Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text: Ideas
The customs, offices and ideas a first reader knew without being told, what each meant then, and the nearest thing you already know.
Fasting
Going without food, and often washing and oil, as a sign of mourning, penitence and longing. The law required one fast a year; the devout kept many more.
The family stopped eating normally after the funeral, and the whole street could tell. To fast was to go without food for a time, usually with no washing or oil either, and often with ashes on the head. It was how people mourned, repented and pleaded with God. Because it showed on the face, it could also be a way to look holy.
The law commanded a fast only on the Day of Atonement. Religious Jews added many more, the Pharisees above all, and many Pharisees may have fasted two days a week. Some went without water too, especially in the dry season. A fast also meant no washing, no oil on the skin and no intercourse, and the study Bibles add ashes and a grim face. Fasting belonged with mourning, and a wedding was the peak of joy, so no one fasted at a wedding feast. A teacher answered for how his disciples behaved, so disciples who never fasted would have looked odd. Wright puts the practice in a wider frame: "Fasting in this period was not, for Jews, simply an ascetic discipline." He argues that it marked Israel's ongoing exile and the fall of the temple, and that Zechariah had promised those fasts would turn into feasts.
An analogy: wearing black for a season of mourning. Everyone who sees you knows something is wrong, and showing up in black at a wedding would be an insult to the couple.
Fasting was expected of the devout, so a teacher whose disciples did not fast drew questions, as at Mark 2:18. Because it went with grief, Jesus answers with a wedding. Since a fast showed on the face, it could become a performance, which is the warning at Matthew 6:16-18.
Not a message aimed at the neighbors. Black clothes speak to the people who see them. A fast was first an act before God, joined to prayer, penitence and mourning, and the law commanded one every year. That it showed on the face was a risk, since it could turn into a show.
What fasting meant then. Keener's notes treat it as joined to prayer, penitence and mourning. Wright argues that in this period it also carried a national meaning, grief for Israel's exile and the fallen temple, and reads Jesus' refusal to fast as a claim that the exile was ending; that wider reading is his.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/acts-13-1-12\/","n":"Acts 13:1-12, Sent from Antioch: the proconsul and the magician","s":"The church at Antioch fasts, prays and sends out Barnabas and Saul. On Cyprus the Roman proconsul believes after Paul confronts the Jewish magician in his entourage.","r":"Acts 13:1-12"}
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- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Matthew 6:16-18, 9:14 and 9:15
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Matthew 5:20, 6:17 and 9:15
- ESV Study Bible, study note on Matthew 6:16-18
- CSB Study Bible, note on Matthew 6:16
- N. T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God, ch. 9, Symbol and Controversy, section (v) The Rebuilt Temple
