Kirkus Reviews gives a commendation to LaValley (a propagandist of naturalism), but his books are pricey and I don't know there's anything useful for my work. He does have a bit by Blavatsky (1877), which is obviously free online:
But we must proceed in our work of showing the various origins of Christianity, as also the sources from which Jesus derived his own ideas of God and humanity.
The Koinobioi lived in Egypt, where Jesus passed his early youth. They were usually confounded with the Therapeutae, who were, however, only a branch of this widely-spread society. Such is the opinion of Godfrey Higgins and Dr. Rebold. After the downfall of the principal sanctuaries, which had already begun in the days of Plato, the many different sects, such as the Gymnosophists and the Magi - from whom Clearchus very erroneously derives the former — the Pythagoreans, the Sufîs, and the Rishis of Kashmir, instituted a kind of international and universal Freemasonry among their esoteric societies. “These Rishis,” says Higgins, “are the Essenians, Carmelites, or Nazarites of the temple.” 788 “That occult science known by ancient priests under the name of regenerating fire,” says Dr. Rebold, “... is a science that for more than 3000 years was the peculiar possession of the (Indian and Egyptian) priesthood, into the knowledge of which Moses was initiated at Heliopolis, where he was educated; and Jesus among the Essenian priests of [Egypt or] Judaea; and by which these two great reformers, particularly the latter, wrought many of the miracles mentioned in the Scriptures.” 789
Theosophy is kooky, but not everything in their literature is wrong. Who were the
Koinobioi (according to whatever thesis Madame B. advocates)?
Wherefore I have corrected the orthographic abominations in my excerpt below; see James Martin Peebles,
Seers of the Ages: Embracing Spiritualism, Past and Present [1869],
p.98:
These Essenes were sometimes denominated physicians of the soul, or Therapeutae; and, "residing both in Egypt and Judea, they probably spoke, or had their sacred books in Chaldea. They were Pythagorians to all intents and purposes, as is proven by their forms, ceremonies and doctrines. **If the Pythagorians, or
Coenobitae, as they are called by that famous Neo-Platonian philosopher, Jamblichus, were Buddhists, then the Essenians were originally Buddhists. A branch of these Essenians, termed,
Koinobii, lived in Egypt, on the shores of Lake Parembole, in Monasteries." (
Anacalypsis: an Attempt to Draw Aside the Veil of the Saitic Isis..., Vol. 1 [1833],
p.748).
Débôd (this particular "Parembole") is in Nubia; I don't believe this is correct for the group meant.
"Parembole" means
armed camp (suggesting 'fortress'), and in other sources "Lake Parembole" indicates
Lake Mareotis, where the Therapeutae were! I have demonstrated there was a fortress in the vicinity of the Philo's Therapeutae c.300 BC and another boundary fortress built abit later still stands.
(con't.) pp.98-99:
These quotations show the intimate relations, if not direct identity of the Gymnosophists, Yogis, Hierophants, Pythagoreans, Essenes, Magi, Sufis and Rishis. Of these latter, Ayeen Akberry, writes: "The most respectable people in this country are the Rishis, who, although they do not
suffer themselves to be fettered by traditions, are, doubtless, true worshipers of God. They revile not any other sect, and ask nothing of any one; they plant the road with fruit trees, to furnish the traveler with refreshments. They abstain from flesh, and have no intercourse with the other sex." There are nearly two thousand of this sect in Kashmir. Higgins adds: "These Rishis, or Rashees, same as Sufis, are the Essenes, Carmelites, or Nazarites of the temple." Quoting a passage from the learned and eminent Burnet, in confirmation, he further says: "I was not a little gratified to find that the close relation between the Hindus and the more respectable of all the Jewish sects, the Essenes, of which I have not the slightest doubt that Jesus Christ was a member, had been observed by this very learned man, almost a hundred years ago, before the late blaze of light from the East had shone upon us." (
Anacalypsis: an Attempt to Draw Aside the Veil of the Saitic Isis..., Vol. 2 [1836],
p.50.)
Old India, the mother of civilizations, colonizing Egypt, necessarily bore her sacred mysteries there. Egypt, celebrating them in her pyramidal chambers, transferred them, in a somewhat modified form, to Persia and Greece, and, through Moses, to the more intellectual of the Jewish
people; these, joining by initiation, were called Therapeutae, and Essenes.
Ya, nah: I don't believe that linkage. But it's been a sort of hot topic in cultural studies lately: for example, see this BA thesis [2011], "The Bare Necessities: Ascetic Indian Sages in Philostratus'
Life of Apollonius"
LINK.
Who were the
Koinobioi -- radical Aaronides of Lake Mareotis ?? From Iamblichus's
Life of Pythagoras, or Pythagoric Life (c.310 AD), I see the
Coenobitae. Cenobites? Too late, IF Saint Pachomius (c.325 AD) was the 'founder' (doubt that.)
I'm also not seeing the co-ed nudist colony of JuBus (i.e. Therapeutae) c.25 AD, but your mileage may vary.
