now known as the Kabbalah. But the general movement had passed beyond the bounds

of Judaism, and appeared in some forms of the Gnostic heresy. But still there are

Rabbinic references to the 'Chitsonim,' which s eem to identify them with the sect of the

Essenes. Thus, in one passage  156 certain practices of the Sadducees and of the Chitsonim

are mentioned together, and it is difficult to see who could be meant by the latter if not

the Essenes. Besides, the practices there referred to seem to contain covert allusions to

those of the Essenes. Thus, the Mishnah begins by prohibiting the public reading of the

Law by those who would not appear in a coloured, but only in a white dress. Again, the

curious statement is made that the manner of the Chitsonim was to cover the phylacteries

with gold - a statement unexplained in the Gemara, and inexplicable, unless we see in it

an allusion to the Essene practice of facing the rising Sun in their morning prayers.157

Again, we know with what bitterness Rabbinism denounced the use of the externe

writings (the Sepharim haChitsonim ) to the extent of excluding from eternal life those

who studied them.158 But one of the best ascertained facts concerning the Essenes is that

they possessed secret, 'outside,' holy writings of their own, which they guarded with

special care. And, although it is not maintained that the Sepharim haChitsonim were

exclusively Essene writings,159 the latter must have been included among them. We have

already seen reason for believing, that even the so-called Pseudepigraphic literature,

notably such works as the Book of Jubilees, was strongly tainted with Essene views; if,

indeed, in perhaps another than its present form, part of it was not actually Essene.

Lastly, we find what seems to us yet another covert allusion160 to Essene practices,

similar to that which has already been noticed.161 For, immediately after consigning to

destruction all who denied that there was proof in the Pentateuch for the Resurrection

(evidently the Sadducees), those who denied that the Law was from heaven (the Minim ,

or heretics - probably the Jewish Christians), and all 'Epicureans'162 (materialists), the

same punishment is assigned to those 'who read externe writings' (Sepharim

haChitsonim) and 'who whispered' (a magical formula) 'over a wound.'163 Both the

Babylonian and the Jerusalem Talmud164 offer a strange explanation of this practice;

perhaps, because they either did not, or else would not, understand the allusion. But to us

it seems at least significant that as, in the first quoted instance, the mention of the

Chitsonim is conjoined with a condemnation of the exclusive use of white garments in

worship, which we know to have been an Essene peculiarity, so the condemnation of the

use of Chitsonim writings with that of magical cures.165 At the same time, we are less

bound to insist on these allusions as essential to our argument, since those, who have

given another derivation than ours to the name Essenes, express themselves unable to

find in ancient Jewish writings any trustworthy reference to the sect.

Shophroth), shows that they were not Essenes, since such Rabbinic practices must have