¹ See especially Black, J. S., ‘Fasting,’ Encyclopedia Britannica , 13th ed. 10 (1926) 193–198. and MacCulloch, J. A. and Maclean, A. J., ‘Fasting,’ ERE 6 (1951) 759–771.Google Scholar

² Cf. J. MacCulloch, A., loc. cit. 759f.Google Scholar

³ It is unfortunate that Onians, R. B., The Origins of European Thought about the Body, the Mind, the Soul, the World, Time and Fate (2nd ed. Cambridge University Press 1954), could not have treated the problem of food and fasting beyond the brief reference to the primitive belief (e.g. in Democritus, frag. 235 B, Diels-Kranz) that the belly was the seat of sexual desire as well as of the appetite for food and drink (p. 88; and see Index, s.v. ‘Food’).Google Scholar

⁴ Arbesmann, Rudolf, Das Fasten bei den Griechen und Römern (= RVV 21.1 Giessen 1929). treated by Parra Herrera⁵) or in its connection with prophecy and revelation (as this has again been fully discussed by Arbesmann⁶) — but merely to treat the problem of ascetical fasting as we find it in the Greek patristic writers down to the time of John Damascene.Google Scholar

⁵ Parra Herrera, Antonio, Legislación eclesiástica sobre el ayuno y la abstinencia. Síntesis histórica y comentario (Cath. Univ. Studies in Canon Law 92, Washington 1935).Google Scholar

⁶ ‘ Fasting and Prophecy in Pagan and Christian Antiquity,’ Traditio 7 (1949–51) 1–71.Google Scholar

⁷ The Biology of Human Starvation . ed. Keys, Ancel and others (2 vols. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota 1950).Google Scholar

⁸ A Study of Prolonged Fasting (Washington, D.C., Carnegie Institute: Carnegie Nutrition Laboratory 1915); this is also summarized in vol. I of the Minnesota report.Google Scholar

⁹ Biology of Human Starvation vol. I.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Ibid. II 839ff. Ascetical Fasting in the Greek Patristic WritersGoogle Scholar

¹¹ Lives of the Fathers. Sketches of Church History in Biography (2 vols. New York 1889) II 160ff.Google Scholar

¹² Ibid. 163.Google Scholar

¹³ ‘ Das asketische Ideal bei Ambrosius, Hieronymus und Augustinus,’ Neue Jahrbücher für das klassische Altertum 37 (1916) 437–474.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Bickel, , loc. cit. 441ff.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Ibid. 448. Thus it was Athanasius who raised ‘the dogmatically indifferent anachoritism to the level of an ecclesiastical force of first rank.’Google Scholar

¹⁶ Art. ‘Askese,’ RAC 1 (1950) 749–795.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Art. ‘Fasting and Prophecy,’ sup. cit. (n. 6). Google Scholar

¹⁸ Hoffmeister, Johannes, Wörterbuch der philosophischen Begriffe (2nd ed. Hamburg 1955) 80.Google Scholar

¹⁹ W. R. [Sorley], ‘Asceticism,’ Dict. of Philosophy and Psychology (ed. Baldwin, J. M.) I 74.Google Scholar

²⁰ For a bibliography, see Musurillo, H., The Acts of the Pagan Martyrs (Oxford 1954) 268ff. That Cynic asceticism was not really religious was recognized by Bickel, loc. cit. 453. See also Strathmann, . ‘Askese,’ RAC, loc. cit. 769. At the same time, Cynic influence should not be underestimated, as it seems to be in the work of Prümm, Karl. Religionsgeschichtliches Handbuch für den Raum der altchristlichen Umwelt (Rome, Biblical Institute 1954) 147ff. For Cynic influences in the asceticism of Philo, see Bréhier, E. Les idées philosophiques et religieuses de Philon d'Alexandrie (3rd ed. Paris 1950) 261ff.; and Völker, W., Fortschritt und Vollendung bei Philo von Alexandrien (TU 49.1; Leipzig 1938) 126ff.Google Scholar

²¹ See Bréhier, , op. cit. 261ff.; Olphe, M.-Galliard, ‘Ascèse, Ascétisme,’ DSp 1 (1937) 953–7; Strathmann-Keseling, ‘Askese,’ RAC, loc. cit. 756f. 765, 770 and passim (with the bibliography here cited). Prümm, op. cit. 172ff. is inadequate.Google Scholar

²² See Olphe-Galliard, . DSp. loc. cit. 958f.; Strathmann-Keseling, RAC, loc. cit. 757, 769 and passim (with bibliography). Bickel, loc. cit. 455 n., had perhaps not too incorrectly considered Neoplatonism, as ‘nicht Quelle, sonder Parallelerscheinung,’ with regard to the alleged borrowings by many patristic writers.Google Scholar

²³ Bréhier, , op. cit. passim. Google Scholar

²⁴ Völker, , op. cit. 135ff. and passim; for Philo absorbed without distinction whatever suited his thought; he was no ‘Systematiker’ (Völker 135).Google Scholar

²⁵ Völker, , op. cit. 349. See also his Der wahre Gnostiker bei Clemens von Alexandrien (TU 57; Leipzig 1952) 618ff.Google Scholar

²⁶ Conversion (Oxford 1933) 267; 269.Google Scholar

¹ Rhet. 1.2, 1356 ^b 1ff. (ed. Roemer, ).Google Scholar

² Aphthonius, , Progymn. 4 (Spengel 27); Anaximenes, Rhet. 8 (ed. Spengel-Hammer, 39f.).Google Scholar

³ On the exempla-collections, cf. Kroll, W., ‘Rhetorik,’ RE Suppl. 7 (1940) 1135. See also Carlson, M. L., ‘Pagan Examples of Fortitude in the Latin Christian Apologists,’ CPh 43 (1940) 93–104, with the literature cited.Google Scholar

⁴ For examples of the Apostles, see Arbesmann, ‘Fasting and Prophecy’ 32f. Google Scholar

⁵ Ep. ad Cor. 17.1 (ed. Schaefer, C. T. [FlP 1941] 23).Google Scholar

⁶ Ibid. 55.6 (Schaefer 60).Google Scholar

⁷ Ibid. 53.2 (Schaefer 58).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁸ De ieiun. hom. 1, 6–7, 9 (PG 31.172 A ff., 177 C).Google Scholar

⁹ § 30, ed. Harden, J. M. (London, SPCK 1920) 135f.Google Scholar

¹⁰ De ieiun. 1 (PG 60.711–12).Google Scholar

¹¹ In Ierem. hom. 19.7 (ed. Klostermann, E. GCS, 1925, 3.188). Cf. also In Num. hom. 25.4 (ed. Baehrens, E., 7.238) in Rufinus’ translation.Google Scholar

¹² Cf. e.g. Carm. ad Hellenium 63–4 (PG 37.1455); In monach. obtrect. 5–6 (PG 37.1349–50); Orat, contra Iulianum 1.71 (PG 35.594 B-C). Google Scholar

