Note 22 — THE ESSENES.
Reading edition
This is not the only reason why the Essenes withdrew from cities. Their observance of the Levitical laws of purity which rendered them impure when they came in contact with those who did not live according to the same rules, was the principal cause of their living separately. (Vide supra p. 7, note 1.) Philo, however, states the first reason because the Greeks, for whom he wrote, understood it better than the second, which is so peculiarly Jewish in its character. ↑