Josephus, Antiquities XVIII, 18-22: The Doctrine of the ...



Second Temple Sectarianism

1. Josephus, Antiquities XIII, 171-3: The Sects and God’s Role in Human Affairs

(171) At this time there were three schools of thought among the Jews, each of which had different opinions concerning human actions. One was called the Pharisees, another the Sadducees, and the other the Essenes. (172) Now for the Pharisees, they say that some actions, but not all, are the work of fate (Josephus means providence, but he uses a term familiar to his Greek readers), and some of them are in our own power and that they are liable to fate but are not caused by fate. But the sect of the Essenes affirms that fate governs all things, and that nothing befalls men except that which is according to its determination. (173) And as for the Sadducees, they exclude fate and say that there is no such thing, and that the events of human affairs are not at its disposal. But they suppose that all our actions are in our own power, so that we are ourselves the cause of what is good, and we suffer what is evil as a result of our own folly.

2. Josephus, Antiquities XIII, 297: The Pharisees and Sadducees on the Traditions of the Fathers

(297) …What I would now explain is this, that the Pharisees have passed on to the people a great many observances handed down by their fathers, which are not written down in the law of Moses. For this reason the Sadducees reject them and say that we are to consider to be obligatory only those observances which are in the written word, but need not observe those which are derived from the tradition of our forefathers.

3. Josephus, Antiquities XVIII, 11-17: More About the Pharisees and Sadducees

(11) The Jews had for a great while three schools of philosophy peculiar to themselves: the Essenes, the Sadducees, and the third was that of those called Pharisees. . . .

(12) Now, for the Pharisees, they live simply, and despise delicacies in diet. And they follow the conduct of reason; and what that prescribes to them as good for them, they do. They think they ought earnestly to strive to observe those commandments which it has seen fit to dictate to them. They also pay respect to those who are advanced in years, nor are they so bold as to contradict them in anything which they have introduced.

(13) Though they determine that all things are done by fate, they do not exclude the freedom from men of acting as they think fit, since their notion is that it has pleased God to make a temperament whereby what he wills is done, but so that the will of men can act virtuously or viciously. (14) They also believe that souls have an immortal power in them, and that under the earth there will be rewards or punishments, depending on whether they have lived virtuously or viciously in this life. The latter are to be detained in an everlasting prison, but the former shall have power to revive and live again.

(15) On account of these doctrines, they are very influential among the body of the people, and whatever they do about divine worship, prayers, and sacrifices, they perform them according to their direction. In this way, the inhabitants of the cities gave great tribute to the Pharisees by conducting themselves virtuously, both in their way of life and their discourses as well.

(16) But the doctrine of the Sadducees is that souls die with the bodies. Nor do they regard as obligatory the observance of anything besides what the law enjoins them. For they think it an instance of virtue to dispute with those teachers of philosophy whom they frequent. (17) This doctrine is accepted only by a few, yet by those still of the greatest standing. But they are able to do almost nothing by themselves, for when they become magistrates, as they are unwillingly and by force sometimes obliged to be, they submit themselves to the notions of the Pharisees because the multitude would not otherwise tolerate them.

4. Josephus, Antiquities XVIII, 18-22: The Doctrine of the Essenes

(18) The doctrine of the Essenes is that all things are best ascribed to God. They teach the immortality of the soul and believe that the rewards of righteousness are to be earnestly striven for. (19) When they send what they have dedicated to God to the temple, they do not offer sacrifices because they have more purification rituals of their own, because of which they are excluded from the common court of the temple, but offer their sacrifices themselves. Yet their course of life is better than that of other men, and they entirely devote themselves to agricultural labor. (20) It also deserves our admiration how much they exceed all other men who claim to be virtuous, and indeed to such a degree as has never appeared among any other people, neither Greeks nor barbarians, no, not even briefly. But it has endured for so long among them and has never been interrupted since they adopted them from of old. This is demonstrated by that institution of theirs in which all things are held in common; so that a rich man enjoys no more of his own wealth than he who has nothing at all. There are about four thousand men that live in this way.