¹³ Orat. 6, De pace 1.2 (PG 35.721 C - 724 B); cf. the poem, Exhortatio and virgines 38 ff. (PG 37. 636 A) and the Comparatio vitarum 91f. (PG 37.655–6).Google Scholar

¹⁴ Cf. e.g. Hom. 8 in Matth. 5 (PG 57.88). Google Scholar

¹⁵ Hom. 14 in 1 Tim. 3 (PG 62.575).Google Scholar

¹⁶ Ibid. 4 (PG 62.575f.).Google Scholar

¹⁷ Ibid . (PG 62.577).Google Scholar

¹⁸ Ibid .Google Scholar

¹⁹ De studio praesentium 3 (PG 63.488f.).Google Scholar

²⁰ Hom. 13 in Ephes. 3 (PG 62.98).Google Scholar

²¹ Ibid. 4. It is interesting to note that Olympias had apparently lived the life of a ‘female ascetic’ even in the world. In Chrysostom's Letter 8.4ff. he praises her thus: ‘you took your tender and delicate body, raised in all sorts of luxury, and so besieged it with all kinds of torments that it might as well be a dead body; and you've roused in yourself such a swarm of maladies as to confound the art of doctors … and you live in constant pain,’ (ed. Malingrey [Sources chrétiennes 13; 1947] 123 = Ep. 2 PG 52.561).Google Scholar

²² De compunct. 6 (PG 47.403).Google Scholar

²³ Ibid. 10 (PG 47.409).Google Scholar

²⁴ De sacerd. 3.13 (ed. Nairn, Cambridge 1907 p. 69; PG 48.649).Google Scholar

²⁵ Ibid. 3.12 (PG 48.648): and cf. 6.5 (PG 48.682), where the five chief types of austerity are given as fasting, sleeping on the ground, watching, not washing, hard labor. Cf. also the ‘austerity lists’ in Pseudo-Chrys. De poen. 1 and 4 (PG 60.683, 689).Google Scholar

²⁶ See especially the account of Duchesne, L., Early History of the Christian Church from its Foundation to the End of the Fifth Century (trans. Claude Jenkins, London 1950) 410–11.Google Scholar

²⁷ It is interesting to recall the deeply spiritual family background of Basil, Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory of Nazianzus. Of the ten children of Basil and Emmelia, the parents of Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa, most became involved in the ascetical movement. Basil's sister Macrina had dedicated herself to virginity at the age of twelve (Greg. Nyss. Vita s. Macrinae PG 46.964 C-D; ed. Callahan, V. W. p. 374, in Jaeger, W., Gregorii Nysseni Opera 8.1, Leiden 1952), and after the death of their father, persuaded her mother Emmelia to join her; thus the two women, with the youngest child, Peter, retired to a family estate at Annesi in Pontus on the river Iris (Vita, ibid.). About the year 352, Basil's brother Naucratius also retired to the wilds of Pontus as an anchorite (Vita 379f. Callahan; PG 968 A-D). Basil, Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory Nazianzen had, from their school days, looked forward to the life of the solitaries; and Basil, after travelling among the desert fathers at Eustathius’ suggestion, finally established a community on the river Iris, opposite his sister's community, about the year 358. See, e.g. Paul Allard, DThC 2 (1910) 441ff.; Sr. Murphy, Margaret G. Saint Basil's Monasticism (CUPS 25, Washington 1930) 12ff; Dom David Amand, L'ascèse monastique de saint Basile : Essai historique (Maredsous 1949); Gribomont, Dom J., Histoire du texte des Ascétiques de saint Basile (Bibliothèque du Muséon 32; Louvain 1953).Google Scholar

²⁸ 3 (PG 31.244 B). So too, on the praise of wine, Hom. 14 in ebriosos 1 (PG 31.448 A). Google Scholar

²⁹ Epist. 45 (Deferrari 1.274).Google Scholar

³⁰ Resp. ad interrog. 16.1 (PG 31.957 B).Google Scholar

³¹ Ibid. 16.2 (960 A-B). Similarly, Reg. brevius tract., Resp. ad interrog. 128 (PG 31. 1168 C-D).Google Scholar

³² PG 78.228 D - 229 D. Google Scholar

³³ Epist. 2.278 (PG 78.709 A-B).Google Scholar

³⁴ PG 88.869 A-D. Google Scholar

³⁵ In my own numbering, De ieiun. 9 (PG 62.727–8). There are seven homilies on fasting among the spuria in PG 60.711–24, numbered 1–7; there are eight other homilies on fasting scattered throughout the various volumes (and placed among the spuria by Montfaucon), which I number as follows: At least three different authors (or author-groups) can be distinguished among these: A, very close to Chrysostom (as in De ieiun. 8 and 11); B, a sophistic rhetor (as in De ieiun. 3, 9, possibly 15, and De poenitentia); C, an unoriginal copier (as in De ieiun. 2, 4, 12; possibly also 6–7, and 10 and 13). Google Scholar

³⁶ The author of De ieiun. 3, perhaps identical with the author of 9, has the classic portrait of the Christian life (PG 60.716): life is like the piloting of a ship, Christ's cross is the mast, faith the anchor, hope the rigging, prayer the oars, Christ Himself the sails, good thoughts are the rudder, God is the pilot, the favorable breeze is the Holy Spirit. Google Scholar

¹ Cf. e.g., Diss. 4.1.1 (355 Schenkl [2nd ed.]). For a good discussion of ascetical ‘freedom’ in Epictetus, see D'Agostino, V., Studi sul Neostoicismo (Turin 1950) 89–101.Google Scholar

² Diss. 3.12.7 (268 Schenkl), and cf. Bonhöffer, A., Die Ethik des Epictet (Stuttgart 1894) 69.Google Scholar

³ Encheir. 2.2 (6∗f. Schenkl); cf. Simplicius, ad loc. (21f. Dübner).Google Scholar

⁴ Encheir. 34 (29∗ Schenkl). Cf. Simplicius, ad loc. (122 Dübner): ‘Bodily pleasures are most harmful to the soul; each one, as it were, drives a nail into the soul; and that is why God has made them of short duration.’Google Scholar

⁵ Encheir. 33.2 (25∗f. Schenkl).Google Scholar

⁶ Encheir. 33.7 (26∗ Schenkl).Google Scholar

⁷ Ad loc. (115 Dübner).Google Scholar

⁸ Ad loc. (117 Dübner).Google Scholar

⁹ Enn. 3.6.5 (342.14 Henry-Schwyzer).Google Scholar

¹⁰ Ibid. 2.3.9 (p. 172.19), ‘On the Power of the Stars’; cf. A.-J. Festugière, Personal Religion among the Greeks (Sather Classical Lectures 26; Berkeley 1954) 64ff.; Père Festugière's portrait of Plotinus, however, is perhaps colored by the author's own approach to Christian mysticism. My own views are much indebted to Armstrong, A. H. : cf. e.g. his Plotinus (London 1953) 39 (the intrinsic contradiction in Plotinus’ theory of matter).Google Scholar

