Therapeutae

The Therapeutae (meaning: "healers") were a pre-Christian coenobitic order of ascetic mystics (possibly ascetic Jews) who who lived especially in the area around Lake Mareotis close to Alexandria, the capital of Ptolemaic Egypt. The Therapeutae are known only from the writings of Philo of Alexandria who described them in his De Vita Contemplativa ("On the Contemplative Life"), written ca. 10 C.E. According to Philo, 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 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 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 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. The Therapeutae also possessed arcane writings of their own tradition, including formulae for numerological and allegorical interpretations.

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

Philo's 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 one of the first models of Christian monastic life. Eusebius was so sure of the identification of Therapeutae with Christians that he deduced that Philo, who admired them so, must have been Christian himself, (source needed) this assumption prevailed in christian circles until the end of the 18th century when it was discovered that Philo's essay was pre-Christian. (source) Like the first Christian hermits of the Egyptian desert, they were semi-anchorites (define), rather than living communally, as later Christian monastic communities would do. According to Pseudo-Dionysius:

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."

Formative influences

Various formative influences on the Therapeutae have been conjectured by scholars including Buddhism and Hebrew apocryphal texts.

Buddhism

Some scholars have suggested that the Therapeutae may have been influenced by (or decendents of) Emperor Ashoka's Buddhist missionaries from ancient India. Indeed, the similarities between the Therapeutae and Buddhist monasticism are striking. The ancient city of Alexandria in Egypt had Buddhist missionary activity around 250 B.C.E. as (the Edicts of Ashoka), have been pointed out. The Therapeutae could have been the descendants of Ashoka's emissaries to the West, and could have influenced the early formation of Christianity. 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.

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. 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 "elders" of Buddhism). (source)

Others have pointed out a possible Buddhist-Christian link in the life of Jesus himself. According to the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus spent his early childhood in Egypt which was at the end of the Silk Road. 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. As a result of its role in trade with the East, Egypt was prosperous and enriched with religious diversity. 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

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. ISBN 978-0800601836

• Taylor, Joan E. Jewish Women Philosophers of First-Century Alexandria: Philo's "Therapeutae" Reconsidered Oxford University Press, USA; New Ed edition, 2006. ISBN 978-0199291410

• 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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