(21)Neither do they marry wives nor are they desirous to keep servants, thinking that the latter tempts men to be unjust and the former opens the way to domestic quarrels; but as they live by themselves, they minister one to another. (22) They also appoint certain stewards to receive the incomes of their revenues and of the fruits of the ground, those who are good men and priests, who are to get their grain and their food ready for them.

5. מסכתות קטנות מסכת אבות דרבי נתן נוסחא א פרק ה ד"ה אנטיגנוס איש

אנטיגנוס איש סוכו קבל משמעון הצדיק הוא היה אומר אל תהיו כעבדים המשמשים את הרב על מנת לקבל פרס אלא היו כעבדים המשמשים את הרב שלא על מנת לקבל פרס ויהי מורא שמים עליכם כדי שיהיה שכרכם כפול לעתיד לבא:

אנטיגנוס איש סוכו היו לו שני תלמידים שהיו שונין בדבריו והיו שונין לתלמידים ותלמידים לתלמידים. עמדו ודקדקו אחריהן ואמרו מה ראו אבותינו לומר דבר זה אפשר שיעשה פועל מלאכה כל היום ולא יטול שכרו ערבית. אלא אלו היו יודעין אבותינו שיש עולם אחר ויש תחיית המתים לא היו אומרים כך. עמדו ופירשו מן התורה ונפרצו מהם שתי פרצות צדוקים וביתוסין. צדוקים על שום צדוק ביתוסי על שום ביתוס. והיו משתמשין בכלי כסף וכלי זהב כל ימיהם. שלא היתה דעתן גסה עליהם אלא צדוקים אומרים מסורת הוא ביד פרושים שהן מצערין עצמן בעולם הזה ובעולם הבא אין להם כלום:

Josephus, War II, 119-61: The Life of the Essenes

(119) The Essenes are Jews by birth and seem to have a greater affection for one another than the other schools have. (120) These Essenes reject pleasures as an evil, but consider continence and the conquest over our passions to be virtue. They disdain marriage but seek other persons’ children, while they are pliable and fit for learning, and regard them to be of their kind and form them according to their own principles. (121) 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 preserves her fidelity to one man. (122) These men are despisers of riches, and so their community of goods raises our admiration. Nor is there anyone to be found among them who has more than another, for it is a law among them that those who join them must let what they have be common to the whole order. For among them all there is no appearance of poverty or excess of riches, but everyone’s possessions are intermingled with every other’s possessions, and so there is, as it were, one patrimony among all the fellows. (123) They think that oil is a defilement, and if anyone of them be anointed without his approval, it is wiped off his body. For they think that to have a dry skin 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, every one of whom performs special services as determined by the entire group.

(124) They have no one city, but many of them dwell in every city. And if any of their school come from other places, their resources are available to them, just as if it were their own, and they go into the homes of those whom they never knew before as if they had been ever so long acquainted with them. (125) For this reason they carry nothing 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 necessities for them. (126) But the dress and behavior is such as children practice who are in fear of their masters. Nor do they allow the change of garments or of shoes until they are first entirely torn to pieces or worn out by time. (127) Neither do they either buy or sell anything to one another, but every one of them gives what he has to him that needs it and receives from him again in lieu of it what may be convenient for himself. Although there is no repayment made, they are fully allowed to take what they want from whomsoever they please.

(128) And as for their piety towards God, it is very extraordinary. For before sunrise they speak not a word about mundane matters, but offer certain prayers which they have received from their forefathers, as if they made a supplication for its rising. (129) After this everyone of them is sent away by their superiors to exercise some of those crafts wherein they are skilled, in which they labor with great diligence until the fifth hour. After that, they assemble together again in one place, and when they have clothed themselves in linen garments, they then bathe their bodies in cold water. After this purification is over, they all meet together in an apartment of their own, into which it is not permitted to any of another school to enter. They go, after a pure manner, into the dining room as into some holy temple. (130) They quietly sit down. Then the baker places loaves before them in order; the cook also brings a single portion of one sort of food and sets it before every one of them. (131) A priest says grace before meat, and it is unlawful for anyone to taste the food before grace is said. The same priest, after he has dined, says grace again after meat, and when they begin and when they end, they praise God as the One Who bestows their food upon them. After this, they lay aside their [white] garments, and return to their labors again until the evening.

