Celibacy being the rule of Essenism, the ranks of the brotherhood had to be filled up by recruits from the Jewish community at large. They preferred taking children, whom they educated most carefully and taught the practices of the order, believing that of such the kingdom of heaven is best made up. Every grown-up candidate (ὁ ζηλῶν) had to pass through a noviciate of two stages, which extended over three years, before he could be finally admitted into the order. Upon entering the first stage, which lasted twelve months, the novice (νεοσύστατος) had to cast all his possessions into the common treasury. He then received a copy of the regulations of the brotherhood (δίαιταν τοῦ τάγματος), as well as a spade (σκαλίς ἁξινάριον = ‏יתד‎), to bury the excrement, (comp. Deut. xxiii, 12–14,) an apron (περίζωμα = ‏זריז‎), used at the lustrations, and a white robe (λευκὴν ἐσθῆτα = ‏בגד לבן‎) to put on at meals, being the symbols of purity. During the whole of this period he was an outsider, and was not admitted to the common meals, yet he had to observe some of the ascetic rules of the Society. If, at the close of this stage, the community found that he had properly acquitted himself during the probationary year, the novice was admitted into the second stage, which lasted two years, and was called an approacher (προσίων ἔγγιον). During the period which lasted two years he was admitted to a closer fellowship with the brotherhood, and shared in their lustral rites (καθαρωτέρων πρὸς τῶν ἁγνείαν ὑδάτων μεταλαμβάνει), but was still not admitted to the common meals (εἰς τὰς συμβιώσεις), nor to any office. If he passed satisfactorily through the second stage of probation, the approacher became an associate, or a full member of the society (ὁμιλητὴς, ὃς εἰς τὸν ὅμιλον ἐγκρίνεται = ‏חבר‎), when he was received into the brotherhood and partook of the common meal (συμβιωτὴς).