Primary Literature on Sadducees, Pharisees, and

Essenes
Josephus, Jewish Wars II.119 166
119 There are three philosophical sects among the Jews. The
followers of the first are the Pharisees, the second Sadducees, and
third are of a severer discipline called the Essenes. These last are
Jews by birth and seem to have a greater affection for one another
than the other groups have. These Essenes reject pleasures as an
evil, but esteem abstinence and the conquest over our passions to be
virtuous. They neglect marriage, but choose out other peoples
children while they are pliable and fit for learning and consider
them to be of their family, forming them according to their own manner
of life. They do not absolutely deny the institution of marriage and the
succession of humanity which is continued by it, however they guard
against the indecent behavior of women and are persuaded that none
of them preserve their devotion to one man.
122 These men, the Essenes, despise riches and are so very
communicative as to raise 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 come to them must let their possessions become
possession of the entire order, to the extent that among them there is
no appearance of poverty or excess of riches, but every ones
possessions are intermingled with every one elses possessions.
There is, as it were, one possession among all the brothers. They
think that oil is a defilement and if any one of them is anointed without
his own approval, it is wiped off his body, for they think that to be
sweaty is a good thing. They also cloth themselves in white garments
and have stewards appointed to take care of their common affairs.
None of them have individual business, but consider what is useful
among them all.
124 They do not dwell in one particular city, but there are Essenes in
every city. If any of their group comes from other places, what they
have lies open for them, just as if it were their own. They have as their
own that which they never knew before, as if they had been ever so
long acquainted with them. It is for this reason they carry nothing with
them at all when they travel into remote parts, although they still they
take along their weapons for fear of thieves. Indeed, in every city

where they live there is one particular person appointed to take care of
strangers and to provide garments and other necessities for them.
However, the habit and management of caring of their bodies are like
the actions of children who are in fear of their masters. They do not
allow shoes to be replaced until the first are torn to pieces or worn out
by time. Nor do they buy or sell anything to one another, but rather
every one of them gives what he has to him that has need, and then
receives from him again in light of what he himself may be in need of.
Although no recompense is made, they are fully allowed to take what
they want from whoever they please.
128 As for the Essenes piety towards God: it is very extraordinary!
Before sunrise they do not speak a word about any common matters,
but offer up certain prayers which they have received from their
forefathers, it is as if they make a petition for the suns rising. After this,
every one of them is sent out by their supervisors to work in the crafts
in which they are skilled. They labor with great diligence until the fifth
hour, after which they again assemble together to one place. When
they have clothed themselves in white robes, they then bathe their
bodies in cold water. After this purification is over, every one [i.e. every
order] meets together in their own hall, where it is not permitted for any
of the other orders of the group to enter. Having been purified, they
enter into the dining-room, as into a holy temple, and quietly set
themselves down. Once they are seated, the baker brings loaves of
bread according to the orders. The cook also brings a single plate of
one sort of food and sets it before every one of them. A priest prays
before the meat is eaten, it is against the order for anyone to taste the
food before grace is said. The same priest, when he has dined, prays
again after meat. When they begin and when they end they praise
God, as he who has provided their food, after which they lay aside
their white garments and take up their labors again until evening time.
Then they return home to supper after the same manner and if there
are any strangers there, they sit down with them. There is never any
clamor or disturbance to pollute their house, but they allow every one
leave to speak in their turn, such silence is kept in their house and
appears to foreigners like some tremendous mystery, the cause of
which is that perpetual sobriety which they exercise and the same
settled measure of meat and drink that is allotted them all of which
abundantly sufficient for them.
134 Indeed, as for other things, Essenes do nothing outside of the
injunctions of their superiors. The only two things done among them at
each ones own freewill are: (a) to assist those who are in need and (b)

