‘jewish doctrine takes three forms’ 133
selecting especially those [oriented] toward the benefit of soul and body.
On the basis of these and for the treatment of diseases, roots, apotropaic
materials, and the special properties of stones are investigated.’ They
keep the Sabbath ‘more rigorously than any other Jews’, for ‘not only
do they prepare their own food one day before, so that they might not
kindle a fire on that day, but they do not even dare to transport a
container – or go to relieve themselves’. Their concern for purity
included both numerous cold baths (as we have seen) and avoidance of
oil – ‘they consider olive oil a stain, and should anyone be accidentally
smeared with it he scrubs his body.’ They took exceptional care to deal
with excrement: ‘digging a hole of a foot’s depth with a trowel – this
is what that small hatchet given by them to the neophytes is for – and
wrapping their cloak around them completely, so as not to outrage the
rays of God, they relieve themselves into it [the hole]. After that, they
haul back the excavated earth into the hole ... Even though the secre-
tion of excrement is certainly a natural function, it is customary to wash
themselves off after it as if they have become polluted.’^38
Josephus asserted that expertise ‘in the holy books and the different
sorts of purification and the sayings of the prophets’ led to expertise in
foreseeing the future. This is a skill which Josephus elsewhere ascribed
to specific Essenes, most notably a certain Judas, ‘an Essene who had
never misled or lied in his prophecies’. In 104 bce, when the Hasmo-
naean king Aristobulus I inherited power from his father, John Hyrcanus,
and had his younger brother Antigonus murdered, the Essene Judas
‘saw Antigonus passing by the Temple, [and] cried out to his compan-
ions and disciples, who were together with him for the purpose of
receiving instruction in foretelling the future, that it would be well for
him to die as one who had spoken falsely, since Antigonus was still
alive, although he had foretold that he would die at the place called
Straton’s Tower, and now he saw him alive ... But as he was saying this
and lamenting, the news came that Antigonus had been killed [in
another place given the same name].’ Another Essene, by name Manae-
mus, was said by Josephus successfully to have predicted the rise of
Herod to power: ‘This man had (once) observed Herod, then still a boy,
going to his teacher, and greeted him as “King of the Jews”. Thereupon
Herod, who thought that the man either did not know who he was, or
was teasing him, reminded him that he was only a private citizen.
Manaemus, however, gently smiled and slapped him on the backside,
saying, “Nevertheless, you will be king and you will rule the realm hap-
pily, for you have been found worthy of this by God .. .” ’^39