Boethusians and Therapeutae

While rabbinic tradition maintains that this group descends from Boethus, the disciple of Antigonus of Sokho, modern scholars point instead to the high priest Simeon bar Boethus, whom Herod the Great appointed in 24 BCE. Josephus recounts that the purpose of this appointment was mainly to raise the status of Simeon’s family so that Herod could marry his beautiful daughter Mariamme. (Simeon’s daughter Mariamme was Herod’s third wife, not to be confused with Herod’s second wife, also named Mariamme, who was the daughter of the Hasmonean Alexander II. See Herod the Great and Women and the Herodian Dynasty.) The Boethusians, perhaps because of their origins, were loyal to the Herodian dynasty rather than the Hasmoneans and are referred to as “Herodians” in the Gospel of Mark (3:6 and 12:13).

The Boethusians shared many beliefs with the Sadducees—including a denial of resurrection and rejection of the idea of an afterlife—such that some consider the Boethusians to be a subset of the larger group. Tosefta Kippurim recounts that the Boethusians maintained their own Jewish legal traditions, even if these were maintained as theoretical rather than practical. (For the context of this passage, see “Tosefta Kippurim.”)