Also 6 essen. [ad. L. Essēn-i pl., a. Gr. Ἐσσηνοί; presumably of Heb. or Aramaic origin, but the etymology is disputed. See the 19 different suggestions in Ginsburg The Essenes (1864), 27–30.] One of an ancient Jewish sect, characterized by certain mystical tenets and ascetic practices, and by a cenobitical life.
1553. T. Wilson, Rhet., 33. The Essens, of whom Josephus speaketh that thei wil neither haue wyfe nor servauntes.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, xxv. 448. It wil not be amisse to rehearse this record of Porphyrius, that the Religious sect of the Essens among the Iewes … made a profession of Prophesying.
1748. Hartley, Observ. Man, II. iv. 390. Many, as the Pharisees and Essenes, had recourse to this great Source of Comfort.
1841–4. Emerson, Ess., Ser. II. viii. 197. Why so impatient to baptize them Essenes, or Port-Royalists, or Shakers.
Hence Essenian a., also 8 -ien, pertaining to, or resembling, the Essenes. Essenic, Essenical adjs., of the nature of Essenism. Essenism, a. the doctrine and practice of the Essenes; b. a leaning to the doctrine of the Essenes. Essenize v., to assert or favor the tenets of the Essenes; also Essenizing ppl. a.
1878. E. Rénan, in N. Amer. Rev., CXXVII. 496. The survivors … were half Christian and Essenian.
1831–4. De Quincey, Caesars (1862), IX. p. ix. The two codes of practical doctrine—Christian and Essenic.
1879. Farrar, St. Paul, II. 542. The Essenic elements which were destined to ripen into Gnosticism.
a. 1641. Bp. Mountagu, Acts & Mon. (1642), 455. This Essenicall piety in observing the Sabbath.
1875. Lightfoot, Comm. Col. (ed. 2), 419. The deliverance of the individual in the shipwreck of the whole … was the plain watchword of Essenism.
1882. Farrar, Early Chr., II. 19. Critics have spoken of the Essenism and the Ebionism of the Epistle [of St. James].
1875. Lightfoot, Comm. Col. (1886), 352. Ewald … points out … an Essenizing Sibylline poem.