to show mercy; for they are permitted of their own accord to offer
assistance to those who deserve it, if they stand in need, and to
bestow food on those who are in distress. However, they cannot give
anything to their relatives without their overseers. Furthermore, they
dispense their anger after a just manner, and restrain their passion.
They are famous for loyalty and are ministers of peace, whatsoever
they say is firmer than an oath. Swearing oaths is avoided by them and
they esteem it as worse than perjury, for they say that he who cannot
be believed without swearing by God stands already condemned. They
also take great pains in studying the writings of the ancients and
choose out of them what is most advantageous for their soul and body.
They also seek out such roots and medicinal stones as may cure their
temperaments.
137 Now, if anyone has a mind to come over to their way, he is not
immediately admitted but is prescribed the same method of living
which they use for a year, while he continues excluded. They give him
a small hatchet and afore mentioned girdle and white garment. When
he has proven himself during the time that he can observe their way of
life, he is brought nearer to their way of life and is made a partaker of
the waters of purification yet even now he is not admitted to live with
them, for after this demonstration of his fortitude his temper is tried two
more years. If he appears to be worthy, they then admit him into their
society. Before he is allowed to touch their common food he is obliged
to take tremendous oaths that he, in the first place, will exercise piety
towards God and then, in the second, will observe justice towards men
and do no harm to anyone either of his own accord or by the command
of others. He must always hate the wicked and assist the righteous. He
vows to show fidelity to all men, especially to those in authority,
because no one obtains a place in government without Gods
assistance. And if a man is in authority, he will at no time whatever
abuse it nor endeavor to outshine his subjects either in his garments or
any other finery. He must perpetually be a lover of truth and reprove
those who tell lies. He will keep his hands clear from theft and his soul
from unlawful gains. He will neither conceal any thing from those of his
own order nor reveal any of their doctrines to others, even though
someone should compel him to do so at the risk of his own life.
Moreover, he swears not to communicate doctrines to another except
in the way in which he himself received them. He will abstain from
robbery and will equally preserve the books belonging to their sect and
the names of the angels. These are the oaths by which Essenes
secure proselytes to themselves.

143 For those among the Essenes who are caught in any heinous
sins, they cast them out of their society. Whoever is thus separated
from them often dies in a miserable manner being bound as he is by
the oath he has taken and by the customs he has engaged in he is
not at liberty to receive the food he customarily would have elsewhere,
but is forced to eat grass and to scourge his body with hunger until he
perishes. It is for this reason that they receive many of them again
when they are at their last gasp, out of compassion to them, thinking
that the miseries endured until the very brink of death are sufficient
punishments for the sins for which they were guilty.
145 In the judgments the Essenes exercise, they are most accurate
and just. They pass sentences by the votes of a court which is fewer
than a hundred. As to what is determined by that group once: it is
unalterable. What they honor most of all, after God himself, is the
name of Moses their legislator whom, if any one blaspheme, is given
capital punishment. They also believe it a good thing to obey their
elders, and the major opinion. Accordingly, if ten of them are 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 to the right side.
Moreover, they are stricter than any other of the Jews in resting from
their labors on the Sabbath. They not only get their food ready the day
before, so that they are not forced to kindle a fire on the seventh day,
but they will not remove any vessel from its place nor allow themselves
a bowel movement. On other days, when they must, they dig a small
pit, one foot deep, with a small shovel (a hatchet-like tool given them
when first admitted among them) and, covering themselves round with
their garment, so that they do not offend the Divine rays of light, they
relieve themselves in that pit after which they cover it up again with the
earth dug out of it. They do this only in more lonely places, which they
select for this purpose, and although this easement of the body is
natural, it is yet a rule for them to wash themselves after it as if it were
a defilement to them!
150 Now after the time of their preparatory trial is over, they are
divided into four classes. So great is the difference between inferior
juniors to the seniors that if the seniors should be touched by the
juniors, they must wash themselves as if they had come into contact
with a foreigner. Essenes live long lives, so much so that many live
longer than a hundred years. This is due to the simplicity of their diet;
undeniably, as I think, it is by means of observing their regular course
of life. They disdain the miseries of life and are above pain by the
munificence of their mind. As for death, if it is for their glory, they

