they were idealists. Their invocation of the sun, their extreme emphasis
on ceremonial cleanliness, their tendency toward celibacy, and their
distinction between soul and body, all suggest the indirect if not the
direct influence of the Pythagorean type of philosophy. If the Essenes
represented simply an extreme type of Pharisaism, the peculiar form of its
development was undoubtedly due to the Greek atmosphere amidst which it
flourished. The Essenes do not appear to have had any direct influence in
the politics of their day. They were a current apart from the main stream
of Judaism, and yet they could not fail to exert an indirect influence.
Many of their ideals and doctrines were closely similar to the teachings
of John the Baptist and Jesus. Yet there is a fundamental difference
between Essenism and primitive Christianity, for one sought to attain
perfection apart from life and the other in closest contact with the
currents of human thought and activity. While according to Josephus the
party of the Essenes at one time numbered four thousand, like all ascetic
movements it soon disappeared or else was deflected into that greater
stream of monasticism which rose in the early Christian centuries.



Section CXV. THE LIFE AND FAITH OF THE JEWS OF THE DISPERSION

[Sidenote: Jos. Ant. XII, 3:1a]
The Jews obtained honor from the kings of Asia when they became their
auxiliaries; for Seleucus Nicator made them citizens of those cities which
he built in Asia and in lower Syria, and in Antioch, the metropolis, and
gave them privileges equal to those of the Macedonians and the Greeks who
were its inhabitants.

[Sidenote: Jos. Jew. War, VII, 3:3a]