, and to choose what is right and to avoid what is wrong, using a threefold variety of definitions, and rules, and criteria, namely, the love of God, and the love of virtue, and the love of mankind. 84 Accordingly, the sacred volumes present an infinite number of instances of the disposition devoted to the love of God, and of a continued and uninterrupted purity throughout the whole of life, of a careful avoidance of oaths and of falsehood, and of a strict adherence to the principle of looking on the Deity as the cause of everything which is good and of nothing which is evil. They also furnish us with many proofs of a love of virtue, such as abstinence from all covetousness of money, from ambition, from indulgence in pleasures, temperance, endurance, and also moderation, simplicity, good temper, the absence of pride, obedience to the laws, steadiness, and everything of that kind; and, lastly, they bring forward as proofs of the love of mankind, goodwill, equality beyond all power of description, and fellowship, about which it is not unreasonable to say a few words. 85 In the first place, then, there is no one who has a house so absolutely his own private property, that it does not in some sense also belong to every one: for besides that they all dwell together in companies, the house is open to all those of the same notions, who come to them from other quarters; 86 then there is one magazine among them all; their expenses are all in common; their garments belong to them all in common; their food is common, since they all eat in messes; for there is no other people among which you can find a common use of the same house, a common adoption of one mode of living, and a common use of the same table more thoroughly established in fact than among this tribe: and is not this very natural? For whatever they, after having been working during the day, receive for their wages, that they do not retain as their own, but bring it into the common stock, and give any advantage that is to be derived from it to all who desire to avail themselves of it; 87 and those who are sick are not neglected because they are unable to contribute to the common stock, inasmuch as the tribe have in their public stock a means of supplying their necessities and aiding their weakness, so that from their ample means they support them liberally and abundantly; and they cherish respect for their elders, and honor them and care for them, just as parents are honored and cared for by their lawful children: being supported by them in all abundance both by their personal exertions, and by innumerable contrivances. 88 XIII. Such diligent practicers of virtue does philosophy, unconnected with any superfluous care of examining into Greek names render men, proposing to them as necessary exercises to train them towards its attainment, all praiseworthy actions by which a freedom, which can never be enslaved, is firmly established. 89 And a proof of this is that, though at different times a great number of chiefs of every variety of disposition and character, have occupied their country, some of whom have endeavored to surpass even ferocious wild beasts in cruelty, leaving no sort of inhumanity unpracticed, and have never ceased to murder their subjects in whole troops, and have even torn them to pieces while living, like cooks cutting them limb from limb, till they themselves, being overtaken by the vengeance of divine justice, have at last experienced the same miseries in their turn: 90 others again having converted their barbarous frenzy into another kind of wickedness, practicing an ineffable degree of savageness, talking with the people quietly, but through the hypocrisy of a more gentle voice, betraying the ferocity of their real disposition, fawning upon their victims like treacherous dogs, and becoming the causes of irremediable miseries to them, have left in all their cities monuments of their impiety, and hatred of all mankind, in the never to be forgotten miseries endured by those whom they oppressed: 91 and yet no one, not even of those immoderately cruel tyrants, nor of the more treacherous and hypocritical oppressors was ever able to bring any real accusation against the multitude of those called Essenes or Holy. But everyone being subdued by the virtue of these men, looked up to them as free by nature, and not subject to the frown of any human being, and have celebrated their manner of messing together, and their fellowship with one another beyond all description in respect of its mutual good faith, which is an ample proof of a perfect and very happy life.

