Toto

No one thinks that the Therapeuts described by Philo were the only group named Therapeuts. There is nothing to of which to be disabused.

aa5874

Your post is most fascinating because you were the very one who was DISTRESSED by those who think that the Therapeutae included Greeks.

Examine an excerpt of your own post.

It amazes me how you can seamlessly switch from one side to the next.

Toto

Therapeut was a generic term. Philo used it for a particular group. But there were other pagan attendants at pagan temples who were also referred to as therapeuts. Philo does not discuss them, and gives no indication that the group he calls Therapeutae was in any way related to the pagans.

It's like there were priests in various different religions. The term is generic.

aa5874

Come Toto, where did you get your stories from??

There is NO indication anywhere in all antiquity that the Therapeutae were Jews or of Jewish origin.

Philo also gave ZERO indication that the Tehrapeutae were Jews and of Jewish origin.

Toto

Read through the thread. Philo gives many indications that the group he called Therapeutae studied the Jewish scriptures. Is that not an indication that they were Jewish?

I can't keep banging my head against this wall.

aa5874

What logical fallacies you post!!! Only Jews study Jewish Scripture??

Please, Toto.

It is so basic.

Chili

Scholars maybe, and religion shoppers, but Jews by Tradition, who acually bring the cows home in Judaism, did not even study their own passages, nor do Catholics and are advised against that even.

Then let me add that the blessed who are 'empowered with the gift of healing' were not be passage reading fanatics as 'look-alikes' who would not have the gift of healing.

Your obsession here is to undo your own indroctrinated lies, and now assume that all people think like you. Bible study is a typical protestant thing and Muslim's maybe as Jewish protestants.

tanya

Philo praises Hercules as a demigod. Would you then claim that Philo believed that Hercules was a demigod?

When the Jews fled into China, they studied texts, written in HanZi, attributed to LaoZi: Dao de Jing. In India, Jews read Buddha. In Sweden, Jews read Old Norse (Runic). Did those acts of study convert their DNA? Today, one finds blond haired, blue eyed Jews, Han Jews, and Jews from the Indian Subcontinent, looking in each case, exactly like all the other folks from those regions. Do you suppose that the Greeks, associated with the invasion of Alexander, or the subsequent effort to expand his empire, did not similarly enter Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia and Afghanistan, bringing with them, ancient Greek ideas, language, and customs? hint: Multiple sclerosis genes found in both Persia and Scandinavia!!!

The thread is not entitled: Analysis of the writings of Philo .....

Instead of banging your head, why not try, instead, responding to my rejoinder, in which I provided references to writings of Xenophon and Hippocrates, references dated hundreds of years before Philo?

:hijack:

stephan huller

Where is this to found other than in one of your fantasies?

Ha ha ha. The reference to the Therapeutai appear as a text of Philo. This is the only place the Therapeutai community on Lake Mareotis is to be found. Are you capable of understanding this? You see I think Robert knows better than to keep up with this lunacy but he's getting laid out of the deal or something. I imagine that he started out being interested in music to meet women and when that didn't work out he latched on to this new age nonsense. But in your case, I don't know what to think (correction I know exactly what to think but can't publish it here at the forum).

The Therapeutai on Lake Mareotis only appear in the writings of Philo. They are connected with the Essaioi (= Essenes) just as the Essaioi are in turn connected with being 'therapeutai' in other of Philo's texts. And the Essaioi are explicitly identified as Jewish in the very same manner as the Therapeutai (= being spread all over the world, in every nation, members of the tradition of Israel, Moses etc).

I think the less gifted thinkers in this discussion can't get over the word therapeutai. The word therapeutai wasn't a 'brand name.' It wasn't like saying 'Christian' or 'Burger King.' It was just a word to describe - in this case - an action that men could perform in relation to God and each other. The fact that there were therapeutai associated also with other gods - and even Christ - shouldn't imply that they were all part of one family.

Even the word 'blog,' 'blogger' or 'blogging' is more specific. Maybe it's more like the verb 'to write.' Not all people that 'write' are 'writers.' If I write out a list of groceries to buy at the store and on the way to buying those groceries someone asks me if I am a writer, I'd say no. Now if we narrowed the subset down to people that write who are 'writers' we couldn't assume that someone who wrote newspaper articles is part of the same fraternity as someone who wrote books on gardening or someone who wrote amateur poetry.

Yes they are all writers but they are not part of the same fucking organization. The same thing goes for 'therapeutai.'

tanya

Yes, I believe that I do see....

I am not unwilling to claim the mantle of "less gifted thinkers", and, in addition, I am also one of the less well educated members of the forum, at least, with respect to languages.

So, Stephan, I bow to your superior intelligence, and gifted skill set, in acknowledging that you know far better than I, how to spell "therapeutai".

In my ignorance, as an urban bumpkin, I would have refocused my obvious stupidity, by writing, instead:

THERAPEUTAE

Just goes to show, we ought, in harmony with Stephan's suggestions, to limit written access to the forum, to those well educated masters of Greek and Hebrew, especially Hebrew, to gain improved exchange of ideas, especially those profound thoughts as Stephan is wont to express:

Yup, profound thoughts of Charming Stevie.

I notice that while Stephan has been quick to condemn those of us uneducated bumpkins, he and his pal Toto, have steadfastly avoided commenting on tanya's posts citing two ancient Greek authors, who lived hundreds of years before Philo, and reference therapeutae, in harmony with the OP.

:huh: