Holy Blood, Holy Grail - Read it? Need help! Religion in Alexandria

Hello all. I have been racking my brain and googling my heart out but i can not find what i am looking for.

If anyone has read Holy Blood, Holy Grail i am trying to find out who the people were that lived in the city of Alexandria in Egypt. These people lived below the city walls on the outside of the city i believe. I think they were jewish and they were called something like "Theraputie". I did NOT read the book, i listened to the audio book a few years ago and these people sounded amazing so i am trying to do some research on them.

I remember them being described as being sun worshipers and that they enjoyed the cool breeze that came off the lake? I think they spent most of their time praying and learning but that i am not sure.

They were a very peaceful people and the authors hinted that Jesus may have visited them and learned from them.

Thank you for taking the time to read this!

Also if you do have the book, which i hope someone does on this forum, could you please look up in the index "Ther" because i'm pretty sure it starts with that, since it relates to the word therapy. Thanks! I won't be able to go to the library or book store until the weekend and this is killing me.

reply to post by BeastMaster2012



I think I have that book. the correct name is The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln.

is it the book your looking for??

That is one good Book.

I'll take a look at it later and let you know what I can find.

reply to post by hateeternal


YES SIR! Thank you sir, i would greatly appreciate it! If you find it and have the patience to type a little from the book if you find it that would be awesome. If not don't worry, i am sure i will find some info on google about them!

Your the man now, dog!

just took a look at the book and couldn't find what your looking for.
sorry...

that name is not completely strange to me tough...

I've read the book many years ago and it was EXCELLENT! If you haven't read it, you should!
I think the name you are looking for is "Therapist". Tho in French we say Thérapeute. The online dictionary gave me the word without the e at the end, but the one at home says therapist. In hope this helps you!

Originally posted by Aresh Troxit
I've read the book many years ago and it was EXCELLENT! If you haven't read it, you should!

I think the name you are looking for is "Therapist". Tho in French we say Thérapeute. The online dictionary gave me the word without the e at the end, but the one at home says therapist. In hope this helps you!

OMG YES THANK YOU! YOU are the man now dog! It appears they were the Therapeut. At first, with little research, this appears to be the people i am looking for!

www.apollonius.net...

According to Mead, the Gymnosophists were really a sect of advanced Essenes, or Therapeuts, as described by Philo in his "On the Contemplative Life," the description that Philo gives of the Therapeut community that he visited on the shore of Lake Mareotis near Alexandria, corresponding almost exactly with Damis' description of the Gymnosophist community in Upper Egypt. Both show the following unmistakable signs of Buddhist influence and origin :

1 -- In both cases the members gave away all their worldly possessions before joining the community.

2 -- There was a novitiate period and an initiation into the order.

3 -- Abstinence from meats and wines was compulsory.

4 -- Both practiced the healing art.

5 -- Both made community of property the rule.

6 -- Both took oaths of chastity and poverty.

7 -- Both adopted and raised the children of strangers and orphans.

Now isn't this interesting! A hint of buddhism mixed with Christianity?!? I always had a feeling that Jesus was very buddhist-like. Maybe he learned from these people? Maybe Jesus traveled to the East all those years that he went "missing"?

Thank you again! I see a future post about these people in my future :-D

One last thing before i leave, i found the wiki page about them:

en.wikipedia.org...

The similarities between the Therapeutae and Buddhist monasticism, a tradition earlier by several centuries, combined with Indian evidence of Buddhist missionary activity to the Mediterranean around 250 BCE (the Edicts of Ashoka), have been pointed out.[5] The linguist Zacharias P. Thundy also suggests that the word "Therapeutae" is only a Hellenisation of the Indian Pali word for traditional Buddhists, Theravada.[6] In general, Egypt had intense trade and cultural contacts with India during the period, as described in the 1st century CE Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.

Wow. My mind is racing. Could Christianity be a cross between Judaism and Buddhism?!? How very very interesting...

reply to post by BeastMaster2012


If you are interested in the idea of Jesus going east during his missing years, IFC showed a documentary a bit ago. It was called "Jesus in India".
The film-maker went to a place in India where they all believe Jesus came and studied and taught there. They have a shrine there too if I remember correctly.

It's been a while since I saw it so sorry if I am fuzzy on the details.

By the way, I have the book you asked about too, if you need anything else looked up in it.

reply to post by hateeternal


Actually, "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" is the US title for the book. (Don't ask me why they changed it.) I also have a copy of that book and will look things up for you when I find it.

reply to post by kidflash2008


Mine is actually in Portuguese. so my version is really called, " O sangue de Cristo e o Santo Graal."

[edit on 6-5-2010 by hateeternal]

Thanks guys! I went to the book store and went through the book quickly but i couldn't find the reference to the Therapeutae. What i really enjoyed about the Holy Blood, Holy Grail was the talk about surviving the Crucifixion. The authors made it sound very plausible how Jesus could have faked death on the cross to be taken down early by using various herbs and drugs! Could that be the secret to his resurrection? Very interesting.

That book was really great. I recently bought the sequel, The Messianic Legacy which i have not read yet. Here is a little info from the back of the cover:

*what links the Vatican, the CIA, the KGB, the Mafia, Freemasonry, P2, Opus Dei and the Knights Templar?

Should be a fun book to read!

I also bought "Bloodline of the Holy Grail" by Laurence Gardner in which they reference the Therapeutae a few times so i will be reading that soon.

