The Contemplative Life Complete Overview

This treatise begins by referring to the end of the previous - Every Good Man is Free - and Philo’s exaltation of the Essenes. The beginning of this treatise is either understood as him continuing to talk about the Essenes (making himself one) or transitioning from speaking about the Essenes to his own separate but somewhat similar community (the latter is more probable). Either way, he has high regards for the Essenes and goes on to refer to the Therapeutae (if one takes the earlier view, that he is an Essene, then these are a type of Essenes, but they are otherwise another sect of Judaism) “who have embraced the contemplative life” (Contempla. 1). According to Philo, these Therapeutae do not desire to heal their bodies with literal medicine but to heal their souls with the medicine of philosophizing about the sacred Scriptures given to them by the one and only God (‘therapeuo’ is Greek for the verb “heal” - Contempla. 2).

These Therapeutae are another level - They cannot be compared to those that believe god to be plural, attached any inanimate object, or created thing (3-5). Neither is there such a thing as a demi-god: a being whose very two essences contradict each other (6). Further, God cannot be compared to anything made from materials also used for making other every-day items (7). God cannot be an animal: they die more easily than humans and are even less rational than the humans that often bow down to them and serve them (8-9)! Those that really see the living God look past these things with the eye of their souls to see Him invisibly instead of with their physical eyes (10-12).

These Therapeutae  give over everything that they own to those that they love: they do not destroy it because they despise it or desire that their enemies not partake in it but give it to those in need and those who would enjoy owning them (13-17). They leave not only their material wealth behind, but also “their brothers, their kids, their wives, their parents, their numerous families, their close companions, their native lands in which they have been born and brought up…not to another city” but “in a desert” especially in Egypt and Alexandria (18-22).

Their houses, same as their clothes (38), are only as intricate as they have to be: they are shelter from the heat and cold (24). In each house is a holy place where the inhabitant brings in “nothing, neither meat, nor drink, nor anything else which is indispensable towards supplying the necessities of the body” but instead study “the laws and the sacred oracles of God uttered by the holy prophets, and hymns, and psalms, and all kinds of other things through which knowledge and piety are increased and brought to completion” (25). They spend every hour of the day, six days a week, philosophizing about the Scriptures and investigating the allegorical meanings behind the literal accounts (28, 30).

In the intensity of their studies, they are so focused on God that they often dream of Him (and other divine things) and speak about His philosophy and power in their sleep (26)! In fact, they are so focused on their studies that they do not leave the holy place in their homes or even glance outside (30). While none of them interrupt their philosophy of the Scriptures to eat during the day (since daylight is connected to the enlightenment of philosophy), some of them are so enamored with their studies that they cannot think to eat the six days that they study (34-35)! These Therapeutae also have writings from earlier generations of various sects (another reason to believe Philo respected the Essenes as another group of Jews - 1) and even write their own hymns (29).

On the Sabbath, all of the Therapeutae gather together for a “sacred assembly” sitting down according to age order with a wall dividing the men and women (30, 32-33). They all then pay attention to the eldest and most educated in the laws, who stands up and explains the laws and blessings (31). Even in their Sabbath feasts, they eat bread that only has salt for seasoning and not wine but water as food is only for them to fight off hunger and thirst (37).

The Therapeutae are very careful, however, not to indulge in wine as others do. Wine affects men by making them foolish, violent animals that destroy themselves, their families, and their friends (40-47). Even others have elaborate entertainment with their fancy furniture and silverware and with their slaves to serve them (48-54). At these parties, these people gorge themselves with food filling themselves from their bellies to their own throats (55). Even the greatest Greek parties are not comparable to that of the Therapeutae: they are filled with women to perform for the men and all types of eroticism, sexual misbehavior, and homosexual activity (57-61).

Contrasting these corrupted feasts, Philo proposes the feasts that the Therapeutae have after every 7 weeks as a type of super-Sabbath celebration (65). At these feasts, begin by blessing God and praying that the celebration please Him as this is the rare occasion in which they will eat meat (66)! While some of them choose to serve the food (these are the ‘ephemreaute’) there are no slaves or servants (66, 70-72); everyone still sits in an age-order to honor the elders with the women (who are all virgins) sitting on the left and the men on the right (67-69). Even for their feast, they use cheap and rugged rugs to lean upon and the food itself (which is only brought out after the public reading of Scripture and singing of Psalms and other praise songs) is only water and not wine with salted bread (73, 81-82).

Before eating, someone will start to speak about some tricky passage from the Scriptures offering other explanations of the Scripture and their own interpretation (75-76). They all explore the Scriptures as allegories or spiritual meanings embodied in the literal stories (78). To end the celebration, someone stands up and sings a hymn that either they themself or some other ancient had written and everyone else joins in when appropriate (80). To conclude the night, after they have all eaten their fill, the men and women will both sing hymns to God (as had happened at the parting of the Red Sea - Exodus 15) until they see the sun come up again (83-89). Then, they all return to their places to continue to philosophize about the Scriptures again (89).