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He clearly mentions our Hebrew ascetics who have appeared in the work which he titled *On the Contemplative Life*. Whom he named Therapeutae, and the women of like habit and manner, Therapeutides. And the Therapeutae, he says, were so called either from healing the souls of those who approached them by releasing them from the passions of vice in the manner of physicians, or on account of the pure and sincere worship and service of the divine. Then he says: First, when beginning to practice philosophy, they give up their connections and possessions, and then having renounced all the cares of life and having gone forth outside the walls, they make their abode in solitary fields and gardens and mountains, knowing that association with the lawless is unprofitable and harmful, they emulate and practice the prophetic life. Thus 1.352 this class is in many places of the inhabited world (for it was necessary for both Greece and the barbarian world to share in a perfect good), but it abounds in Egypt, and especially around Alexandria. And in each company there is a sacred dwelling, which they call a *semneion* and monastery, in which, being alone, they are initiated into the mysteries of the reverent life, bringing in nothing at all, neither drink, nor food, nor anything else necessary for the needs of the body, but laws and oracles delivered through prophets, and hymns and the other things by which knowledge and piety are increased and perfected. The entire interval from morning until evening is for them a spiritual exercise; for by studying the sacred writings they practice the philosophy of their fathers. And laying down self-control as a kind of foundation for the soul, they build up the other virtues upon it; for none of them would take food or drink before sunset, since they judge that philosophy is worthy of light, but the needs of the body, of darkness. Some are reminded of food even after three days, in whom the desire for knowledge is more deeply fixed. And some so delight and revel, being feasted by wisdom, which supplies her doctrines richly and lavishly, that they hold out for twice the time, having become accustomed to taste food with difficulty after six days. The explanations of the sacred oracles are made by them through hidden meanings in allegories. For all the legislation seems to these men to be like a living creature, and to have as its body the literal pronouncements, and as its soul 1.353 the invisible meaning lying hidden in the words. Likewise, there are also women of the same sacred way of life and condition, of whom most happen to be aged virgins, having kept their purity not by necessity, as some of the priestesses among the Greeks, for the sake of temporary praise, but from a good choice, having longed for the future and eternal goods.

