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Chartreuse of their order. Philo himself was uncertain as to the meaning of the name, whether it was given to them because they were " physicians " of souls or because they were " servants " of the One God. Their mode of life he in one See also:

PLACE (through Fr. from Lat. platea, street; Gr. IrAar6s, wide)

place (ii. 473, See also:

LINE

line 14) calls Bepasreia, and his use of words generally accords better with the latter meaning. That the origin of the name of these ascetics was unknown in Phile's time goes to prove their antiquity. A See also:

man on joining the order died to the world, and so voluntarily resigned his See also:

PROPERTY

property to his heirs.

How the order itself was supported does not appear. So far as we are informed, See also:

prayer and study were the sole occupations of the Therapeutae. The community at Alexandria lived in mean and scattered houses, near enough to afford See also:

PROTECTION

protection, without depriving the members of the solitude which they prized. Each of these houses contained a chamber called ore,uve.Iov or µovacre pwv (cf. Matt. vi. 6), which was devoted to prayer and study, and into which the inmate brought nothing but the See also:

Law and the Prophets, together with the See also:

Psalms and other See also:

WORKS

works which tended to the promotion of piety. At sunrise the Therapeutae prayed and again at sunset. The whole See also:

INTERVAL

interval was devoted to a study of the See also:

INTERNAL

internal sense of the Scriptures. In addition to the Old Testament the Therapeutae had books by the founders of their See also:

SECT

sect on the allegorical method of interpreting Scripture. They also contributed to sacred literature themselves in the See also:

composition of new psalms. Attendance to the See also:

ORDINARY (med. Lat. ordinarius, Fr. ordinaire)

ordinary needs of nature was entirely relegated to the See also:

HOURS, CANONICAL

hours of darkness. Some of these recluses only See also:

ate every second See also:

day, while others succeeded in confining the See also:

NECESSITY (Lat. necessitas)

necessity to a single See also:

WEEK (from A.S. wicu, Germanic *wikon, probably=change, turn)

week-day.

But the See also:

SABBATH

Sabbath was a feast on which, after attending to their souls, they indulged their bodies, like yoke animals let out to graze. But their See also:

INDULGENCE (Lat. indulgentia, indulgere, to grant, concede)

indulgence even then is not mentioned to have gone beyond the coarse See also:

BREAD

bread, flavoured with See also:

salt and sometimes See also:

HYSSOP (Hyssopus officinalis)

hyssop, while their drink was See also:

WATER

water from the See also:

SPRING (from " to spring," " to leap or jump up," " burst out," O. Eng., springau, a common Teut. word, cf. Ger. springer, possibly allied to Gr. QnrFpxecOac, to move rapidly)

spring. Thus during the six days of the week the Therapeutae " philosophized," each in his own See also:

CELL (from Lat. cella, probably from an Indo-European kal —seen in Lat. celare, to hide; another suggestion connects the word with Lat. cera, wax, taking the original meaning to refer to the honeycomb)

cell, but on the Sabbath they met in a See also:

COMMON

common See also:

ASSEMBLY, UNLAWFUL

assembly, where See also:

WOMEN

women also had places screened off from the men, and listened to a discourse from one who was the eldest and most skilled in their doctrines. In contrast with the drunken See also:

REVELS, MASTER OF THE

revels of the Greeks, Philo describes the sober enjoyment by the Therapeutae of the feast of See also:

PENTECOST

Pentecost, or rather of the See also:

eve of that festival. They assembled together with glad faces and in See also:

white garments, and the proceedings were begun with prayers, in which they stood and stretched their eyes and hands to See also:

HEAVEN (0. Eng. hefen, heofon, heofone; this word appears in O.S. hevan; the High. Ger. word appears in Ger. Himmel, Dutch hemel; there does not seem to be any connexion between the two words, and the ultimate derivation of the word is unknown; the sugges

heaven. Then they took their seats in the order of their See also:

ADMISSION

admission, the men on the right and the women on the See also:

LEFT

left. See also:

SLAVERY

Slavery being against their principles, the younger members of the society waited on the See also:

elder. No flesh was served at table, and for drink only water either hot or See also:

COLD (in O. Eng. cald and ceald, a word coming ultimately from a root cognate with the Lat. gelu, gelidus, and common in the Teutonic languages, which usually have two distinct forms for the substantive and the adjective, cf. Ger. Kolte, kalt, Dutch koude

cold. But first came " the feast of See also:

REASON (Lat. ratio, through French raison)

reason and the flow of soul." All listened devoutly to a discourse delivered with an emphatic slowness and penetrating beneath the letterof the Law to the spiritual truth that See also:

lay hidden within. When the See also:

PRESIDENT (Fr. president, from Lat. praesidens, post-Augustan Lat. for praeses, director, ruler, from praesidere, to sit in front of, preside)

president's address had been duly applauded, there followed the singing of See also:

HYMNS

hymns See also:

ancient and See also:

MODERN

modern. Then came the See also:

MEAL

meal of the See also:

SIMPLE

simple See also:

KIND (O. E. ge-cynde, from the same root as is seen in " kin," supra)

kind already described. And after this a pervigilium, celebrated with antiphonal and See also:

JOINT (through Fr. from Lat. junctum, jungere, to join)

joint singing on the See also:

PART

part of men and women and with choral dancing in See also:

IMITATION (Lat. imitatio, from intitari, to imitate)

imitation of See also:

Moses and Miriam at the Red Sea.