(132) Then they return home to supper in the same manner, and if there are 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 permission to speak in his turn. (133) The silence thus kept in their house appears to foreigners like some tremendous mystery. In fact, the cause of it is that perpetual sobriety that they exercise and the limitation of meat and drink that is allotted to them to that which is abundantly sufficient for them.

(134) And truly, as for other things, they do nothing but according to the injunctions of their superiors. Only these two things are done among them at everyone’s own free will, namely, to assist those in need 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 in distress, but they cannot give anything to their relatives without permission from the managers. (135) They hold their anger in reserve in a just manner and restrain their passion. They are famous for fidelity and are the ministers of peace. Also whatever they say is firmer than an oath, but swearing is avoided by them, and they consider it worse than perjury. For they say that he who cannot be believed without [swearing by] God is already condemned. (136) They also take great pains in studying the writings of the ancients, and choose from them that which is most to the advantage of their soul and body. And they inquire after such roots and medicinal stones as may cure diseases.

(137) But now, if anyone has a mind to join their school, he is not immediately admitted, but he is prescribed the same way of life which they practice for a year, while he continues to be excluded; and they give him a small hatchet, the aforementioned loin- cloth, and the white garment. (138) And when he has given evidence during that time that he can observe their way of life, he approaches nearer to their way of living and is allowed to partake of the waters of purification. Yet he is not even now admitted to live with them, for after this demonstration of his fortitude, his character is tested for two more years. If he appears to be worthy, they then admit him into their society. (139) Before he is allowed to touch their common food, he is obligated 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 anyone, either of his own accord or by the command of others; that he will always hate the wicked and fight the battle of the righteous; (140) that he willalways show fidelity to all men, especially to those in authority, because no one obtains office without God’s assistance; and that if he is 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; (141) that he will perpetually be a lover of truth and expose those that tell lies; that he will keep his hands from theft and his soul from unlawful gains; and that he will neither conceal anything from those of his own school nor reveal any of their doctrines to others, no, not even if anyone should compel him to do so at the hazard of his life. (142) Moreover, he swears to communicate their doctrines exactly as he received them himself, to abstain from robbery, and to carefully preserve the books belonging to their school and the names of the angels. These are the oaths by which they secure their proselytes.

(143) But those that are caught in any heinous sins, they cast out of their society. He who is thus separated from them often dies in a miserable manner, for as he is bound by the oath he has taken and by the customs he has been engaged in, he is not at liberty to partake of that food which he finds elsewhere, but is forced to eat grass and to starve his body with hunger until he perishes. (144) For this reason they receive many of them again when they are at their last gasp, out of compassion for them, considering the miseries they have endured until they come to the very brink of death to be a sufficient punishment for the sins of which they had been guilty. (145) 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 decided by that number, it is unalterable. What they most of all honor, after God himself, is the name of their legislator [Moses], for if anyone blasphemes Moses, he is capitally punished.

(146) They also think it a good thing to obey their elders and a majority. Accordingly, if ten of them are sitting together, no one of them will speak if the other nine are against it. (147) They also avoid spitting in their midst or on the right side. Moreover, they are stricter than any other Jews in resting from their labors on the seventh day, for they not only get their food ready the day before so 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 relieve themselves. (148) Rather, on the other days they dig a small pit a foot deep with a mattock (a kind of hatchet which is given them when they are first admitted among them), and covering themselves round about with their garment, so that they may not affront the divine rays of light, they ease themselves into that pit, (149) after which they put the earth that was dug out again into the pit. This they do only in the more lonely places which they choose out for this purpose; and although this easement of the body is natural, yet it is a rule with them to wash themselves after it as if it were a defilement to them.

