stephan huller

Then why do you speak English?

tanya

No, Toto, what makes them non-Jews is the text of VC by Philo. He describes them worshipping at sunrise and sunset, DAILY. He describes their possession, in every house, of a sacred shrine.

I challenged you, in post 395, (repeated again this morning), to answer my question: Are these two activities associated with the practice of Judaism two thousand years ago? Did you read the quote I provided from Apastamba (link in post 395), who provided written instructions to pray at sunrise and sunset, 500 years before Philo, at a time when Egypt was governed by the Persians?

tanya

I think that may have been my own heritage.....

Sheshbazzar

I am not Jewish.
And am thus not under those identifying restraints and practices that The Scriptures place exclusively upon those who are of Jewish birth.
The Orthodox Jews understand this, and would not even want me to become a Jew.

There are many devout practicing Jews that can speak English (or Greek) quite well without any need to hide their Jewish identity, or to employ tame' v'kherem religious terms cribbed from the gentiles ancient pagan religions.
Once one knows what Hellenism is, anyone can choose to continue to engage in it, or not.

aa5874

There is no reason why they should be Jews when they were not identified as Jews like the Essenes.

Again, Philo did not state that the Therapeutae lived in Judea or in any city of Judea but he clearly stated that the Essenes lived in many cities of Judea.

Philo's Apology to the Jews The Therapeutae were NOT Jews. Not a single Therapeutae was claimed by Philo to live in Judea--None.

The Therapeutae were a Non-Jewish sect known throughout the Roman Empire that used Jewish Scripture and their own Writings perhaps like the Christians in the time of Justin.

Justin's First Apology Philo's "On the Contemplative Life" It is clear that both Christians and the Therapeutae studied Jewish Scripture and their own writings.

mountainman

There is only one single (amidst many hundred) source of evidence AFAIK from antiquity in which the term is not applied to pagans. Responses to the OP have demonstrated that this one single source was preserved ONLY by the Christian Church, not by the Greeks or the Jews themselves. Other responses clearly indicate that at least 4 well regarded scholars about 100 years ago considered that the key source text "VC" was a later Church forgery. And we all know that the very first Church "historian" Eusebius used "VC" to surmise that the therapeutae were missing link Christians of the wonderfully fictitious Apostolic Age.

The pagan therapeutae enjoyed a great amount of prestige in the empire before Nicaea.

The pagan therapeutae were also associated with the Roman Army as the army medics.

The Jewish therapeutae may have appeared as a result of forgery and identity theft.

stephan huller

You're crazy, dishonest or both.

aa5874

It is extremely unlikely that "On the Contemplative Life" was a forgery of the Roman Church because it does NOT contain anything about the Four Gospels, the Pauline Epistles, Jesus, the disciples, Paul, or Christians.

"On the Contemplative Life" does NOT corroborate a single event in the NT accounts of Jesus.

It is not logical at all and completely unexpected that a writing would be forged by the Church which does NOT present a single direct statement to support it.

It is far more likely that Eusebius' "Church History" is a forgery of the Roman Church than Philo's "On the Contemplative Life".

mountainman

The therapeutae who travelled with the Roman Army were not Jewish.

They represented the medics in the army.

They were pagan.

If you have any other evidence which corroborates the existence of a Jewish sect of therapeutae outside of the Church preserved source called "Philo" please go ahead and cite it.

I do not consider that a request for such evidence is either crazy or dishonest and if there is zero forthcoming evidence to corroborate the existence of Jewish therapeutae, then it is neither crazy or dishonest to suggest that their mention in the church preserved literature of Philo is a purposeful corruption of the historical therapeutae.


Asclepius had numerous other epithets including SAVIOUR ...

mountainman

The reason that "VC" was considered a forgery of the church by a group of eminent scholars at the end of the 19th century was because it describes a monastic tradition (and which Eusebius indicated was "Christian" - despite there being no evidence for this indication in "VC") for which there is no evidence until the 4th century.

This state of affairs is reflected in Webster's 1913 Encyclopaedia .....