Q. 98. In the Intertestamentary Period, did the Essenes practise Paedocommunion? A. 98. The B.C. 130 Essenic Book of Jubilees, explicitly quoted in the Qumran Damascus Document (CD 16:3f), teaches only mature men ate the Passover. Jubilees 49:6-21 teaches that "‘every man’ from twenty years old and upwards…shall eat it in the sanctuary" – and that their married men ate the Passover alone, without their women and children. Of them, Josephus writes in his A.D. 75 Wars of the Jews (2:8:7-10) that "if anyone has a mind to come over to their sect, he is not immediately admitted; but he is prescribed the same method of living which they use – for a year, while he continues excluded…. When he has given evidence during that time…that he…approaches nearer to their way of living…, his temper is tried for two more years…. If he appear to be worthy, they then admit him into their society" (cf. First Corinthians 11:29).
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