5.The doctrine of the Essens 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 (3) 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 men, 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 any thing 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 Essens in their way of living, but do the most resemble those Dacae who are called Polistae (4)[dwellers in cities].
6.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 kinds 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 further about that matter; nor am I afraid that any thing Ihave 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 Florus's 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.
CHAPTER 2.
Now Herod And Philip Built Several Cities In Honor Of Caesar.
Concerning The Succession Of Priests And Procurators; As Also What Befell Phraates And The Parthians.
1.When Cyrenius had now disposed of Archelaus's money, and when the taxings were come to a conclusion, which were made in the thirty-seventh year of Caesar's victory over Antony at Actium, he deprived Joazar of the high priesthood, which dignity had been conferred on him by the multitude, and he appointed Ananus, the son of Seth, to be high priest; while Herod and Philip had each of them received their own tetrarchy, and settled the affairs thereof.Herod also built a wall about Sepphoris, (which is the security of all Galilee,) and made it the metropolis of the country.He also built a wall round Betharamphtha, which was itself a city also, and called it Julias, from the name of the emperor's wife.When Philip also had built Paneas, a city at the fountains of Jordan, he named it Cesarea.He also advanced the village Bethsaids, situate at the lake of Gennesareth, unto the dignity of a city, both by the number of inhabitants it contained, and its other grandeur, and called it by the name of Julias, the same name with Caesar's daughter.