(b) An absorbing pre-occupation with any pursuit may be the cause of fasting. The artist or the scientist may forget to take food, in the intensity of his application to his Avork ; or any great emo- tion like sorrow may make one ' forget to take bread.' Such a fast we have in Ac 9^, where St. Paul, we are told, was witliout food for three days after his conversion. As Jesus fasted in the wU derness (Mt 4'""), or at the well forgot His hungei (Jn 43''- )> so the ferment of the new life acted on St. Paul thus also. Fasting is not the cause of such pre-occupation, but the effect ; and so its value depends on the nature of the emotion causing it.f Such involuntary privations, however, are not fast- ing in the proper sense. In themselves they are morally indiflerent, as they may overtake any one irrespective of moral conditions ; but, when borne bravely and contentedly in the line of Christian duty, they are not only indications of true faith, but in turn they strengthen that faith (Ro 5^"^, Ph 4").
(c) Real fasting is purposive and voluntary. It is a total or partial abstinence from food for an unusual period, or from certain foods always or at certain times, for a moral or religious end. Such a fast is mentioned in Ac 13'-- * 14-'^ in connexion with ordination. It is associated with prayer. Some hold that it was the form to ' be permanently observed ' in such cases (Ramsay, St. Paul, 1895, p. 122). There is no mention, however, of fasting at the appointment of Matthias (Ac P^), or of the seven (G"). We cannot, therefore, take it as inher- ently binding on Christian Churches at such .solem- nities. It is rather the survival of ancient religious practices (like the fasting on the Day of Atone- ment), which on the occasions referred to were adopted through the force of custom, and served
• These are sometimes explained as voluntary fasts — to use Hooker's expression (Ecc. Pol. v. 72. 8) — but the contexts seem decisive against that view.
t This Vk'as probably what Jesus had in view in the saying in Mt 915.
ABSTmENCE
ABSTINENCE
to solemnize the proceedings. The Atonement fast (Ac 27*) is mentioned only as a time limit after which navigation was dangerous. It is not said that St. Paul fasted on that day, though prohably he did.
These Jewish survivals were conserved without investigation by the Palestinian Church, though, after what Jesus had said on fasting, we may be- lieve that the spiritual condition of the believer, rather than the performance of the outward rite, would be the essential element. Pharisiaism, how- ever, follows so closely on the heels of ritual that in some quarters it very early influenced Christi- anity (cf. Did. i. 3 : ' P'ast for those who persecute you' ; and Epiph. H(er. Ixx. II : 'When they \i.e. the Jews] feast, ye sliall fast and mourn for them ' ; cf. also Polycarp, vii. 2 ; Hernias, Vis. iii. 10. 6 ; and, in the same connexion, the interpolations in the NT [Mt 17^1, Mk 9-», Ac 10=*", 1 Co 7^]). Even the Pharisaic custom of fasting twice a week (Monday and Thursday) was adopted in some quarters, though these days were changed to Wed- nesday and P'riday (Did. viii. 1). These are the later dies stationum or crrdaeis (cf. Clem. Alex. Strom, vii. 12, p. 877). See EBE v. 844^
To evaluate the practice of fasting, we must look to the end aimed at and the efficacy of this means to attain that end. (1) In many cases it would be mainly a nuitter of tradition. On any eventful occasion men might practise fasting, to ratify a decision or induce solemnity, as those Jews did who vowed to kill St. Paul (Ac 23^^). Under such a category would fall the Paschal and pre-baptismal fasts. Though not mentioned in the NT, they were early practised in the Christian Church (Eus. BE V. 24 ; Did. vii. ; Justin Martyr, Apol. i. 61). Tliere can be no doubt that ordination and bap- tismal and Paschal fasts may serve to solemnize tliese events, yet there is no warrant for making them an ecclesiastical rule. In such traditional fasting there is often, conscious! j^ or unconsciously, implicated the feeling that God is thereby pleased and merit acquired, and the result in such cases is Pharisaic complacency and externalism. Jesus, following the great prophets (Is 58^"'', Zee 8^*), had relegated outward rites to a secondary place. He demanded secrecy, sincerity, and simplicity in all tliese matters, and the Apostolic Church never wiioUy lost sight of His guidance. St. James, while emphasizing the value of prayer (5^"^°), says nothing of fasting, and he makes real ritual consist in works of mercy and blameless conduct (P^). Even when fasting was enjoined, the danger of externalism was recognized ( Hermas, Sim. v. 1 ; Barn. ii. 10 ; Justin Martyr, Dial. 15). St. Paul had to prove that such fastings could not be re- demptively of any value, that they were not bind- ing, that they did not place the observer of them on a higher spiritual plane than the non-observer, that even as means of discipline they were of doubtful value, and that they were perpetually liable to abuse (Col 2-»ff).