[6] R. Nathan, the Babylonian as he is called, was Vice-President of the College in Palestine, under the Presidency of Simon III. b. Gamaliel II. A.D. 140. The above-quoted work of which he is the reputed author, as indicated by its title, ‏אבות דרבי נתן‎ i.e. the Aboth of R. Nathan, is a compilation of the apothegms and moral sayings of the Jewish fathers (‏אבות‎), interspersed with traditional explanations of divers texts of Scripture, consisting of forty-one chapters. Both the historian and moral philosopher will find this work an important contribution to the literary and philosophical history of antiquity. It is printed in the different editions of the Talmud, and has also been published separately with various commentaries, in Venice, 1622: Amsterdam, 1778, &c., &c.; and a Latin translation of it was published by our learned countryman, Francis Taylor, under the title of R. Nathanis Tractatus de Patribus, latine cum Notis. London, 1654, 4to. Comp. Zunz, Die gottesdienstlichen Vorträge der Juden. Berlin, 1832, p.p. 108, 109; Fürst, Kultur- und Literaturgeschichte der Juden in Asien. Leipzig, 1849, p. 16 ff; by the same author, Bibliotheca Judaica, volume iii. Leipzig, 1863, p. 19 ff; Steinschneider, Catalogus Libr. Hebr. in Bibliotheca Bodleiana col. 2,032 ff. [7] For the passages embodying the sentiments of the Essenes, which constitute the above comparisons, we must refer to the second part of this Essay and the notes. [8] Compare the account of Philo, p. 36; Pliny, p. 40; Josephus, p. 52; in the second part of this Essay. [9] This prophecy is given in full in the second part of this Essay, p. 50. [10] Zeitschrift für die religiösen Interessen des Judenthums. Berlin, 1856, p. 449. [11] Geschichte des Judenthums und seiner Secten, vol. 1, Leipzig, 1857, p. 207. [12] As Mr. Westcott, the writer of the article Essenes in Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible, has misunderstood this passage and wrongly represented Jost himself as deriving this name from ‏חשאין‎ the silent, the mysterious, we give Jost’s own words:—“Uns will scheinen, dass Josephus den Namen allerdings von ‏חשא‎ schweigen, geheimnissvoll sein, ableitet; dahin führt seine Uebertragung des Wortes ‏חשן‎ in die griechischen Buchstaben ἐσσην Ed. Hav. Ant. 1, 147, welches Wort die LXX λογεῖον übersetzen. Da das Wort ‏חשאין‎ seinen Zeitgenossen sehr geläufig war, so konnte er annehmen, dass man sich unter dem Namen der Sekte einen angemessenen Begriff dachte und er keiner Erläuterung bedürfe. Ja, es wäre möglich, dass er den Begriff aus ‏חשן‎ selbst ableitet, und auf λογεῖον oder λογίον, als mit Weissagung begabte, zurückführte. Vergleichte Gfrörer, Philo 1, 196.” [13] Aboth di. R. Nathan, cap. xxxvi. [14] Comp. Epiphan. Haeres. xix. lib. i. tom. ii. sect. 4, p. 120, ed. Petav. [15] Comp. Petite Variae Lectiones, c. xxviii. p. 2600.