THE 



rt*,nJn, in the jEgein fea, bclween the inand of Crete aiiJ 

 the Cycladw. It is faid to have taken its naine from Theras, 

 a priuco of the race of Cadmus, who removed from Lace- 

 dimon into this inaiid, which was occupied by the defccnd- 

 ants of the Membharii, who had poffeffion of it 1 550 years 

 before our era ; wher.-as Pliny fays that it firft appeared in 

 the fourth year of the 135th olympiad. Tins ifland is now 

 called Sanlorin; which fee — Alfo, a town of the idand of 

 the fame name.— Alfo, a town of Afia Minor, in Caria, be- 

 tween Idymus and Pyllus.— Alfo, a town of Afia, in Sog- 



diana. 



THE RAMBUS, a town of Macedonia, in the penin- 



fula of Fallen^. 



THE RAM N^, a town of Afia Minor, in Lycia ; con- 

 fecrated to Apollo. 



THERAPEUTjE, SepxTsura., a Greek term fignifying 

 fervants, more efpecially thofe employed in the fervice of 

 God. The -Greeks gave the appellation therapeutic to fuch 

 as appliL'd themfelves to a contemplative life, whether it 

 VKie from the great concern they had for their fouls, or 

 from the particular mode and manner of their religion ; the 

 word 5,:a-£i/Fi», whence therapeuta, fignifying the care a 

 phyfician takes of his patient, or the fervice any one renders 

 another. 



Philo, in his firfl book of the Contemplative Life, relates, 

 that there were a people fprcad throughout moft of the 

 known world, but particularly throughout Egypt, and 

 about Abxandria, who renounced their friends, their goods, 

 &c. and who, after difcharging themfelves of all temporal 

 concerns, retired into folitary places, where they had each 

 their feparate manfion, called femne'ium, or monajlery, and 

 placed their whole felicity in the contemplation of the divine 

 nature. 



The principal fociety of this kind was formed near 

 Alexandria, where they lived, not far from each other, in 

 feparate cottages, each of which had its own facred apart- 

 ment, to which the inhabitant retired for the purpofes of de- 

 votion. After their morning prayers, they fpent the day in 

 ftudying the law and the prophets, endeavouring, by the 

 commentaries of their anceftors, to difcover fome allegorical 

 meaning in every part. They alfo amufed themfelves with 

 compofmg facred hymns in various kinds of metre. Six 

 days of the week were thus pafled in folitude. On the 

 feventh day they met, decently clothed, in a public affembly, 

 where, feated according to their age, they held the right 

 hand between the breaft and the chin, and the left at the 

 fide. Then one of the elders, ftepping to the middle of 

 the alTcmbly, difcourfed, gravely and calmly, on the doc- 

 trines of the feft ; the audience remaining filent and occa- 

 fionally exprefling their approbation by a nod. The chapel 

 in which they affembled was feparated into two apartments, 

 one for the men, the other for the women. At the clofe, 

 the fpca-ker fung a hymn of praife to God, in the laft verfe 

 of which the whole anVmbly joined. On great feftivals, 

 facred mufic was performed, accompanied with folemn danc- 

 ing ; and thefe vigils were continued till morning, when the 

 aflembly, after a morning prayer, in which their faces were 

 direfttd towards the rifiiig fun, was broken up. Such was 

 their abftemioufncfs, that they commonly ate nothing before 

 the fctting fun, and often faded two or three days. They 

 wholly abltaincd from wine, and their ordinary food was 

 bread and herbs. 



There are two points relating to thefe therapcuts ex- 

 ceedingly controverted among critics, viz. i. Whether 

 they were Jews or Chriftians ; and, 2. If they were the 

 Jatter, whether they were monks or feculars >. 



Molhehn affirms, that the therapeutse were neither Chrif- 



10 



THE 



tians nor Egyptians, as fome have erroneoufly imagined ; 

 they were undoubtedly Jews ; nay, they gloried in that title, 

 and ftyled themfelves, with particular affectation, the true 

 difciples of Mofes, though their manner of life was equally 

 repugnant to the inftitutions of that great lawgiver, and to 

 the diftates of right reafon, and (hewed them to be a tribe 

 of melancholy and wrong-headed enthufialls. 



Calmet alfo, in his Diftionary of the Bible, alleges a 

 variety of reafons to prove, that the therapeutx were Jews 

 and not Chrillians ; and that they were not monks in the 

 fenfe which ecclefiaftical writers affix to this term. Some 

 have imagined that they were judaizing Gentiles ; but Philo, 

 by claffing them with the Effenes, evidently fuppofes them to 

 be Jews. Others have maintained, that they were an Alex- 

 andrian feft of Jewifli converts to the Chriftian faith, who 

 devoted themfelves to a monaftic life. But this is impoffi- 

 ble ; for Philo, who wrote before Chriftianity appeared in 

 Egypt, fpeaks of this as an eftablifhed feft. From a com- 

 parifon of Philo's account of this feft with the ftate of phi- 

 lofophy in the country where it flourifhed, we may reafon- 

 ably conclude, that the therapeutx were a body of Jewifh 

 fanatics, who fuffered themfelves to be drawn afide from the 

 fimplicity of their ancient religion by the example of the 

 Egyptians and Pythagoreans. It is uncertain how long 

 this feft continued ; but it is thought not improbable, that, 

 after the appearance of Chriftianity in Egypt, it foon be- 

 came extinft. See Essenes. 



THE R APEUTICE, Therapeutics, ^i^axw^^x-n, form- 

 ed from 9ffa^iU!i'.', to ezttend, to nurfe, cure, &c. that part of 

 medicine which is employed in feeking out remedies againft 

 difeafes, and in prefcribing and applying them to effeft a 

 cure. 



Therapeutice teaches the ufe of diet, pharmacy, furgery, 

 and the methodus medend'i. 



Therapeutice is alfo ufed figuratively, in fpeaking of 

 the mind, and of difcourfes made to correift the errors and 

 defefts of it. 



Such is the Therapeutice or Therapeutics of Theodoret ; 

 being a treatife againft the errors of unwholeiome opinions 

 of the Greeks, i. e. the heathens. 



THERAPHIM, or Teraphim, an Hebrew term, which 

 has given great exeixife to the critics. We meet with it 

 thirteen or fourteen times in Scripture, where it is com- 

 monly interpreted idols : but the rabbins are not contented 

 to have them fimply fignify idols, but will have it denote a 

 peculiar fort of idols or images intended for the knowledge 

 of futurity, /. e. oracles. 



R. David de Pomis obfcrves, that they were called thera- 

 phim, from nD~l> raphah, to leave, becaufe people quitted 

 every thing to confult them. 



Others hold, that the theraphim were brazen inftrun>ents 

 which pointed out the hours and minutes of future events, 

 as direfted by the ftars. 



R. Eliezer tells us the reafon why the rabbins will have 

 the theraphim to fpeak, and render oracles : it is, fays he, 

 becaufe it is written in the prophet Zechariah, x. 2. " The 

 theraphim have fpoken vain things." 



The fame rabbin adds, that to make the theraphim, they 

 killed a firft-born child, clove his head, and feafoned it with 

 fait and oil : that they wrote on a plate of gold the name of 

 fome impure fpirit, laid it under the tongue of the dead, 

 placed the head againft the wall, lighted lamps before it, 

 and prayed to it, and that it then talked with them. 



Vorftius alfo obferves, that, befide the paffage of Zecha- 

 riah, juft quoted, it appears hkewife from Ezekiel, xxi. 21. 

 that the theraphim were confulted as oracles. 



F. Kircher direfts us to feek the origin of the theraphrnt 



