A few words should be said here concerning the influence of the Bible upon monasticism.  Naturally the Christian hermits and early fathers appealed to the Bible in support of their teachings and practices.  It is not necessary, at this point, to discuss the correctness of their interpretations.  The simple fact is that many passages of scripture were considered as commands to attain perfection by extraordinary sacrifices, and certain Biblical characters were reverenced as shining monastic models.  In the light of the difficulties of Biblical criticism it is easy to forgive them if they were mistaken, a question to be discussed farther on.  They read of those Jewish prophets described in Hebrews:  “They went about in sheepskins, in goatskins; ... wandering in deserts and mountains and caves, and the holes of the earth.”  They pointed to Elijah and his school of prophets; to John the Baptist, with his raiment of camel’s hair and a leathern girdle about his loins, whose meat was locusts and wild honey.  They recalled the commandment of Jesus to the rich young man to sell all his possessions and give to the poor.  They quoted the words, “Take no thought for the morrow what ye shall eat and what ye shall drink or wherewithal ye shall be clothed.”  They construed following Christ to mean in His own words, “forsaking father, mother, brethren, wife, children, houses and lands.”  They pointed triumphantly to the Master himself, unmarried and poor, who had not “where to lay his head.”  They appealed to Paul’s doctrine of marriage.  They remembered that the Church at Jerusalem was composed of those who sold their possessions and had all things in common.  Whatever these and numerous other passages may truly mean, they interpreted them in favor of a monastic mode of life; they understood them to teach isolation, fastings, severities, and other forms of rigorous self-denial.  Accepting Scripture in this sense, they trampled upon human affection and gave away their property, that they might please God and save their souls.

Between the time of Christ and Paul of Thebes, who died in the first half of the fourth century, and who is usually recognized as the founder of monasticism, many Christian disciples voluntarily abandoned their wealth, renounced marriage and adopted an ascetic mode of life, while still living in or near the villages or cities.  As the corruption of society and the despair of men became more widespread, these anxious Christians wandered farther and farther away from fixed habitations until, in an excess of spiritual fervor, they found themselves in the caves of the mountains, desolate and dreary, where no sound of human voice broke in upon the silence.  The companions of wild beasts, they lived in rapt contemplation on the eternal mysteries of this most strange world.