THERAPEUT^E
338
THERAPEUT^
rated from the male members by a wall rising three or )V.ur cubits upwards, but in such a manner that they could hear the voice of the speaker.
The seventh Sabbath, the Trfi'rr/KOffT-/;, was especial- ly distinguished. The number fifty was regarded by them as tiie most holy and natural of numbers, being compoimded of the power of the right-angled triangle, which is the principle of the origination and condition of the whole (tan Ci irpotnpTiog /Jtyi'trr/jc toprii^, i]v TreiTtjKorTai; iXaxfi', I'lytoiraToc K<ii (pvatKwTctTot; apt^ftio}', tK Tt'it; Tov op^oywviov Tptydn'ov Svt'u^noc, OTTto tarii' apxi] rijc riov o\mv yei'tneioc Km ffvTTd- fftior). Clothed in white garments, they came together to tlie common feast. Before they partook of the same, they lifted up their eyes and hands to heaven and prayed to God that it might be acceptable to him. After the prayer, they sat down, the men sitting on the right hand and the women on the left, on rugs of the coarsest material. Before the feast commenced, questions were asked and answered. A passage of the Scripture was explained and religious questions were settled. All list- ened attentively to the speaker, indicating their atten- tion and comprehension by their nods and looks. When the president appeared to have spoken at sufficient length, and to have carried out his intentions adequate- ly, so that his explanation had gone on felicitously and fluently through Ins own acntencss, and the hearing of the others had been profitable, applause arose from them all as of men rejoicing at what they had seen and heard ; and then some one, rising up, sang a hymn which had been made in honor of (Jod, either such as he had com- posed himself or some ancient one of some old poet. After him others also arose in their ranks, and in be- coming manner, while every one else listened in de- cent silence, except when it was proper to take up the burden of the song and join in at the end. When each individual had finished his psalm, the young men brought in the table on which was the food — the leav- ened bread with a seasoning of salt, and mingled with some hyssop, out of reverence for the sacred table which was in the holy outer temple; for on this table were placed loaves and salt without seasoning, and the bread was mileavened, and the salt unmixed with anything else.
After the feast they celebrated the sacred festival during the whole night (utra ?'t to ^liin'ov ti)i' 'npuv dyoi'm iravvvxiCa). All stood up together, and in the middle of the entertainment two choruses were formed at first, the one of men and the other of women. Each chorus had its leader and chief, who was the most honor- able and most excellent of the band. Then they sang the hynnis in honor of God in many metres and tunes, at one time all singing together, and at another moving their hands, and dancing in corresponding harmony. When each chorus of the men and each chorus of the women had fi^asted separately by itself, they joined to- gether, and the two became one chorus — an imitation of that one which, in old time, was established by the Red Sea, on accoiuit of the wondrfius works which were displayed there before Israel, and where both men and women together became all one chorus, Moses leading the men, and Miriam leading the women. When the sun arose, they raised their hands to heaven, imploring tran(piillity and truth and aciiteness of understanding. After the prayer, each retired to his own separate abode, again practicing the usual philosophy to wiiich each had been wont to devote himself.
II. Therapeutn and Kssenes. — On account of the man- ifold similar traits which were found among the Thera- peuta; and Essenes, it has been inferred that the Thera- peuta! were but the Egyptian branch of I'alestinian Essenism. This hypothesis is seemingly confirmed by what Philo says at the beginning of his treatise on the Therapeut.-E : "Having mentioned the Essenes, who in all respects selected for their admiration and for their especial adoption the practical course of life, and who excel in all, or what, perhaps, may be a less unpopular
and invidious thing to say, in most of its parts, I will now proceed, in the regular order of my subject, to speak of those who have einbraced the speculative life, and I will say wliat apjiears to me to be desirable to be said on the subject." The majority of critics have therefore not hesitated to believe in a causative connection be- tween the two sects, and have thus, on account of Philo's words, separated the Egyptian Therajieutae, as the theo- rists, from the Palestinian Essenes, whom they desig- nated the practitioners. In this assumption, there can only be a diversity of opinion as to which of the two sects justly claims the temporal precedence — whether the theory of the Therapentas or the practice of the Essenes is the original, or, in other words, whether Egypt or Palestine is the fatherland of that tendency within Ju- daism which is designated by the name of Essenism. The opinion that the temporal precedence belongs to the Therapent;v, and that after Therapeutism had been planted on the soil of Judiea the Order of the Essenes originated, is advocated by Gfriirer {Kritische Geschichte des Urch ristenth inns [Stu t tg. 1 83 1 ], ii, .S35 sq.) , Lu t terbeck (/>ie nentestamentlichen LehrbeffriJ'e [Mayence, 1852], i, 275sq.),]Mangold (Die Irrlchrender Pustorulbrvfe [Mar- burg, 185C], p. 57 sq.), and Holtzmann (Geschichte des Volkes Israel unddie Eiitstehmif/des Christenthums [Leips. 1867], ii, 79 sq.). The opposite opinion is represented by Ritschl (Theoloyische Jahibiichcr [ed. Baur and Zeller, 1855], p. 343 sq.), Hilgenfeld (Die jiidische A pnkuli/ffik in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwickluny [Jena, 1857], p. 278 sq.), Herzfeld (Geschichte des Volkes Israel [2d ed. Leips. 1863], iii, 406), Zeller (Geschichte der Philosophie der Griechen [ibid. 1868], III, ii, 288 sq.), Bellermann (Xach- rickten aiis dem A Iterthnm iiher Essener iind Therapeuten [Berlin, 1821], p. 80, note), and Harnischmacher (De Essenoruni apud Judaos ISocietute [Bonn, 1866], p. 26), who admit a causative connection of both, without de- ciding the time of the origin. Now, denying, as we do, in opposition to the above-mentioneil critics, any connec- tion between these sects, and thus dismissing altogether the question which of the two formed the connecting- link for the other, we will, for the sake of justifying our assertion, draw a parallel between the two sects, and first consider those points in which both agree.