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“Some have said that Essenism gave rise to the Kabbalists and the Gnostics: the Essenes, who adapted Christianity to their old doctrines, became Gnostics: The Essenes who remained Jews became Kabbalists: thus Essenism died, giving birth to these two powerful twins: Kabbalah and Gnosticism.”
“They did not marry, but adopted the children of others, whom they brought up in the institutions of their sect. They despised riches, and had all things in common, and never changed their clothes till they were entirely worn out.”
“The Essenes strictly observed Mosaic law. They practiced ritual bathing for reasons of purity and kept themselves mostly isolated from the rest of the Jewish people.”
“According to the ‘'Rule of the Community’', reported in one of the Dead Sea Scrolls, community life was strictly organized. All property was held in common. Aspiring adepts had to undergo a long apprenticeship before being accepted as full members. The neophyte took a “terrible oath” in which he pledged to hate the perpetrators of injustice forever.”
“Their love of God they show by … their freedom from the love of either money or reputation or pleasure, by self-mastery and endurance, again by frugality, simple living, contentment, humility, respect for law, steadiness and all similar qualities; their love of men by benevolence and sense of equality, and their spirit of fellowship.”
“Such are the athletes of virtue produced by a philosophy free from the pedantry of Greek wordiness.”
Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.