' My lord, ho hath importuned mo with love, In honourable fashion. Ay, faHhion you may call it ; go to, go to.'
8. Manners and custom.i : 2 Mac 4* 'a place for exercise, and for the training up of youth in the fashions of the heathen ' (the Gr. is simply iiprjjUai', i.e. youth, hence RV ' and form a body of youths to he trained therein'); 4"* 'the height of Greek fa.shions' (dtM'? rov 'V,\\riviafiov, RV 'an extreme of Greek fashions') ; 6' ' that they should observe the same fashions' (iyuryiip, RV ' conduct').
The verb to fashion is of frequent occurrence. In OT and Apocr. it has always the sense of give shape to, form. Hut the word was formerly used in the sense of ' transform,' i.e. change the form or fashion into something el.so. Thus Tin<lali!, Ohe.di- ence of a Christian Man, 'Jlh, 'When n man fealeth . . . him selfe . . . altered and fa.scioued lyke vuto
* In Ho 8^ the same quotation is niade, and adheres stl.l more closely to the L.\X of Ex 25*', liut tho Kiig. (AV and ItV) Is ' pattern," as it hae lieen since Timlale.
854
FAST
FASTING
ChriBte' ; H. Smith, Sermons (1592), 'Fashion thy- self to Paul.' In NT there are two examples of this meaning : Ph 3^' ' Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body ' {<niiifiop<pos ; RV ' that it may be conformed to the body of his glory ') ; 1 P 1" ' not fashioning yourselves according to the former 'usts ' (cru<rx';/iaTii'6/iei'0i). J. HASTINGS.
FAST. — 1. Fast ia frequently used in AV both fts adj. and adv. in the sense oifirm, secure, as Ps 38' ' thine arrows stick fast in me ' ; Ps 65' ' Which by his strength setteth fast the mountains ' ; Pr 4" ' Take fast hold of instruction ' ; 2 Es 2" ' Mother, embrace thy children, and bring them up with gladness, make their feet as fast as a pillar ' (confirma pedes eormn, RV 'stablish their feet'); Ac 16^ 'Who . . . thrust them down into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks ' (ijo-^aXiffaro). Cf. Chaucer, Anelida and Arcite (Skeat's Student's ed. p. 117)—
' Almighty God, of trouthe sovereyn, Wher is the trouthe of man ? who hath hit sleyn f Who that hem loveth shal hem fynde as fast As in a tempest is a roten mast.'
2. In reference to sleep, sound, as Jg 4'' ' he was fast asleep and weary ' (RV ' in a deep sleep ' ; see RVm and Moore, in loc). 3. Close, near, only Ru 28. 21. a3_ ^g 2' ' abide here fast by my maidens.' Cf. Milton, PL ii. 725—
' the snalty sorceress that sat Fast by Hell-gate, and kept the fatal key.'
In every case ' fast' is used to bring out the force of the verb or adj. used in the original ; there is never a separate word for it in the Hebrew or the Greek.
J. Hastings.
FASTING.— Often described in OT (esp. in P, where it is practically a technical terra) by phrase •to afflict the soul," iiyrJ .n:j' (Lv le^**-" 23-''-H Nu 29' 30", Ps 35", Is 58»- »•">), tr. by LXX in the passages in Nu by KanoOv ttjv i/'i^tjv, in the others by TaTreivoOf riip ^vx^'t for which see also Jth 4', and which may be assumed to have this precise reference, and not a more general one at Sir 2" 7". The phrase does not denote primarily spiritual humiliation, even as the proper accompaniment of fasting. It has a physical meaning. This will be perceived if the material sense in which ' soul ' ■was in early times used be remembered (cf. for a similar expression Ps 69"). The more literal terms an 'to fast,' oHs 'fasting,' are also common in OT. In NT the words are vqffTdeiv and v-qaTila.
(A) In the OT.— 1. The practice of fasting (a) in the times before the Captwitij. — The one regular fast, the institution of which is ascribed to this period, ia that of the Day of Atonement (Lv 16^" 23-''-*', Nu 29', Jer 36"). * But there are many examples of fasts on special occasions, dictated by the sense of having transgressed, or of calamity, present or impending. Such a fast is inspired by Samuel (I S 7'); enjoined by .Tehoiakim and the princes (Jer 36') ; hypocritically by Jezebel (1 K 21'- '-). In like manner individuals are moved to fast — David when his child is smitten \vith sickness (2S 12"- 2i-2S)^ Ahab on hearing hia doom (1 K 21").
The abstinence from food or drink for forty days by Moses on the Mount (Ex 34^), and by Elijah (1 K 19«), seem to be recorded rather as extraordinary or miraculous occurrences than as fasts purposely undertaken.
{b) After the Cantivity. — Additional regular fasts now appear, the memorials of the times of bitter shame and calamity through which the nation had passed. Four are enumerated in Zee 8'», cf. 7»-''. (a) 'The fast of the fourth month' (Tammuz). On the 9th of this month, the Chal-
* For the question whether the observance of the Day of Atone- ment wag known in pre.«xilic times, see p. lOn' of this vol.