75 ἔστι δὲ καὶ ἡ Παλαιστίνη Συρία καλοκἀγαθίας οὐκ ἄγονος, ἣν πολυανθρωποτάτου ἔθνους τῶν Ἰουδαίων οὐκ ὀλίγη μοῖρα νέμεται. λέγονταί τινες παρ᾽ αὐτοῖς ὄνομα Ἐσσαῖοι, πλῆθος ὑπερτετρακισχίλιοι κατ᾽ ἐμὴν δόξαν οὐκ ἀκριβεῖ τύπῳ διαλέκτου Ἑλληνικῆς παρώνυμοι ὁσιότητος, ἐπειδὴ κἀν τοῖς μάλιστα θεραπευταὶ θεοῦ γεγόνασιν, οὐ ζῷα καταθύοντες, ἀλλ᾽ ἱεροπρεπεῖς τὰς ἑαυτῶν διανοίας κατασκευάζειν ἀξιοῦντες. 76 οὗτοι τὸ μὲν πρῶτον κωμηδὸν οἰκοῦσι τὰς πόλεις ἐκτρεπόμενοι διὰ τὰς τῶν πολιτευομένων χειροήθεις ἀνομίας, εἰδότες ἐκ τῶν συνόντων ὡς ἀπ᾽ ἀέρος φθοροποιοῦ νόσον ἐγγινομένην προσβολὴν ψυχαῖς ἀνίατον· ὧν οἱ μὲν γεωπονοῦντες, οἱ δὲ τέχνας μετιόντες ὅσαι συνεργάτιδες εἰρήνης, ἑαυτούς τε καὶ τοὺς πλησιάζοντας ὠφελοῦσιν, οὐκ ἄργυρον καὶ χρυσὸν θησαυροφυλακοῦντες οὐδ᾽ ἀποτομὰς γῆς μεγάλας κτώμενοι δι᾽ ἐπιθυμίαν προσόδων, ἀλλ᾽ ὅσα πρὸς τὰς ἀναγκαίας τοῦ βίου χρείας ἐκπορίζοντες. 77 μόνοι γὰρ ἐξ ἁπάντων σχεδὸν ἀνθρώπων ἀχρήματοι καὶ ἀκτήμονες γεγονότες ἐπιτηδεύσει τὸ πλέον ἢ ἐνδείᾳ εὐτυχίας πλουσιώτατοι νομίζονται, τὴν ὀλιγοδεΐαν καὶ εὐκολίαν, ὅπερ ἐστί, κρίνοντες περιουσίαν. 78 βελῶν ἢ ἀκόντων ἢ ξιφιδίων ἢ κράνους ἢ θώρακος ἢ ἀσπίδος οὐδένα παρ᾽ αὐτοῖς ἂν εὕροις δημιουργὸν οὐδὲ συνόλως ὁπλοποιὸν ἢ μηχανοποιὸν ἤ τι τῶν κατὰ πόλεμον ἐπιτηδεύοντα· ἀλλ᾽ οὐδὲ ὅσα τῶν κατ᾽ εἰρήνην εὐόλισθα εἰς κακίαν· ἐμπορίας γὰρ ἢ καπηλείας ἢ ναυκληρίας οὐδ᾽ ὄναρ ἴσασι, τὰς εἰς πλεονεξίαν ἀφορμὰς ἀποδιοπομπούμενοι. 79 δοῦλός τε παρ᾽ αὐτοῖς οὐδὲ εἷς ἐστιν, ἀλλ᾽ ἐλεύθεροι πάντες ἀνθυπουργοῦντες ἀλλήλοις· καταγινώσκουσι τε τῶν δεσποτῶν, οὐ μόνον ὡς ἀδίκων, ἰσότητα λυμαινομένων, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὡς ἀσεβῶν, θεσμὸν φύσεως ἀναιρούντων, ἣ πάντας ὁμοίως γεννήσασα καὶ θρεψαμένη μητρὸς δίκην ἀδελφοὺς γνησίους, οὐ λεγομένους ἀλλ᾽ ὄντας ὄντως, ἀπειργάσατο· ὧν τὴν συγγένειαν ἡ ἐπίβουλος πλεονεξία παρευημερήσασα διέσεισεν, ἀντ᾽ οἰκειότητος ἀλλοτριότητα καὶ ἀντὶ φιλίας ἔχθραν ἐργασαμένη. 