Note 39 — THE ESSENES.

This representation of the three Jewish sects as different philosophical schools, and the supposed resemblance of the Essenes to the Pythagoreans, which he mentions afterwards, (vide infra Antiq. xv. 10; § 4, p. 50) and which have misled modern writers, are nothing but a desire on the part of Josephus to make the divers teachings of his co-religionists correspond to the different systems of Greek philosophy. It is this anxiety to shew the Gentiles, for whom he wrote, how much the Jews resemble them both in doctrine and practice, which detracts from the merits of Josephus’ history. ↑