ESSENES. - A Jewish religious association that existed in Palestine from about 150 B.C. to A.D. 70.
Pliny, Philo, and Josephus speak of it (especially in Bell. Iud., II, 8, 2-13), and Josephus rightly enjoys the preference of critics. There is no mention in the New Testament or the Talmud; the Fathers depend on the three preceding authors. The etymology of the name is uncertain; it is interpreted as "silent ones" by M.-J. Lagrange and others, but commonly as "pli" (from the Aramaic ḥāsaijā, whence the two Greek forms 'Εωργοί [Pliny, Josephus] and 'Εωαίος [Philo and 4 times Josephus]).
The Essenes are Hasidim who around 150 B.C. (cf. Antiq. Iud., XVIII, 1, 2; XIII, 11, 2), in order to realize their strictly religious program, broke away from the Pharisees, withdrawing into true and proper cenobitic communities. Their main characteristics were: common life (dwelling, goods, every earning, prayers, table, clothing, etc.); unconditional obedience to the superior of the cenobium, who directs everything and everyone and is the administrator of the community; celibacy ("gens in qua nemo nascitur": Pliny); manual labor, assigned each day by the superior: ordinarily agriculture, but also other trades, for everything needed by the community. Commerce was forbidden, as a source of greed.
The sick and the old were supported with care by the community. Members could take money from the common house to assist the needy; but if it was a matter of relatives they had to have the superior's permission. They practiced legal purity, going far beyond the Pharisees. They dressed in white; the sparse and frugal food was prepared by priests, who before and after the meal (consumed in silence) recited the prayers and gave the blessing. Any other food was considered impure; as impure was considered any contact not only with outsiders, but even with novices. Numerous therefore were the ablutions, baths taken with a loincloth before partaking of food and after contracting any impurity. The horror of impurity could explain their celibacy (cf. Lev. 16, 16-18), although Josephus gives as its reason the disparagement of woman, considered an unfaithful spouse (Bell. Iud., II, 8, 2, § 120 ff.). They took special precautions in satisfying their bodily needs (Bell. Iud., II, 8, 9, § 148; cf. Deut. 23, 13-15); they pushed to exaggeration the observance of the Sabbath, on which it was forbidden to satisfy the aforementioned needs (ibid., § 147). All this explains why the cenobia were scattered along the Dead Sea and the Jordan valley, far from inhabited places. In some cities and in Jerusalem itself (next to the gate called that of the Essenes), they had houses to host members passing through.
They had a particular veneration for the Töräh and for Moses. Students of ancient traditions, they seem to have written many of the apocryphal books. Various critics attribute to them the Book of Enoch and the Assumption of Moses; others add: the Testament of the 12 Patriarchs and the Ascension of Isaiah. Among the manuscripts found in the Judean desert (1947), there is a manual of discipline or ritual of initiation of a Jewish sect that E. L. Sukenik identifies with the Essenes (cf. Revue biblique, 56 [1949], pp. 201, 583-85, 593 ff., 609).
On the Sabbath they devoted themselves to the reading and explanation of the sacred books. A practical people, they placed morality first. "The Essenes let themselves be guided by the rules of piety, of justice, of private and social law... They submit to three rules... the love of God, the love of virtue, the love of men, in benevolence, in impartiality, in the community of goods" (Philo). They had absolute trust in divine Providence, and full submission to its designs (Antiq. Iud., XIII, 5, 9). They cultivated and developed angelology (Bell. Iud., II, 8, 7).
One was admitted into the organization only after a "novitiate" of three years; only then was one who gave assurance incorporated into it, after a solemn oath to be faithful to the norms of the community and not to reveal its secrets, even if threatened with death (Bell. Iud., II, 8, 7). They welcomed children whom they educated according to the ideal of the sect (loc. cit., 8, 2). At the time of Jesus they numbered about 4000. Characteristics instead contrary to every Jewish mentality are: the exclusion of bloody sacrifice (perhaps because of Is. 1, 11; Hos. 6, 5); the prohibition of any oath; turning toward the sun in prayer, instead of toward Jerusalem (cf. Ex. 8, 16); the belief in the pre-existence of souls and, if righteous, in their return, as soon as they leave the prison of the body, to the stars from which they had descended.
One cannot therefore discern the origin of Essenism solely in post-exilic Judaism (E. Stapfer, Z. Frankel, H. Grütz, H. Derenbourg, A. Geiger, W. Clemens, etc.); an external influence seems evident. It has been sought in vain in Parseeism (A. Hilgenfeld, J. Lightfoot; cf. L. de Grandmaison), and with even greater improbability in distant Buddhism; more commonly, and rightly, in the Greek world, and specifically in Pythagoreanism (already Josephus, Bell. Ind., II, 8, 11; Antiq. Ind., XV, 10, 4; E. Schürer, E. Zeller, M.-J. Lagrange, L. Marchal). A combination, then, of the preponderant Jewish element with Pythagoreanism: "in the care of bodily purity and holiness, and of purifications; in the simple, rough life, free from every sensible pleasure; in the great esteem (if not in the complete requirement) of celibacy; in the use of the white garment; in the rejection of the oath and of bloody sacrifices; in the orientation of the one praying; in the precaution of removing from sight what is impure; in the dualist conception of the relations of soul and body" (L. Marchal, col. 1127 ff.).
The influence of the Essenes on Judaism is unprovable; and even less on Christianity (cf. L. de Grandmaison, I, p. 253; L. Marchal, coll. 1128-31).
Bibliography5 works
Studies: H. Leclercq, Cénohitisme, III, Monachisme juif, in DACL, II, coll. 3058-75; W. Bauer, s. v. in Pauly-Wissowa, Suppl., IV, coll. 386-430; L. Marchal, s. v. in DBs, II, coll. 1109-32; E. Schürer, Geschichte des jüdischen Volkes, II, 3rd ed., Leipzig 1898, pp. 356-84; E. Zeller, Die Philosophie der Griechen, III, II, 4th ed., Tübingen 1903, pp. 307-77; I. Lévy, La légende de Pythagore, de Grèce en Palestine, Paris 1927, pp. 264-88; M.-J. Lagrange, La gnose mandéenne et la tradition évangélique, in Revue biblique, 34 (1927), pp. 321-49, 481-515; id., La Judaïsme avant Jésus-Christ, 2nd ed., Paris 1931, pp. 307-30, 385, 425 ff.; J. de Grandmaison, Jésus-Christ, I, 6th ed., ibid. 1931, pp. 252-54; U. Holmeister, Historia oestatis Noel Testament, Rome 1932, pp. 211-25; J. Bonsirven, Le Judaïsme palestinien, I, 2nd ed., Paris 1935, pp. 63-67.
Francesco Spadafora