Syneisaktism

Elizabeth Clark argues cogently that syneisaktism provided a couple with a rare opportunity for friendship between the sexes.[…]John Chrysostom, for example, who wrote two treatises against syneisaktism, was also a powerful advocate for female virginity, which he occasionally presented as a means of escaping Eve's curse of subordination.

John Chrysostom (d. 407) wrote two treatises on the practice of syneisaktism - spiritual marriage between male and female ascetics - which was popular and widespread after the second century. Some assert that it represented the solution to a practical problem; since few convents were available until the fifth century, syneisaktism gave female ascetics a place to live without going off into the desert.

Some have read in this text the possibility of a form of syneisaktism, or “spiritual marriage,” which would have involved living together but would not have involved sexual activity. Paul clearly separates syneisaktism from getting married, which is why I am naming it here as a form of cohabitation.