The Essenes: Their history and doctrines

The Essenes: Their history and doctrines

It is very surprising that the Essenes, whose exemplary Virtues elicited the unbounded admiration of even the Greeks and Romans, and whose doctrines and practices contributed so materially to the spread of Christianity, should be so little known among intelligent Christians. The current information upon this remarkable sect or order of Judaism, to be found in ecclesiastical histories and Cyclopdias, is derived from the short notices of Philo, Pliny, Josephus, Solinus, Porphyry, Eusebius, and Epiphanius. These seven witnessesof whom the first and third are Jewish philosophers, the second, fourth and fifth heathen writers, and the last two Christian church historiansare all who, till within a very recent period, have been subpnaed before the tribunal of public opinion, to give evidence as to the character of these very much misunderstood and neglected Essenes. Not only is this combined testimony insufficient, but it is too much tainted with the peculiar dogmas of the respective witnesses, to furnish the general reader with an unbiassed notion of the character and doctrines of this ancient sect. Philo and Josephus, writing in Greek and in apology for their Jewish brethren, were too anxious to represent to the Greeks and Romans every phase and sect of Judaism, as corresponding to the different systems of Greek and Roman philosophy; Pliny, Solinus, and Porphyry, again, betray too great an ignorance of the inward workings of the Jewish religion, and too much prejudice against the Jews; whilst Epiphanius draws upon his imagination, and Eusebius simply copies the account of Philo, with the well-known patristic pen. Nor can the [6]modern descriptions of the Essenes, as given in the histories of the church and in the popular Cyclopdias, be always relied upon when they profess to give the results of the aforementioned garbled scraps of ancient information; since the writers are either too much afraid of, or too much pleased with, the marked resemblance between some of the doctrines and practices of Christianity and Essenism. Hence those who style themselves the true evangelical Christians are very anxious to destroy every appearance of affinity between Essenism and Christianity, lest it should be said that the one gave rise to the other; whilst those who are termed Rationalists multiply and magnify every feature of resemblance, in order to show that Christianity is nothing but a development of Essenismso that the poor Essenes are crucified between the two. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 69170
Author: Ginsburg, Christian D. (Christian David)
Release Date: Oct 16, 2022
Format: eBook
Language: English
Publisher: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green
Publication Date: 1864
Publisher Country: United Kingdom