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Is JUDAISM the Religion of Moses? 45

the Jews, ii, 8, 9.) This act was strictly forbidden in the Scriptures (Ezekiel 8:15, 16), but neverthe-
less, the Essenes turned their backs on the Temple and prayed towards the sun.

Relative to this esteem of the sun by the Essenes, Schurer writes that this clearly "leads to
the conclusion, that they were in real earnest IN THEIR RELIGIOUS ESTIMATION OF THE
SUN. However this may be, the very turning to the sun in prayer WAS CONTRARY to Jewish cus-
toms and notions, which REQUIRED THE TURNING TO THE TEMPLE and expressly repudi-
ated THE DIRECTION TOWARDS THE SUN AS HEATHENISH" (The Jewish People in the
Time of Jesus Christ, sec ii, vol. ii, p. 213).

To this, Schurer adds:

"Thus are we more and more driven to the view, THAT FOREIGN INFLUENCE
COOPERATED IN THE FORMATION OF ESSENISM" (ibid., p. 214).

Essenism Was Extreme Pharisaicism

It must not be supposed that Essenism, or any of the sects of Judaism, were completely hea-
then in doctrines in all respects. This was not the case! What existed was a combining or a blending
of pagan doctrines with certain teachings of the Scripture. The Essenes kept the Sabbath, circumci-
sion, and many of the other customs common to the Jews. They also kept many of the traditional
laws of the Pharisees. We are told expressly by Schurer (ibid., p. 209) that the rigid religious legal-
ism of the Essenes and their punctilious care for ceremonial cleanness, were genuinely Pharisaic in
origin.

The Essenes were, however, not a part of the popular Pharisee sect. They were entirely sep-
arate and on their own. They may, however, have represented a group that began as a division of the
Pharisaic sect and broke away early after the religious anarchy ended. For even though there were
many doctrinal differences between the two sects, there were certain similarities. Schurer again
tells us: "Essenism then is in the first place MERELY PHARISAICISM IN THE SUPERLATIVE
DEGREE" (ibid.).

The sect of the Essenes were actually more rigorous and exacting (if that were possible)
than the Pharisees as a whole. They even went beyond the Pharisaic commandments in regard to be-
ing ritualistically clean.

"The Essene completely separated himself from the multitude and formed exclusive societ-
ies, in which similarity of disposition and endeavour afforded the possibility of realizing the
ideal of a life of absolute ceremonial cleanness" (ibid., pp. 210, 211).

Thus, this extreme Pharisaicism led to asceticism and their other peculiar customs that most
Jews completely disavowed. The Essenes went quite a bit farther than the Pharisees in accepting,
outright, many of the customs of the heathen they learned while under Hellenistic influences.

"The doctrines of the Essenes were, however, tinged by FOREIGN INFLUENCE. In their
neglect of the Temple sacrifices, and in their condemnation of wedlock, THEY

The Berean Voice March-April 2003