esteem it as better than eternal living. Indeed, our war with the
Romans gave abundant evidence of the greatness of their souls in
times of trial, wherein, although they were tortured and twisted, burnt
and torn to pieces, suffering through all kinds of torture instruments,
they were neither forced to blaspheme their legislator nor to eat what
was forbidden them. They could not be made to do either of them no
nor once to flatter their tormentors or to shed a tear, but rather they
smiled in the midst of their pain and laughed scornfully at those who
inflicted the anguish upon them. They gave up their souls with great
enthusiasm, expecting to receive them again.
The Essene doctrine is this: bodies are corruptible and made of matter
which is not permanent, but souls are immortal and continue forever,
Souls come out of the most subtle air and are united to their bodies as
to prisons, into which they are drawn by a certain natural enticement;
however, when souls are set free from the bonds of the flesh they are
then released as from a long bondage, rejoicing and ascending
upwards. This is similar to the opinions of the Greeks that good souls
have their habitation beyond the ocean, in a region that is neither
oppressed with storms of rain, snow, or intense heat, but rather this is
a place refreshed by the gentle breathing of a west wind perpetually
blowing from the ocean. Bad souls the Essenes allot to a dark and
tempestuous den, full of never-ceasing punishments. 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. Similarly, the souls of the wicked are assigned to the
region of the ungodly, in Hades, where their myths relate that certain
persons such as Sisyphus, Tantalus, Ixion, and Tityus are
punished. All this is built on the presupposition that souls are immortal
and, from that beginning point, exhortations to be virtuous and avoid
wickedness are collected. Good men are bettered in the conduct of
their life in the hope that they have a reward after death and, likewise,
the passionate inclinations of bad men to vice are restrained by the
fear and expectation that, although they should lie concealed in this
life, they should suffer immortal punishment after their death. These
are the divine doctrines of the Essenes about the soul, which lay an
unavoidable bait for those who have once tasted their philosophy.
159 There are also those among the Essenes those who undertake
the foretelling of things to come. This they do by reading the holy
books, using several sorts of purifications, and being perpetually
conversant in the discourses of the prophets. It is seldom that they err
in their predictions.

160 Moreover, there is another order of Essenes who agree with the
rest as to their way of living, customs, and laws, but differ from them
on the point about marriage. They believe that by not marrying they cut
off the primary part of human life, which is the prospect of succession.
Indeed, if all men should hold the same opinion, no to marry, the whole
human race would fail. However, they have a three year probation for
their spouses and if they find that they have their annual purifications
three times as trials that they are likely to be fruitful they then
actually marry them. But they do not sleep with their wives when they
are with child, in order to demonstrate that they do not marry for
pleasures sake, but only for the sake of posterity. Now the women go
into the ritual baths with some of their garments on, as do men with
their loin girded. These are the customs of this order of Essenes.
162 As to the two other orders first mentioned, the first are the
Pharisees who are esteemed most skillful in the exact exposition of
their laws. The Pharisees ascribe all to providence/fate and God and
yet still allow that to act rightly or wrongly is mainly in the power of men
although fate does cooperate in every action. They say that all souls
are incorruptible, but that only the souls of good men are removed to
other bodies while the souls of bad men are subject to eternal
punishment.
The second are the Sadducees who remove fate from their
philosophy entirely, supposing that God is not concerned with whether
we do or do not do evil. They say that to act rightly or wrongly is each
mans own choice and that both belong to every individual. They may
act each as they please. They also remove the belief of the immortality
of the soul and the punishments and rewards in Hades.
Moreover, the Pharisees are friendly to one another, seek to live
in harmony and have regard for the public. However, the behavior of
the Sadducees towards one another is wild to some extent and
converse with those who are part of their own party quite barbarously
as if they were strangers to them. This is what I had to say concerning
the philosophical groups among the Jews.

