a vessel moved, nay, not even nature eased.137 But this latter was connected with their
fundamental idea of inherent impurity in the body, and, indeed, in all that is material.
Hence, also, their asceticism, their repudiation of marriage, and their frequent lustrations
in clean water, not only before their sacrificial meals, but upon contact even with an
Essene of a lower grade, and after attending to the calls of nature. Their undoubted denial
of the resurrection of the body seems only the logical sequence from it. If the soul was a
substance of the subtlest ether, drawn by certain natural enticement into the body, which
was its prison, a state of perfectness could not have consisted in the restoration of that
which, being material, was in itself impure. And, indeed, what we have called the
exaggerated Judaism of the sect- its rigid abstinence from all forbidden food, and peculiar
Sabbath-observance - may all have had the same object, that of tending towards an
external purism, which the Divine legislator would have introduced, but the 'carnally-
minded' could not receive. Hence, also, the strict separation of the order, its grades, its
rigorous discipline, as well as its abstinence from wine, meat, and all ointments - from
every luxury, even from trades which would encourage this, or any vice. This aim after
external purity explains many of their outward arrangements, such as that their labour
was of the simplest kind, and the commonality of all property in the order; perhaps, also,
what may seem more ethical ordinances, such as the repudiation of slavery, their refusal
to take an oath, and even their scrupulous care of truth. The white garments, which they
always wore, seem to have been but a symbol of that purity which they sought. For this
purpose they submitted, not only to strict asceticism, but to a discipline which gave the
officials authority to expel all offenders, even though in so doing they virtually
condemned them to death by starvation, since the most terrible oaths had bound all
entrants into the order not to partake of any food other than that prepared by their 'priests.'
136. I venture to think that even Bishop Lightfoot lays too much stress on the affinity to
Pharisaism. I can discover few, if any, traces of Pharisaism in the distinctive sense of the
term. Even their frequent washings had a different object from those of the Pharisees.
137. For a similar reason, and in order 'not to affront the Divine rays of light' - the light as
symbol, if not outcome, of the Deity - they covered themselves, in such circumstances,
with the mantle which was their ordinary dress in winter.
In such a system there would, of course, be no place for either an Aaronic priesthood, or
bloody sacrifices. In fact, they repudiated both. Without formally rejecting the Temple
and its services, there was no room in their system for such ordinances. They sent,
indeed, thank offerings to the Temple, but what part had they in bloody sacrifices and an
Aaronic ministry, which constituted the main business of the Temple? Their 'priests' were
their bakers and presidents; their sacrifices those of fellowship, their sacred meals of
purity. It is quite in accordance with this tendency when we learn from Philo that, in their
diligent study of the Scriptures, they chiefly adopted the allegorical mode of
interpretation. 138
138. Ed. Mang ii. p. 458.
We can scarcely wonder that such Jews as Josephus and Philo, and s uch heathens as
Pliny, were attracted by such an unworldly and lofty sect. Here were about 4,000 men,
who deliberately separated themselves, not only from all that made life pleasant, but from