Note 1 — THE ESSENES.

Their increased strictness in enforcing the observance of the rigid Mosaic Jaws of Levitical purity, which were afterwards amplified and rendered still more rigid by traditional explanations,1 ultimately compelled the Essenes to withdraw themselves altogether from the society of their Jewish brethren, to form a separate community, and to live apart from the world, since contact with any one who did not practice these laws, or with anything belonging to such an one, rendered them impure. This fear of coming in contact with that which is impure, as well as the desire not to be hindered in their spiritual communion with their Creator, also made the Essenes abstain from marriage; inasmuch as women, according to the law, are subject to perpetual pollutions in menstruum and child-birth (compare Lev. xii, 1–8 ; xv, 19–31 ), and as going to one’s wife, even under ordinary circumstances, is regarded as defiling (vide infra, p. 39, note 19). There were, however, some weak brethren who could not be like the angels in heaven, neither marrying nor being given in marriage; these were allowed to take wives, but they could never advance to the highest orders of the brotherhood, and had, moreover, to observe laws specially enacted for married brethren and sisters.