CHAPTER 8.
ARCHELAUS'S ETHNARCHY IS REDUCED INTO A [ROMAN] PROVINCE.
THE SEDITION OF JUDAS OF GALILEE. THE THREE SECTS.
1. AND now Archelaus's part of Judea was reduced into a province, and
Coponius, one of the equestrian order among the Romans, was sent as a procurator,
having the power of [life and] death put into his hands by Caesar. Under his
administration it was that a certain Galilean, whose name was Judas, prevailed with his
countrymen to revolt, and said they were cowards if they would endure to pay a tax to the
Romans and would after God submit to mortal men as their lords. This man was a teacher
of a peculiar sect of his own, and was not at all like the rest of those their leaders.
2. For there are three philosophical sects among the Jews. The followers of the
first of which are the Pharisees; of the second, the Sadducees; and the third sect, which
pretends to a severer discipline, are called Essens. These last are Jews by birth, and seem
to have a greater affection for one another than the other sects have. These Essens reject
pleasures as an evil, but esteem continence, and the conquest over our passions, to be
virtue. They neglect wedlock, but choose out other persons children, while they are
pliable, and fit for learning, and esteem them to be of their kindred, and form them
according to their own manners. They do not absolutely deny the fitness of marriage, and
the succession of mankind thereby continued; but they guard against the lascivious
behavior of women, and are persuaded that none of them preserve their fidelity to one
man.
3. These men are despisers of riches, and so very communicative as raises our
admiration. Nor is there any one to be found among them who hath more than another;
for it is a law among them, that those who come to them must let what they have be
common to the whole order, - insomuch that among them all there is no appearance of
poverty, or excess of riches, but every one's possessions are intermingled with every
other's possessions; and so there is, as it were, one patrimony among all the brethren.
They think that oil is a defilement; and if any one of them be anointed without his own
approbation, it is wiped off his body; for they think to be sweaty is a good thing, as they
do also to be clothed in white garments. They also have stewards appointed to take care
of their common affairs, who every one of them have no separate business for any, but
what is for the uses of them all.
4. They have no one certain city, but many of them dwell in every city; and if any
of their sect come from other places, what they have lies open for them, just as if it were
their own; and they go in to such as they never knew before, as if they had been ever so
long acquainted with them. For which reason they carry nothing at all with them when
they travel into remote parts, though still they take their weapons with them, for fear of
thieves. Accordingly, there is, in every city where they live, one appointed particularly to
take care of strangers, and to provide garments and other necessaries for them. But the
habit and management of their bodies is such as children use who are in fear of their
masters. Nor do they allow of the change of or of shoes till be first torn to pieces, or worn
out by time. Nor do they either buy or sell any thing to one another; but every one of
them gives what he hath to him that wanteth it, and receives from him again in lieu of it
what may be convenient for himself; and although there be no requital made, they are
fully allowed to take what they want of whomsoever they please.
5. And as for their piety towards God, it is very extraordinary; for before sunrising
they speak not a word about profane matters, but put up certain prayers which they
have received from their forefathers, as if they made a supplication for its rising. After
this every one of them are sent away by their curators, to exercise some of those arts
wherein they are skilled, in which they labor with great diligence till the fifth hour. After
which they assemble themselves together again into one place; and when they have
clothed themselves in white veils, they then bathe their bodies in cold water. And after
this purification is over, they every one meet together in an apartment of their own, into
which it is not permitted to any of another sect to enter; while they go, after a pure
manner, into the dining-room, as into a certain holy temple, and quietly set themselves
down; upon which the baker lays them loaves in order; the cook also brings a single plate
of one sort of food, and sets it before every one of them; but a priest says grace before
meat; and it is unlawful for any one to taste of the food before grace be said. The same
priest, when he hath dined, says grace again after meat; and when they begin, and when
they end, they praise God, as he that bestows their food upon them; after which they lay
aside their [white] garments, and betake themselves to their labors again till the evening;
then they return home to supper, after the same manner; and if there be any strangers
there, they sit down with them. Nor is there ever any clamor or disturbance to pollute
their house, but they give every one leave to speak in their turn; which silence thus kept
in their house appears to foreigners like some tremendous mystery; the cause of which is
that perpetual sobriety they exercise, and the same settled measure of meat and drink that
is allotted them, and that such as is abundantly sufficient for them.