¹¹ Enn. 2.4.16 (p. 201.24) ‘On Matter’; cf. Armstrong, op. cit. 120f.Google Scholar

¹² Enn. 1.1.12 (p. 60.18), ‘On the Nature of Man and the Animate.’Google Scholar

¹³ Porphyry, , Vita Plotini 9 (14.22 Henry-Schwyzer).Google Scholar

¹⁴ De abstin. 1.31 (109.14ff. Nauck). On the body as a garment, see also Dodds, E. R. Proclus. The Elements of Theology (Oxford 1933) 307. For the comparison, cf. Basil, De ieiun. hom. 1.10 (PG 31.181 C).Google Scholar

¹⁵ Sent. 32.1-5 (17ff. Mommert); the Plotinian parallels are fully quoted by Mommert in the testimonia.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Esp. 32–4 (295f. Nauck). E.g. ‘man approaches the divine insofar as he withdraws from any sympathy with the body's feelings’ (32, p. 295). ‘Avoid anything that is womanish — as though you had a man's body; for it is the offspring of the virgin soul and the pure mind that is most blessed. The incorruptible develops from the incorruptible, whereas what the body produces is held accursed by all the gods’ (33, p. 296). Cf. also the English translation (with introduction) by Alice Zimmern, Porphyry the Philosopher to His Wife Marcella (London 1896). Google Scholar

¹⁷ De abstin. 1.46 (Nauck 121.13ff.). Cf. Arbesmann, Fasten 109. The subject has been treated exhaustively by Johannes Hausleiter, Der Vegetarismus in der Antike (= RVV 24, Berlin 1935) 316ff. Hausleiter stresses Porphyry's motive of ‘internal purity’; this would be sullied by contact with animal flesh.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Ibid. 4.20 (262.6ff. Nauck).Google Scholar

¹⁹ Ibid. (262.2ff. Nauck).Google Scholar

²⁰ 14.2 (ed. Stählin GCS 3.140). Google Scholar

²¹ Paed. 2.1 (Stählin 1.154).Google Scholar

²² τò λογιστιϰòν εἰς ἀναισθησίαν ϰθέλϰουσα, ibid. 2.9 (Stählin 207). Google Scholar

²³ Ibid. 2.1 (Stählin 159). On Clement, see Strathmann, ‘Askese,’ RAC 1 (1950) 762–3. See also Stelzenberger, J., Die Beziehungen der frühchristlichen Sittenlehre zur Ethik der Stoa (Munich 1933) 453ff. Stelzenberger, however, perhaps overemphasizes Clement's Stoicism, and I am inclined to agree with the more moderate position of W. Völker, Der wahre Gnostiker bei Clemens von Alexandrien (TU 57; Leipzig 1952) 618f.: Clement's ethical theory is fundamentally Philonian, with a Christian ‘Vertiefung der philonischen Position.’Google Scholar

²⁴ De vera virg. integ. 6 (PG 30.681 C). The treatise, handed down in the corpus of Basil the Great, has been attributed to the Bishop of Ancyra (a former doctor of medicine) very plausibly by Cavallera, F. For the literature, see Altaner, . Patrologie (1953 ed.) 248. See also Keseling, P., ‘Askese,’ RAC 1 (1950) 767.Google Scholar

²⁵ De vera virg. integ. 7 (PG 30.684 B). For a similar idea, see Philo, , Leg. alleg. 138 (143 Cohn).Google Scholar

²⁶ Though he does not tell us specifically what they were, ibid. 8 (PG 30.685 C). Google Scholar

²⁷ Ibid. 9 (PG 30.685 D f.). The Fathers of the Egyptian desert always used salt; old Chronius and Paphnutius tell the visiting Palladius that no one eats his bread without it lest he contract a serious illness (ϰαχεξία): Palladius, HL 47 (ed. Butler, C., The Lausiac History of Palladius [TS 6; Cambridge 1898–1904] II 141).Google Scholar

²⁸ Ibid. 9 (PG 688 D f.).Google Scholar

²⁹ Ibid. 10 (PG 30.689 A).Google Scholar

³⁰ Hom. 27 in Act. 3 (PG 60.208).Google Scholar

³¹ Ibid . (PG 210).Google Scholar

³² Hom. 13 in 1 Tim. 3 (PG 62.568).Google Scholar

³³ De Lazaro 1.8 (PG 48.974).Google Scholar

³⁴ Hom. 57 in Matth. 5 (PG 58.563). On Chrysostom, see also Keseling, P., ‘Askese,’ RAC 1 (1950) 770.Google Scholar

³⁵ 14 (Deferrari 4.422). In Epist. 366 (PG 32.1109–12, not in the Garnier-Maran edition) Basil teaches that the general virtue of ἐγϰϱάτεια controls all bodily appetites, and trains the body for incorruptibility. Christ, he points out, possessed this virtue in such a high degree that ‘He ate and drank in a manner peculiar to Himself; He did not even pass His food, so great was the power of self-control in Him’ (Deferrari 4.352). Cf. also Epist. 2 (Deferrari 1.22) on the control of one's thoughts at table. Google Scholar

³⁶ Comm. in Isai. 32 (PG 30.184 C). So too Cyril of Alexandria, Comm. in Isai. orat. 3 (PG 70.149f.): ‘Just as the bodily eye, if it be cut, or filled with rheum or dust, cannot see clearly, so too the mind of man when weighed down with luxurious bodily pleasure cannot look toward God or contemplate His works with clear vision.’ There are minor textual variants given in the Garnier edition I (1839) 574 B.Google Scholar

³⁷ Cf. e.g. Gregory of Nyssa, De virg. 22 (PG. 46.401 D ff.) and Methodius of Olympus, Symp. 1.1 (Bonwetsch 8.2ff.), based on Plato, Phaedr. 246 D ff. Cf. Cherniss, H. F., The Platonism of Gregory of Nyssa (Berkeley 1930) 16ff.Google Scholar

³⁸ See Geffcken, Johannes, Kynika und Verwandtes (Heidelberg 1909), for Cynic influences in Gregory.Google Scholar

³⁹ Carm. moral. 2.8 (PG 37.655f.).Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Tetrastichae sententiae 73ff. (PG 37.933 A).Google Scholar

⁴¹ Tract. 1 (PG 79.1145 B).Google Scholar

⁴² For a discussion, see Arbesmann, , Fasten 97ff. (‘Das ekstatische Fasten’), and his ‘Fasting and Prophecy’ 25ff. The connection would appear to be the fact that eating before sleeping produces, at times, disturbed dreams, and dreams for the ancients were one of the commonest sources of prophetic inspiration and revelation. But in all this discussion, I suggest, we must separate two different motifs, the ‘materializing’ of the soul by food, and the influence of the ‘smoky humors’ on the spirit. The meaning of ‘smoky humors’ would seem to be explained by Aristotle's theory that bodies pass from one state to another by giving off certain vapors; in this case, the food would pass into the bodily substance while the vapors rose to obscure the mind. For the theory, see the discussion of Cherniss, H. F. Aristotle's Criticism of Presocratic Philosophy (Baltimore 1935) 131ff., and esp. for the relevant fragment of Heraclitus, 37 B (Diels-Kranz), Kirk, G. S., Heraclitus. The Cosmic Fragments (Cambridge 1954) 232ff.Google Scholar

