a novitiate of three years were admitted to full membership in the order.  They were characterized by an extreme scrupulousness concerning ceremonial purity, their meals were regarded as sacrifices, and were prepared by members of the order, who were looked upon as priests, nor were any allowed to partake of the food until they had first bathed themselves.  Their regular garments were all white, and were regarded as vestments for use at the sacrificial meals,—­other clothing being assumed as they went out to their work.  They were industrious agriculturists, their life was communistic, and they were renowned for their uprightness.  They revered Moses as highly as did the scribes; yet they were opposed to animal sacrifices, and, although they sent gifts to the temple, were apparently excluded from its worship.  Their kinship with the Pythagoreans appears in that they addressed an invocation to the sun at its rising, and conducted all their natural functions with scrupulous modesty, “that they might not offend the brightness of God” (Jos.  Wars, ii. 8, 9).  Their rejection of bloody sacrifices, and their view that the soul is imprisoned in the body and at death is freed for a better life, besides many features of their life that are genuinely Jewish, such as their regard for ceremonial purity, also show similarity to the Pythagoreans.  It has always been a matter of perplexity that these ascetics find no mention in the New Testament.  They seem to have lived a life too much apart, and to have had little sympathy with the ideals of Jesus, or even of John the Baptist.

13.  The common people followed the lead of the Pharisees, though afar off.  They accepted the teaching concerning tradition, as well as that concerning the resurrection, conforming their lives to the prescriptions of the scribes more or less strictly, according as they were more or loss ruled by religious considerations.  It was in consequence of their hold on the people that the scribes in the sanhedrin were able often to dictate a policy to the Sadducean majority.  Jesus voiced the popular opinion when he said that “the scribes sit in Moses’ seat” (Matt, xxiii. 2).  Their leaders despised “this multitude which knoweth not the law” (John vii. 49), yet delighted to legislate for them, binding heavy burdens and grievous to be borne.  Many of the people were doubtless too intent on work and gain to be very regardful of the minutiae of conduct as ordained by the scribes; many more were too simple-minded to follow the theories of the rabbis concerning the aloofness of God from the life of men.  These last reverenced the scribes, followed their directions, in the main, for the conduct of life, yet lived in fellowship with God as their fathers had, trusting in his faithfulness, and hoping in his mercy.  They are represented in the New Testament by such as Simeon and Anna, Zachariah and Elizabeth, Joseph and Mary, and the majority of those who heard and heeded John’s call to repentance.  They were Israel’s remnant of pure and undefiled religion, and constituted what there was of good soil among the people for the reception of the seed sown by John’s successor.  They had no name, for they did not constitute a party; for convenience they may be called the Devout.