v.) and Hilgenfeld (Die jüdische Apokal. p. 278), make it out to be the form ‏חזין‎ = θεωρητικοί seers, and the latter maintains that this name was given to them because they pretended to see visions and to prophesy. 7. Josippon b. Gorion [16] (lib. iv. sects. 6, 7, p.p. 274 and 278, ed. Breithaupt), and Gale (Court of the Gentiles, part ii., p. 147), take it for the Hebrew ‏חסידים‎ the pious, the puritans. 8. De Rossi [17] (Meor Enaim, 82 a), Gfrörer (Philo, ii. p. 341), Herzfeld (Geschichte d. V. Israel ii. p. 397), and others, insist that it is the Aramaic ‏אסיא‎ = θεραπευτής physician, and that this name was given to them because of the spiritual or physical cures they performed. Indeed, De Rossi and Herzfeld will have it that the sect Baithusians ‏ביתוסים‎ mentioned in the Talmud is nothing but a contraction of ‏בית אסי‎ the school or sect of physicians, just as ‏בית הילל‎ stands for the school of Hillel. 9. Salmasius affirms that the Essenes derived their name from the town called Essa, situated beyond the Jordan, which is mentioned by Josephus (Antiq. xiii. 15, § 2), or from the place Vadi Ossis. [18] 10. Rappaport (Erech Milln, p. 41), says that it is the Greek ἰσος an associate, a fellow of the fraternity. 11. Frankel (Zeitschrift, 1846, p. 449, &c.), and others think that it is the Hebrew expression ‏צנועים‎ the retired. 12. Ewald (Geschichte d. Volkes Israel, iv. p. 420), is sure that it is the Rabbinic ‏חזן‎ servant (of God), and that the name was given to them because it was their only desire to be θεραπευταὶ θεοῦ. 13. Graetz (Geschichte der Juden iii. p. 468, second ed.) will have it that it is from the Aramaic ‏סחא‎ to bathe, with Aleph prostheticum, and that it is the shorter form for ‏אסחאי צפרא‎ = ‏טובלי שחרית‎ ἡμιερβαπτισταί hemerobaptists; the Greek form Ἐσσαῖος, Ἐσσαῖοι being nothing but Assaï or Essaï with ‏ח‎ elided. 14. Dr. Löw (Ben Chananja vol. i. p. 352) never doubts but that they were called Essenes after their founder, whose name he tells us was ‏ישי‎, the disciple of Rabbi Joshua ben Perachja. 15. Dr. Adler (Volkslehrer, vi. p. 50), again submits that it is from the Hebrew ‏אסר‎ to bind together, to associate, and that they were called ‏אסרים‎ because they united together to keep the law. 16. Dr. Cohen suggests the Chaldee root ‏עשן‎ to be strong, and that they were called ‏עשיני‎ because of their strength of mind to endure sufferings and to subdue their passions. (Comp. Frankel’s Monatschrift viii. p. 272). 17. Oppenheim thinks that it may be the form ‏עושין‎ and stand for ‏עושין טהרת הקדש‎ or ‏עושין טהרת חטאת‎ observers of the laws of purity and holiness. (Ibid). 18. Jellinek (Ben Chananja iv. 374), again derives it from the Hebrew ‏חצן‎ sinus, περίζωμα, alluding to the apron which the Essenes wore; whilst, 19, Others again derived it from ‏חסיא‎ pious. The two last-mentioned explanations seem to have much to recommend them, they are natural and expressive of the characteristics of the brotherhood.