(150) Now according to the duration of their discipline, they are divided 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 had contact with a foreigner. (151) They are long-lived also, as many of them live more than a hundred years by means of the simplicity of their diet; indeed, I think, by means of the regular course of life they observe also. They make light of the miseries of life and are above pain by their resolute will. And as for death, if it will be for their glory, they consider it better than immortality. (152) Indeed our war with the Romans gave abundant evidence of 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 so that they might be forced either to blaspheme their legislator or to eat what was forbidden to them, yet they could not be made to do either ofthese things, no, nor once to flatter their tormentors or to shed a tear. (153) But they smiled in their pains and laughed in scorn at those who inflicted the torments upon them, and resigned their souls cheerfully, expecting to receive them again.

(154) For their doctrine is that bodies are corruptible, and that the matter they are made of it not permanent. But the souls are immortal and continue forever, and they come out of the most subtle air and are united to their bodies as in prisons into which they are drawn by a certain natural enticement. (155) But when they are set free from the bonds of the flesh, they then, as if released from a long bondage, rejoice and mount upward. And this is like the opinion 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 refreshed by the gentle breathing of a west wind perpetually blowing from the ocean; while they allot to bad souls a dark and tempestuous dungeon full of never-ceasing punishments. (156) 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 demigods; and to the souls of the wicked, the region of the ungodly, in Hades, where their fables relate that certain persons, such as Sisyphus, Tantalus, Ixion, and Tityus, are punished. Their view was first to establish that souls are immortal, and second to promote virtue and deter wickedness. (157) For good men are bettered in the conduct of their life by the hope they have of reward after their death, and 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. (158) These are the divine doctrines of the Essenes about the soul by which they irresistibly attract all who have once had a taste of their philosophy. (159) There are also those among them who undertake to foretell things to come by reading the holy books, 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.

(160) Moreover, there is another order of Essenes who agree with the rest as to their way of life, customs, and laws, but differ from them in the point of marriage, thinking that by not marrying they cut off the principal part of human life which is the prospect of succession. Indeed, if all men should be of the same opinion, the whole race of mankind would die out. (161) However, they test their spouses for three years. If they find that they have their natural periods thrice as evidence that they are likely to be fruitful, they then actually marry them. But they do not have relations with their wives when they are pregnant as a demonstration that they do not marry out of regard for pleasure but only for the sake of posterity. The women go into the baths with some of their garments on as the men do with a loin-cloth. These are the customs of this order of Essenes.

Philo, Every Good Man is Free XII, 75-87: Description of the Essenes

(75) Moreover, Palestine and Syria are not barren of exemplary wisdom and virtue. In these countries lives no small portion of that most populous nation of the Jews. There is a portion of those people called Essenes, in number something more than four thousand in my opinion, who derive their name from their piety, though not according to an accurate form of the Greek language, 116 because they are above all especially devoted to the service of God, not sacrificing living animals, but studying rather to preserve their own minds in a state of holiness and purity. (76) These men, in the first place, live in villages, avoiding all cities on account of the habitual lawlessness of those who inhabit them, knowing that such a moral disease is contracted from associations with wicked men, just as a real disease might be from an unhealthy atmosphere, and that this would have a deadly effect on their souls. Of these men, some cultivating the earth and others devoting themselves to those arts which are the result of peace, benefit both themselves and all those who come in contact with them, not storing up treasures of silver and gold, nor acquiring vast sections of land out of a desire for ample revenues, but providing all things which are requisite for the natural purposes of life. (77) For they alone of almost all men have become poor and destitute by deliberate action rather than by any real deficiency of good fortune, but are nevertheless accounted very rich, judging contentment and frugality to be great abundance, as in truth they are.