Josephus, Antiquities (18.11-24)

18:11 The Jews had for a great while three sects of philosophy
peculiar to themselves; the sect of the Essenes, and the sect of the
Sadducees, and the third sort of opinions was that of those called
Pharisees; of which sects although I have already spoken in the
second book of the Jewish War, yet will I a little touch upon them now.

18:12 Now, for the Pharisees, they live meanly, and despise delicacies
in diet; and they follow the conduct of reason; and what that prescribes
to them as good for them, they do; and they think they ought earnestly
to strive to observe reasons dictates for practice. They also pay a
respect to such as are in years; nor are they so bold as to contradict
them in anything which they have introduced; 13 (18.1.3.13) and, when
they determine that all things are done by fate, they do not take away
the freedom from men of acting as they think fit; since their notion is,
that it hath pleased God to make a temperament, whereby what he
wills is done, but so that the will of men can act virtuously or viciously.
18:14 They also believe that souls have an immortal vigor in them, and
that under the earth there will be rewards or punishments, according
as they have lived virtuously or viciously in this life; and the latter are to
be detained in an everlasting prison, but that the former shall have
power to revive and live again; on account of which doctrines, they are
able greatly to persuade the body of the people; and whatsoever they
do about divine worship, prayers, and sacrifices, they perform them
according to their direction; insomuch that the cities gave great
attestations to them on account of their entire virtuous conduct, both in
the actions of their lives and their discourses also.
18:16 But the doctrine of the Sadducees is this: That souls die with the
bodies; nor do they regard the observation 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; but this
doctrine is received but by a few, yet by those still of the greatest
dignity; but they are able to do almost nothing of themselves; for when
they become magistrates, as they are unwillingly and by force
sometimes obliged to be, they addict themselves to the notions of the
Pharisees, because the multitude would not otherwise bear them.
18:18 The doctrine of the Essenes is this: That all things are best
ascribed to God. They teach the immortality of souls, and esteem that
the rewards of righteousness are to be earnestly striven for; and when
they send what they have dedicated to God into the temple, they do
not offer sacrifices,4 because they have more pure lustrations of their
own; on which account they are excluded from the common court of
the temple, but offer their sacrifices themselves; yet is their course of
life better than that of other men; and they entirely addict themselves
to husbandry. It also deserves our admiration, how much they exceed
all other men that addict themselves to virtue, and this in
righteousness; and indeed to such a degree, that as it hath never

appeared among any other man, neither Greeks nor barbarians, no,
not for a little time, so hath it endured a long while among them. This is
demonstrated by that institution of theirs which will not suffer anything
to hinder them from having all things in common; so that a rich man
enjoys no more of his own wealth than he who hath nothing at all.
There are about four thousand men that live in this way, and neither
marry wives, nor are desirous to keep servants; as thinking the latter
tempts men to be unjust, and the former gives the handle to domestic
quarrels; but as they live by themselves, they minister one to another.
They also appoint certain stewards to receive the incomes of their
revenues, and of the fruits of the ground; such as are good men and
priests, who are to get their corn and their food ready for them. They
none of them differ from others of the Essenes in their way of living,
but do the most resemble those Dacae who are called Polistae 5
[dwellers in cities.]
18:23 But of the fourth sect of Jewish philosophy, Judas the Galilean
was the author. These men agree in all other things with the Pharisaic
notions; but they have an inviolable attachment to liberty; and say that
God is to be their only Ruler and Lord. They also do not value dying
any kind of death, nor indeed do they heed the deaths of their relations
and friends, nor can any such fear make them call any man Lord; and
since this immovable resolution of theirs is well known to a great many,
I shall speak no farther about that matter; nor am I afraid that anything
I have said of them should be disbelieved, but rather fear, that what I
have said is beneath the resolution they show when they undergo
pain; and it was in Gessius Floruss time that the nation began to grow
mad with this distemper, who was our procurator, and who occasioned
the Jews to go wild with it by the abuse of his authority, and to make
them revolt from the Romans; and these are the sects of Jewish
philosophy.
Pliny the Elder's account of the Essenes:
"To the west (of the Dead Sea) the Essenes have put the necessary
distance between themselves and the insalubrious shore. They are a
people unique of its kind and admirable beyond all others in the whole
world; without women and renouncing love entirely, without money and
having for company only palm trees. Owing to the throng of
newcomers, this people is daily reborn in equal number; indeed, those
whom, wearied by the fluctuations of fortune, life leads to adopt their
customs, stream in in great numbers. Thus, unbeleivable though this
may seem, for thousands of centuries a people has existed which is

