Although the Essenes, who, with the exception of a small party among them, repudiated
marriage, adopted children to train them in the principles of their sect,133 yet admission to
the order was only granted to adults, and after a novitiate which lasted three years. On
entering, the novice received the three symbols of purity: an axe, or rather a spade, with
which to dig a pit, a foot deep, to cover up the excrements; an apron, to bind round the
loins in bathing; and a white dress, which was always worn, the festive garment at meals
being of linen. At the end of the first year the novice was admitted to the lustrations. He
had now entered on the second grade, in which he remained for another year. After its
lapse, he was advanced to the third grade, but still continued a novice, until, at the close
of the third year of his probation, he was admitted to the fourth grade - that of full
member, when, for the first time, he was admitted to the sacrifice of the common meals.
The mere touch of one of a lower grade in the order defiled the Essene, and necessitated
the lustration of a bath. Befo re admission to full membership, a terrible oath was taken.
As, among other things, it bound to the most absolute secrecy, we can scarcely suppose
that its form, as given by Josephus,134 contains much beyond what was generally allowed
to transpire. Thus the long list given by the Jewish historian of moral obligations which
the Essenes undertook, is probably only a rhetorical enlargement of some simple formula.
More credit attaches to the alleged undertaking of avoidance of all vanity, falsehood,
dishonesty, and unlawful gains. The last parts of the oath alone indicate the peculiar vows
of the sect, that is, so far as they could be learned by the outside world, probably chiefly
through the practice of the Essenes. They bound each member not to conceal anything
from his own sect, nor, even on peril of death, to disclose their doctrines to others; to
hand down their doctrines exactly as they had received them; to abstain from robbery;135
and to guard the books belonging to their sect, and the names of the Angels.
133. Schürer regards these children as forming the first of the four 'classes' or 'grades'
into which the Essenes were arranged. But this is contrary to the express statement of
Philo, that only adults were admitted into the order, and hence only such could have
formed a 'grade' or 'class' of the community. (Comp. ed. Mangey, ii. p. 632, from
Eusebius' Prępar. Evang. lib. viii. cap. 8.) I have adopted the view of Bishop Lightfoot on
the subject. Even the marrying order of the Essenes, however, only admit ted of wedlock
under great restrictions, and as a necessary evil (War, u. s. sections 13). Bishop Lightfoot
suggests, that these were not Essenes in the strict sense, but only 'like the third order of a
Benedictine or Franciscan brotherhood.'
134. War ii. 8.7.
135. Can this possibly have any connection in the mind of Josephus with the later
Nationalist movement? This would agree with his insistance on their respect for those in
authority. Otherwise the emphasis laid on abstinence from robbery seems strange in such
a sect.
It is evident that, while all else was intended as safeguards of a rigorous sect of purists,
and with the view of strictly keeping it a secret order, the last-mentioned particulars
furnish significant indications of their peculiar doctrines. Some of these may be regarded
as only exaggerations of Judaism, though not of the Pharisaic kind.136 Among them we
reckon the extravagant reverence for the name of their legislator (presumably Moses),
whom to blaspheme was a capital offence; their rigid abstinence from all prohibited food;
and their exaggerated Sabbath-observance, when, not only no food was prepared, but not