Book 2 — Chapter 17 — Philo's Account of the Ascetics in Mitsrayim
Eusebius gives an extended summary of Philo's work On the Contemplative Life. Philo describes men and women known as Therapeutae who leave property, live near Lake Mareotis, maintain individual sacred rooms, study ancestral writings allegorically, fast, pray at appointed hours, gather weekly, and hold a major all-night festival with antiphonal songs and sacred instruction. Eusebius believes Philo is describing the earliest Christians associated with Marqos and interprets their writings as Besorah and apostolic books. Modern scholarship generally identifies the Therapeutae as a Yehudi ascetic community independent of Christianity. HaSefarim therefore preserves both levels: Philo's description is valuable evidence for an Egyptian Yehudi contemplative community; Eusebius's identification of them as Christians is his later reading.