6. And truly, as for other things, they do nothing but according to the injunctions
of their curators; only these two things are done among them at everyone's own free-will,
which are to assist those that want it, and to show mercy; for they are permitted of their
own accord to afford succor to such as deserve it, when they stand in need of it, and to
bestow food on those that are in distress; but they cannot give any thing to their kindred
without the curators. They dispense their anger after a just manner, and restrain their
passion. They are eminent for fidelity, and are the ministers of peace; whatsoever they
say also is firmer than an oath; but swearing is avoided by them, and they esteem it worse
than perjury (4) for they say that he who cannot be believed without [swearing by] God is
already condemned. They also take great pains in studying the writings of the ancients,
and choose out of them what is most for the advantage of their soul and body; and they
inquire after such roots and medicinal stones as may cure their distempers.
7. But now if any one hath a mind to come over to their sect, he is not
immediately admitted, but he is prescribed the same method of living which they use for
a year, while he continues excluded'; and they give him also a small hatchet, and the forementioned
girdle, and the white garment. And when he hath given evidence, during that
time, that he can observe their continence, he approaches nearer to their way of living,
and is made a partaker of the waters of purification; yet is he not even now admitted to
live with them; for after this demonstration of his fortitude, his temper is tried two more
years; and if he appear to be worthy, they then admit him into their society. And before
he is allowed to touch their common food, he is obliged to take tremendous oaths, that, in
the first place, he will exercise piety towards God, and then that he will observe justice
towards men, and that he will do no harm to any one, either of his own accord, or by the
command of others; that he will always hate the wicked, and be assistant to the righteous;
that he will ever show fidelity to all men, and especially to those in authority, because no
one obtains the government without God's assistance; and that if he be in authority, he
will at no time whatever abuse his authority, nor endeavor to outshine his subjects either
in his garments, or any other finery; that he will be perpetually a lover of truth, and
propose to himself to reprove those that tell lies; that he will keep his hands clear from
theft, and his soul from unlawful gains; and that he will neither conceal any thing from
those of his own sect, nor discover any of their doctrines to others, no, not though anyone
should compel him so to do at the hazard of his life. Moreover, he swears to
communicate their doctrines to no one any otherwise than as he received them himself;
that he will abstain from robbery, and will equally preserve the books belonging to their
sect, and the names of the angels (5) [or messengers]. These are the oaths by which they
secure their proselytes to themselves.
8. But for those that are caught in any heinous sins, they cast them out of their
society; and he who is thus separated from them does often die after a miserable manner;
for as he is bound by the oath he hath taken, and by the customs he hath been engaged in,
he is not at liberty to partake of that food that he meets with elsewhere, but is forced to
eat grass, and to famish his body with hunger, till he perish; for which reason they receive
many of them again when they are at their last gasp, out of compassion to them, as
thinking the miseries they have endured till they came to the very brink of death to be a
sufficient punishment for the sins they had been guilty of.
9. But in the judgments they exercise they are most accurate and just, nor do they
pass sentence by the votes of a court that is fewer than a hundred. And as to what is once
determined by that number, it is unalterable. What they most of all honor, after God
himself, is the name of their legislator [Moses], whom if any one blaspheme he is
punished capitally. They also think it a good thing to obey their elders, and the major
part. Accordingly, if ten of them be sitting together, no one of them will speak while the
other nine are against it. They also avoid spitting in the midst of them, or on the right
side. Moreover, they are stricter than any other of the Jews in resting from their labors on
the seventh day; for they not only get their food ready the day before, that they may not
be obliged to kindle a fire on that day, but they will not remove any vessel out of its
place, nor go to stool thereon. Nay, on other days they dig a small pit, a foot deep, with a
paddle (which kind of hatchet is given them when they are first admitted among them);
and covering themselves round with their garment, that they may not affront the Divine
rays of light, they ease themselves into that pit, after which they put the earth that was
dug out again into the pit; and even this they do only in the more lonely places, which
they choose out for this purpose; and although this easement of the body be natural, yet it
is a rule with them to wash themselves after it, as if it were a defilement to them.
