Difference between revisions of "Therapeutae" - New World Encyclopedia
Scott Dunbar (talk | contribs) m |
Scott Dunbar (talk | contribs) (Submitted) |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| − | {{Images OK}}{{Claimed}}{{Started}}{{Contracted}} | + | {{Approved}}{{Submitted}}{{Images OK}}{{Claimed}}{{Started}}{{Contracted}} |
| − | The '''Therapeutae''' (meaning: "healers") were an ancient order of ascetic | + | The '''Therapeutae''' (meaning: "healers") were an ancient order of [[Mysticism|mystical]] ascetic who lived especially around Lake Mareotis near Alexandria, the capital of Ptolemaic Egypt. This pre-Christian group of mystics (possibly Jewish)<ref> Joan E. Taylor and Philip R. Davies have argued that the terms Therapeutae (masculine) and ''Therapeutridae'' (feminine) may not have referred to an order of Jewish ascetics at all, but designated "...exemplary devotees of God." (p.1)</ref> is known today only from the writings of [[Philo Judaeus|Philo of Alexandria]] who described them in his ''De Vita Contemplativa'' ("On the Contemplative Life"), written ca. 10 C.E.<ref>Marvin W. Meyer, (ed.) 'The Ancient Mysteries: A Sourcebook.'' University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999.</ref> Philo compared the Therapeutae to the [[Essenes]] as both groups were known for their exemplary religious devotion and ascetic practices. |
| − | According to Philo, communities of Therapeutae were widely established throughout the ancient world but the particular sect near Lake Mareotis was quite famous for its healing arts. The Therapeutae were renowned for both their | + | According to Philo, communities of Therapeutae were widely established throughout the ancient world but the particular sect near Lake Mareotis was quite famous for its healing arts. The Therapeutae were renowned for both their contemplative devotion and healing abilities. Indeed, the English words "therapy" and "therapudic" may be etymologically connected to the name of this ancient religious order, remining us that medicine and healing were deeply rooted in the ancient world, and healing was seen as a religious art.<ref>See Menachem M. Brayer "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. He writes, "The name ''Therapeutae'' denoted medicial preoccupation..." (p.114).</ref> |
== Philo's Description== | == Philo's Description== | ||
| Line 30: | Line 30: | ||
===Buddhism=== | ===Buddhism=== | ||
| − | Some scholars have suggested that the Therapeutae may have been influenced by (or decendents of) [[Emperor Ashoka]]'s [[Buddhism|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.<ref>"Zen living", Robert Linssen</ref> The Therapeutae could have been the descendants of Ashoka's emissaries to the West, and could have influenced the early formation of Christianity.<ref>Elmar R Gruber and Holger Kersten, "The Original Jesus" (Element Books, Shaftesbury, 1995)</ref> Egypt had intense trade and cultural contacts with India during the period, as described in the 1st century CE Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. | + | Some scholars have suggested that the Therapeutae may have been influenced by (or decendents of) [[Ashoka|Emperor Ashoka]]'s [[Buddhism|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.<ref>"Zen living", Robert Linssen</ref> The Therapeutae could have been the descendants of Ashoka's emissaries to the West, and could have influenced the early formation of Christianity.<ref>Elmar R Gruber and Holger Kersten, "The Original Jesus" (Element Books, Shaftesbury, 1995)</ref> Egypt had intense trade and cultural contacts with India during the period, as described in the 1st century CE Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. |
[[Image:Ephesus IchthysCrop.jpg|thumb|right|An early wheel-like circular [[ichthys]] symbol, created by combining the Greek letters ΙΧΘΥΣ, [[Ephesus]].]] | [[Image:Ephesus IchthysCrop.jpg|thumb|right|An early wheel-like circular [[ichthys]] symbol, created by combining the Greek letters ΙΧΘΥΣ, [[Ephesus]].]] | ||
Revision as of 07:28, 25 July 2007
The Therapeutae (meaning: "healers") were an ancient order of mystical ascetic who lived especially around Lake Mareotis near Alexandria, the capital of Ptolemaic Egypt. This pre-Christian group of mystics (possibly Jewish)[1] is known today 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.[2] Philo compared the Therapeutae to the Essenes as both groups were known for their exemplary religious devotion and ascetic practices.
