Women are the worst... Or are they?

The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks is a collection of reflections and parables by the first Christian monks edited by Benedicta Ward. The reader can gain access to insights on a myriad of topics, one of the most prominent topics being what appears to be the monks’ disdain of women. These early monks went so far as to flee to isolated areas to avoid women and the temptation that they bring with them. “The disciple said, ‘Where is there a place that is without women except the desert?’ Sisois said, ‘Then let me stay in the desert’” (11).  While to most modern readers this stance might seem harsh, through meditation and a desire for a deeper understanding, one can find wisdom behind the monks’ seemingly extreme stance.

One conversation between a hermit and a brother shows how seriously many of the early monks took their avoidance of women. “A hermit asked a brother, ‘Do you often talk with women?’ The brother said, ‘No.’ He went on, ‘My temptations come from paintings old and new, memories of mine which trouble me through pictures of women’” (35). These monks would go so far as to avoid even looking at a woman in an effort to flee from temptation, even avoiding contact with female relatives. One hermit who was being visited by his sister far out in the desert was rescued by another monk who said that in a dream demons came to him and said they were planning on driving the hermit to lust after his sister (41). On another occasion, a brother aiding his elderly mother across a river wrapped his hands with his cloak “because a woman’s body is fire” (31). To the monks, any female was an invitation for temptation, even their own relatives, and therefore they must all be avoided.

If the reader delves deeper into the monks’ beliefs, certain biblical elements become apparent. James chapter one verse fourteen says that temptation occurs when a person is “dragged away by their own evil desire” (New International Version). When Jesus gives his sermon on the Mount in chapter five of the book of Matthew, he goes so far as to say that if one’s eye causes one to sin, it would be better to pluck it out than to go to Hell. To the monks, their avoidance of women is akin to plucking out their eye. Their main goal is to make themselves holy as He is holy by avoiding careless temptations (38). The monks learned that it’s better to avoid unnecessary temptation than to put themselves in situations that might cause them to even think of an impure thought. The reader can begin to see that the monk’s avoidance is not of women but of temptation.

An example of the monks’ avoidance of temptation is shown through their fasting, not just of food but also water. One monk took a fast from water, and whenever he felt the urge to drink, he would instead fill a jug with water and stare at it. “When the brothers asked him why he was doing this, he replied. ‘So that if I do not taste what I long for although I can see it, my devotion will be greater and I shall be granted a greater reward by the Lord’” (31). As a monk refrains from his natural instincts to provide for his physical needs, he grows more in tune with God’s nature, and as he develops these skills of fighting his urges, he prepares himself for when temptation strikes when he isn’t expecting it. “A hermit came to see another hermit…and said: ‘Let us worship God and then eat.’ One of them recited the whole psalter. The other read and meditated upon two of the greater prophets. In the morning, the visitor went away, and they had forgotten to eat the food” (29). Through this process of giving themselves over to God, the monks would often forget about these physical needs completely, being so enraptured by their spiritual needs being met.

The tenth chapter of First Corinthians verse thirteen says, “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it” (New International Version).  Through this outlet of fasting, the monks found ways to avoid their worldly passions by looking to God. “’Fasting is the monk’s control over sin. The man who stops fasting is like a stallion who lusts the moment he sees a mare’” (27). For the monks, their fasting practices seeped throughout their entire life and pushed them to flee from all temptations, even women in many cases. Many modern-day Christian can learn from the monks’ zeal to avoid sin.

Throughout my own personal Bible study, I have felt particularly drawn to the concept of fasting, and I learned that fasting does not just have to be abstinence from food but can include a myriad of different physical impulses. One challenge I have partaken in is a secular music fast, where instead of listening to songs that might glorify acts that God would abhor, I instead listen to songs that uplift and encourage my walk with Christ. This was a difficult challenge for me because I was not ready to give up my freedom to listen to whatever I wanted to, but I learned from reading the sayings of the Desert Fathers that in the same way they fled wholeheartedly from women or whatever temptation they were faced with, I too had to be willing to completely turn away from what I desired because it wasn’t what God desired for me. As the monks did, I had to examine what earthly desires I harbored in my heart and be willing to give up everything to avoid allowing myself to become distant from God. While the monks’ desire to flee into the desert to avoid women may seem preposterous at first glance, through meditating on their sayings, the reader can see that each Christian should have the same fervor that the monks did to avoid sin.