Alright guys, i finally figured out why i thought it was Holy Blood, Holy Grail. It was NOT this book that the therapeutae were mentioned, it was Michael Baigent's book The Jesus Papers.

So i apologize to you guys, it was the Jesus papers that i listened to on audio book. I highly recommend it.

In the wiki page on the book there is only a section of criticism, which could be valid.

Anyways, want i found very interesting was the "Swoon Theory" which from wiki is:

The Swoon Hypothesis refers to a number of theories that aim to explain the resurrection of Jesus, proposing that Jesus didn't die on the cross, but merely fell unconscious ("swooned"), and was later revived in the tomb in the same mortal body. Although this hypothesis has not been widely held by scholars, it has had noteworthy advocates for about two hundred years.

...

Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln, in their 1982 book Holy Blood, Holy Grail, speculated that Pontius Pilate was bribed to allow Jesus to be taken down from the cross before he was dead. In 1992, Barbara Thiering explored the theory in depth in her book Jesus and the Riddle of the Dead Sea Scrolls and on her web site "The Pesher of Christ" in the reference section. In 2006, Baigent published The Jesus Papers, a book that describes how Jesus may have survived the crucifixion.

Here is a little infromation about the Therapeutae from this interview with the author:
www.washingtonpost.com...

In Egypt at the time of Jesus, there was a type of Judeaism which was very "mystical," that is, had to do with the direct experience of divinity. We find it in such texts as "The First Book of Enoch," the writings of Philo and in particular the Therapeutae. Also, in Egypt was a functioning Jewish temple which claimed to be the only pure one -- the Temple of Onias. Since Jesus was teaching a spirituality of the Egyptian type it seems to be self-evident that he indeed went to Egypt as is recorded in the New Testament and it was there that he learned his skills.

Now here is a little more information on the Therapeutae from a book review:

www.compassnewspaper.com...:inside-michael-baigens-the-jesus-papers&catid=54:arts&Itemid=694

The most interesting aspect of the book is what the author claimed was his researches on mysticism. Instead of starting Christianity, Jesus, he argued, taught the mysticism he learnt from the Egyptian Therapeutae Jews. Most of the wisdom are buried in The Book of the Dead.

For the Egyptian, the dead represents a world that is just as alive but in a more ethereal form, not subject to linear time. One can travel to the World of the Dead and come back after training in mysticism. This includes the technique of incubation, meditating in silence – in the dark, in special designated chambers underground within pyramid or elsewhere. The meditation leads to mystical experiences uncovering the Far World.
The Therapeutae adopted Egyptian mysticism and renamed the Far World the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus wanted to teach all others on how to reach this kingdom that is within.

Waxing futher, the author said that the Therapeutae believed in a simple life with no artifacts, temples, and religious hierarchies. They also believed that men and women were equal in their potential for reaching mystical experiences.

Here is a little more info from a forum, i think this poster summed up the idea of the therapeutae pretty good:

www.ellopos.net...

I am very interested in learning more about this Greek/Jewish/Egyptian intentional community that flourished in Alexandria about 30BC to 50AD. It was quite a unique group. It focused on healing and revered gender equality at a time when most of the surrounding cultures and societies did not. It also was focused on the issue of life after death and on the gnostic idea that God was the divine indwelling light in the sould of each human being. That by good practice and meditation, we all could find this divine connection with out the need for a rabbi or a priest to intervene. Some say that Jesus beliefs were greatly influenced by this community (For example see the book, The Jesus Papers, by the historian and archaeologist Michael Biagent). Jesus did flee with his family from Judea when he was twelve and was assumed to have lived and studied in Egypt for 18 years. He had ample time to be influenced by the Therapeutae and The Jewish Temple of Onias - very different from the Temple of Jerusalem and outlasted the Temple of Jerusalem. This community could well be the missing link between the Greek prot gnostics and rise of Christianity in the form that Jesus originally intended and preached. Does anyone in this forum know of any books, papers, reports, research, etc about the Therapeutae??

Anyways if anyone happens to have this book i am looking for a particular quote from the book. I just want to see how the author describes the therapeutae living just outside of Alexandria.

I have spent countless days thinking about how the author explained the group. When i heard it in the audio book i kept rewinding it because it sounded so amazing!

Thanks!

reply to post by BeastMaster2012



This group stemmed from the philisophical "nuggets" that Christ brought back with him from Nepal.

reply to post by SpecOpPres1


You will probably enjoy my thread about a claimed descendant of Jesus trying to get into a tomb of Jesus which is in India:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I have that book, but man it is dry (boring).

I had more fun reading Dan Brown's book on the Da vinci code. I do believe also that JC had a lineage. No man can last a long time without some sort of gratification.

Interesting thread. I've heard of the Gymnosophists from other sources, but I always thought they were themslves straight from India or parts nearby, rather than locals who had such practices. I could be wrong, however. See:
en.wikipedia.org...

There are all sorts of odd little interactions between Buddhism and Christianity (going both ways). For example:

The story of Barlaam and Josaphat

Interactions between Buddhism and Christianity

Christianity in early Tibet?

reply to post by BeastMaster2012


I just read the book "The Jesus Papers" and the term "theurgy" is used in it often. Theurgy is the practice of working WITH the gods in dealing with spirituality instead of praying or doing the gods bids as most other religions do.

Theurgists were able to get to the place ancient Egyptians called Far-World the Otherworld beyond time and space.

I hope this was able to help you.