eternal yet into which no one is born: so fruitful for them is the
repentance which others feel for their past lives!"
Philo's first account of the Essenes:
"They do not offer animal sacrifice, judging it more fitting to render their
minds truly holy. They flee the cities and live in villages where clean air
and clean social life abound. They either work in the fields or in crafts
that contribute to peace. They do not hoard silver and gold and do not
acquire great landholdings; procuring for themselves only what is
necessary for life. Thus they live without goods and without property,
not by missfortune, but out of preference. They do not make
armaments of any kind. They do not keep slaves and detest slavery.
They avoid wholesale and retail commerce, believing that such activity
excites one to cupidity. With respect to philosophy, they dismiss logic
but have an extremely high regard for virtue. They honor the Sabbath
with great respect over the other days of the week. They have an
internal rule which all learn, together with rules on piety, holiness,
justice and the knowledge of good and bad. These they make use of in
the form of triple definitions, rules regarding the love of God, the love
of virtue, and the love of men. They believe God causes all good but
cannot be the cause of any evil. They honor virtue by foregoing all
riches, glory and pleasure. Further, they are convinced they must be
modest, quiet, obedient to the rule, simple, frugal and without mirth.
Their life style is communal. They have a common purse. Their
salaries they deposit before them all, in the midst of them, to be put to
the common employment of those who wish to make use of it. They do
not neglect the sick on the pretext that they can produce nothing. With
the common purse there is plenty from which to treat all illnesses.
They lavish great respect on the elderly. With them they are very
generous and surround them with a thousand attentions. They practice
virtue like a gymnastic exercise, seeing the accomplishment of
praiseworthy deeds as the means by which a man ensures absolute
freedom for himself."
Philo's second account of the Essenes:
"The Essenes live in a number of towns in Judea, and also in many
villages and in large groups. They do not enlist by race, but by
volunteers who have a zeal for righteousness and an ardent love of
men. For this reason there are no young children among the Essenes.
Not even adolescents or young men. Instead they are men of old or

ripe years who have learned how to control their bodily passions. They
possess nothing of their own, not house, field, slave nor flocks, nor
anything which feeds and procures wealth. They live together in
brotherhoods, and eat in common together. Everything they do is for
the common good of the group. They work at many different jobs and
attack their work with amazing zeal and dedication, working from
before sunrise to almost sunset without complaint, but in obvious
exhilaration. Their exercise is their work. Indeed, they believe their own
training to be more agreeable to body and soul, and more lasting, than
athletic games, since their exercises remain fitted to their age, even
when the body no longer possesses its full strength. They are farmers
and shepherds and beekeepers and craftsmen in diverse trades. They
share the same way of life, the same table, even the same tastes; all
of them loving frugality and hating luxury as a plague for both body and
soul. Not only do they share a common table, but common clothes as
well. What belongs to one belongs to all. Available to all of them are
thick coats for winter and inexpensive light tunics for summer. Seeing it
as an obstacle to communal life, they have banned marriage. They
view women as selfish, excessively jealous, skillful in seduction and
armed, like actors with all sorts of masks designed to flatter and
ensnare men, bewitching and capturing their attention and finally
leading them astray. They believe that where children are involved,
women become audacious, arrogant, swollen with pride, shamelessly
violent and employ attitudes dangerous to the good of the common life.
The husband, bound by his wife's spells, or anxious for his children
from natural necessity, is no more the same to the others, but
becomes a different man; instead of a freeman, he becomes a slave."