The Collaborative International Dictionary
Therapeutae \Ther`a*peu"t[ae]\, n. pl. [NL., fr. Gr. ? (pl. ?) an attendant, servant, physician. See Therapeutic.] (Eccl. Hist.) A name given to certain ascetics said to have anciently dwelt in the neighborhood of Alexandria. They are described in a work attributed to Philo, the genuineness and credibility of which are now much discredited.
Wikipedia
The Therapeutae were a Jewish sect which flourished in Alexandria and other parts of the Diaspora of Hellenistic Judaism in the final years of the Second Temple period. The primary source concerning the Therapeutae is the account De vita contemplativa ("The Contemplative Life"), purportedly by the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria (c. 20 BCE – 50 CE). The authorship has been called into question because of the different stance on Greek philosophy of this work from that of other works that were written by Philo and because elsewhere Philo makes no mention of the Therapeutae although this article will refer to the author as Philo. The author appears to have been personally acquainted with them. The pseudepigraphic Testament of Job is possibly also a Therapeutae text, although this possibility is mostly based on the text being noticeably less misogynist than many other early apocryphal texts.
Philo records that they were "philosophers" (cf. I.2) and speaks specifically about a group that lived on a low hill by the Lake Mareotis close to Alexandria in circumstances resembling lavrite life (cf. III.22), and were "the best" of a kind given to "perfect goodness" that "exists in many places in the inhabited world" (cf. III.21). Philo was unsure of the origin of the name and derives the name Therapeutae/Therapeutides from Greek θεραπεύω in the sense of "cure" or "worship" (cf. I.2).
Usage examples of "therapeutae".
Among the Therapeutae, women were admitted as equal members and participated fully in the spiritual life of the community.
As Philo explains, noting that similar groups existed in other parts of the world within other religious traditions, the Therapeutae represented a Jewish version of a widespread mystical tradition that found expression in all lands.
For both male and female members of the Therapeutae, there was simply the possibility of a visionary experience of Divinity.
In the midst of all this we have groups such as the Therapeutae working a mystical type of Judaism and the Temple of Onias maintaining the true Jewish Zadokite priesthood.
A clue lies in the fact that both the Therapeutae and the Jewish Zadokites adopted the solar calendar from the Egyptians, whose major deity, Ra, was in fact an expression of the sun as the source of life, the source of all creation.
Could they have added to the fertile mix of techniques that found a center in the great city of Alexandria and a Jewish expression in the Pythagorean-influenced group of Therapeutae whom Philo described living in a community outside the city?
Book of Enoch, texts that would have been very dear to the Therapeutae, would also have been very dear to those who taught Jesus.
Furthermore, he was aware that the Egyptians hid secret knowledge in the symbolism within their writing and images, he knew of the Hermetic texts, he knew the mystical meanings conveyed by number and proportion, and like the mystical Therapeutae of the century before him, he knew of the hidden meanings conveyed by the stories of the Old Testament.
The Wandering or Itinerant Jews or Exorcists, who assumed to employ the Sacred Name in exorcising evil spirits, were no doubt Therapeutae or Essenes.
He had found remnants of Therapeutae and Anchorites in the Mideast, and even a trio of Stylites, each sitting alone atop a stone pillar in the Gobi Desert.