THERAPEUTAE (ΘΕΡΑΠΕΥΤΑΊ). - A Jewish sect of the 1st century A.D. Its existence and its 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 the information, some Fathers (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., 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 recent critics maintain that the 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, not the documentation of a real ascetic movement (M.-J. Lagrange, Le judaïsme avant Jésus-Christ, Paris 1931, pp. 581-86). In general, however, the authenticity of the work and its historical reliability are acknowledged.
The t. lived in Egypt around Lake Moeris a wholly contemplative life. They spent their day in cells with two chambers, one of which, called the "sacred place" (αμυνεῖον), served for prolonged meditations, favored by the reading of biblical texts and of books proper to the sect. Only after sunset was it permitted to take food, but outside the "sacred place." Their assemblies on the Sabbath included readings, hymns and a parenetic sermon. These were followed by a common meal, consisting of bread, salt, hyssop and water. Every seven weeks there took place a more solemn gathering with choral hymns alternating between men and women and with a sacred vigil prolonged throughout the whole night (ἰερὰ παννυγίς; §§ 83-98).
The exclusively contemplative manner of life and the admission of women (θεραπευτρίδες), who in the assemblies occupied separate places behind a partition, constitute the fundamental points for their distinction from the Essenes (v.). With these they had in common the renunciation of private property, celibacy, the yearning for perfection, the abhorrence of slavery, the life of prayer, which in the morning was performed facing the rising sun, an esoteric doctrine and the practice of interpreting the sacred books allegorically. Such similarities prove no dependence and still less an identity between the two ascetic groups, which Philo himself (De vita contemplativa, 1) distinguishes very well. Moreover, both appear well circumscribed geographically: the Essenes were confined to Palestine, while the t. perhaps never moved beyond the region of Lake Moeris.
The scarcity of sources concerning the t. is clear proof of the limitedness of their number, in contrast with that of the Essenes, and of the precariousness of the singular monastic institution. At least Philo, who speaks of them also in other books of his (De migratione Abraham, 89-92), knew them. However, they must have exercised very little influence on the numerous Jewish diaspora in Egypt; nor can one seriously think of Christian monasticism, which flourished there in the following centuries, as an imitation of the ancient t.
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Angelo Penna