Therapeutae

The Therapeutae (meaning: "healers") were an early pre-Christian coenobitic order of ascetics (possibly Jews) who fourished near Lake Mareotis close to Alexandria, the capital of Ptolemaic Egypt. According to Philo of Alexandria, communities of Therapeutae were widely established throughout the ancient world although the particular sect near Lake Mareotis was quite famous. Philo compared the Therapeutae to the Essenes as both groups were known for their exemplary religious devotion and ascetic practices.

The Therapeutae (known only from Philo) were Jewish mystics and ascetics who lived especially in the area around Alexandria, Philo described the Therapeutae in the beginning of the 1st century C.E. in De vita contemplativa ("On the contemplative life"), written ca. 10 C.E. By that time, the origins of the Therapeutae were already lost in the past, and Philo was even unsure about the etymology of their name.

The Therapeutae were not only known for their contempaltive devotion but were also reputedly renowned for their healing arts. Indeed, the modern English words "therapy" and "therapudic" may be etymologically connected to the name of this ancient religious group, remining us that medicine and healing are deeply rooted in the ancient world of religion.

Philo's Description

Philo described the Therapautae in the beginning of the 1st century C.E. in De Vita Contemplativa ("On the contemplative life"), written ca. 10 C.E.. By that time, the origins of the Therapeutae were already lost in the past, and Philo was even unsure about the etymology of their name, which he explained as meaning either "physicians of souls" or "healers."

According to Philo, the Therapeutae were widely distributed in the Ancient world, with one of their major settlements being in the area of the Lake Mareotis, Egypt:

Now this class of persons may be met with in many places, for it was fitting that both Greece and the country of the barbarians should partake of whatever is perfectly good; and there is the greatest number of such men in Egypt, in every one of the districts, or nomes, as they are called, and especially around Alexandria; and from all quarters those who are the best of these therapeutae proceed on their pilgrimage to some most suitable place as if it were their country, which is beyond the Maereotic lake."|Philo, Ascetics III

The Therapeutaeare described as living chastely with utter simplicity; they "first of all laid down temperance as a sort of foundation for the soul to rest upon, proceed to build up other virtues on this foundation" (Philo). They were dedicated to the contemplative life, and their activities for six days of the week consisted of ascetic practices, fasting, solitary prayers and the study of the scriptures in their isolated cells, each with its separate holy sanctuary, and enclosed courtyard:

"the entire interval from dawn to evening is given up by them to spiritual exercises. For they read the holy scriptures and draw out in thought and allegory their ancestral philosophy, since they regard the literal meanings as symbols of an inner and hidden nature revealing itself in covert ideas."|Philo, para. 28

In addition to the Pentateuch, the Prophets and Psalms they possessed arcane writings of their own tradition, including formulae for numerological and allegorical interpretations.

They renounced property and followed severe discipline:

"These men abandon their property without being influenced by any predominant attraction, and flee without even turning their heads back again."

Philo para. 18

They "professed an art of healing superior to that practiced in the cities" Philo notes, and the reader must be reminded of the reputation as a healer Saint Anthony possessed among his 4th-century contemporaries, who flocked out from Alexandria to reach him.

On the seventh day the Therapeutae met in a meeting house, the men on one side of an open partition, the women modestly on the other, to hear discourses. Once in seven weeks they meet for a night-long vigil after a banquet where they served one another, for "they are not waited on by slaves, because they deem any possession of servants whatever to be contrary to nature. For she has begotten all men alike free" (Philo, para.70) and sing antiphonal hymns until dawn.

Forerunners of early Christian monastic orders

Philonian monachism has been seen as the forerunner of and the model for the Christian ascetic life. It has even been considered as the earliest description of Christian monasticism. This view was first espoused by Eusebius of Caesarea in his Ecclesiastical History.

