Many Gnostic, or Knowledge orientated groups, arose in ancient Egypt. "For two centuries before the advent of Christ, the Buddhist missionaries preached the ethics of Buddha is Syria, Palestine and Alexandria." These teachings mingled with those of the Egyptian Pythagoreans and Essenes, creating many interesting sects. Philo Judaeus, writing about 30A.D., wrote of one of these - the Therapeutae. This name may be a Greek (Pythagorean) translation of the Aramaic word for "healer" ("Essene"), or it may be a slight corruption of the term "Theravada", which meant Buddhist back then. Philo writes:

THERAPEUTAE HEALERS "Having mentioned the Essenes ... I will now proceed, in the regular order of my subject, to speak of those who have embraced the speculative life .... they are called therapeutae and therapeutrides, either because they profess an art of medicine more excellent than that in general use in cities  . . . or else because they have been instructed by nature and the sacred laws to serve the living God, who is superior to the good, and more simple than the one, and more ancient than the unity with whom, however, who is there of those who profess piety that we can possibly compare? .... But the therapeutic sect of mankind, being continually taught to see without interruption, may well aim at obtaining a sight of the living God, and may pass by the sun, which is visible to the outward sense, and never leave this order which conducts to perfect happiness.

LOCATION & HOUSES

" . . . they take up their abode outside of walls, or gardens, or solitary lands, seeking for a desert place,  . . . and there is the greatest number of such men in Egypt, in every one of the districts,  . . . and from all quarters those who are the best of these therapeutae proceed on their pilgrimage . . . . beyond the Maereotic lake, lying in a somewhat level plain a little raised above the rest, being suitable for their purpose by reason of its safety and also of the fine temperature of the air.

 HOUSE SHRINES

". . . But the houses of these men thus congregated together are very plain . . . And in every house there is a sacred shrine which is called the holy place, and the house in which they retire by themselves and perform all the mysteries of a holy life, bringing in nothing, neither meat, nor drink, nor anything else which is indispensable towards supplying the necessities of the body, but studying in that place the laws and the sacred oracles of God enunciated by the holy prophets, and hymns, and psalms, and all kinds of other things by reason of which knowledge and piety are increased and brought to perfection.

SPIRITUAL PRACTICES

"Therefore they always retain an imperishable recollection of God, so that not even in their dreams is any other subject ever presented to their eyes except the beauty of the divine virtues and of the divine powers. Therefore many persons speak in their sleep, divulging and publishing the celebrated doctrines of the sacred philosophy. And they are accustomed to pray twice a day, at morning and at evening; when the sun is rising entreating God that the happiness of the coming day may be real happiness, so that their minds may be filled with heavenly light, and when the sun is setting they pray that their soul, being entirely lightened and relieved of the burden of the outward senses, and of the appropriate object of these outward senses, may be able to trace out trust existing in its own consistory and council chamber. And the interval between morning and evening is by them devoted wholly to meditation on and to practice virtue, for they take up the sacred scriptures and philosophy concerning them, investigating the allegories as symbols of some secret meaning of nature, intended to be conveyed in those figurative expressions.

STUDY, MEDITATION & HYMNS

"They have also writings of ancient men, who having been the founders of one sect or another, have left behind them many memorials of the allegorical system of writing and explanation, whom they take as a kind of model, and imitate the general fashion of their sect; so that they do not occupy themselves solely in contemplation (theorousi), but they likewise compose psalms and hymns to God in every kind of meter and melody imaginable, which they of necessity arrange in more dignified rhythm. Therefore, during six days, each of these individuals, retiring into solitude by himself, philosophizes by himself in one of the places called monasteries, never going outside the threshold of the outer court, and indeed never even looking out. . .  .But on the seventh day they all come together as if to meet in a sacred assembly, and they sit down in order according to their ages with all becoming gravity . . .

FASTING & SIMPLICITY

". . . No one of them may take any meat or drink before the setting of the sun, since they judge that the work of philosophizing is one which is worthy of the light, but that the care of the necessities of the body is suitable only to darkness, on which account they appropriate the day to the one occupation, and a brief portion of the night to the other; and some men, in whom there is implanted a more fervent desire of knowledge, can endure to cherish a recollection of their food for three days without even tasting it, and some men are so delighted, and enjoy themselves so exceedingly when regaled by wisdom which supplies them with her doctrines in all possible wealth and abundance, that they can even hold out twice as great a length of time, and will scarcely at the end of six days taste even necessary food, being accustomed, as they say that grasshoppers are, to feed on air, their song as I imagine, making their scarcity tolerable to them. . . . and they eat nothing of a costly character, but plain bread and a seasoning of salt, which the more luxurious of them do further season with hyssop; and their drink is water from the spring;  . . . their raiment is of the most ordinary description . . . for in short they practice entire simplicity..." - Philo Judaeus, Alexandria, Egypt,  30 A.D 

There is also a certain relationship between the ancient Egyptian temples and Priesthoods of Amun and the Nazorean Temple on Carmel. Mandaean legend also locates the early Nazoreans in Egypt. The Temple workers on Carmel were known as Bnia-Amin, which means disciples or  Children of Amin. There is little doubt that fully established Essene Nazorean communities existed in Egypt during the first few centuries of the Christian era. A strong Manichaean presence was also found in Egypt during the late third century and afterward. Certain renowned Gnostic teachers, such as Valentinius in the second century, were also associated with Alexandria. Texts from this Egyptian world of Gnosticism have come down to us in Coptic, and include the Nag Hammadhi Library, Pistis Sophia, Manichaean texts, and others.