User:Vriley2/sandbox

Pre-Christian monasticism

Hinduism
In pre-Buddhist India, monasticism does not seem to be a common practice. However, because the fourth and culminating stage Āśrama of life, is that of the Sannyasa or renunciate, asceticism appears to be a common practice, but for individuals, or in very small groups. Early Vedic literature such as the Rig Veda refer to Muni, holy men or mendicants, over fifteen hundred years BCE. As Buddhist and Jain monasticism increased in India, Hinduism appears to develop monasticism as well.

Jainism
Mahavira, the 24th Tirthankara and the last tirthankara of the present age, is often regarded as a contemporary of the Buddha, living about the 6th c. BCE. As asceticism is an important element of Jainism, its monks typically renounce worldly goods, practice celibacy, and live in community with one another. Typically the Jain laity support these monks and nuns.

Buddhism
The Sangha refers to Buddhist monasticism that is as old as Buddhism itself, dating to about the sixth century BCE. Those who followed Buddha as his disciples are regarded as the first monks.These monks and nuns typically renounce their world goods, practice celibacy, and live in community with one another. They are usually supported by Buddhist laity, so that they may devote themselves to meditation and study.

Canaanite religion
We know that within the Canaanite religion there were groups of prophets who worshipped Baal, because Elijah is recorded telling King Ahab that the King should call together 450 prophets of Baal for the purpose of attempting to offer sacrifice to Baal.

Judaism
In several places and at different times, the Old Testament records "bands," "guilds" and "schools" of persons living in prophetic communities throughout Israel and Judaea. 1 Samuel records a "band of prophets" in Gibeah who are influenced by the Holy Spirit, and who at one time are presided over by Samuel himself. About the 11th century BCE, the first king of Israel, Saul, is found among these prophets in prophetic ecstasy, before and during his kingship. Indeed, when Saul had previously sent messengers three times to take David, Scripture records that on all three occasions these messengers joined the prophets under Samuel ,ref>(1 Sam 19:20-21) ., In the 9th century, Obadiah, a servant of King Ahab, hides 100 prophets of the Lord in groups of 50 in two caves to protect them from the king. Later, King Ahab himself assembles 400 prophets to predict his success in battle .. Still later, when Elijah is preparing tp pass on his prophetic ministry to Elisha, at least two groups of prophets are mentioned, one in Bethel, and another in Jericho. From this latter group, it appears that 50 of these prophets follow Elijah and Elisha to witness the transfer of the prophetic ministry. In addition, Elisha accidentally serves some poisoned soup to a guild of prophets in Gilgal. From these instances, it seems clear that during the 11th to the 9th centuries BCE, Jewish persons live in religious communities in different locales in Northern Israel and in Judaea, under the influence of the Holy Spirit. These can be regarded as early Jewish monastic communities. Still later, from the second century BCE to the first century CE, groups of Essenes are living in various locations in Judaea, especially near the Dead Sea, who record their communal life, the celibacy of their priests, and the absence of money in their community, in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Jewish historians Josephus and Philo of Alexandria refer to these groups, as does the Roman historian, Pliny the Elder.

Greek religion
In a book attributed to him, De vita contemplativa ("The Contemplative Life"), the Jewish historian, Philo of Alexandria, describes a group of philosophers, who some scholars think were Jews, living near the desert in Alexandria and elsewhere in both the Greek world and beyond, in the non-Greek world, during the first century CE, which he called the Therapeutae. He seemed to view them as a Greek group that was similar to the Hebrew Essenes. Many Christian historians subsequently assumed that these are actually Christians, since Philo records them as practicing celibacy, abandoning personal property, living together in community with individual cells, and worshipping together on the seventh day of the week. Other scholars have proposed that they are the legacy of Buddhist monks that the Buddhist emperor Ashoka sent as missionaries to the Mediterranean about 250 BCE.