•Where the feast is held under the auspices of a heathen god and as a sequel to his sacrifice,' then abstinence must follow ; * participation under these circumstances becomes an act of apostasj', and the feaster identifies himself with the idol asdistinctlj as in the Lord's Supper he identifies himself with Christ' (G. G. Fmdlay in EGT ii. [1900] 732).
(3) It was not as easy, however, to decide the right Christian attitude in the case of civic and business festivities. Trade-gilds and social clubs were numerous and "ave their members many social and commercijil advantages. They could hold property, and they gave relief in cases of need to their members. These gilds Avere under the patronage of some deity who was honoured in feasts — common meals of a sacramental kind at which members ate and drank reclining on couches. These meals were often scenes of revelry (see Ramsay in EDB iv. 758-9), and it required great constancy on the part of Christian members of such gilds to keep tlieir faith. St. Paul recognizes the impossibility of absolute aloofness from these and from social gatherings ; but Avhile he maintains
the nonentity of idols, he recognizes the practical power of demonic influence. He allows freedom of intercourse to the strong Christian — provided he keeps from idolatry and fornication — but he recog- nizes the danger. This was threefold. The weak brother might be made to stumble, the strong Chris- tian might himself be enticed, and the heathen might conclude that the Christianity of the Chris- tian participant meant little. There were three dangers the Apostle had to face in settling this question. There was the danger of asceticism, the danger of a relapse into Judaistic rites, and the danger of antinomian laxity. The danger of asceticism is met in the Colossian Epistle. St. Paul combats abstinence (see art. Abstinence). From his mention of angel-worship and aroixelo. it seems clear that the demonic influences referred to above were believed in by the errorists of Colossae. Judaistic influence is also discernible (see art. CoLOSSlANS) The Judaistic errors are met in the Galatian Epistle. It is the libertine antinomian error that seemed most likely to overcome the Gentile Church. St. Paul meets it in 1 Corinth- ians. The letters to Pergamos and Thyatira meet it Avith forcible denunciation and threatening (see such artt. as Balaam, Jezebel, Nicolaitans), and in 2 Peter and Jude Ave have an attitude simi- lar to that of St. John (Revelation).
2. Christian feasts (for the JcAvish feasts men- tioned in the NT see artt. New Moon, Passover, Pentecost, Sabbath, etc.). We have the Lord's Supper as a distinctively Christian feast (see Eucharist), and at least once Agape occurs (see Love-Feast). The Avell-knoAvn Church festivals are of later origin. St. Paul once (1 Co 5^) uses the term ' feast ' in a metaphorical sense of the whole life of the Christian community. Philo had inter- preted in this fashion before him [de Migr. Abrah. 16). This is suggested to St. Paul by the Lord's Supper, and the thought is found recurring in later AA'riters. Clement of Alexandria speaks of the Avhole Christian life of the true Gnostic as a holy panegyric (joyful assembly) (Strom, vii. 7). Chry- sostom also says that for Christians their Avhole life is a feast OAving to the superabundance of the good gifts bestoAved on them (quoted by Findlay, EGT, on 1 Co 5*). This feast, says St. Paul, must be held in sincerity and truth.
In 2 P 2^', Jude ^^ Ave have an account of liber- tines Avho frequent the Christian feasts, but Avho turn them into occasions of pleasure. The textual questions involved need not be raised here. Even if we read airdTais in 2 Pet. for afdwais (as in Jude '-), the reference seems in both places to be to the Christian love-feasts (the term euwxla. is used of the love-feast by Clem. Alex. Posd. ii. 1. 6), and a class of men is brought before us Avho IIa'o immoral lives w'hile yet claiming the right to participate in the Christian loA'e-feasts.
These Christian feasts were early misunderstood by pagans. Christians were accused of .atheism, of iiuiiiorality, and of cannibalism. Pliny, by speaking of the innocence of Christian feasts, implies that he had heard these accusations. Similar charges are repudiated by Justin Martyr (Apol. i. 2G), and later by Tertullian (Apol. 7, 8). The Christians defended themselves on tlie ground that such accusations AA'ere baseless, or else that they could only be brought against heretics (cf. Iren. I. xxv. 3, and Justin Martyr, Apol. i. 26). For a later defence see Euse- bius, HE 4, 7. That there Avas some ground for the charge of immorality, even Peter and Jude bear Avitness, but they testify also to the stern morality of true Christianity.
Literature. — For kujuoi see Classical Dictionaries ; E. Hatch, The Organization of the Early Christian Chtirches, 1881, Lecture ii. (gives references to associations) ; W. M. Ramsay, artt. in HDB on 'Pergamus,' 'Thyatira,' etc., also The Church
FEET
FELLOWSHIP
405
in the Roman Empire, 1893, Index, s.v. ' Sodalitates.' Refer- ence must also be made to NT Introductions like Zahn's (Eng. tr., 1909) and works on the Apostolic Age.
Donald Mackenzie.
FEET. — The tendency to individual detail, which gives so much vividness to Semitic narrative, accounts for some of the references to the feet (7r65es) in apostolic writings, as, for example, the reference in St. Peter's judgment on Sapphira: 'the feet of those wiio buried thy husband are at the door' (Ac 59; cf. 7^ He 12'3, Kev V^ 2'^ W). The sinner's feet are 'swift to shed blood' (Ro 3^^), but the Christian's are to be ' sandalled ' with readiness to proclaim the gospel of peace (Eph 6^^), and are made beautiful by that mission (Ro 10'^). Behind such allusions, however, there is something more than the love of graphic detail. The whole body enters much more into biblical ideas of personality than the modern reader usually recognizes (see artt. Ear, Head). In St. Paul's analogy between the human body and the Church, the head needs the service of the feet, and the foot must not refuse its ministry because its service is humbler than that of the hand (1 Co 12'«-2i ; of. 1 Clem, xxxvii. 5). In the mystical body of the Odes of Solomon (xlii. 18) the feet represent the saints.