Therapeutae

The Therapeutae were a

Lake Mareotis close to Alexandria in circumstances resembling lavrite life (cf. III.22). They were "the best" of a kind given to "perfect goodness" that "exists in many places in the inhabited world" (cf. III.21). The author was unsure of the origin of the name and derives the name Therapeutae/Therapeutides from Greek

θεραπεύω in the sense of "cure" or "worship" (cf. I.2).

Philo's description of the doctrines and practices of the Therapeutae leaves great ambiguity about what religion they are associated with.

Name

The term Therapeutae (plural) is Latin, from Philo's Greek plural Therapeutai (Θεραπευταί). The term therapeutes means one who is attendant to the gods

Sarapis in inscriptions, such as on Delos.^[8]

De vita contemplativa account

Philo described the Therapeutae in

De vita contemplativa ("On the contemplative life"), written in the first century CE. The origins of the Therapeutae were unclear, and Philo was even unsure about the etymology of their name, which he explained as meaning either physicians of souls or servants of God. The opening phrases of his essay establish that it followed one that has been lost, on the active life. Philo was employing the familiar polarity in Hellenic philosophy between the active and the contemplative life, exemplifying the active life by the Essenes

, another severely ascetic sect, and the contemplative life by the desert-dwelling Therapeutae.

According to De Vita Contemplativa, the Therapeutae were widely distributed in the Ancient world, among the Greeks and beyond in the non-Greek world of the "

Lake Mareotis

:

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.
— De Vita Contemplativa^[9]

Teachings and lifestyle

Temperance and simplicity

They lived 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.
— De Vita Contemplativa para. 18

Six days per week of solitude, meeting on seventh day, with teaching and hymns

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.
— De Vita Contemplativa, para. 28

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" (De Vita Contemplativa, para.70) and sing antiphonal hymns until dawn.

Testament of Job

The

pseudepigraphic Testament of Job is seen as possibly a Therapeutae text.^[10]^[11]

Early Christian interpretations

The 3rd-century Christian writer

Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 263–339), in his Ecclesiastical History, identified Philo's Therapeutae as the first Christian monks, identifying their renunciation of property, chastity, fasting, and solitary lives with the cenobitic ideal of the Christian monks.^[12]

The 4th-century Christian heresiologist Epiphanius of Salamis (c. 315–403), bishop of Salamis in Cyprus, author of the Panarion, or Medicine Chest against Heresies, misidentified Philo's Therapeuate as "Jessaens" and considered them a Christian group.

The 5th-century Christian writer

Pseudo-Dionysius, following Philo, interprets that "Some people gave to the ascetics the name 'Therapeutae' or servants while some others gave them the name monks". Pseudo-Dionysius interprets Philo's group as a highly organized Christian ascetic order, and the meaning of the name "Therapeutae" as "servants".^[13]

Theory of Buddhist Influence

Some authors have pointed out similarities between the Therapeutae and

Mediterranean around 250 BCE, has led to the hypothesis that Therapeutae might have been a Buddhist sect composed of descendants of Ashoka's emissaries.^[15]^[14]^[16]

Linguist Zacharias P. Thundy suggests that the word "Therapeutae" is only a Hellenistic corruption of "

Pali word for traditional Buddhists.^[15]

References

Philo's works
.

^ Toy, Crawford Howell; Siegfried, Carl; Lauterbach, Jacob Zallel. "PHILO JUDÆUS".

^ θερα^π-ευτής, οῦ, ὁ A. one who serves the gods, worshipper, θ. Ἄρεως, θεῶν,
Sarapis or Isis, UPZ8.19 (ii B.C.), IG11(4).1226 (Delos, ii B.C.); title of play by Diphilus, ib.2.992ii9; name of certain ascetics, Ph.2.471; θ. ὁσιότητος, of the followers of Moses
, ib.177. 2. one who serves a great man, courtier, “οἱ ἀμφὶ τὸν πάππον θ.”
ib
.341c.

Dsc. Ther. Praef. (but also τὸ περὶ παθῶν θ., title of a work on moral remedies by Chrysippus, Phld.Ir.p.17 W.); περὶ θ. μεθόδου, title of work by Galen
.

^ θερα^π-ευτός, όν, A. that may be fostered or cultivated, Pl.Prt.325b. 2. curable, Paul.Aeg.4.5.

^ θερα^π-εύτρια, ἡ, fem. of A. “θεραπευτής” EM47.45.

^ LSJ θερα^π-ευτρίς, ίδος, ἡ,= foreg., Ph.1.261, 655: pl., as title of certain female ascetics, Id.2.471.

^ Voluntary Associations in the Graeco-Roman World John S. Kloppenborg, Stephen G. Wilson - 2012 "Vidman thinks they were simple worshipers united in a loose association (1970:69, 125 38); cf. therapeutae of Asclepius at Pergamon (Habicht 1969:114 15). melan-phoroi; cf. Poland, s.v. melan-phoroi, PW 15:408 14; Wilcken 1927 57, 1:8,"....Footnote 33..The latter is found of worshipers of Sarapis in inscriptions (LSJ cites IG XI/4 second century BCE Delos)

^ On Ascetics (another name for the De Vita Contemplativa), Section III.

