ABSTRACT
One of the most striking features of early Christian history is the vigorous growth of ascetic movements in various geographical and cultural contexts during the first centuries CE. Already in the second century there existed a number of sects and Christian leaders who taught a radical form of sexual asceticism, often called ‘encratism’ by scholars.2 The most famous of such teachers were Marcion and Tatian, but it is apparent that the ideal of sexual abstinence was widespread in early Christianity and was represented with a variety of severity by church fathers as well as by their opponents.3 Justin Martyr, for example, though a harsh critic of Marcion, praises Christian continence in his Apology, claiming that there are ‘many, both men and women of the age of sixty or seventy years, who have been Christ’s disciples from childhood’, and yet ‘remain in purity (aphthoroi diamenousi)’.4
