The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah Vol 1 - Predestination

from all around that their very contact defiled, and
that its adherents would have perished of hunger
rather than join in the meals of the outside world;
which, moreover, contained not a trace of
Messianic elements —^indeed, had no room for
them—could have had no internal connection with
the origin of Christianity. Equally certain is it that,
in respect of doctrine, life, and worship, it really
stood outside Judaism, as represented by either
Pharisees or Sadducees. The question whence the
foreign elements were derived, which were its
distinctive characteristics, has of late been so
learnedly discussed, that only the oonclusionil
arrived at require to be stated. Of the two theories,
of which the one traces Essenism to Neo-
Pythagorean,* the other to Persian sources,^ the
latter seems fully established—without, however,
wholly denying at least the possibility of Neo-
Pythagorean influences. To the grounds which have
been so conclusively urged in support of the
Eastern origin of Essenism,^ in its distinctive
features, may be added this, that Jewish
Angelology, which played so great a part in the