(78) Among those men you will find no makers of arrows, javelins, swords, helmets, breastplates, shields; no makers of arms or of military engines; no one, in short, attending to any employment whatever connected with war, or even to any of those occupations even in peace which are easily perverted to wicked purposes. For they are utterly ignorant of all business and of all commercial dealings, and of all sea trade, but they repudiate and keep aloof from everything which can possibly afford any inducement to covetousness. (79) There is not a single slave among them, but they are all free, aiding one another with a reciprocal interchange of services. They condemn the owner of slaves not only as unjust, inasmuch as they corrupt the very principles of equality, but likewise as impious, because they annul the ordinances of nature which created them all equally and brought them up like a mother, as if they were all legitimate brethren, not in name only, but in reality and truth.

But in their view this natural relationship of all men to one another has been thrown into disorder by scheming covetousness, continually wishing to surpass others in good fortune, which has therefore engendered alienation instead of affection, and hatred instead of friendship. (80) Leaving the logical part of philosophy, as in no respect necessary for the acquisition of virtue, to the word-catchers, and the natural part, as being too sublime for human nature to master, to those who love to converse about high objects (except indeed so far as such a study takes in the contemplation of the existence of God and the creation of the universe), they devote all their attention to the moral part of philosophy, using as instructors the laws of their fathers which it would have been impossible for the human mind to devise without divine inspiration.

(81) Now these laws they are taught at other times, indeed, but most especially on the seventh day, for the seventh day is accounted sacred, on which they abstain from all other work and frequent the sacred places which are called synagogues. There they sit according to their age in classes, the younger sitting below the elder and listening with eager attention. (82) Then one, indeed, takes up the books and reads them, and another of the men of the greatest experience comes forward and explains what is not very intelligible, for a great many precepts are delivered in enigmatic modes of expression, and allegorically, as the old fashion was. (83) Thus the people are taught piety, holiness, justice, economy, the science of regulating the state, and the knowledge of such things as are naturally good, bad, or indifferent, and to choose what is right and to avoid what is wrong, using a threefold variety of definitions, rules, and criteria, namely, the love of God, the love of virtue, and the love of mankind.

(84) Accordingly, they present a multitude of proofs of their love of God, and of a continued and uninterrupted purity throughout the whole of life, of a careful avoidance of oaths and of falsehood, and of a strict adherence to the principle of looking on the Deity as the cause of everything which is good and of nothing which is evil. They also furnish us with many proofs of a love of virtue, such as abstinence from all covetousness of money, from ambition, from indulgence in pleasures, temperance, endurance, and also moderation, simplicity, good temper, the absence of pride, obedience to the laws, steadiness, and everything of that kind. Lastly, they bring forward as proofs of the love of mankind good-will, equality beyond all power of description, and fellowship, about which it is not unreasonable to say a few words.

(85) In the first place, then, there is no one who has a house so absolutely his own private property that it does not in some sense also belong to everyone. For besides the fact that they all dwelltogether in communities, the house is open to all those of the same convictions who come to them from elsewhere. (86) Then there is one treasury among them all, and their expenses are all in common. Their garments belong to them all in common, and their food is common through the institution of public meals. For there is no other people among which you can find common use of the same house, common adoption of one mode of living, and common use of the same table more thoroughly established in fact than among this tribe. And is this not very natural? For whatever they receive for their wages after having been working during the day, they do not retain as their own, but bring it into the common stock and give any advantage that is to be derived from it to all who desire to avail themselves of it. (87) Those who are sick are not neglected because they are unable to contribute to the common stock, inasmuch as the tribe has in their public stock the means for supplying their necessities and treating their weakness, so that from their ample means they support them liberally and abundantly. They give respect to their elders, honor them and care for them, just as parents are honored and cared for by their lawful children, being supported by them in all abundance both by their personal efforts and by generous maintenance.

2. Josephus, War II, 119-66: Three Philosophical Schools

(119) For there are three philosophical schools among the Jews. The followers of the first are the Pharisees, the second the Sadducees, and the third, who pretend to a more severe discipline, are called Essenes….

