Essenes

(es's eenz,) or E e'nians. (From Chald. as aya.] (Jewish Hist.) One of the 3 anc. Jewish sects -the others being the Sadducees and the Pharisees. They are not mentioned once in the New Testament, though they existed during the lifetime of Christ. According to Joseph us, the E. were more exact than the Pharisees in attending to the most rigorous observances. They admitted a future state, but denied a resurrection from the dead. From Sabæism, a modified form of E enism, sprung the original tenets and practices of Islam ism. [s. 342]