⁴³ This ‘Adam-motif’ is not infrequent in the Fathers: ‘We fast now because Adam did not fast’; cf. Passio Bartholomaei 4 (Lipsius-Bonnet II 1.136); Ephraem, Hymn. de ieiun. 6.1 (Lamy 2.678); Chrys., In Dan. 9.1 (PG 54.238); Asterius, In principium ieiuniorum (PG 40.1373 C); Palladius, Dial. de vita Ioan S., Chrys. 12 (PG 47.41); Gregory Naz. Orat. 45.28 (PG 36.662 C), Orat. 24 in laudem Cypriani S. 3 (PG 35.1173 A); John Climacus, Scala 14 (PG 88.869 B). Google Scholar

¹ Fasten 118ff.Google Scholar

² Paed. 2.7 (Stählin 1.189f.), 2.1 (p. 154) and passim. Google Scholar

³ Ibid. (p. 154), 3.2 (p. 241).Google Scholar

⁴ Ibid. 2.1 (p. 161); Strom. 7.6 (Stählin 3.26).Google Scholar

⁵ 7 (ed. von der Goltz, , TU 14 [1905] 41).Google Scholar

⁶ Hom. 22 in Io. 3 (PG 59.137). For the expression νηστεία ύγιείας μήτηϱ see also Basil, De ieiun. hom. 1.7 (PG 31.173 C), 2.7 (PG 31.193 C).Google Scholar

⁷ Hom. 27 in Act. 2 (PG 60.207).Google Scholar

⁸ Hom. 16 in Act. 4 (PG 60.134). For a similar discussion (rich food causing more waste matter) see Aphraates, . Demonst. 15.1 (Pat. Syr. ed. Parisot, J. 732).Google Scholar

⁹ Hom. 13 in 1 Tim. 4 (PG 62.570).Google Scholar

¹⁰ Quod nemo laeditur nisi a seipso 7 (PG 52.468). This little work was most probably written, according to Bardenhewer, in 405/6, while John was in exile.Google Scholar

¹¹ Ibid. 8 (PG 469). In Hom. 29 in Heb. 4 (PG 63.207) he enumerates ‘heaviness, distension, headaches, insomnia, obstruction of breathing, belching.’ In Hom. 35 in Act. 2 (PG 60.256) he describes the ‘disgusting spectacle of the obese man, dragging his body along like a seal’; and the debauchee arising in the morning, ‘like a fat pig, his eyes rheumy, his mouth smelling of wine, with his poor soul as it were thrown on the couch under stale dregs that have been mercilessly poured on it, and he dragging his great weight of flesh around like an elephant.’Google Scholar

¹² De ieiun. hom. 2.7 (PG 31.193 C).Google Scholar

¹³ De ieiun. hom. 1.4 (PG 31.168 C ff.).Google Scholar

¹⁴ Ibid. 8 (PG 176 C).Google Scholar

¹⁵ In princ. ieiun. (PG 40.372 C f.). So too, Eusebius of Alexandria, in his De ieiun. (PG 86.317 A) refers to the calm of mind, steadiness of gait, clarity of eye and lack of headaches of the faster. On the asceticism of Asterius see Keseling, P., ‘Askese,’ RAC 1 (1950) 767.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Ibid. (PG 40.381 C f).Google Scholar

¹⁷ De ieiun. 1 (PG 60.711).Google Scholar

¹⁸ De ieiun. 8 (PG 61.790).Google Scholar

¹⁹ De ieiun. 11 (PG 62.736).Google Scholar

²⁰ ‘ Pallor, that fair blossom of lofty minds,’ Orat. 22. 5 (PG 35.1137 A); cf. also Orat. 26.14 (PG 35.1248).Google Scholar

²¹ Hom. 10 ad pop. Antioch. 1 (PG 49.111).Google Scholar

²² Epist. 5.528 (PG 78.1265 B-C).Google Scholar

¹ Fasten 21ff. Fear of demons in food (cf. Fasten 23f.) may well have originated in primitive man's experience of nausea or food-poisoning and the medicinal effects of certain herbs.Google Scholar

² It is difficult to believe, however, that all Trauerfasten (Arbesmann 25f.) can be derived from this apotropaic element. See the discussion in the next section. Google Scholar

³ For the bibliography, see Altaner, , Patrol. 77f.; Quasten, Patrology (Westminster, Md. and Utrecht, 1950–53) I 59ff.Google Scholar

⁴ Pseudo-Clem. hom. 9.10 (PG 2.248 C - 249 A); ed. Rehm-Irmscher, (GGS; Berlin-Leipzig 1953) 135. Cf. Arbesmann, Fasten 24.Google Scholar

⁵ See e.g. Recogn. 3.4 (PG 1.1284 A-B) on the interdependence of certain bodily functions; 8.28–32 (PG 1385 D ff.) on the position and function of various organs. Google Scholar

⁶ Recogn . 4.16 (PG 1321 B-C), from Rufinus’ version, which should be substantially accurate.Google Scholar

⁷ Ibid. 4.18 (PG 1322 B), Rufinus. Cf. Hom. 9.12 (PG 2.249 C-D): The ‘earthly soul’ is united to a kindred evil spirit, while from the food there seeps through the body a kind of poison.Google Scholar

⁸ Recogn. 4.19 (PG 1.1323 D).Google Scholar

⁹ Ibid. (PG 1322 C).Google Scholar

¹⁰ Ibid. 4.32 (PG 1329 C).Google Scholar

¹¹ Ibid. 4.34 (PG 1330 A).Google Scholar

¹² 8.30 (Koetschau, GCS 2.245). Google Scholar

¹³ In Ios. hom. 24.1 (Baehrens 7.448); cf. also In Num. hom. 13.7 (Baehrens 117), where he teaches that the demons still have the freedom to annoy the good ‘for the perfection of those who are to be crowned.’ But we must be cautious of Rufinus’ version.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Ed. by von der Goltz, E., TU 14 (1905) 35ff., on whom see also Bardenhewer, Gesch. d. altk. Lit. III 66.Google Scholar

¹⁵ 7 (von der Goltz 41). Google Scholar

¹⁶ Accepting verse 21 as authentic with the MSS C, D, the Latin tradition — though it is omitted by B, the first hand of S, Θ and others. In Mark 9.29, from which our verse may be a borrowing, B, S and other MSS omit the words ‘and fasting.’ The Lucianic tradition keeps the full text in both places, and here I should prefer not to follow it. On the text see Nestle, E., Novum testamentum graece et latine (16th ed. Stuttgart 1954) ad locc. Google Scholar

