Note 53 — THE ESSENES.

These ancient books on magical cures and exorcisms were the reputed works of Solomon, who, according to the Talmud as well as the Byzantine and Arabian writers, composed treatises on miraculous cures and driving out evil spirits. (Comp. Pesachim 56 a; Fabricius, Codex pseudepigraphus Vet. Test. p. 1042, &c.; Weil, Biblische Legenden der Muselmänner, p. 225–279). Josephus tells us elsewhere that some of these Solomonic productions still existed in his own days, and that he had actually seen demons driven out and people cured by their aid. (Comp. Antiq. book viii. chap. ii. § 5.) This account most strikingly illustrates what Christ says in Matth. xii. 27 . ↑