Fasting in the Bible
Continued from page 1
Although many of the fasts mentioned in the Bible are certainly
personal vows and not general practice, some general fasting practices
are found. A specific fast day in mentioned in Jeremiah 36:6. “Therefore
go thou, and read in the roll, which thou hast written from my mouth,
the words of the Lord in the ears of the people in the Lord’s
house upon the fasting day: and also thou shalt read them in the
ears of all Judah that come out of their cities.” Here we
find a definite practice of fasting.
The following verses will show that this is not just a day of fasting,
but precisely a month. More detail on this day of fasting is given
in verse nine: “And it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim
the son of Josiah king of Judah, in the ninth month, that they proclaimed
a fast before the Lord to all the people in Jerusalem, and to all
the people that came from the cities of Judah unto Jerusalem.”
This is not a special fast proclaimed by a religious ruler, because
this particular king was wicked. Nevertheless, he did follow the
formality of what was practiced: the month of fasting. The time
given for this fasting is stated to be the ninth month.
The season of the fast in this particular year, thought by many
scholars to be 604 B.C., is stated |
to be in the winter. Jeremiah 36:22,
“Now the king sat in the winter house in the ninth month:
and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him.” Now
the present Jewish calendar adds a thirteenth month from time to
time to match the solar year, so that the ninth month of the civil
year (used in the dates of kings’ reigns) falls in May or
June, summer in Palestine. If we project the lunar calendar presently
used in the Middle East back in history, we find that the ninth
month falls in November of the year 604 B.C. It appears that during
Bible times a purely lunar calendar was used, and the ninth month
was a month of fasting.
Bible fasting includes more than just not eating and drinking,
however. Isaiah 58 is the great fasting chapter of the Bible. “Behold,
in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labors.
Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist
of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your
voice to be heard on high. Is it such a fast that I have chosen?
a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head
as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt
thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord? Is not
this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness,
to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and
that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread |
to the hungry, and that thou bring the
poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked,
that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own
flesh?” Isaiah 58:3-7. From this we see that fasting includes
avoiding certain pleasures on one hand, and doing acts of charity
and justice on the other. That is, there are some other pleasures
besides food and drink that must be avoided. Also, the central meaning
of the fast has to do with feeling for the hunger of the hungry
and doing something to alleviate it. In addition, especially the
practice of using sackcloth and ashes seems to be condemned. We
find the same condemnation, because of its connection with hypocrisy,
mentioned by Jesus in Matthew 6.
So we find fasting a basic, though unlegislated, practice throughout
the Bible, from Moses to Peter and Paul (Acts 10:30; 14:23; 27:33;
and 1Corinthians 7:5). In sum-mary, we can say that Biblical fast-ing
is the complete abstention from eating and drinking and some other
pleasures during the daylight hours of the days of the ninth month
of the lunar calendar. It includes acts of charity, alms and justice,
and the especial avoidance of anger and quarreling.
Excerpts from Chapter Seven of the book Islam in
the Bible by Thomas McElwain
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