ch only a part--or, according to Dr. Schechter,
excerpts--is preserved, we might find other and more significant
agreements.

Dr. Schechter has also remarked certain coincidences between the tenets of
our sect and those of the Falashas, or Abyssinian Jews, whom, with Beer,
he is disposed to connect in some way with the Dositheans. Their Sabbath
laws resemble those in the Jubilees and in the texts before us; they also
prohibit marriage with a niece; they have a tradition that the Pentateuch
was brought to Abyssinia by Azariah, the son of Zadok (1 Kings 4 2);
certain features of their calendar may possibly be related to that of the
Zadokites as described by Kirkisani. Here, again, the correspondences are
not numerous or distinctive enough to establish an historical connection.

Putting together these scattered indicia, Dr. Schechter arrives at a
theory of the history and relations of the sect which must be given in his
own words:--

We may, then, formulate our hypothesis that our text is
constituted of fragments forming extracts from a Zadok book, known
to us chiefly from the writings of Kirkisani. The Sect which it
represented, did not however pass for any length of time under the
name of Zadokites, but was soon in some way amalgamated with and
perhaps also absorbed by the Dosithean Sect, and made more
proselytes among the Samaritans than among the Jews, with which
former sect it had many points of similarity. In the course of
time, however, the Dosithean Sect also disappeared, and we have
only some traces left of them in the lingering sect of the
Falashas, with whom they probably came into close contact at an
early period of their (the Falashas') existence, and to whom they
handed down a good many of their practices. The only real
difficulty in the way of this hypothesis is, that according to our
Text the Sect had its original seat in Damascus, north of
Palestine, and it is difficult to see how they reached the
Dositheans, and subsequently the Falashas, who had their main
seats in the south of Palestine, or Egypt. But this could be
explained by assuming special missionary efforts on the part of
the Zadokites by sending their emissaries to Egypt, a country
which was especially favourable to such an enterprise because of
the existence of the Onias Temple there. The severance of the
Egyptian Jews from the Palestinian influence