At sunrise, turning to the See also:

east, they prayed that the See also:

LIGHT

light of truth might illumine their minds, and then returned to their studies. Such is the See also:

account of the Therapeutae given by Philo. It seems to have formed part of the See also:

APOLOGY (from Gr. &aoXoyia, defence)

Apology for the Jews (Eus Pr. Ev. viii. 1o, § 1s)—hence its highly rhetorical See also:

CHARACTER (Gr. xapareri7p, from xap&crew, to scratch)

character—from which See also:

Eusebius gives the See also:

EXTRACT (from Lat. extrahere, to draw out)

extract about the Essenes; while this in its turn may have constituted the See also:

FOURTH

fourth See also:

BOOK

book of a large See also:

WORK

work entitled (" sarcastically," says Eusebius, H.E. ii. 18) srepi 'Aper&,v, of which the Legatio ad Gaium formed the first. The De Vita Contemplativa thus owes its place next to' the Quod Omnis See also:

Probus See also:

LIBER

Liber, a place which it already occupied in the copy of Philo's works possessed by Eusebius (H.E. ii. 18), merely to the mention of the Essenes at the beginning of it. To the modern reader the importance of the Therapeutae, as of the Essenes, lies in the See also:

EVIDENCE (Lat. evidentia, evideri, to appear clearly)

evidence they afford of the existence of the monastic See also:

SYSTEM

system See also:

long before the See also:

Christian era. We have no See also:

CLUE

clue to the origin of the Therapeutae, but it is See also:

PLAIN (O. Fr. plain, from Lat. plenum)

plain that they were already ancient when Philo described them. Eusebius was so much struck by the likeness of the Therapeutae to the Christian monks of his own day as to claim that they were Christians converted by the See also:

PREACHING (Fr. preecher, from Lat. praedicare, to proclaim)

preaching of St See also:

Mark. He goes so far as to say that " the writings of ancient men, who were the founders of the vect " referred to by Philo, may very well have been the Gospels and Epistles (which were not yet written).

This is a strong instance of how the wish may be See also:

FATHER

father to the thought even in a fairly See also:

CRITICAL (in alphabetical order of authors)

critical mind. Eusebius having gone wrong on this point, others of the Fathers followed suit, so that Philo is reckoned by See also:

Jerome among the ecclesiastical writers of the Christians. Nothing is more likely than that See also:

CHRISTIANITY

Christianity gained adherents among the Therapeutae, and that their institutions were adapted to the new See also:

religion, just as they seem to have been borrowed by the Jews from the Egyptians. See also:

STRABO (born c. 63 n.c.)

Strabo (xi. 29, p. 8o6) tells us how he saw at See also:

HELIOPOLIS

Heliopolis large buildings belonging to the priests, which had once been tenanted by men skilled in See also:

PHILOSOPHY (Gr. gthos, fond of, and vo4 (a, wisdom)

philosophy and See also:

ASTRONOMY (from Gr. &arpov, a star, and v ,usiv, to classify or arrange)

astronomy, who had been consulted by See also:

PLATO

Plato and See also:

EUDOXUS

Eudoxus, but that the Quvrrlµa and 6iaK1) See also:

rix (the very words used by Philo in speaking of the Therapeutae) .had then fallen into decay. The system, however, was not even then See also:

EXTINCT

extinct, for it was described by See also:

CHAEREMON

Chaeremon the Stoic, a contemporary of Strabo's. Chaeremon's account has been preserved by See also:

PORPHYRY (IlopcPisptos) (A.D. 233-c. 304)

Porphyry (De Abstinentia, iv. 6), and has curious resemblances to Philo's description of the Therapeutae, even down to such details as their posture and gait and the eating of hyssop with their bread. After 1879 a theory became current in See also:

Germany (first stated in P. E. See also:

LUCIUS

Lucius, See also:

Die Therapeuten and ihre Stellung), and accepted in See also:

England, to the effect that the De Vita Contemplative is not a work of Philo's at all, but a See also:

FORGERY (derived through the French from Latin fabricare, to construct)

forgery put forward about the end of the 3rd See also:

CENTURY (from Lat. centuria, a division of a hundred men)

century and intended to procure the authority of Philo's name for the then rising See also:

MONASTICISM (Gr. p.ovacrnabs, living alone, µ6vos)

monasticism of the See also:

Church.

But this theory was signally refuted by F. C. See also:

Conybeare in his Philo about the Contemplative Life (See also:

Oxford, 1895). See also works quoted by Conybeare (pp. 391–399); Bousset, Religion See also:

des Judenthums See also:

IM(K2+a2+h2—2 ah cos 0)

im neutestamentlichen Zeitalter (1903) ; A. See also:

HARNACK, ADOLF (1851– )

Harnack, s.v. " Therapeuten " in See also:

Herzog-Hauck, Realencyk., xix. 677 (1907). (ST G.

End of Article: THERAPEUTAE (Gr. BepaawTat, literally " attendants " or " physicians," hence " worshippers of God ")

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