^ Spittler, Russel Paul (1983), 'Testament of Job', in James H. Charlesworth (ed. Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Vol I Doubleday

^ Taylor, Joan E., "Virgin Mothers: Philo on the Women Therapeutae," Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha, 12.1(2001): 37-63. doi:10.1177/095182070101200102

^ Constantine Scouteris, University of Athens Source "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." [1] Constantine Scouteris, "The Therapeutae of Philo and the Monks as Therapeutae according to Pseudo-Dionysius Scouteris, The Therapeutae of Philo and the Monks as Therapeutae according to Pseudo-Dionysius

^ Constantine Scouteris, University of Athens Source "The contribution of Pseudo-Dionysius lies in the fact that, not only has he not rejected Philo's thought, but he enriched it with a distinctly Christian attitude. Or to put it differently. Pseudo-Dionysiu's purpose was to present the Christian teaching concerning the monastic way; and he did so using the Philonian language, symbols and categories."

^
ISBN 9781787201118
.

^
ISBN 9004097414
.

ISBN 9781852308353
.

Further reading

Simon, Marcel, Jewish Sects at the Time of Jesus (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1967; 1980).

Елизарова, М. М. Община терапевтов (Из истории ессейского общественно-религиозного движения 1 в. н.э.). М., 1972.

Taylor, Joan E. Jewish Women Philosophers of First-Century Alexandria: Philo's "Therapeutae" Reconsidered (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).

Celia Deutsch, "The Therapeutae, Text Work, Ritual, and Mystical Experience," in Paradise Now: Essays on Early Jewish and Christian Mysticism. Ed. by April D. Deconick (Leiden, Brill, 2006), 287–312.

Ullrich R. Kleinhempel, Traces of buddhist presence in Alexandria; Philo and the "Therapeutae".in: ALITER, 2019, pp. 3–31. https://www.academia.edu/39841429/Traces_of_Buddhist_Presence_in_Alexandria_Philo_and_the_Therapeutae_

External links

"Therapeutae" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). 1911.

History sourcebook: Philo Judaeus, The Contemplative Life On Ascetics

Philo Judaeus, The Contemplative Life excerpts (in English)

Philo Judaeus, The Contemplative Life

Authority control databases
International

FAST

National

Poland

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Therapeutae&oldid=1199973701"

[1] Philo's works
.

[JE-2] Toy, Crawford Howell; Siegfried, Carl; Lauterbach, Jacob Zallel. "PHILO JUDÆUS".

[3] θερα^π-ευτής, οῦ, ὁ A. one who serves the gods, worshipper, θ. Ἄρεως, θεῶν,
Sarapis or Isis, UPZ8.19 (ii B.C.), IG11(4).1226 (Delos, ii B.C.); title of play by Diphilus, ib.2.992ii9; name of certain ascetics, Ph.2.471; θ. ὁσιότητος, of the followers of Moses
, ib.177. 2. one who serves a great man, courtier, “οἱ ἀμφὶ τὸν πάππον θ.”
ib
.341c.

[4] Dsc. Ther. Praef. (but also τὸ περὶ παθῶν θ., title of a work on moral remedies by Chrysippus, Phld.Ir.p.17 W.); περὶ θ. μεθόδου, title of work by Galen
.

[5] θερα^π-ευτός, όν, A. that may be fostered or cultivated, Pl.Prt.325b. 2. curable, Paul.Aeg.4.5.

[6] θερα^π-εύτρια, ἡ, fem. of A. “θεραπευτής” EM47.45.

[7] LSJ θερα^π-ευτρίς, ίδος, ἡ,= foreg., Ph.1.261, 655: pl., as title of certain female ascetics, Id.2.471.

[8] Voluntary Associations in the Graeco-Roman World John S. Kloppenborg, Stephen G. Wilson - 2012 "Vidman thinks they were simple worshipers united in a loose association (1970:69, 125 38); cf. therapeutae of Asclepius at Pergamon (Habicht 1969:114 15). melan-phoroi; cf. Poland, s.v. melan-phoroi, PW 15:408 14; Wilcken 1927 57, 1:8,"....Footnote 33..The latter is found of worshipers of Sarapis in inscriptions (LSJ cites IG XI/4 second century BCE Delos)

[9] On Ascetics (another name for the De Vita Contemplativa), Section III.

[10] Spittler, Russel Paul (1983), 'Testament of Job', in James H. Charlesworth (ed. Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Vol I Doubleday

[11] Taylor, Joan E., "Virgin Mothers: Philo on the Women Therapeutae," Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha, 12.1(2001): 37-63. doi:10.1177/095182070101200102

[12] Constantine Scouteris, University of Athens Source "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." [1] Constantine Scouteris, "The Therapeutae of Philo and the Monks as Therapeutae according to Pseudo-Dionysius Scouteris, The Therapeutae of Philo and the Monks as Therapeutae according to Pseudo-Dionysius

[13] Constantine Scouteris, University of Athens Source "The contribution of Pseudo-Dionysius lies in the fact that, not only has he not rejected Philo's thought, but he enriched it with a distinctly Christian attitude. Or to put it differently. Pseudo-Dionysiu's purpose was to present the Christian teaching concerning the monastic way; and he did so using the Philonian language, symbols and categories."

[Zen-14] 
ISBN 9781787201118
.

[Thundy-15] 
ISBN 9004097414
.

[16] ISBN 9781852308353
.

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[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[15]

[14]

[16]