Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

FASTING

Deliberate and often prolonged abstinence from food and sometimes drink. Comparative anthropological literature suggests that fasting is a varied phenomenon that must be defined by context. For example, fasts in ancient Israel (Heb. ṣôm) are related to mourning (2 Sam. 1:12; 3:35 = 1 Chr. 10:12; Jdt. 16:24) or religious acts of piety (Lev. 16). Fasting seems to lend an air of extra dedication to religious acts such as prayer (1 Kgs. 12:27-29; Jonah 3:5). Heb. ʿnh, usually translated “afflict the soul,” is often taken to include fasting (e.g., Lev. 16:31, which elaborates the details of the Day of Atonement), and thus an act of repentance.

In the case of mourning, the act may be intended to assuage God’s anger lest the mourner be the next to die, or perhaps to avoid contamination with death itself (or spirits), as anthropological comparisons suggest. Fasting (along with sackcloth, weeping, etc.) was a part of such rituals calling for God’s deliverance because they symbolized one’s weakened state (cf. Ben-hadad’s “reduced state” before King Ahaz, who then spared him; 1 Kgs. 20).

Fasting is associated with preparation for revelations and visions, similar to the ancient Greek practice of “incubation” (Exod. 34:28; cf. 1 Kgs. 19:8). The association of fasting with revelations and visions increases in popularity during the Hellenistic period (2 Bar. 12:5; 21:1-3; Apoc. Elijah 1:21).

Fasting is also associated with the conduct of or preparation for “Yahweh war.” The Israelites practiced fasting at Mizpah in the face of the Philistine threat (1 Sam. 7:6), and Saul imposes a fast on his militia until he succeeds in seeking vengeance against the Philistines (1 Sam 14:24; cf. 2 Sam. 11:11-12; 1 Macc. 3:46; 2 Macc. 13:12).

In the postexilic period fasting was used as a means of calling on God’s direct assistance when the community was in great danger (Ezra 8:21-22, 31b; Esth. 4:15-16; Dan. 9:3; 6:17-25). This notion may help to explain Jesus’ otherwise enigmatic reference to demons that can be driven out “only by prayer and fasting” (Mark 9:29 = Matt. 17:21). Tertullian (On Fasting) notes, while commenting on 1 Sam. 7:6, that when one fasts, “Heaven fights for you” and “divine defense will be granted.” Jesus’ fast in the wilderness may have elements of preparing both for revelations and for “war” with Satan (Matt. 4:1-11; Gk. nēsteúō).

The prophets contrast outward fasting with inward corruption, stressing that social justice is the “fast” that God prefers (Isa. 58; Zech. 7:3ff.).

Bibliography. R. Arbesmann, “Fasting and Prophecy in Pagan and Christian Antiquity,” Traditio 7 (1949): 1-71; D. L. Smith-Christopher, “Hebrew Satyagraha: The Politics of Biblical Fasting in the Post-Exilic Period (Sixth to Second Century b.c.e.),” Food and Foodways 5 (1993): 269-92; E. Westermark, “The Principles of Fasting,” Folklore 18 (1907): 391-422.

Daniel L. Smith-Christopher

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

FASTING

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)