80 φιλοσοφίας τε τὸ μὲν λογικὸν ὡς οὐκ ἀναγκαῖον εἰς κτῆσιν ἀρετῆς λογοθήραις, τὸ δὲ φυσικὸν ὡς μεῖζον ἢ κατὰ ἀνθρωπίνην φύσιν μετεωρολέσχαις ἀπολιπόντες, πλὴν ὅσον αὐτοῦ περὶ ὑπάρξεως θεοῦ καὶ τῆς τοῦ παντὸς γενέσεως φιλοσοφεῖται, τὸ ἠθικὸν εὖ μάλα διαπονοῦσιν ἀλείπταις χρώμενοι τοῖς πατρίοις νόμοις, οὓς ἀμήχανον ἀνθρωπίνην ἐπινοῆσαι ψυχὴν ἄνευ κατοκωχῆς ἐνθέου. 81 τούτους ἀναδιδάσκονται μὲν καὶ παρὰ τὸν ἄλλον χρόνον, ἐν δὲ ταῖς ἑβδόμαις διαφερόντως. ἱερὰ γὰρ ἡ ἑβδόμη νενόμισται, καθ᾽ ἣν τῶν ἄλλων ἀνέχοντες ἔργων, εἰς ἱεροὺς ἀφικνούμενοι τόπους, οἳ καλοῦνται συναγωγαί, καθ᾽ ἡλικίας ἐν τάξεσιν ὑπὸ πρεσβυτέροις νέοι καθέζονται, μετὰ κόσμου τοῦ προσήκοντος ἔχοντες ἀκροατικῶς. 82 εἶθ᾽ εἷς μέν τις τὰς βίβλους ἀναγινώσκει λαβών, ἕτερος δὲ τῶν ἐμπειροτάτων ὅσα μὴ γνώριμα παρελθὼν ἀναδιδάσκει· τὰ γὰρ πλεῖστα διὰ συμβόλων ἀρχαιοτρόπῳ ζηλώσει παρ᾽ αὐτοῖς φιλοσοφεῖται. 83 παιδεύονται δὲ εὐσέβειαν, ὁσιότητα, δικαιοσύνην, οἰκονομίαν, πολιτείαν, ἐπιστήμην τῶν πρὸς ἀλήθειαν ἀγαθῶν καὶ κακῶν καὶ ἀδιαφόρων, αἱρέσεις ὧν χρὴ καὶ φυγὰς τῶν ἐναντίων, ὅροις καὶ κανόσι τριττοῖς χρώμενοι, τῷ τε φιλοθέῳ καὶ φιλαρέτῳ καὶ φιλανθρώπῳ. 84 τοῦ μὲν οὖν φιλοθέου δείγματα παρέχονται μυρία· τὴν παρ᾽ ὅλον τὸν βίον συνεχῆ καὶ ἐπάλληλον ἁγνείαν, τὸ ἀνώμοτον, τὸ ἀψευδές, τὸ πάντων μὲν ἀγαθῶν αἴτιον, κακοῦ δὲ μηδενὸς νομίζειν εἶναι τὸ θεῖον· τοῦ δὲ φιλαρέτου τὸ ἀφιλοχρήματον τὸ ἀφιλόδοξον, τὸ ἀφιλήδονον, τὸ ἐγκρατές, τὸ καρτερικόν, ἔτι δὲ ὀλιγοδεΐαν, ἀφέλειαν, εὐκολίαν, τὸ ἄτυφον, τὸ νόμιμον, τὸ εὐσταθές, καὶ ὅσα τούτοις ὁμοιότροπα· τοῦ δὲ φιλανθρώπου εὔνοιαν, ἰσότητα, τὴν παντὸς λόγου κρείττονα κοινωνίαν, περὶ ἧς οὐκ ἄκαιρον βραχέα εἰπεῖν. 85 πρῶτον μὲν τοίνυν οὐδενὸς οἰκία τίς ἐστιν ἰδία, ἣν οὐχὶ πάντων εἶναι κοινὴν συμβέβηκε· πρὸς γὰρ τῷ κατὰ θιάσους συνοικεῖν ἀναπέπταται καὶ τοῖς ἑτέρωθεν ἀφικνουμένοις τῶν ὁμοζήλων. 86 εἶτ᾽ ἐστὶ ταμεῖον ἓν πάντων καὶ δαπάναι κοιναί, καὶ κοιναὶ μὲν ἐσθῆτες, κοιναὶ δὲ τροφαὶ συσσίτια πεποιημένων· τὸ γὰρ ὁμωρόφιον ἢ ὁμοδίαιτον ἢ ὁμοτράπεζον οὐκ ἄν τις εὕροι παρ᾽ ἑτέροις μᾶλλον ἔργῳ βεβαιούμενον· καὶ μήποτ᾽ εἰκότως· ὅσα γὰρ ἂν μεθ᾽ ἡμέραν ἐργασάμενοι λάβωσιν ἐπὶ μισθῷ, ταῦτ᾽ οὐκ ἴδια φυλάττουσιν, ἀλλ᾽ εἰς μέσον προτιθέντες κοινὴν τοῖς ἐθέλουσι χρῆσθαι τὴν ἀπ᾽ αὐτῶν παρασκευάζουσιν ὠφέλειαν. 