Endnote 15 – Was It an Essene Settlement?

Philo, Apologia pro Judaeis 14–17: “[T]hey banned marriage at the same time as they ordered the practice of perfect continence”; Pliny, Natural History 5.15.73: “[They live] … without women, and renouncing love entirely” Josephus, War 2.120–121: “They regard continence and resistance to passion as a virtue, they disdain marriage for themselves … It is not that they abolish marriage … but they are on guard against the licentiousness of women”; and see 2.160–161: “There exists another order of Essenes who, … are separated from them on the subject of marriage.”