(2) Fastings were used in certain cases to induce ecstatic conditions. This is a well-known feature in apocalyptic writings. Perhaps the Colossi an heretics did this (cf. & eSpaKcv ifx^arevwu, Col 2'^). St. John and the other Apostles with him are said to have fasted three days before writing tlie Fourth Gospel (Muratorian fragment). The Apocalypse, however, though a opacrts (vision), is lacking in the usual accompaniments of a vision, viz. prayer and fasting (contrast Hermas, Sim. v. 1). St. Peter's vision (Ac lO^'i") was preceded by hunger, but it was not a voluntary fast ; nor is there any reference to fasting in the case of St. Paul's visions (Ac 16* IB'-'f-, 2 Co 12"-), and the reference in the case of Cornelius (Ac 10^") is a later interpolation. It was more when direct prophetic inspiration be-
came a memory rather than when it was a reality that men resorted to fasting in order to superin- duce it.
(3) Fasting was resorted to also that alms might be given out of the savings.
' If there is among them a man that is poor and needy, and they have not an abundance of necessaries, they fast for two or three days, that they may supplj' the needy with necessary food ' (Aristides, Apology, xv.). Cf. also Hermas, Sim. v. 3. 7 : ' Beckon up on this day what thy meal would otherwise have cost thee, and give the amount to some poor widow or orphan, or to the poor.'
Origen (hom. in Levit. x.) quotes an apostolic saying which supports this practice :
' We have found in a certain booklet an apostolic saying, " Blessed is also he who fasts that he may feed the poor " ' (' Invenimus in quodam lihello ab apostolis dictum— Beatus est qui etiam jejunat pro eo ut alat pauperem ').
This saying might legitimately be deduced from such passages as Eph 4-^ and Ja 2"*, but the prac- tice easily associated itself with the idea of fasting as a work of merit.
' More powerful than prayer is fasting, and more than both alms.' 'Alms abolish sins' (2 Clem. xvi. 4 ; cf. Hermas, Sim. V. 3).
Fasting done out of Christian love to the brethren is noble ; but, when done to gain salvation, it be- comes not only profitless but dangerous. ' Though I give all my goods to feed the poor and have not love, it protiteth me nothing' (1 Co 13^).
(4) Again, fasting may have been viewed as giving power over demons (cf. Clem. Hom. ix. 9 ; Tertullian, de Jejuniis, 8 : ' Docuit etiam adversus diriora demonia jejuniis praeliandum ' ; cf. Mt 17^S Mk 9-^). Some find this view in the narrative of the Temptation (see EBi, art. ' Temptation '). This view of fasting, grotesque as it appears to us, is akin to the truth that surfeiting of the body dulls the spiritual vision, and that the spiritual life is a rigorous discipline (cf. 1 Co 9^'-'').
What strikes one in the apostolic writings gener- ally, as contrasted with later ecclesiastical litera- ture, is the scarcity of references to fasting as an outward observance. Nowhere is the tradi- tional Church ascetic held up to imitation in the NT, as Eusebius ( HE ii. 23) holds up St. James, or Clement of Alexandria (Pferf. ii. 1) St. Matthew, or the Clem. Ho?n. (xii. 6, xv. 7) St. Peter, or Epiph- anius (Hcer. Ixxviii. 13) the sons of Zebedee.
In the NT the references to fasting are almost all incidental, and apologetic or hostile. It is regarded as due to weakness of faith, or positive perversion. Neither St. John, St. James, St. Jude, nor St. Peter once mentions it as a means of grace. This silence, it is true, ought not to be unduly pressed ; yet it is surely a proof that they considered fasting as of no essential importance. Its revival in the Christian Church was due to traditionalism and legalism on the one hand, and to ascetic dualism (Orphic, Platonic, Essenic) on the other. In the NT the latter influence is strenuously opposed (Colossians and Pastorals), and the former is as vigorously rejected when it makes itself necessary to salvation, although it is tenderly treated when it is only a weak leaning towards old associations. The whole spirit of apostolic Christianity regards fasting as of little or no importance, and the experience of the Christian Church seems to be that any value it may have is infinitesimal compared with the evils and perversions that seem so inseparably associ- ated with it. According to Eusebius (HE v. 18), Montanus was the first to give laws to the Church on fasting. The NT is altogether opposed to such ecclesiastical laws. The matter is one for the indi- vidual Christian intelligence to determine (Ro 14^).
St. Paul's language in 1 Co 9"^^- has been ad- duced in support of self-torture of all kinds ; but, while we must not minimize the reality of Christian
ABSTINENCE
ABSTINENCE
discipline, nothing can be legitimately deduced from this passage or any other in favour of fasting or flagellation as a general means of sanctification, nor is the Apostle's view based on a dualism Avliich looks on matter and the human body as inherently evil. It may be said that interpolations like 1 Co 7« (cf. Ac 103", Mt lT-\ Mk 9^9) reveal the beginnings of that ascetic resurgence which reached its climax in monastic austerities, and that there is at least a tinge of ascetic dualism in certain Pauline passages (e.g. Ro 8", 1 Co 5^ 7^"® 9"-^, 2 Co 41"- ", Col 3^) ; but even those who hold this view of these Pauline passages admit 'that there is very little asceticism, in the ordinary sense, in St. Paul's Epistles, while there is much that makes in the opposite direction ' (McGiffert, Apostol. Age, 1897, p. 136). We shall see, however, when we come to deal with the principles of abstinence as unfolded by St. Paul, that even this minimum residuum has to be dropped.