And that Philo wrote these things, having understood the first preachers of the teaching according to the Gospel and the customs handed down from the beginning by the apostles, is surely clear to everyone, as Eusebius also says these things in his *Ecclesiastical History*. And the same author also says these things in his works *To Marinus*. Likewise the great Athanasius also says: For there being two ways and states in life, one more moderate and worldly, I mean marriage, the other angelic and apostolic and unsurpassed, that is, virginity or the monastic state, if someone should choose the worldly, that is, marriage, he has no blame, but he will not receive such great gifts; for he will receive, since he himself also bears the thirty-fold fruit. But if someone should embrace the pure and super-mundane life, even if it appears especially rough in regard to virtue and difficult to achieve, yet after the lawful contest and perseverance it has more wonderful and admirable gifts; for it has surely established the perfect and most complete fruit, I mean the hundred-fold, bright and holy. Therefore, just as the old law was divided into two lives, 1.354 into both the Phariasaic and lofty one and into the inferior and worldly one, so also indeed the new ordinance according to Christianity into

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Ἑβραίων ἡμετέ ρων ἀσκητῶν ἀναφανέντων μέμνηται σαφῶς ἐν τῷ λόγῳ ἐν ᾧ ἐπέ γραψε περὶ θεωρητικοῦ βίου. οὓς θεραπευτὰς καὶ τὰς ὁμοιοσχή μους καὶ ὁμοτρόπους γυναῖκας θεραπεύτιδας ὠνόμασε. καὶ θερα πευταὶ μέν, φησίν, ἐκέκληντο ἢ παρὰ τὸ τὰς ψυχὰς τῶν προσιόν των αὐτοῖς ἀπὸ κακίας παθῶν ἰατρῶν δίκην ἀπαλλάττοντας θερα πεύειν, ἢ τῆς περὶ τὸ θεῖον καθαρᾶς καὶ εἰλικρινοῦς θεραπείας καὶ θρησκείας ἕνεκα. εἶτα φησί· πρῶτα μὲν ἀρχόμενοι φιλοσο φεῖν ἐξίστανται τῶν προσηκόντων καὶ τῶν ὑπαρχόντων, ἔπειτα δὲ πάσαις ἀποταξάμενοι ταῖς τοῦ βίου φροντίσι καὶ ἔξω τειχῶν προελθόντες ἐν μονάγροις καὶ κήποις καὶ ὄρεσι τὰς διατριβὰς ποιοῦνται, τὰς ἐκ τῶν ἀνομιῶν ἐπιμιξίας ἀλυσιτελεῖς τε καὶ βλα βερὰς εἰδότες, τὸν προφητικὸν ζηλοῦσι καὶ ἀσκοῦσι βίον. οὕτω 1.352 πολλαχοῦ μὲν τῆς οἰκουμένης ἐστὶ τὸ γένος (ἔδει γὰρ ἀγαθοῦ τε λείου μετασχεῖν καὶ τὴν Ἑλλάδα καὶ τὴν βάρβαρον), ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ δὲ πλεονάζει, καὶ μάλιστα περὶ τὴν Ἀλεξάνδρειαν. καὶ ἐν ἑκάστῃ συμμορίᾳ οἴκημά ἐστιν ἱερόν, ὃ καλοῦσι σεμνεῖον καὶ μοναστήριον, ἐν ᾧ μονούμενοι τὰ τοῦ σεμνοῦ βίου μυστήρια