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Audiobook edition · 56 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 38 pagesAbout this book
What if a journey beyond the known world could show you what a blessed life looks like?
In History of the Rechabites, Zosimus longs to see how the truly blessed live. A man of prayer and fasting, he leaves familiar lands for hard country and great waters. This ancient, anonymous tale follows his search for a people who, according to the story, live apart from the world's corruption.
The Rechabites trace their way of life to the commands of their forefathers: drink no wine and live in tents. Drawing on their appearance in the Book of Jeremiah, the tale imagines them on a remote island. Here, peace, simple living, and constant praise of God offer Zosimus another vision of human life.
What you’ll discover
- A seeker without weapons Follow Zosimus, whose journey begins with prayer rather than a warrior's ambition.
- Beyond the familiar shore Travel through the tale's hard country and great waters toward a hidden island.
- A family shaped by vows Meet a community whose faith rests on obedience, restraint, and a shared way of life.
- An imagined land of peace Explore an ancient vision of paradise, where simplicity takes the place of worldly corruption.
- A story with many forms Encounter an apocryphal tale preserved in several languages, with origins that scholars still debate.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you like journeys to hidden lands, the monks of the desert, stories that grow from a single Bible verse, and old texts shared by Jewish and Christian readers.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A silence in Jeremiah that a story fills
- The monk crosses desert, river and cloud
- The first blessed man tests the visitor
- How the Rechabites left Jerusalem
- A life without possessions, work or clocks
- Death without fear and prayer shared with angels
- The return, the Devil and a story that outlives its teller
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History of the Rechabites
by Attributed to Zosimus the Hermit
A monk walks forty days into the desert and finds the lost Rechabites living in a land of cloud and fruit.
ChallengingUnder 2 hours to readEspañol
Excellent
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In short
What if the people Jeremiah praised never died out, but were carried away to a hidden land? In the book of Jeremiah, the Rechabites refuse wine, houses and seed, and live in tents because their ancestor told them to.
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Listen freeOr hold it in print: paperback, hardcover or large print, at costFrom the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A silence in Jeremiah that a story fills
The story begins with a question the Bible leaves open. In Jeremiah, the Rechabites are offered wine and refuse it. Their ancestor Jonadab son of Rechab told them to drink none, build no houses, plant no fields, and live in tents. Jeremiah uses them to rebuke Judah, which has not kept faith with God as they kept faith with a human father.
Then the clan disappears from the record. Ancient readers believed the gaps in scripture held meaning, so they wondered what became of such people. This text gives a bold answer. God saved them from the fall of Jerusalem and set them in a protected land beyond the known world. The people there are not angels or ghosts. They are human beings, changed by their faithfulness.
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A monk walks forty days into the desert and finds the lost Rechabites living in a land of cloud and fruit.
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Details
- Language
- Español
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- 56 min
- Level
- Challenging
- Paperback
- 38 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Large print paperback
- 54 pages · 8.5 × 11 in
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Cite this edition
Zosimus the Hermit. History of the Rechabites. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-history-of-the-rechabites.
Zosimus the Hermit. (2026). History of the Rechabites. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-history-of-the-rechabites
Zosimus the Hermit. History of the Rechabites. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-history-of-the-rechabites.
@book{zosimusthehermit2026history,
author = {Zosimus the Hermit},
title = {History of the Rechabites},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-history-of-the-rechabites}
}
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What is the History of the Rechabites about?
It tells how a monk named Zosimus journeys through the desert to a hidden land where the Rechabites, the clan Jeremiah praised, live in prayer and simplicity. They tell him their story and he carries it back to the world.
Who were the Rechabites in the Bible?
In the book of Jeremiah they are a clan descended from Jonadab son of Rechab. They drink no wine, build no houses, sow no seed, and live in tents, keeping their ancestor's command across generations.
Who wrote the History of the Rechabites and when?
The author is unknown. Scholars see a Jewish core with later Christian additions, in several versions and languages. They disagree about its date, so it is usually placed in the early centuries of the common era or later.
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