10. Now after the time of their preparatory trial is over, they are parted into four
classes; and so far are the juniors inferior to the seniors, that if the seniors should be
touched by the juniors, they must wash themselves, as if they had intermixed themselves
with the company of a foreigner. They are long-lived also, insomuch that many of them
live above a hundred years, by means of the simplicity of their diet; nay, as I think, by
means of the regular course of life they observe also. They contemn the miseries of life,
and are above pain, by the generosity of their mind. And as for death, if it will be for their
glory, they esteem it better than living always; and indeed our war with the Romans gave
abundant evidence what great souls they had in their trials, wherein, although they were
tortured and distorted, burnt and torn to pieces, and went through all kinds of instruments
of torment, that they might be forced either to blaspheme their legislator, or to eat what
was forbidden them, yet could they not be made to do either of them, no, nor once to
flatter their tormentors, or to shed a tear; but they smiled in their very pains, and laughed
those to scorn who inflicted the torments upon them, and resigned up their souls with
great alacrity, as expecting to receive them again.
11. For their doctrine is this: That bodies are corruptible, and that the matter they
are made of is not permanent; but that the souls are immortal, and continue for ever; and
that they come out of the most subtile air, and are united to their bodies as to prisons, into
which they are drawn by a certain natural enticement; but that when they are set free from
the bonds of the flesh, they then, as released from a long bondage, rejoice and mount
upward. And this is like the opinions of the Greeks, that good souls have their habitations
beyond the ocean, in a region that is neither oppressed with storms of rain or snow, or
with intense heat, but that this place is such as is refreshed by the gentle breathing of a
west wind, that is perpetually blowing from the ocean; while they allot to bad souls a
dark and tempestuous den, full of never-ceasing punishments. And indeed the Greeks
seem to me to have followed the same notion, when they allot the islands of the blessed
to their brave men, whom they call heroes and demi-gods; and to the souls of the wicked,
the region of the ungodly, in Hades, where their fables relate that certain persons, such as
Sisyphus, and Tantalus, and Ixion, and Tityus, are punished; which is built on this first
supposition, that souls are immortal; and thence are those exhortations to virtue and
dehortations from wickedness collected; whereby good men are bettered in the conduct of
their life by the hope they have of reward after their death; and whereby the vehement
inclinations of bad men to vice are restrained, by the fear and expectation they are in, that
although they should lie concealed in this life, they should suffer immortal punishment
after their death. These are the Divine doctrines of the Essens (6) about the soul, which
lay an unavoidable bait for such as have once had a taste of their philosophy.
12. There are also those among them who undertake to foretell things to come, (7)
by reading the holy books, and using several sorts of purifications, and being perpetually
conversant in the discourses of the prophets; and it is but seldom that they miss in their
predictions.
13. Moreover, there is another order of Essens, (8) who agree with the rest as to
their way of living, and customs, and laws, but differ from them in the point of marriage,
as thinking that by not marrying they cut off the principal part of human life, which is the
prospect of succession; nay, rather, that if all men should be of the same opinion, the
whole race of mankind would fail. However, they try their spouses for three years; and if
they find that they have their natural purgations thrice, as trials that they are likely to be
fruitful, they then actually marry them. But they do not use to accompany with their
wives when they are with child, as a demonstration that they do not many out of regard to
pleasure, but for the sake of posterity. Now the women go into the baths with some of
their garments on, as the men do with somewhat girded about them. And these are the
customs of this order of Essens.
14. But then as to the two other orders at first mentioned, the Pharisees are those
who are esteemed most skillful in the exact explication of their laws, and introduce the
first sect. These ascribe all to fate [or providence], and to God, and yet allow, that to act
what is right, or the contrary, is principally in the power of men, although fate does cooperate
in every action. They say that all souls are incorruptible, but that the souls of
good men only are removed into other bodies, - but that the souls of bad men are subject
to eternal punishment. But the Sadducees are those that compose the second order, and
take away fate entirely, and suppose that God is not concerned in our doing or not doing
what is evil; and they say, that to act what is good, or what is evil, is at men's own choice,
and that the one or the other belongs so to every one, that they may act as they please.
They also take