¹⁷ De vera virg. integ . 48 (PG 30.764 B).Google Scholar

¹⁸ In princ . ieiun. (PG 40.373 A-B).Google Scholar

¹⁹ 1 (PG 79.1200 D f.). Google Scholar

²⁰ Cf. also ibid. 23 (PG 79.1226 f.), where he explains that the ‘passions’ keep certain evil ideas persisting in the mind, just as the feeling of hunger and thirst keeps the idea of food and drink before the mind: ‘it is because of these passions that there persist in the mind the thought of food and all the impure thoughts that arise from food.’ On gluttony as the cause of all sin, cf. also Tract. de octo spir. malitiae 1 (PG 79.1145 A). ‘In a chubby body the passions flourish,’ ibid. 3 (PG 1148 B). So too in John of Damascus’ De octo spiritibus nequitiae 1 (PG 95.80 A) gluttony is listed first and impure desires second. Google Scholar

²¹ Nilus, , Capita paraenetica 53 (PG 79.1253 B); cf. Instituta ad monachos (PG 1236 A). But Nilus also taught that when the daemon of gluttony cannot weaken his charge in any other way he finally tempts him to excessive penance (De div. malis cog. 25, PG 1229 B-C); the purpose of this is to tempt him either to pride or else so to weaken him that he will yield to discouragement and despair (Epist. 3.46, PG 413 D). For the same idea, cf. Chrys. Hom. 4 in 2 Cor., 5 (PG 61.425).Google Scholar

²² Gradus 14 (PG 88.868 C). See the discussion on the Apophthegmata in section 6, below.Google Scholar

²³ Ibid. (PG 868 D).Google Scholar

¹ Fasten 25 ff., with which Ziehen, L., νηστεία, RE 17 (1936) 101 fundamentally agrees. ‘The real, original motive for fasting,’ says Ziehen, ‘was without any doubt regularly the fear of malicious daemons whose influence threatened when one ate.’ But despite Ziehen's reserves, it would appear that the motives for fasting cannot be so simply reduced to a single principle. What many authors seem to overlook is the natural experience that men and women who are in great emotional distress (e.g. from sorrow, fear, pain) often are so absorbed that they forget their need of food and drink or even, in some cases, find it extremely difficult to eat. Another possible motivation is perhaps the idea that it would be wrong to enjoy one's food while one's departed friend or kin has lost the power of such enjoyment by death.Google Scholar

² See Lesêtre, H., ‘Deuil,’ DB 2 (1910) 1396ff.; O. Zöckler, Askese und Mönchtum (Frankfurt 1897) 114; Strathmann, H. Geschichte der frühchristl. Askese (Leipzig 1914) 58; and for the rabbinical writers, esp. Bonsirven, J., Le Judaisme palestinien au temps de J.-C. (2 vols. Paris 1934–5) II 281ff.Google Scholar

³ See section I, above. Google Scholar

⁴ Orat. 45, 28 (PG 36.662 C).Google Scholar

⁵ 10 (PG 34.829 B ff.). Google Scholar

⁶ Chrysostom, commenting on Matth. 9.15, says ‘fasting is a melancholy thing, not in itself, but rather for those who are still spiritually weak’; Hom. 30 (31) in Matth. 3 (PG 57 336); and in his De compunctione 10 (PG 47.409), which we have quoted above, he bids Demetrius not to worry about sickness that may result from fasting and penance; for. just as people perform these practices when in mourning, so too Christians ‘who are mourning the loss of heaven.’ Google Scholar

⁷ 5 (PG 24.700 C). Google Scholar

⁸ De solemn . pasch. 10 (PG 24.705 C).Google Scholar

⁹ De fide 22.1ff. (Holl, GCS 3.522f.).Google Scholar

¹⁰ Matth. 9.15, Mark 2.20, Luke 5.35. Cf. Tertullian, De ieiun. 2, 13 (ed. Reifferscheid-Wissowa, , CSEL 20.275, 291).Google Scholar

¹¹ So too, Jeremias, J., The Parables of Jesus (tr. Hooks, S. H., New York 1956) 42. In Jeremias’ view, Jesus had not meant to compare Himself to a Bridegroom.Google Scholar

¹² Evang. Petri. 7 (ed. Klostermann, KlT 3 [Berlin 1933] 5), from the middle or second half of the second century: cf. Quasten, Patrology 114f.Google Scholar

¹³ See Arbesmann, ‘Fasting and Prophecy’ 42ff., for the literature. Google Scholar

¹ See section II above. Google Scholar

² Tetrast. sent . 33.73ff. (PG 37.934 A).Google Scholar

³ De seipso et de episcopis 55ff. (PG 1170f.).Google Scholar

⁴ Ibid. 576ff. (PG 1208).Google Scholar

⁵ Ibid. 604f. (PG 1209).Google Scholar

⁶ Koprophagy was considered a symptom of diabolic possession, Palladius, HL 17 (ed. Butler, C., TS 6.2 [Cambridge 1904] 47).Google Scholar

⁷ De abbate Isaaco 6 (PG 65.225 B). Cf. Greg. Naz., Epist. 15 (to Basil), speaking of a meal with Basil, ‘I will always remember it, my teeth crunching up and down as if dragging themselves out of mud’: PG 37.29 A.Google Scholar

⁸ De studio praesentium 3 (PG 63.488f.).Google Scholar

⁹ Epist. 45 (Deferrari 1.274).Google Scholar

¹⁰ HE 6.33 (PG 67.1393 A); cf. Arbesmann, ‘Fasting and Prophecy’ 34.Google Scholar

¹¹ HE 6.34 (PG 1396 A). Sozomen is, however, so uncritical in many instances that one must be cautious of any detail unsupported by independent witnesses.Google Scholar

¹² Hom. 77 in Matth. 6 (PG 58.710).Google Scholar

¹³ In sanctum Babylam 7 (PG 52.543). See Musurillo, H., The Acts of the Pagan Martyrs (Oxford 1954) 237ff.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Riddle, C., The Martyrs. A Study in Social Control (Chicago 1931) 68ff. (the ‘martyr psychosis’ of early Christianity). Sudhoff, K., Aerztliches aus griechischen Papyrus- Urkunden (Studien zur Geschichte der Medizin 5–6; Leipzig 1909) 233, cannot believe that the desert monks persevered without abnormal sexual practices.Google Scholar

¹⁶ For edition, see Feltoe, C. L., The Letters and Other Remains of Dionysius of Alexandria (Cambridge 1904) and for further literature, Quasten, Patrology II 101ff.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Euseb. HE 6.42.2 (Schwartz GCS 2.610) and Feltoe 16. Google Scholar

¹⁷ See the texts quoted by Feltoe, Dionysius p. xvii. Google Scholar

¹⁸ Particularly, Nock, A. D., Conversion (Oxford 1933) 266ff. and Festugière, Personal Religion (supra, II n. 10) 53ff. On the general rise of monasticism, see Leclerq, H. ‘Cénobitisme,’ DACL 2.3047ff.; Morrison, E. F. St. Basil and His Rule: A Study in Early Monasticism (Oxford 1912); Lowther Clerke, W. K. St. Basil the Great: A Study in Monasticism (Cambridge 1913); Ryan, J. Irish Monasticism: Origins and Early Development (Dublin and Cork 1931); Heimbucher, M., Die Orden und Kongregationen der katholischen Kirche (3rd ed. Paderborn 1933).Google Scholar

