Then follows a description of the shoemaker, who is represented as half Essene, half Methodist or Moravian, but still more of a Separatist-certainly not the type originally conceived by Goethe as that of the Wandering Jew.
"The Youth of Goethe"
Peter Hume Brown
Rejected by His Essene brethren among whom He first laboured-whose arguments against His purposed life of loving labour are summarised in the story of the temptation-because he carried to the people the spiritual wisdom that they regarded as their proudest and most secret treasure, and because His all-embracing love drew within its circle the outcast and the degraded-ever loving in the lowest as in the highest the Divine Self-He saw gathering round Him all too quickly the dark clouds of hatred and suspicion.
"Esoteric Christianity, or The Lesser Mysteries"
Annie Besant
It is obvious that if Christ had been an Essene but had departed from His usual custom on this occasion out of deference to the woman's feelings, he would have understood why Simon had not offered Him the same attention, and at any rate Simon would have excused himself on these grounds.
"Secret Societies And Subversive Movements"
Nesta H. Webster