mountainman

I am posting this question as a separate thread because I'd
like to understand how the viewpoints of Porphyry and Eusebius
can be harmonised, or be seen to be consistent, concerning
a possible "Essenic root to christianity".

The Essenes are freely mentioned (it would appear) in the text
"On Abstinence from Animal Food", by Porphyry, that is probably
dated a few decades prior to Eusebius' "Ecclesistical History".

Below is the quote, from Book Four of Porphyry.

Those who subscribe to mainstream opinion normally view Porphyry
as an author of (perhaps violent) anti-christian persuasion. Those
who subscribe to this mainstream view here face IMO a conundrum:

The description provided by Porphyry of "the tribe of essenes" is
totally inconsistent (perhaps diametrically opposed) to the
(mainstream interpretation) of Porphyry's description of
"the tribe of christians".

That is, if we are to assume Porphyry actually knew and wrote
about both essenes and "christians", then in Porphyry's view,
these two "tribes of humanity" were certainly N O T
one and the same.

How do we explain the difference between the Porphyrian
and the Eusebian viewpoint? Any takers on this conundrum?

Porphyry writes:

11. But among those who are known by us, the Jews, before they first suffered the subversion of their legal institutes under Antiochus, and afterwards under the Romans, when also the temple in Jerusalem was captured, and became accessible to all men to whom, prior to this event, it was inaccessible, and the city itself was destroyed;—before this took place, the Jews always abstained from many animals, but peculiarly, which they even now do, from swine. At that period, therefore, there were three kinds of philosophers among them. And of one kind, indeed, the Pharisees were the leaders, but of another, the Sadducees, and of the third, which appears to have been the most venerable, the Essaeans. The mode of life, therefore, of these third was as follows, as Josephus frequently testifies in many of his writings. For in the second book of his Judaic History, which he has completed in seven books, and in the eighteenth of his Antiquities, which consists of twenty books, and likewise in the second of the two books which he wrote against the Greeks, he speaks of these Essaeans, and says, that they are of the race of the Jews, and are in a greater degree than others friendly to one another. They are averse to pleasures, conceiving them to be vicious, but they are of opinion that continence, and the not yielding to the passions, constitute virtue. And they despise, indeed, wedlock, but receiving the children of other persons, and instructing them in disciplines while they are yet of a tender age, they consider them as their kindred, and form them to their own manners. And they act in this manner, not for the purpose of subverting marriage, and the succession arising from it, but in order to avoid the lasciviousness of women. They are, likewise, despisers of wealth, and the participation of external possessions among them in common is wonderful; nor is any one to be found among them who is richer than the rest. For it is a law with them, that those who wish to belong to their sect, must give up their property to it in common; so that among all of them, there is not to be seen either the abjectness of poverty, or the insolence of wealth; but the possessions of each being mingled with those of the rest, there was one property with all of them, as if they had been brothers. They likewise conceived oil to be a stain to the body, and that if any one, though unwillingly, was anointed, he should [immediately] wipe his body. For it was considered by them as beautiful to be squalid, and to be always clothed in white garments. But curators of the common property were elected by votes, indistinctly for the use of all. They have not, however, one city, but in each city many of them dwell together, and those who come among them from other places, if they are of their sect, equally partake with them of their possessions, as if they were their own. Those, likewise, who first perceive these strangers, behave to them as if they were their intimate acquaintance. Hence, when they travel, they take nothing with them for the sake of expenditure. But they neither change their garments nor their shoes, till they are entirely torn, or destroyed by time. They neither buy nor sell anything, but each of them giving what he possesses to him that is in want, receives in return for it what will be useful to him. Nevertheless, each of them freely imparts to others of their sect what they may be in want of, without any remuneration.

12. Moreover, they are peculiarly pious to divinity. For before the sun rises they speak nothing profane, but they pour forth certain prayers to him which they had received from their ancestors, as if beseeching him to rise. Afterwards, they are sent by their curators to the exercise of the several arts in which they are skilled, and having till the fifth hour strenuously labored in these arts, they are afterwards collected together in one place; and there, being begirt with linen teguments, they wash their bodies with cold water. After this purification, they enter into their own proper habitation, into which no heterodox person is permitted to enter. But they being pure, betake themselves to the dining room, as into a certain sacred fane. In this place, when all of them are seated in silence, the baker places the bread in order, and the cook distributes to each of them one vessel containing one kind of eatables. Prior, however, to their taking the food which is pure and sacred, a priest prays, and it is unlawful for any one prior to the prayer to taste of the food. After dinner, likewise, the priest again prays; so that both when they begin, and when they cease to eat, they venerate divinity. Afterwards, divesting themselves of these garments as sacred, they again betake themselves to their work till the evening; and, returning from thence, they eat and drink in the same manner as before, strangers sitting with them, if they should happen at that time to be present. No clamor or tumult ever defiles the house in which they dwell; but their conversation with each other is performed in an orderly manner; and to those that are out of the house, the silence of those within it appears as if it was some terrific mystery. The cause, however, of this quietness is their constant sobriety, and that with them their meat and drink is measured by what is sufficient [to the wants of nature]. But those who are very desirous of belonging to their sect, are not immediately admitted into it, but they must remain out of it for a year, adopting the same diet, the Essaeans giving them a rake, a girdle, and a white garment. And if, during that time, they have given a sufficient proof of their continence, they proceed to a still greater conformity to the institutes of the sect, and use purer water for the purpose of sanctity; though they are not yet permitted to live with the Essaeans. For after this exhibition of endurance, their manners are tried for two years more, and he who after this period appears to deserve to associate with them, is admitted into their society.

mountainman

The "tribe of essenes" is mentioned by Philo of Alexandria and Josephus.
The postulate that "the tribe of christians" and "the tribe of essenes"
shared some common root is first suggested by Eusebius, c.312-324 CE.

However, prior to Eusebius' writing (if we are to follow mainstream
chronology) we have Porphyry writing about "the tribe of essenes"
as in the text provided above. Porphyry also wrote about many
other subjects, and was considered one of the leading academics
of the eastern Roman empire at the beginning of the 4th century.

Here is the article about Porphyry from the Standford Encyclopaedia

According to mainstream chronology, prior to Eusebius, Porphyry
is presumed to have written a large work entitled "Against the
Christians", of which only fragments survive.

However these fragments dramatically highlight that Porphyry
would not have contemplated the Eusebian suggested postulate
that "the tribe of christians" and "the tribe of Essenes" shared a
common (and presumably 1st century) root.

The relationship between "the tribe of christians" and "the tribe
of essenes" is certainly extremely vague, but has fired alot of
imagination, and until recently perhaps formed the basis of any
justification linking the Nag Hammadi texts, to an "essenic-like
tribe", and thus "NT-christian-related".

Porphyry seems to reserve two different form of rhetoric on the
one hand for the tribe of essenes and on the other hand the
tribe of christians. And if we are to accept, momentarily for
logical analysis, the view of Porphyry, where does that leave
the "mythical beginnings of the tribe of christians in the tribe
of essenes" but nowhere.

Constantine had it in for Porphyry, and classified Arius as a
"Porphyrian", edicted for the destruction by fire of his writings,
and (presumeably) the death by beheading for anyone not
burning said writings, circa 325 CE, as one of the outstanding
action items arising from his Vicellenia Party at Nicaea.

Eusebius calumnifies the neo-pythagorean Apollonius of Tyana,
and the destruction of Hellenic culture commences a la Vlasis Rassias