¹⁹ See Altaner 223, 235. For a bibliography on the question of authorship see Delehaye, H. (whose scepticism was advanced as early as Anal. Boll. 25 [1906] 180f.) and others in AS, Propylaeum Decembris (1940) 25 (Roman martyrology for Jan. 15 n. 1). Delehaye's scepticism also extended to the Vita s. Syncleticae (PG 28.1487 A ff.), which is another panegyric-protrepticon on the importance of asceticism. Bouyer, L., L'incarnation et l'Église-Corps du Christ dans la théologie de Saint Athanase (Paris 1943), feels sure that the Vita Antonii is authentic but admits that it does not easily fit into the dogmatic background of Athanasius.Google Scholar

²⁰ Orat. 21.5 (PG 35.1088 A).Google Scholar

²¹ See Hom. 68 (PO 8.385), as quoted by Opitz, H. G., Untersuchungen zur Ueberlieferung der Schriften des Athanasius (Berlin 1935) 173.Google Scholar

²² For a map of the region, see Butler, , HL II, p. xcviii.Google Scholar

²³ Vita 7 (PG 26.852 C).Google Scholar

²⁴ Ibid . 14 (PG 864 C).Google Scholar

²⁵ Ibid. 65 (PG 933 C): about to sit down to his scanty meal at the ninth hour — although in 7 (PG 852 C) the author had told us he never ate before sunset! — Antony suddenly ‘saw himself outside of himself’ and received a vision, apparently, of his own sinful life. When the ecstasy was over, according to the story, he forgot to eat and spent the rest of the day and night in prayer.Google Scholar

²⁶ See supra n. 19. Google Scholar

²⁷ Lectures spirituelles dans les écrits des Pères (Paris 1935) 31 (italics ours).Google Scholar

²⁸ Cf. Festugière, , Personal Religion 54ff., with the literature cited.Google Scholar

²⁹ Philo, , De vita contemplativa . quoted by Eusebius, HE 2.17.16f. (Schwartz 2.148), describes their austere habits: ‘Making temperance their spiritual foundation, they build the other virtues upon it. No one will touch food or drink before sundown; for the day-time, they feel, is to be devoted to philosophy, and the darkness to bodily needs … some of them only think to eat every third day — so wrapped up are they in study — and others are so engrossed by the pleasures of wisdom … that they restrain themselves for twice that time and scarcely take their necessary food once in six days.’ And when they did, Philo tells us, their regular diet was bread, salt and hyssop; besides the study of the Scriptures, their only other occupation was to attend occasional conferences on feast days. Philo, one suspects, is idealizing and fictionizing what he had heard (or seen) of Jewish rabbinical students or ‘wise men’ in and about Alexandria. See Strathmann, H. op. cit. 148ff.; Lagrange, M. Le Judaisme avant Jésus-Christ (Paris 1931) 586; Felten, J. Neutestamentliche Zeitgeschichte oder Judentum und Heidentum zur Zeit Christi und der Apostel (2 vols. Mainz 1925) I 440ff.; Leclercq, H. DACL 2.3063ff.; Bréhier, E., Les idées philosophiques et religieuses de Philon d'Alexandrie (3rd ed. Paris 1950) 319ff. One is all the more suspicious of Philo's accuracy on comparing his view of the belly as ‘the vessel of all sorts of pleasures. When it is full, all sorts of other desires are awakened’: Legum alley. 3.138 (ed. Cohn 1.143); and cf. ibid. 3.141 (p. 144) for the importance of fasting and abstinence in the acquisition of wisdom and contemplation.Google Scholar

³⁰ Cults and Creeds in Graeco-Roman Egypt (Liverpool 1953) 99.Google Scholar

³¹ See Altaner 188f. Google Scholar

³² Amélineau, , De historia lausiaca , as quoted by Butler, The Lausiac History (supra, II n. 27) I 188f.Google Scholar

³³ Butler, , ibid. 189. A similar line is taken by Resch, P. La doctrine ascétique des premiers maîtres égyptiens du quatrième siècle (Paris 1931) 229: ‘Quelle idée noble, quelle cause généreuse n'a pas eu ses fanatiques?’ Cf. also Bardy, G., ‘Antoine (Saint),’ DSp 1 (1937) 703f.Google Scholar

³⁴ HL 18 (Butler 48).Google Scholar

³⁵ HL 38 (Butler 122).Google Scholar

³⁶ See, e.g. the work of Resch, P. (n.33), with the literature he cites; Arbesmann, R., ‘Fasting and Prophecy’ 34, with the passages cited from Palladius, HL. Google Scholar

³⁷ For a good summary of the problems, both of content and with regard to the text, see Cavallera, F., ‘Apophthegmes,’ DSp 1 (1937) 767ff.Google Scholar

³⁸ Apoph. de abbate Daniele 4 (ed. Cotelier, PG 65.156 B); and cf. the Syriac recension by Anan-isho, trans. Budge, E. A. W., The Wit and Wisdom of the Fathers (Oxford 1934) 28 § 99.Google Scholar

³⁹ Apoph. (PG 65.422 B-C), and so frequently; cf. De abbate Macario (PG 65.264 A).Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Ibid. (PG 65.424 D).Google Scholar

⁴¹ Ibid. De matre Theodora 6 (PG 65.204 A-B). Similarly Pambo, when asked whether one could be saved by fasting and almsgiving, replied (after four days): ‘It is only good deeds that can do this. If you guard your conscience from your neighbor, this will save you’: De abbate Pambo 2 (PG 65.368 C f.). ‘Guarding one's conscience’ here seems to mean observing one's obligations towards others.Google Scholar

⁴² DSp, loc. cit. 768.Google Scholar

⁴³ The entire question of the Stylites has been fully treated by the Delehaye, Bollandist H., Les saints stylites (Brussels, Société des Bollandistes 1923). Cf. also Thurston, H., CE 14 (1912) 317 f.; and on Simeon the Elder, CE 13 (1912) 795, and in Butler's Lives of the Saints (12 vols. London 1923–38) I 70ff.; 2nd ed. (New York 1956) I 34–37.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ E.g. Thurston CE 14 (1912) 317.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Lucian, , De Syria dea 28–9 (ed. Jacobitz, ).Google Scholar

⁴⁶ So Peeters, Paul, ‘S. Syméon Stylite et ses premiers biographes,’ Anal. Boll. 61 (1943) 29ff. The Syriac life is represented by three recensions: British Museum MS Add. 14484 (s. vi), published by Bedjan, the best known today but not, according to Peeters, the most reliable; Cod. Vatic. syr. 160, from the year 474, the best and the oldest, published by Assemani; and a Georgian recension in a MS in the monastery of St. Catherine on Mt. Sinai, midway between the other two recensions in value. A complete edition is still wanting, but, besides Peeters’ article, cf. Lietzmann, H., Das Leben des hl. Symeon Stylites … mit einer deutschen Uebersetzung der syrischen Lebensbeschreibung und der Briefe von Hilgenfeld H. (TU 32.4, Leipzig 1908).Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Theodoret, , Hist. rel. 26 (PG 82.1470 B).Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Hist. rel. 6 (PG 82.1470 C).Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Lietzmann, , op. cit. 95.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Peeters, , loc. cit. 43; it is written by one who had no direct knowledge of the country, and is full of inaccuracies and falsehoods; it was perhaps composed in the sixth century in connection with the alleged relics of Simeon that had been translated to Constantinople (47).Google Scholar

