The eastern ascetics saw their spiritually disciplined life as a journey of steps, each finding oneself on a stairway of godliness that led ultimately towards eternity with God.
Notable examples of extreme asceticism included the βοσκοί boskoi "grazers", monks who lived in the wild and were often mistaken for strange animals.
Wrapped in goatskins or straw mats, they avoided all forms of artificial clothing or shelter and only ate what they were given or they found growing on the ground.
St Ephrem, writing in the mid-4th century, gave a very similar description of the Syriac ascetics who rejected all forms of civilization and lived out in the open in a primeval manner.
"[citation needed][4] Communal monasticism became more and more common during the early part of the fourth century, leaving behind the influences of the Egyptian ascetic paradigm.
The Qeiama were listed together with the priests and deacons, and were instructed to "remain continually in the worship service of the church and not cease the times of prayer and psalmody night and day."
This led to divisions between the benai and benat qeiama and the married and vocational members of the church who were also active participants in society.
[8][9] They had a judicial law that sent dysfunctional covenanters to a secluded monastery and renamed them bart qeiama, denoting their failure to live up to the life-covenant to which they were called.
Outside of the worship service, the benai and benat qeiama were set to the task of serving and blessing others in the congregation, as well as those not connected to a place of Christian faith.
[10] "Active believers and energetic deacons were appointed to direct the work, but for the actual service, Rabbula employed the benai qeiama."
He noted that originally the term ‘covenant’ designated the entire baptized community, who had also undertaken certain ascetic vows at baptism; however, by the time he knew them, the ‘sons and daughters of the covenant’ represented an smaller group within the baptized community, consisting of people who were either celibate or married couples who had renounced intercourse.