Therapeutae

The Therapeutae were a Jewish sect in which flourished in Alexandria and other parts of the Diaspora of Hellenistic Judaism in the final years of the Second Temple period. The primary source is the account De vita contemplativa ("The Contemplative Life") by the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria (c. 20 BCE - 50 CE) who appears to have been personally acquainted with them. The pseudepigraphic Testament of Job is also thought to be a Therapeutae text.^[1][2]

Philo records that they were "philosophers" (cf. I.2) that lived on a low hill by the Lake Mareotis close to Alexandria in circumstances resembling lavrite life (cf. III.22), and were "the best" of a kind given to "perfect goodness" that "exists in many places in the inhabited world" (cf. III.21). Philo 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).

The term Therapeutae (plural) is Latin, from Philo's Greek plural Therapeutai (Θεραπευταί). The Greek feminine plural Therapeutrides (Θεραπευτρίδες) is sometimes encountered for their female members.

Philo's account

Philo described the Therapeutae in the beginning of the 1st century CE in De vita contemplativa ("On the contemplative life"), written ca. 10 CE. 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 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.

Jewish monastic orders

According to Philo, the Therapeutae were widely distributed in the Ancient world, among the Greeks and beyond in the non-Greek world of the "Barbarians", with one of their major gathering points being in Alexandria, in the area 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."

—Philo, Ascetics III^[3]

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 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.

Early Christian interpretations

The 4th century Christian writer Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 263–339), in his Ecclesiastical History, misidentified Philo's Therapeutae as the first Christian monks, identifying their renunciation of property, chastity, fasting, solitary lives with the cenobitic ideal of the Christian monks.^[4]

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". The Pseudo-Dionysius interprets Philo's group as a highly organized Christian ascetic order, and the meaning of the name "Therapeutae" as "servants".^[5]

See also

• Buddhism and Christianity
• Hellenistic Judaism
• Testament of Job
• Monasticism

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

Notes

References

1. ^ Spittler, Russel Paul (1983), 'Testament of Job', in James H. Charlesworth (ed. Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Vol II Doubleday
2. ^ Philo on the Women Therapeutae', Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha, 12: 37-63. Taylor, Joan E. and Davies, Philip R. (1998)
3. ^ Philo, Ascetics III
4. ^ 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." http://www.omhros.gr/kat/history/Txt/Rl/Therapeutae.htm 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
5. ^ 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."

External links

• History sourcebook: Philo Judaeus, The Contemplative Life On Ascetics
• Philo Judaeus, The Contemplative Life excerpts (in English)