⁵¹ Metaphrastes, Vita Simeonis S. 9 (PG 114.341 B); cf. e.g. Lietzmann, op. cit. 210. §§ 9–10 of Metaphrastes are an expansion of 7 (the Bassus episode) in Theodoret.Google Scholar

⁵² Peeters, , loc. cit. 54.Google Scholar

⁵³ Duchesne, L., Early History of the Christian Church (supra, I n. 26) 409ff.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Ibid. 390. A good example of this is the story of Mary of Egypt, as told by Sophronius; Mary tells Zosimus that she has lived seventeen years in the desert without coming in contact either with man or beast; Vita Mariae S. Aegyptiacae 30–1 (ed. Bollandus = PG 87³.371 7 C-D).Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Ibid. 411. The Council of Gangra condemned the Eustathians for fasting on Sunday (can. 18), for an attitude of contempt for marriage (can. 9) and for despising the traditional fast-days (can. 19): see Mansi 2.1106ff.; Lauchert, F., Die Kanones der wichtigsten altkirchlichen Concilien (Freiburg-Leipzig 1896) 81–3. The Council of Ancyra (in A.D. 314) forbade abstinence from meat out of unworthy motives (can. 14), Mansi 2. 532; Lauchert 32. The Priscillianists were similarly condemned at the Council of Saragossa, A.D. 380, Mansi 3.634; Lauchert 175.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Duchesne, , op. cit. 411f.; but he notes that Basil succeeded in giving the undisciplined monks and virgins a rule and a way of life which they would not have easily accepted from ecclesiastical authorities. For a discussion of Basil's ascetical doctrine, one must now consult Dom David Amand, L'ascèse monastique de saint Basile: essai historique (Maredsous 1949), with the bibliography cited.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ M. T.-L. Penido, ‘Une théorie pathologique de l'ascétisme,’ La Vie spirituelle 31 (1932) [35]-[54], enumerates (on p. [51]) twelve possible reasons which may lead men to fast. They are 1) masochism, 2) ‘sitophobia’ (or, as we would now say, anorexia nervosa), 3) reasons of health, 4) mere whim, 5) hunger-strike, 6) a desire to expiate sin, 7) self-conquest; nn. 8–12 constitute other supernatural motives. Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Egypt from Alexander the Great to the Arab Conquest (Oxford 1948) 109f. See also his Cults and Creeds in Greco-Roman Egypt (Liverpool 1953) 100: ‘Their almost incredible austerities did produce striking spiritual insight and a fine Christian morality.’Google Scholar

¹ ‘ Fasten in der Kirche,’ Realencyk. für prot. Theol. und Kirche 5 (1898) 770ff.Google Scholar

² Barn. 3.1 ff. (ed. Klausner, FlP 1940 34f.). The Isaias passage (as transl. from the Hebrew by Kissane, E. J., The Books of Isaiah [2 vols. Dublin 1943] I 232f):Google Scholar

This section (Is. 58.4–7) will become a kind of locus communis from which many of the Fathers will draw their motifs on fasting. On the passage, cf. also F. X. Zorell, Verbum Domini 2 (1922) 68ff. It is used in the Latin Liturgy as the Lesson for Mass for the first Friday in Lent; and the chief idea of the passage recurs in the seventh-century Vespers hymn, Audi benigne conditor 13–16 : ‘Sic corpus extra conteri / Dona per abstinentiam, / Ieiunet ut mens sobria / A labe prorsus criminum,’ revised in the seventeenth century as follows: ‘Concede nostrum conteri / Corpus per abstinentiam, / Culpae ut relinquat pabulum / Ieiuna corda criminum.’ Budge

³ 10.2f. Google Scholar

⁴ Cf. Wilde, R., The Treatment of the Jews in the Christian Writers of the First Three Centuries (CUPS 81, Washington 1949) 87f.Google Scholar

⁵ Dial. cum Tryph. 15.1 (PG 6.507 D f.).Google Scholar

⁶ Ibid. 40.4 (PG 6.564 A); cf. also Wilde, op. cit. 123f.Google Scholar

⁷ Cf. Vis. 2.2.1 (ed. Lake, K., LCL 1946) 3.1.2. On the other hand, the desire of much eating and drinking is a symptom that the ‘angel of wickedness’ is within one: Mand. 6.2.5 Cf. also Mand. 8.3: 12.2.1.Google Scholar

⁸ Sim. 5.1.1. For the four types of ‘vision’ in Hermas, A (non-objective), B (interpretation of ordinary sense-data), C (purely literary), and D (dreams), see Ström, Ake V., Allegorie und Wirklichkeit im Hirten des Hermas (Arbeiten und Mitteilungen aus dem Seminar, N. T. zu Uppsala herausg. von Fridrichsen, A.; Uppsala 1936), esp. 18ff. It is interesting that all the visions connected with fasting would fall under Ström's authentic visions of the A-type; but Ström relies too heavily on the reliability of Hermas’ own account.Google Scholar

⁹ Sim. V.3.5.Google Scholar

¹⁰ See ‘The Need of a New Edition of Hermas,’ Theol. Studies 12 (1951) 382ff.; my views on a Jungian approach to Hermas have been controverted by Joly, R. ‘Philologie et psychanalyse: Jung, C. G. et le “Pasteur” d'Hermas,’ L'Antiquité classique 22 (1953) 422ff.Google Scholar

¹¹ Strom. 6.12 (Stählin 3.438).Google Scholar

¹² See section II above. Google Scholar

¹³ Ecl. proph. 14.1 (Stählin 3.140).Google Scholar

¹⁴ In Lev. 10.2 (ed. Baehrens 1.443). These homilies were published perhaps c. 246/9. For the date, see Hanson, R. P. C. Origen's Doctrine of Tradition (London 1954) 27. On the varying reliability of Rufinus’ translations, see Hanson, . op. cit. 40ff., and also Sr. Monica, M. Wagner, Rufinus the Translator (CUPS 73, Washington 1945).Google Scholar

¹⁵ In Lev. 10. 2 (Baehrens 1.444).Google Scholar

¹⁶ Hom. in Matth. 11.12 (Klostermann 1.53), dated by Hanson to 246 (op. cit. 27).Google Scholar

¹⁷ P. Oxyrhynchus i (1898) 1, now in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. Although I have examined the papyrus itself, I have been unable to add anything to the reading of the editors.Google Scholar

¹⁸ For the various suggestions, see Lock, W. and Sanday, W., Two Lectures on the Sayings of Jesus (Oxford 1897) 19.Google Scholar

