134 A History of Judaism
The pride with which Josephus referred in his other works to the
excursus on the three philosophies of which the long description of the
Essenes constituted much the largest part suggests that this description
was his own composition rather than culled from another source. It is
therefore remarkable that he appended to his description a note about
a second order of Essenes which, ‘though agreeing with the others about
regimen and customs and legal matters’, was said to have ‘separated in
its opinion about marriage’. Josephus goes on to insist on the reluctance
with which these marrying Essenes have sexual relations with their
wives. They ensure that they ‘do not marry for pleasure but because it is
necessary to have children’, avoiding intercourse once their wives are
pregnant. It is disconcerting to find that the absence of women in Essene
communities so emphasized by Philo in his Hypothetica, and by Pliny,
is here claimed unnecessary for these other Essenes. There was evidently
variety within groups as well as within Judaism as a whole.^40
None of these sources is explicit about Essene methods in interpret-
ing ‘the holy books’. Philo states that ‘most of the time, and in accordance
with an ancient method of inquiry, they philosophise among themselves
through symbols’, but Philo may have emphasized this allegorical
method to suit his own preference for allegory, and the strictness of
Essene Sabbath observance we have noted may suggest quite a literal
approach to the text of the Bible. In a passage particularly suspect for
Hellenizing his subject to make it sound attractive to his Greek read-
ers, Josephus asserted that the Essenes have a firm belief in the
immortality of the soul. This belief is not ascribed to the Essenes by
other authors, even though Josephus places great emphasis on it as a
lure for other Jews to join the Essenes: ‘For the good become even better
in the hope of a reward after death, whereas the impulses of the bad are
impeded by anxiety ... These matters, then, the Essenes theologize with
respect to the soul, laying down an irresistible bait for those who have
once tasted of their wisdom.’ Josephus’ claim elsewhere in the Antiqui‑
ties that ‘the sect of Essenes’ (in contrast to Pharisees or Sadducees)
‘declares that Fate is mistress of all things, and that nothing befalls men
unless it be in accordance with her decree’ is not mentioned by him in
the accounts in the Jewish War and is presented slightly differently else-
where in the Antiquities, where he writes that ‘the Essenes like to teach
that in all things one should rely on God’.^41
It should be evident that the ancient accounts of the Essenes do not
entirely agree, and that simply conflating them is misleading. One pos-
sibility is that they were a wide movement with different branches, but