The practices described by Philo were considered as early as Eusebius of Caesarea as one of the first models of Christian monastic life. Eusebius was so sure of his identification of Therapeutae with Christians that he deduced that Philo, who admired them so, must have been Christian himself, not knowing the date of Philo's essay, and Christian readers still believed that this must have been so until the end of the 18th century. Like the first Christian hermits of the Egyptian desert, they were hermits, or anchorites, rather than living communally, as later Christian monastic communities would do.

"The semianchoritic character of the Therapeutae community, the renunciation of property, the solitude during the six days of the week and the gathering together on Saturday for the common prayer and the common meal, the severe fasting, the keeping alive of the memory of God, the continuous prayer, the meditation and study of Holy Scripture were also practices of the Christian anchorites of the Alexandrian desert."

Scouteris, The Therapeutae of Philo and the Monks as Therapeutae according to Pseudo-Dionysius

Formative influences

Buddhism

The similarities between the Therapeutae and Buddhist monasticism, a tradition earlier by several centuries, combined with Indian evidence of Buddhist missionary activity to the Mediterranean around 250 B.C.E. (the Edicts of Ashoka), have been pointed out. The Therapeutae would have been the descendants of Ashoka's emissaries to the West, and would have influenced the early formation of Christianity. The linguist Zacharias P. Thundy also suggests that the word "Therapeutae" is only a Hellenisation of the Indian Pali word for traditional Buddhists, Theravada. In general, Egypt had intense trade and cultural contacts with India during the period, as described in the 1st century CE Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.

An early wheel-like circular ichthys symbol, created by combining the Greek letters ΙΧΘΥΣ, Ephesus.

According to the linguist Zacharias P. Thundy the name "Therapeutae" is simply an Hellenisation of the Pali term for the traditional Buddhist faith, "Theravada". The similarities between the monastic practices of the Therapeutae and Buddhist monastic practices have led to suggestions that the Therapeutae were in fact Buddhist monks who had reached Alexandria, descendants of Ashoka's emissaries to the West, and who influenced the early formation of Christianity. The evidence for this argument rests solely on the similarity of practices and the purported derivation of the name.

Elmar R. Gruber, a psychologist, and Holger Kersten, a specialist in religious history argue that Buddhism had a substantial influence on the life and teachings of Jesus. Gruber and Kersten claim that Jesus was brought up by the Therapeutae, teachers of the Buddhist Theravada school then living in the Bible lands. According to the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus spent his early childhood in Egypt which was at the end of the Silk Road. As a result of its role in trade with the East, Egypt was prosperous and enriched with religious diversity. They assert that Jesus lived the life of a Buddhist and taught Buddhist ideals to his disciples; their work follows in the footsteps of the Oxford New Testament scholar' Barnett Hillman Streeter, who established as early as the 1930s that the, moral teaching of the Buddha has four remarkable resemblances to the Sermon on the Mount."

Hebrew tradition

Various formative influences on the Therapeutae have been conjectured. The Book of Enoch and Book of Jubilees exemplify the Hebrew tradition for the mystic values of numbers and for allegorical interpretations, without having to reach to Zoroaster or Pythagoreans.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Brayer, Menachem M. "Psychosomatics, Hermetic Medicine, and Dream Interpretation in the Qumran Literature." The Jewish Quarterly Review New Ser., Vol. 60, No. 2 (Oct., 1969), pp. 112-127
• Simon, Marcel and James H. Farley (tr.) Jewish Sects at the Time of Jesus Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980.
• Taylor, Joan E. Jewish Women Philosophers of First-Century Alexandria: Philo's "Therapeutae" Reconsidered
• Taylor, Joan E. and Philip R. Davies "The So-Called Therapeutae of "De Vita Contemplativa": Identity and Character." The Harvard Theological Review. Vol. 91, No. 1 (Jan., 1998), pp. 3-24

External links

• History sourcebook: Philo Judaeus, The Contemplative Life On Ascetics Retrieved July 22, 2007.
• Philo Judaeus, The Contemplative Life excerpts (in English) Retrieved July 22, 2007.

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