Note 10 — THE ESSENES.

Having ascertained the character of the Essenes, we shall be better prepared to investigate the origin of their name, which has been the cause of so much controversy, and which was not known even to Philo and Josephus. There is hardly an expression the etymology of which has called forth such a diversity of opinion as this name has elicited. The Greek and the Hebrew, the Syriac and the Chaldee, names of persons and names of places, have successively been tortured to confess the secret connected with this appellation, and there are no less, if not more, than twenty different explanations of it, which I shall give in chronological order. Philo tells us that some derived it from the Greek homonym ὁσιότης holiness, because the Essenes were above all others worshippers of God; but he rejects it as incorrect (vide infra, p. 32) without giving us another derivation. 2. Josephus does not expressly give any derivation of it, but simply says, “the third sect who really seem to practise holiness (ὁ δὴ καὶ δοκεῖ σεμνότητα ἀσκεῖν) are called Essenes.” (Vide infra p. 41). From the addition, however, “who really seem to practise holiness or piety,” Frankel10 argues that the word must mean holiness or piety, because it appears to justify the name, and hence concludes that Josephus most probably took it to be the Hebrew ‏חסידים‎ or ‏צנועים‎. Whilst Jost11 is of opinion that Josephus derived it from the Chaldee ‏חשא‎ to be silent, to be mysterious, because ‏חשן‎ the high priest’s breast-plate, for which the Septuagint has λογεῖον or λόγιον is translated by him ἐσσην, or that he might have deduced this idea from ‏חשן‎ itself, and traced it to λογεῖον or λόγιον as endowed with the gift of prophecy.12 In Aboth of R. Nathan13 it is written ‏עשאני‎ from ‏עשה‎ to do, to perform, and accordingly denotes the performers of the law. 4. Epiphanius again calls them Ὀσσαῖοι and Ὀσσηνοι and tells us that it etymologically signifies στιβαρὸν γένος the stout or strong race, evidently taking it for ‏חסין‎ or ‏עזים‎. 5. In another place Epiphanius affirms that the Essenes borrowed their name from Jesse the father of David, or from Jesus, whose doctrines he ascribes to them; explaining the name Jesus to signify in Hebrew a physician; and calls them Jesseans.14 In this he is followed by Petitus who makes them so related to David that they were obliged to take the name of his father Jesus or Jesse;15 although Jesus does not signify physician but God-help. 6. Suidas (Lex s. v.) and Hilgenfeld (Die jüdische Apokal. p. 278), make it out to be the form ‏חזין‎ = θεωρητικοί seers, and the latter maintains that this name was given to them because they pretended to see visions and to prophesy. 7. Josippon b. Gorion16 (lib. iv. sects. 6, 7, p.p. 274 and 278, ed. Breithaupt), and Gale (Court of the Gentiles, part ii., p. 147), take it for the Hebrew ‏חסידים‎ the pious, the puritans. 8. De Rossi17 (Meor Enaim, 82 a), Gfrörer (Philo, ii. p. 341), Herzfeld (Geschichte d. V. Israel ii. p. 397), and others, insist that it is the Aramaic ‏אסיא‎ = θεραπευτής physician, and that this name was given to them because of the spiritual or physical cures they performed. Indeed, De Rossi and Herzfeld will have it that the sect Baithusians ‏ביתוסים‎ mentioned in the Talmud is nothing but a contraction of ‏בית אסי‎ the school or sect of physicians, just as ‏בית הילל‎ stands for the school of Hillel. 9. Salmasius affirms that the Essenes derived their name from the town called Essa, situated beyond the Jordan, which is mentioned by Josephus (Antiq. xiii. 15, § 2), or from the place Vadi Ossis.18 10. Rappaport (Erech Milln, p. 41), says that it is the Greek ἰσος an associate, a fellow of the fraternity. 11. Frankel (Zeitschrift, 1846, p. 449, &c.), and others think that it is the Hebrew expression ‏צנועים‎ the retired. 12. Ewald (Geschichte d. Volkes Israel, iv. p. 420), is sure that it is the Rabbinic ‏חזן‎ servant (of God), and that the name was given to them because it was their only desire to be θεραπευταὶ θεοῦ. 13. Graetz (Geschichte der Juden iii. p. 468, second ed.) will have it that it is from the Aramaic ‏סחא‎ to bathe, with Aleph prostheticum, and that it is the shorter form for ‏אסחאי צפרא‎ = ‏טובלי שחרית‎ ἡμιερβαπτισταί hemerobaptists; the Greek form Ἐσσαῖος, Ἐσσαῖοι being nothing but Assaï or Essaï with ‏ח‎ elided. 14. Dr. Löw (Ben Chananja vol. i. p. 352) never doubts but that they were called Essenes after their founder, whose name he tells us was ‏ישי‎, the disciple of Rabbi Joshua ben Perachja. 15. Dr. Adler (Volkslehrer, vi. p. 50), again submits that it is from the Hebrew ‏אסר‎ to bind together, to associate, and that they were called ‏אסרים‎ because they united together to keep the law. 16. Dr. Cohen suggests the Chaldee root ‏עשן‎ to be strong, and that they were called ‏עשיני‎ because of their strength of mind to endure sufferings and to subdue their passions. (Comp. Frankel’s Monatschrift viii. p. 272). 17. Oppenheim thinks that it may be the form ‏עושין‎ and stand for ‏עושין טהרת הקדש‎ or ‏עושין טהרת חטאת‎ observers of the laws of purity and holiness. (Ibid). 18. Jellinek (Ben Chananja iv. 374), again derives it from the Hebrew ‏חצן‎ sinus, περίζωμα, alluding to the apron which the Essenes wore; whilst, 19, Others again derived it from ‏חסיא‎ pious. The two last-mentioned explanations seem to have much to recommend them, they are natural and expressive of the characteristics of the brotherhood. I, however, incline to prefer the last, because it plainly connects the Essenes with an ancient Jewish brotherhood called Chassidim ‏חסידים‎ the pious, who preceded the Essenes, and from whom the latter took their rise. Those who wish to trace this connection, will find an article on the Chassidim in Dr. Alexander’s edition of Kitto’s Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature.