Historia Naturalis. V, 17 or 29; in other editions V,(15).73; the passage in question: "Ab occidente litora Esseni fugiunt usque qua nocent, gens sola et in toto orbe praeter ceteras mira, sine ulla femina, omni venere abdicata, sine pecunia, socia palmarum. in diem ex aequo convenarum turba renascitur, large frequentantibus quos vita fessos ad mores eorum fortuna fluctibus agit. ita per saeculorum milia — incredibile dictu — gens aeterna est, in qua nemo nascitur. tam fecunda illis aliorum vitae paenitentia est! infra hos Engada oppidum fuit, secundum ab Hierosolymis fertilitate palmetorumque nemoribus, nunc alterum bustum. inde Masada castellum in rupe, et ipsum haut procul Asphaltite. et hactenus Iudaea est.". 請檢查|date=中的日期值 (幫助) cf. English translation.
And when I was about sixteen years old, I had a mind to make trim of the several sects that were among us. These sects are three: - The first is that of the Pharisees, the second that Sadducees, and the third that of the Essenes, as we have frequently told you - The Life of Josephus Flavius, 2 (頁面存檔備份,存於網際網路檔案館).
Boccaccini, Gabriele. Beyond the Essene hypothesis: the parting of the ways between Qumran and Enochic Judaism. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 1998: 47. ISBN 0-8028-4360-3. OCLC 37837643.
Goranson, Stephen. Others and Intra-Jewish Polemic as Reflected in Qumran Texts. Peter W. Flint and James C. VanderKam (編). The Dead Sea Scrolls after Fifty Years: A Comprehensive Assessment 2. Leiden: Brill Publishers. 1999: 534–551. ISBN 90-04-11061-5. OCLC 230716707.
For example, James C. VanderKam, "Identity and History of the Community." In The Dead Sea Scrolls after Fifty Years: A Comprehensive Assessment, ed. Peter W. Flint and James C. VanderKam, 2:487–533. Leiden: Brill, 1999. The earliest known proposer of this etymology was P. Melanchthon, in Johann Carion, Chronica, 1532, folio 68 verso. Among the other proposers before 1947, e.g., 1839 Isaak Jost, "Die Essaer," Israelitische Annalen 19, 145–7.
Josephus (約75). The Wars of the Jews. 2.137–138. Josephus' mention of the three-year duration of the Essene probation may be compared with the phased character of the entrance procedure in the Qumran Rule of the Community [1QS; at least two years plus an indeterminate initial catechetical phase, 1QS VI]. The provisional surrender of property required at the beginning of the last year of the novitiate derives from actual social experience of the difficulties of sharing property in a fully communitarian setting, cf. Brian J. Capper, 'The Interpretation of Acts 5.4', Journal for the Study of the New Testament 19 (1983) pp. 117-131; idem, '"In der Hand des Ananias." Erwägungen zu 1QS VI,20 und der urchristlichen Gütergemeinschaft', Revue de Qumran 12(1986) 223-236; Eyal Regev, 「Comparing Sectarian Practice and Organization: The Qumran Sect in Light of the Regulations of the Shakers, Hutterites, Mennonites and Amish」, Numen 51 (2004), pp. 146-181.
Bauer, Walter; Robert A. Kraft. Orthodoxy and heresy in earliest Christianity. Mifflintown, Pennsylvania: Sigler Press. 1996 [1971]. ISBN 0-9623642-7-4.
Bergmeier, Roland. Die Essener-Berichte des Flavius Josephus: Quellenstudien zu den Essenertexten im Werk des judischen Historiographen. Kampen, Germany: Kok Pharos Publishing House. 1993. ISBN 90-390-0014-X.
Bultmann, Rudolf. Significance of the Historical Jesus for the Theology of Paul. Faith and understanding. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress. 1987. ISBN 0-8006-3202-8.
Burns, Joshua Ezra. Essene Sectarianism and Social Differentiation in Judaea After 70 C.E. Harvard Theological Review. 2006, 99 (3): 247–74. doi:10.1017/S0017816006001246.
Eisenman, Robert H.James, the brother of Jesus: the key to unlocking the secrets of early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls. New York City: Viking Press. 1997. ISBN 0-670-86932-5.
Koester, Helmut. The Theological Aspects of Primitive Christian Heresy. James McConkey Robinson (編). The Future of our religious past: essays in honour of Rudolf Bultmann. New York City: Harper & Row. 1971. OCLC 246558.
Larson, Martin Alfred. The story of Christian origins: or, The sources and establishment of Western religion. Washington: J.J. Binns. 1977. ISBN 0-88331-090-2. OCLC 2810217.
Savoy, Gene. The Essaei Document: Secrets of an Eternal Race : Codicil to The Decoded New Testament. Reno, Nevada: International Community of Christ. 1980 [1978]. ISBN 0-936202-03-3. OCLC 13952564.
Vermes, Geza and Martin Goodman. The Essenes According to the Classical Sources. JSOT on behalf of the Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studie: Sheffield, 1989.
Essenes and Others (頁面存檔備份,存於網際網路檔案館): argues that the Hebrew original form of the name later spelled "Essenes" is in some Qumran scrolls as a self-designation.