τελοῦνται, μηδεὶς μηδὲν κομίζοντες, μὴ ποτόν, μὴ σῖτον, μηδέ τι τῶν ἄλλων ὅσα πρὸς τὴν τοῦ σώματος χρείαν ἀναγκαῖα, ἀλλὰ νόμους καὶ λόγια θεσπισθέντα διὰ προφητῶν καὶ ὕμνους καὶ τἆλλα οἷς ἐπιστήμη καὶ εὐσέβεια συναύξονται καὶ τελειοῦνται. τὸ δὲ ἐξ ἑωθινοῦ μέχρις ἑσπέρας διάστημα σύμπαν αὐτοῖς ἐστὶν ἄσκησις· ἐντυγχάνοντες γὰρ τοῖς ἱεροῖς γράμμασι φιλοσοφοῦσι τὴν πατρίαν φιλοσοφίαν. ἐγκράτειαν δὲ ὥσπερ τινὰ θεμέλιον προκαταβαλλόμενοι τῇ ψυχῇ τὰς ἄλλας ἐποικοδομοῦσιν ἀρετάς· σιτίον γὰρ ἢ ποτὸν οὐδεὶς αὐ τῶν προσενέγκοιτο πρὸ ἡλίου δύσεως, ἐπειδήπερ τὸ μὲν φιλοσο φεῖν ἄξιον φωτὸς κρίνουσι, σκότους δὲ τὰς τοῦ σώματος ἀνάγκας. ἔνιοι δὲ καὶ δι' ἡμερῶν τριῶν ὑπομιμνήσκονται τροφῆς, οἷς πλέον ὁ πόθος τῆς ἐπιστήμης ἐνίδρυται. τινὲς δὲ οὕτως ἐνευφραίνονται καὶ τρυφῶσιν ὑπὸ σοφίας ἑστιώμενοι πλουσίως καὶ ἀφθόνως τὰ δόγματα χορηγούσης, ὡς καὶ πρὸς διπλασίονα χρόνον ἀντέχειν, μόγις δι' ἡμερῶν ἓξ ἀπογεύεσθαι τροφῆς ἐθισθέντες. αἱ δὲ ἐξη γήσεις τῶν ἱερῶν λογίων γίνονται αὐτοῖς δι' ὑπονοιῶν ἐν ἀλληγο ρίαις. πᾶσα γὰρ ἡ νομοθεσία δοκεῖ τοῖς ἀνδράσι τούτοις ζώῳ ἐοικέναι, καὶ σῶμα μὲν ἔχειν τὰς ῥητὰς διαλέξεις, ψυχὴν δὲ τὸν 1.353 ἀποκείμενον ταῖς λέξεσιν ἀόρατον νοῦν. ὡσαύτως δὲ τῆς αὐτῆς εἰσὶν ἱερᾶς πολιτείας καὶ καταστάσεως καὶ γυναῖκες, ὧν αἱ πλεῖ σται γηραλέαι τυγχάνουσι καὶ παρθένοι, καὶ τὴν ἁγνείαν οὐκ ἀνάγκῃ, καθάπερ ἔνιαι τῶν παρ' Ἕλλησιν ἱερειῶν, φυλάξασαι διὰ πρόσκαιρον ἔπαινον, ἀλλ' ἐκ προαιρέσεως ἀγαθῆς ὀρεχθεῖσαι τὰ μέλλοντα ἀγαθὰ καὶ αἰώνια.

Ὅτι δὲ τοὺς πρώτους κήρυκας τῆς κατὰ τὸ εὐαγγέλιον διδα σκαλίας τά τε ἀρχῆθεν πρὸς τῶν ἀποστόλων παραδεδομένα ἔθη καταλαβὼν ὁ Φίλων ἔγραψε ταῦτα, παντί που δῆλον, ὡς καὶ Εὐσέβιος ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησιαστικῇ ἱστορίᾳ ταῦτα λέγει. ὁ αὐτὸς δὲ καὶ ἐν τοῖς πρὸς Μαρῖνον ταῦτά φησιν. ὡσαύτως καὶ ὁ μέγας Ἀθανάσιός φησι· δύο γὰρ ὁδῶν καὶ πολιτειῶν οὐσῶν ἐν τῷ βίῳ, μιᾶς μὲν μετριωτέρας καὶ βιωτικῆς, τοῦ γάμου λέγω, ἑτέρας δὲ ἀγγελικῆς καὶ ἀποστολικῆς καὶ ἀνυπερβλήτου, τῆς παρθενίας ἤτοι τῆς μοναδικῆς πολιτείας, εἰ μέν τις τὴν κοσμικὴν τουτέστι τὸν γάμον ἕλοιτο, μέμψιν οὐκ ἔχει, τοσαῦτα δὲ χαρίσματα οὐ λήψε ται· λήψεται γάρ, ἐπειδὴ φέρει καὶ αὐτὸς καρπὸν τὸν τριάκοντα. εἰ δὲ τὴν ἁγνὴν καὶ ὑπερκόσμιον ἀσπάσοιτό τις, εἰ καὶ τραχεῖα παρὰ τὴν ἀρετὴν μάλιστα καὶ δυσκατόρθωτος φαίνεται, ἀλλ' ἔχει μετὰ τὴν ἔννομον ἄθλησιν καὶ καρτερίαν χαρίσματα θαυμα σιώτερα καὶ ἀξιάγαστα· τὸν γὰρ τέλειον καὶ πληρέστατον καρπόν, τὴν ἑκατοντάδα λέγω, φαιδρὸν καὶ ἁγιοπρεπῆ πάντως ἐγκατέστη σεν. οὐκοῦν ὥσπερ ὁ παλαιὸς νόμος εἰς δύο βίους ἦν διῃρημένος, 1.354 εἴς τε τὸν Φαρισαϊκὸν καὶ ὑψηλὸν καὶ εἰς τὸν ὑποδεέστερον καὶ κοσμικόν, οὕτω δὴ καὶ ὁ κατὰ χριστιανισμὸν νέος θεσμὸς εἰς