Editing Foolishness for Christ (section)

== Old Testament ==
Certain [[prophet]]s of the [[Old Testament]] who exhibited signs of strange behaviour are considered by some scholars<ref name=":0">Gorainoff I. ''Les Fols en Christ...'' pp. 15–16; Saward J. Dieu a la folie. p. 15.</ref> to be predecessors of "Fools for Christ".  The prophet [[Isaiah]] walked naked and barefoot for about three years, predicting a forthcoming captivity in Egypt ({{bibleverse|Isaiah|20:2, 3|KJV}}); the prophet [[Ezekiel]] lay before a stone, which symbolized beleaguered [[Jerusalem]], and though God instructed him to eat bread baked on human waste, ultimately he asked to use cow dung instead ({{bibleverse|Ezekiel|4:9–15|KJV}}); [[Hosea]] married [[Gomer (wife of Hosea)|a harlot]] to symbolize the infidelity of Israel before God ({{bibleverse|Hosea|3|KJV}}).

In the opinion of certain scholars,<ref name="jclc">J.- C. Larchee. ''Healing of mental illnesses: The experience of first centuries in the Christian East''. Translated from French into Russian. Moscow. Publishing House of Sretensky Monastery, 2007. 224 pages.</ref> these prophets were not considered fools by their contemporaries, because they sought to gain people's attention in order to awaken their [[repentance]].<ref name="jclc"/>