THERAPEUTAE (separate group). — A Jewish sect of the 1st century A.D. Their existence and way of life are known only through a book by Philo (De vita contemplativa, 21–90; ed. L. Cohn–P. Wendland, VI, Berlin 1920, pp. 51–71).
Given the singularity of this information, some Fathers of the Church (Eusebius, Hist. ecc., II, 16, 2–17, 24; CB, II, 1, pp. 140–52; Epiphanius, Haereses, 29,5; PG 41,397; Jerome, De vir. ill., 8, 11; PL 23, 6, 54, 659) supposed that Philo, through a misunderstanding, had considered a group of Christian ascetics to be Jewish. Some modern critics maintain that De vita contemplativa is the work of an unknown Christian writer of the 3rd century, not of the Jewish philosopher of the 1st century, or that it presents a purely ideal profile rather than documentation of a real ascetic movement (M.-J. Lagrange, Le judaisme avant Jésus-Christ, Paris 1931, pp. 581–86). In general, however, the authenticity of the work and its historical reliability are acknowledged.
The Therapeutae lived in Egypt around Lake Moeris, leading a life entirely devoted to contemplation. They spent their days in two-room cells, one of which, called the “sacred place” (σεμνείον), was used for prolonged meditation, aided by the reading of biblical texts and writings peculiar to the sect. Food was permitted only after sunset, but outside the “sacred place.” Their Saturday assemblies included readings, singing, and a hortatory sermon. This was followed by a common meal consisting of bread, salt, hyssop, and water. Every seven weeks they held a more solemn gathering with choral singing alternating between men and women and a night-long vigil (ἐπὶ παννυχίς; §§ 83–98).
Their exclusively contemplative way of life and the admission of women (ἐπὶ παννυχίς), who in the assemblies occupied separate places divided by a partition, are fundamental points distinguishing them from the Essenes (v.).
With the Essenes they shared the renunciation of private property, celibacy, the striving for perfection, abhorrence of slavery, a life of prayer—performed in the morning facing the rising sun—a secret doctrine, and the allegorical interpretation of sacred books. Such similarities do not prove any dependence or even identity between the two ascetic groups, which Philo himself (De vita contemplativa, 1) clearly distinguishes. Moreover, both groups were geographically circumscribed: the Essenes were confined to Palestine, while the Therapeutae perhaps never ventured beyond the region of Lake Moeris.
The scarcity of sources concerning the Therapeutae is clear evidence of their small numbers, in contrast to the Essenes, and of the precariousness of this singular monastic institution. At least Philo, who also mentions them in other works (De migratione Abraham, 89–92), knew of them. Yet they must have exerted little influence on the numerous Jewish diaspora in Egypt; nor can one seriously consider later Egyptian Christian monasticism, which flourished in subsequent centuries, as an imitation of the ancient Therapeutae.