The members of the covenant were an important part of early Syriac Christianity.

Members of the covenant, an early monastic community was active since the 3rd century in Edessa and its environs.

He seems to have been a part of the members of the covenant, a close-knit, urban community of Christians that had "covenanted" themselves to service and had refrained from sexual activity.

According to the Messianic group Jerusalem Council, "the people of Israel are members of the covenant HaShem made with Avraham, Yitzhak, and Ya'akov.

The Jerusalem Council, a Messianic halakhic body, maintains that Israel is defined as a people group of members of the covenant God made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; chosen by God from the nations, and includes their descendants."

Before the advent of monasticism proper (which developed in the desert of Egypt), most Syriac churches would consist of a community focused around the members of the covenant: men and women who had committed themselves to sexual abstinence and the service of the church.