87 οἵ τε νοσοῦντες οὐχ ὅτι πορίζειν ἀδυνατοῦσιν ἀμελοῦνται, τὰ πρὸς τὰς νοσηλείας ἐκ τῶν κοινῶν ἔχοντες ἐν ἑτοίμῳ, ὡς μετὰ πάσης ἀδείας ἐξ ἀφθονωτέρων ἀναλίσκειν. αἰδὼς δ᾽ ἐστὶ πρεσβυτέρων καὶ φροντίς, οἷα γονέων ὑπὸ γνησίων παίδων χερσὶ καὶ διανοίαις μυρίαις ἐν ἀφθονίᾳ τῇ πάσῃ γηροτροφουμένων. 88 τοιούτους ἡ δίχα περιεργίας Ἑλληνικῶν ὀνομάτων ἀθλητὰς ἀρετῆς ἀπεργάζεται φιλοσοφία, γυμνάσματα προτιθεῖσα τὰς ἐπαινετὰς πράξεις, ἐξ ὧν ἡ ἀδούλωτος ἐλευθερία βεβαιοῦται. 89 σημεῖον δέ· πολλῶν κατὰ καιροὺς ἐπαναστάντων τῇ χώρᾳ δυναστῶν καὶ φύσεσι καὶ προαιρέσεσι χρησαμένων διαφερούσαις οἱ μὲν γὰρ πρὸς τὸ ἀτίθασον ἀγριότητα θηρίων ἐκνικῆσαι σπουδάσαντες, οὐδὲν παραλιπόντες τῶν εἰς ὠμότητα, τοὺς ὑπηκόους ἀγεληδὸν ἱερεύοντες ἢ καὶ ζῶντας ἔτι μαγείρων τρόπον κατὰ μέρη καὶ μέλη κρεουργοῦντες ἄχρι τοῦ τὰς αὐτὰς ὑπομεῖναι συμφορὰς ὑπὸ τῆς τὰ ἀνθρώπεια ἐφορώσης δίκης οὐκ ἐπαύσαντο· 90 οἱ δὲ τὸ παρακεκινημένον καὶ λελυττηκὸς εἰς ἑτέρας εἶδος κακίας μεθαρμοσάμενοι, πικρίαν ἄλεκτον ἐπιτηδεύσαντες ἡσυχῇ διαλαλοῦντες, ἠρεμαιοτέρας φωνῆς ὑποκρίσει βαρύμηνι ἦθος ἐπιδεικνύμενοι κυνῶν ἰοβόλων τρόπον προσσαίνοντες, ἀνιάτων γενόμενοι κακῶν αἴτιοι, κατὰ πόλεις μνημεῖα τῆς ἑαυτῶν ἀσεβείας καὶ μισανθρωπίας ἀπέλιπον τὰς τῶν πεπονθότων ἀλήστους συμφοράς 91 ἀλλὰ γὰρ οὐδεὶς οὔτε τῶν σφόδρα ὠμοθύμων οὔτε τῶν πάνυ δολερῶν καὶ ὑπούλων ἴσχυσε τὸν λεχθέντα τῶν Ἐσσαίων ἢ ὁσίων ὅμιλον αἰτιάσασθαι, πάντες δὲ ἀσθενέστεροι τῆς τῶν ἀνδρῶν καλοκἀγαθίας γενόμενοι καθάπερ αὐτονόμοις καὶ ἐλευθέροις οὖσιν ἐκ φύσεως προσηνέχθησαν, ᾄδοντες αὐτῶν τὰ συσσίτια καὶ τὴν παντὸς λόγου κρείττονα κοινωνίαν, ἣ βίου τελείου καὶ σφόδρα εὐδαίμονός ἐστι σαφέστατον δεῖγμα.

Translation from: The Works of Philo Judaeus, the Contemporary of Josephus, Translated from the Greek, C. D. Yonge, 4 vols., London: Henry G. Bohn

Original text from: Norwegian Philo Concordance Project.