(162) Of the two first-named schools, the Pharisees are those who are considered most skillful in the exact explication of their laws, and are the leading school. They ascribe all to fate and to God, (163) and yet allow that to do 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 imperishable, but that the souls of good men only pass into other bodies while the souls of evil men are subject to eternal punishment.

(164) But the Sadducees are those that compose the second order and exclude fate entirely, and suppose that God is not concerned with our doing or not doing what is evil. (165) They say that to do what is good or what is evil is men’s own choice, and that the (choice of) one or the other belongs to each person who may act as he pleases. They also exclude the belief in the immortality of the soul and the punishments and rewards in the underworld.

(166) Moreover, the Pharisees are friendly to one another and cultivate harmonious relations with the community. But the behavior of the Sadducees towards one another is in some degree boorish; and their conversation with those that are of their own party is as barbarous as if they were strangers to them. And this is what I have to say concerning the philosophic schools among the Jews.

5. Damascus Document IV:19-20

בוני החיץ אשר הלכו אחרי צו הצו הוא מטיף אשר אמר הטף יטיפון הם ניתפשים בשתים בזנות לקחת שתי נשיפ בחייהם ויסוד הבריאה זכר ונקבה ברא אותם

The builders of the wall who go after the commander – the commander is the preacher of whom he said: Assuredly he will preach (Micah 2:6) – are caught twice in fornication: by taking two wives in their lives, even thought the principle of creation is male and female he created them (Gen 1:27).

משנה מסכת אבות פרק א משנה א

משה קבל תורה מסיני ומסרה ליהושע ויהושע לזקנים וזקנים לנביאים ונביאים מסרוה לאנשי כנסת הגדולה הם אמרו שלשה דברים הוו מתונים בדין והעמידו תלמידים הרבה ועשו סייג לתורה:

הושע פרק ה

(ט) אֶפְרַיִם לְשַׁמָּה תִהְיֶה בְּיוֹם תּוֹכֵחָה בְּשִׁבְטֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל הוֹדַעְתִּי נֶאֱמָנָה:

(י) הָיוּ שָׂרֵי יְהוּדָה כְּמַסִּיגֵי גְּבוּל עֲלֵיהֶם אֶשְׁפּוֹךְ כַּמַּיִם עֶבְרָתִי:

(יא) עָשׁוּק אֶפְרַיִם רְצוּץ מִשְׁפָּט כִּי הוֹאִיל הָלַךְ אַחֲרֵי צָו:

(9) Ephraim is stricken with horror on a day of chastisement. Against the tribes of Israel I proclaim certainties. (10) The officers of Judah have acted like shifters of filed boundaries. On them I will pour out My wrath like water. (11) Ephraim is defrauded, robbed of redress, because he was determined to follow [man’s] commandment (or, because he has witlessly gone after futility).

6. Damascus Document

וגם את רוח קדשיהם טמאו ובלשון גדופים פתחו פה על חוקי ברית אל לאמר לא נכונו.

They [the Pharisees] even rendered impure their holy spirit and with blasphemous tongue they have opened their mouths against the laws of the covenant of God, saying, “They are not correct.” (CD 5:11-13)

ובכל אלה לא הבינו בוני החיץ וטחי התפל כי שוקל רוח ומטיף כזב הטיף להם אשר חרה אף אל בכל עדתו...

ובשונאו את בוני החיץ חרה אפו

All these things the builders of the wall and the plasterers of nothingness did not understand. For one who takes wind and preaches falsehoods preached to them, for which reason God became angry with his entire congregation (CD 8:12-13)…Since He hated the builders of the wall He became angry (CD 8:18).

7. Thanksgiving Scroll (1QH 4:10-11)

They planned evil [Belial] against me to replace your Torah which you taught in my heart with smooth things [false laws which they taught] to your people.

8. Pesher Nahum (4QpNah 3-4 II, 8)

The interpretation [of Nahum 3:4] concerns those who lead Ephraim astray, whose falseness is in their teaching [talmud], and whose lying tongue and dishonest lips lead many astray

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