According to Philo, communities of Therapeutae were widely established throughout the ancient world but the particular sect near Lake Mareotis was quite famous for its healing arts. The Therapeutae were renowned for both their contemplative devotion and healing abilities. Indeed, the English words "therapy" and "therapudic" may be etymologically connected to the name of this ancient religious order, remining us that medicine and healing were deeply rooted in the ancient world, and healing was seen as a religious art.[3]
Philo's Description
Philo described the Therapautae in the beginning of the 1st century C.E. in De Vita Contemplativa ("On the contemplative life"). 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."[4]
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)[5]
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.[6]
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.[7] This assumption prevailed in Christian circles until the end of the 18th century when it was discovered that Philo's essay was pre-Christian. Like the first Christian hermits of the Egyptian desert, they were mostly-anchorites (solitary hermits), 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."[8]
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.[9] The Therapeutae could have been the descendants of Ashoka's emissaries to the West, and could have influenced the early formation of Christianity.[10] Egypt had intense trade and cultural contacts with India during the period, as described in the 1st century CE Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.
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.[11] 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).[12]
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.[13] 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."[14]
Hebrew tradition
It has also been suggested by scholars that the Therapeutae were deeply influenced by the aprophycal Book of Enoch and Book of Jubilees due to their mystical value and for allegorical interpretations.
Pythagoreanism
It may also be the case that the Therapeutae were an offshoot of Pythagoreanism given their ascetic dietary restrictions to vegetarianism, albeit other Jewish groups were also vegatarian or followed strict dietary laws (Kashrut).
Notes
- ↑ Joan E. Taylor and Philip R. Davies have argued that the terms Therapeutae (masculine) and Therapeutridae (feminine) may not have referred to an order of Jewish ascetics at all, but designated "...exemplary devotees of God." (p.1)
- ↑ Marvin W. Meyer, (ed.) 'The Ancient Mysteries: A Sourcebook. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999.
- ↑ See Menachem M. Brayer "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. He writes, "The name Therapeutae denoted medicial preoccupation..." (p.114).
- ↑ De Vita Contemplativa.
- ↑ Philo, Ascetics III
- ↑ Scouteris, Constantine. The Therapeutae of Philo and the Monks as Therapeutae according to Pseudo-Dionysius.
- ↑ Eusebius and Paul L. Maier (tr.) Eusebius: The Church History Kregel Academic & Professional, 2007.
- ↑ Dr Constantine Scouteris, "The Therapeutae of Philo and the Monks as Therapeutae according to Pseudo-Dionysius
- ↑ "Zen living", Robert Linssen
- ↑ Elmar R Gruber and Holger Kersten, "The Original Jesus" (Element Books, Shaftesbury, 1995)
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Zacharias P. Thundy, Buddha and Christ (Leiden: Brill, 1993), 245.
- ↑ Gruber, Elmar and Kersten, Holger (op. cite)
- ↑ N. S. Chandramouli ,"Did Buddhism influence early Christianity?" The Times of India. May 1, 1997
ReferencesISBN 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
- Chandramouli, N.S. "Did Buddhism influence early Christianity?" The Times of India. May 1, 1997.
- Eusebius and Paul L. Maier (tr.) Eusebius: The Church History Kregel Academic & Professional, 2007. ISBN 978-0825433078
- Gruber, Elmar R. and Holger Kersten. "The Original Jesus: The Buddhist Sources of Christianity." Element Books, Shaftesbury, 1996. ISBN 978-1852308353
- Meyer, Marvin W. (ed.) The Ancient Mysteries: A Sourcebook. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999. ISBN 978-0812216929
- 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.
Credits
New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:
The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:
Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.
