James Strahan.
FEASTING. — 1. Pagan feastings. — These are dealt with in this article only in so far as they are alluded to in the apostolic literature. The allu- sions are incidental, and no attempt is made at minute description.
(I) We find Kufioi. or drinking-bouts mentioned (Ro 13l^ Gal 5-1, 1 P 4^), and the licentious con- duct of those who participated in these orgies may have suggested to St. Paul the famous pas- sages in which he speaks of the works of dark- ness (cf. Eph 5"-", 1 Th .5«-), for these bouts took place at night as distinguished from the tempestiva convivia which ended in daylight : ' those that be drunken are drunken in the night' (1 Th 5^).
' When night Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine '
(Milton, Paradise Lost, 1. 500 £E.).
To Plato also they suggested a picture of the licentious tyrannical soul {Rep. ix. 573) : ' there will be feasts and carousals and revellings and courtezans, and all that sort of thing ; Love ("Epojs) is the lord of the house within him, and orders all the concerns of his soul.'
Flagrant, shameless immorality was the invari- able result of such feasts, and so we find associ- ated with them dcr^XyeLa, fxidai, oivo<p\vyia, daurla. ' Wine, women, and song' went together. Plato speaks of oelwva koI avv avXryrplfft KuifioL (Thecct. 173 D), and it may be that, when St. Paul exhorts Christians to use psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, he is contrasting the grand reverent music of Christian meetings with the ribald songs of pagan feasts. One may compare the phrase in Pliny's correspondence (Epp. x. 97): 'carmen Christo quasi Deo secum invicem.' A favourite topic of conversation at such gatherings was 'ipw, which is interesting when one thinks of the Chris- tian Agape.
Although philosophers might be able to discuss this topic on a high moral plane (cf . Plato, Sym- posium), yet ordinarily the 'love' spoken of was simply ' lust.'
St. Paul knew that just as Judaism could de- scend to this worldly, sensual plane of living when God was forgotten, so also could Christianity. The motto of this kind of life was ' Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die' — perhaps the philo- sophic creed of a few, but certainly the practice of many. Hence St. Peter calls it the 'will of the Gentiles' (1 P 4^), and St. Paul contrasts it with the ' will of the Lord ' (Eph 5"). Tlie great moral- ists of paganism condemned these bouts, and St.
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Paul (1 Co 15^) quotes Menander (ace. to Jerome on Gal 4"^) — himself an Epicurean — against the view of life summed up in the aphorism, ' Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.' The Cor- inthians, doubting the resuiTectiou-life, must wake up from drunkenness in a righteous fashion. Such deeds of darkness as were associated with these /fw/tot were to be utterly left alone (cf. Ro 13'^'-, a passage for ever associated with the conversion of St. Augustine). Christians Avere to he liJled with the Spirit, not witli wine, -wluc)! leads to profligacy (daorria). Profligacy is associated with drinking-bouts in 2 Mac 6^ and Test. Jud. xvi. 1: ' There are four evil demons in wine — lust, burn- ing sensual desire, profligacy, base greed of gain.' Disregard of a future life easily led to sensualism (see Meyer's Kommentar on 1 Co 15^^ for in- scriptions on drinking-cups recently discovered). Christians would of course be looked on by their former pagan associates as austere, gloomy Puritans for leaving aside these practices. So St. Peter declares, and Tertullian later on says : ' What a jolly boon companion that young man was, and now he is good for nothing ; he has become a Christian. What a gay woman that was, how agreeably wanton, and now one dare not utter the least indecency in her presence ' (Apol. 3).
(2) It was not simply gross, licentious, heathen feasts that came into conflict vnih. the moral earnestness of Christianity, but also feasts con- nected with religious cults. These cults were everywhere, and the cult of the Emperor was some- times associated with them. They constituted a grave danger owing to the religious sanction they gave to immorality and the easy path they opened up towards virtual apostasy. To participate in these religious feasts was distinctly forbidden, al- though, according to St. Paul at least, the meat offered for sale in the open markets could be bought.
Christian converts had been brought up in an atmosphere where the belief in the influence of demons was taken for granted, and indeed the common belief of Judaism was similar. The Jew incurred pollution through partaking of food oflFered to idols. It was believed that the evil spirit entered the food and resided even in those portions sold in public ; ' lying hid there for a long time, they (i.e. demons) blend Mith your souls' (Clem. Horn. ix. 9). An extreme form of this view is found in Eusebius [Prcep. Evang. iv. 23— a quotation from Porphyry) : ' Bodies are full of demons ; for they particularly delight in foods of various kinds. So when we eat they seize upon the body.' It was therefore absolutely imperative to abstain from festivals connected with idol- worship.