Note 46 — Chapter II · Hellenistic Influence upon the Jews of Palestine
Reading edition
Zeller says: “They exhibit so important a relationship to the Neo-Pythagoreans that we can only assume that they arose under the influence of Orphic Pythagorean asceticism, and subsequently, after the formation of a Neo-Pythagorean philosophy, adopted many of its doctrines” (Outlines of Greek Philosophy, p. 317). Wendland (Op. cit., p. 191, note 2) disagrees with this; he believes it improbable as being a hypothesis insufficiently supported by the facts.