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??