mountainman

In earlier discussions about who the therapeutae (worshipers) were in antiquity a series of parodoxes arose, none of which was clearly resolved. Here are eight of these:


PARADOX 1: Nowhere does "VC" explicitly state the group is Jewish.
That the group of "VC" are Jewish is an assumption drawn from the authors recounting the story
of the wonderful singing after Moses Dead Sea Surfing Comp. This mention by the author of "VC"
presents as an allusion not as a reality.


PARADOX 2: Monastic communities are evidence from the 4th century.

The author of "VC" described a monastic community in the 1st century.
The author states this group (monastic community) was all over the empire.
That makes them the first monastic community in the empire.
The Egyptian monastic community movement belongs to the 4th not the 1st century.
How could the author of "VC" have portrayed a monastic community in Egypt
(or indeed all over the empire) from the 1st century?


PARADOX 3: Was "VC" authored by Philo or someone else?

The claim is that the author of "VC is virulently anti-Hellenic, Philo is not.
Philo is allied to Greek culture and philosophy, the author of "VC" is not.
Philo praises Pythagoras, Plato, etc while the author of "VC" repudiates them.
Philo has great respect for the symposium, while the author of "VC" presents a detestable, common drinking-bout.
Philo respects the Platonic Eros, the author of "VC" does not.

Source: The Jewish Encyclopedia: by Isidore Singer and Cyrus Adler.
This claim needs to be checked and assessed not dismissed .



PARADOX 4: Dominance of Literary and archaeological evidence citations
At post #900 a mass of literary evidence is cited for pagan therapeutae .
This mass of literary evidence is corroborated by the archaeological evidence.
One item of literary evidence "Vita De Contemplativa" is cited to establish
a Utopian sect of Jewish therapeutae. This single item of literary evidence
remains uncorroborated by the archaeological evidence.




PARADOX 5: Philo identifies the therapeutae consistently as "them" not "us".
Why would he do that if he viewed them as Jewish?



PARADOX 6: Who were the "worshipers" [of the god(s)] in antiquity

Church scholars have answered this question for us in the past.
For 1400 years the church scholars had us all believing they were Christian.
One hundred years ago a Professor of Theology wrote they were Jewish.
Conybear was the calf who made a new trail which the herd followed to new pastures.


This is not a philosophical question but an historical one.
Huller also stated there were christian θεραπευτης.
Can we see the sources cited please?

To echo clivedurdle why are we avoiding the consideration and discussion of pagan worshipers?
Because the worshipers as described in "VC" are Jewish?
Why are the biblical academics so dismissive of the ubiquitous pagan worshipers?
Who were the therapeutae of the medical profession and Asclepius for example?
They were the (statistically) dominant "religious" worshipers. They had the largest sector of the temple market.
Where do these people appear in the saga of Christian worshipers?



PARADOX 7: The modern and ancient use of the term "therapeutic".

See also therapeutic http://www.thefreedictionary.com/therapeutic

That's completely false. Derivatives appear in the new testament. I posted them FFS
The idea that the word therapeutic in the medical sense is modern is false.
The term therapeutic is appears related to the therapeutae (worshipers) of the healing god asclepius.

Asclepius was the healing god from deep BCE until Nicaea. His worshipers include Hippocrates and especially Galen. These people are regarded as the fathers of modern medicine.

The word therapeutic appears to be derived from the therapeutae of asclepius.




PARADOX 8: How are the essenes related to the therapeutae?

Are they both fictional Utopian dream groups? (Elior via MaryH)




From the earlier thread specifically ....

Post #898 to spin about the paradox 4 is unanswered (further enumerated by avi).

Post #907 to toto about the paradox 4, responded #910 and then in #931 claiming I was using the term pagan in an anachronistic sense,

Post #937 to stephan about paradox 2 is unanswered.

Posts #938 and 941 to spin about paradoxes remain unanswered.

Post #945 by MaryH is unaddressed and introduces the paradox 8

Toto

This is an attempt to revive the original thread. It appears to be just recycling the same arguments that were rehashed in the original thread to the point of distraction.

I will close it unless some one other that Pete convinces me that there is something new to say.