Sarticularly among the Pharisees, fasted on Mon- ays and Thursdays all the year round (Lk 18" ; Lightfoot and Wetstein, ad loc). Religious teach- ers, moreover, were ajiparently accustomed to lay isting for til
down rules about fasting
-he guidance of their
disciples (Mk 2'8, Mt 9", Lk 5^^). The ' frequent fasts ' of the Jews are alluded to by Tacitus (Hist. V. 4) ; and Josephus, speaking of the spread of Jewish customs among the Gentile cities, men- tions fasting (c. Apion. ii. 40 ; cf. Tert. ad Nat. i. 13). Among the Romans a mistaken idea seems to have been current that the Jews fasted on the Sabbath (Sueton. Aug. 76).
The manner of fasting differed according to the degree of strictness of the fast. Tlius, on less strict fasts, while abstinence from food and drink from sunrise to sunset was enjoined, washing and anointing were still permitted. The strictest fast, however, lasted from one sunset till after the next, when the stars appeared ; and during these hours not only food and drink, but washing, anointing, and every kind of agreeable transaction, even salutations, were prohibited (Scliiircr, II. ii. 119; Edersheim, Life and rim'x, i. y. iKiS, Temple, pp. 297-300). Fasting \^a^ -fTn-ially piiictisecl in an ostentatious manner; on this ]ii>int the testi- mony of Mt 6'^ is confirniL-il Ijy ilie xMishna.
Passing on to consider the attitmle of Jesus towards fasting, we remark that, while on the one hand there is no reason to (h)ubt that He observed the prescribed public fasts, and wliile He may even have undertaken a voluntary fast of forty days at the commencement of His ministry (Mt 4^ ; but see art. Asceticism), yet, on the other hand, it is evident that neither by practice
nor by precept <lid He lay any stress on this form of devotion. His ordinary mode of life was so un- ascetio as to bring on Him tlie reproach of being a 'gluttonous man and a wine-bibber' (Mt IP", Lk 7"). In His teaching He directly alluded to fasting only twice. The passages are as follow :
(a) Mt 6i«-'8. Here voluntary fasting is presup- posed as a religious exercise, but tlie disciples are warned against making it an occasion for a parade of piety. 'Thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy liead, and Mash thy face ; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret.' Jesus thus sanctions fasting, but only as the genuine expression of a devout and contrite frame of mind. Its whole value depends on the purity and sincerity of the motive with which it is undertaken. As for the pretentious externalism of the Pharisees, that has its own reward.
(i) Mk 2'8=^ Mt Q"-", Lk 5^-3». In reply to the question of the disciples of John and of the Pharisees, Jesus deliberately refuses to enjoin fast;ing on His followers. Alluding to a Rabbinic ordinance that all mourning be suspended during the marriage-week. He says that fasting, which is a sign of mourning, would be inconsistent with the joy which ' the children of the bride-chamber ' experience ' while the bridegroom is with them.' But He adds that the days of bereavement are coming, and then the outward expression of sor- row will be appropriate' enough. Here, as in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus certainly sanctions fasting as a form through which emotion spon- taneously seeks expression. But to tlie form itself He attaches very slight importance. This is brought out clearly in the succeeding parables of the Old Garment and the Old Wineskins. It is futile to graft the new liberty of the gospel on to the body of old observances and practices, and yet more futile to attempt to force the whole new system within the ancient moulds. The new piety must manifest itself in new forms of its own. Nevertheless, while Jesus seems to suggest tliat the Jewish regulations are not in harmony with the Christian spirit. He can sympathize with the prejudice of conservatives who still cling tena- ciously to the custom of their fathers. ' No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new : for he saith. The old is good.'
The allusions to fasting in Mk 9=« and Mt 17=' are corruptions of the text ; for similar combinations of prayer and fasting see To 12*, Sir 34-^, Lk 2". The second Logion of the Oxyrhynchus fragment discovered in 1897 commences with the words, A^7ei 'Itiaods, eav ji^ yri(TTevffr]Te rbv Kbaiiov, oi jiri eOp-rrre tt)v /SoffiXciai' Tov BeoO. Here, however, the fasting spoken of is obviously metaphorical. Another reference to fasting occurs in the fifth of the Neto Sayinjjs of Jesiis, published by Grenfell and Hunt in 1904, but the Logion is ' broken beyond hope of recovery' (o/j. cit. p. 18 f.).
On the general Ijearings of this subject see art. Asceticism. F. Homes Dudden.
FATHER, FATHERHOOD.— The one subject on which Jesus claimed to have unique and absolute knowledge was the Father (Mt 11-"'). Yet, in say- ing this. He evidently did not mean that He knew all that God knows. He confessed or implied that His knowledge was limited (e.g. Mk ISK Mt 9-''- -'-) ; and the very fact that He looked up to (iod as His God is sufficient evidence that, by knowledge of the Father, He did not mean coni- prehension of the Infinite. The record of His life and teaching makes it plain that His unique knowledge of God was knowledge of th(! Divine character and purpose. This was the sphere in which He lived and moved and had His conscious being. This was the sphere of His revelation.