¹⁹ It would be a mistake to lay too much stress on Plutarch's νηστεύω ϰακότητος (Moralia 464 B) in this connection; see Keseling, P. in ‘Askese,’ RAC 1 (1950) 457.Google Scholar

²⁰ PG 46.453 C. Google Scholar

²¹ Ibid. (PG 46.456 C). He goes on, in 457 A, to warn his audience against imitating the Jews in fasting, and, in traditional wise, he quotes Isaias 58 on the acceptable fast. In 457 C he recommends almsgiving (out of what one saves in fasting); and 465 C - 468 is a tirade against the well-fed rich.Google Scholar

²² PG 46.528 A-C. Google Scholar

²³ For a similar doctrine, cf. Chrysostom, Hom. 7 in Heb. 4 (PG 63.68); Maximus Confessor, Capita de caritate, centuria 3.4 (PG 90.1017 C). Cf. also Simplicius, Comm. in Ench. Epict. 33.7 (Dübner 115). For the ascetical doctrine of Maximus, see Sherwood, Polycarp, St. Maximus the Confessor : The Ascetic Life. The Four Centuries on Charity (ACW 21, Westminster and London 1955) esp. 63ff.Google Scholar

²⁴ De virg. 21 (PG 46.401 B-C). Cf. also the text ed. by Cavarnos, J. P. in Werner Jaeger, Gregorii Nysseni Opera 8.1 (Leiden 1952) 329.Google Scholar

²⁵ Ibid. 401 C (Cavarnos 329).Google Scholar

²⁶ De virg. 22 (PG 404 C - 405 A) (Cavarnos 332).Google Scholar

²⁷ Phaedr. 246 E ff., a passage which, modified to represent the ascent of the Soul to God, became almost a commonplace with the Greek Fathers: cf. e.g. Methodius Symposium 1.1 (Bonwetsch 7.17ff.); Basil of Ancyra, De vera virginitatis integritate 8 (PG 30.684 C ff.); Gregory Nazianzen, Orat. 37.12 (PG 36.296 B ff.). On Gregory of Nyssa's use of the passage, see Cherniss, H. The Platonism of Gregory of Nyssa 12ff. For a note on Gregory's Platonism in his ascetical doctrine, see Keseling, P., ‘Askese,’ RAC 1 (1950) 769.Google Scholar

²⁸ In s. baptisma 30 (PG 36.401 B).Google Scholar

²⁹ Ad Iulianum 7 (PG 35.1052 A).Google Scholar

³⁰ De moderatione in disputando (PG 36.196 C).Google Scholar

³¹ See section I, above. Google Scholar

³² 8 (PG 31.197 A-B). Cf. also In Hexaem. hom. 8.8 (PG 29.185 C): ‘What good is bodily fasting if there is evil in the soul?’ There is a similar idea in Aphraates, Demonstr. 3.8 (De ieiunio; Patr. Syr. ed. Parisot, J. I 113); cf. 15. 3 (ibid. 733).Google Scholar

³³ Comm. in Is. 31 (PG 30.181 B).Google Scholar

³⁴ Catech. 24.27 (‘On Food’) (ed. Reischl, G. W. K. [München 1848] I 118 = PG 33.489 A). Cf. also his Hom. in Paralyticum 18 (ed. Rupp, J. [München 1860] II 424 = PG 33.1152 C): ‘we use food moderately in order to put a check-rein on our bellies.’Google Scholar

³⁵ Catech. 4.27 (Reischl 118 = PG 33.489 B).Google Scholar

³⁶ Ibid. (Reischl 118 = PG 33.489 C).Google Scholar

³⁷ Hom. 10 ad pop. Antioch. 1 (PG 49.111).Google Scholar

³⁸ Hom. 46 in Matth. 4 (PG 58.480f.). For a similar distinction between the acceptable and the unacceptable fast, see Aphraates, . Demonstratio 3.8ff. (Patr. Syr. ed. Parisot, J., I 113ff.).Google Scholar

³⁹ 1 (PG 50.453). Cf. also Hom. 33 in Io. 3 (PG 59.192): ‘Even if one fasts and gives alms to the utmost, yet these things are contemptible if humility be not present.’ And in Hom. 25 in 1 Cor. 3 (PG 61.209): ‘Even though you fast, sleep on the ground, eat ashes and constantly lament, if you are not charitable to your neighbor, you have done nothing.’ And he continues: ‘I say all this not to condemn fasting — God forbid! — but to urge you to do that which is better than fasting, I mean the avoidance of all evil.’ Google Scholar

⁴⁰ PG 62.769f. Google Scholar

⁴¹ PG 65.550. Google Scholar

⁴² For a brief note on Chrysostom's ascetical doctrine, see Keseling, P., ‘Askese,’ RAC 1 (1950) 770.Google Scholar

¹ Gesch. der frühchristl. Askese (supra, V, n. 2) 39f.Google Scholar

² Bonsirven, , Le Judaisme palestinien II 281f., 286.Google Scholar

³ Bonsirven II 285. Google Scholar

⁴ Or. Sib. 2.141ff. (Geffcken, GCS 1902). Google Scholar

⁵ Vita 2.11 (ed. Naber, S. 314f.).Google Scholar

⁶ Arnold Toynbee, in his Study of History (10 vols. London 1934–54) VI 486ff., attempts to draw a parallel between Socrates and Jesus in the accounts of their lives and deaths; by way of a footnote to this discussion — it is, indeed, Toynbee at his poorest — he draws an analogy between Josephus’ retreat to the desert with Bannus and Christ's attitude toward the Baptist. Google Scholar

⁷ νηστεία , Kittel's Wörterbuch zum N. TA, esp. 928ff.Google Scholar

⁸ Ibid. 932f.Google Scholar

⁹ Ibid. 935.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Cf. also Bouvet, L., L'ascèse dans Saint Paul (Lyons 1936) 34ff.; Lesêtre, A. ‘Jeûne,’ DB 3.1528ff.; Hirschfeld, H., ‘Fasting and Fast-Days,’ Jewish Encyc. 5.347ff.Google Scholar

¹¹ See Ungnad, A., Aramäische Papyri aus Elephantine (Leipzig 1911) 3f. This peculiar colony must have been made up largely of Jewish soldiers of the Persian king, and the destruction of their temple in 410 may well have occurred as an act of hostility on the part of their pagan neighbors. See Davis, S., Race-Relations in Ancient Egypt (New York 1952) 90.Google Scholar

¹² Luke 2.37. Google Scholar

¹³ Matth. 11.19; Luke 1.15. Google Scholar

¹⁴ Drinking water would not, of course, be considered as breaking this fast; but the consumption of herbs or the like after sundown seems to be excluded by Luke's statement (4.2). ‘Nor did he drink,’ a reading of the Ferrar group of minuscules, is not sufficiently supported by other MSS. Note the scheme:Google Scholar

The entire episode has given considerable difficulty to commentators; but for our purpose we may quote the moderate summary of M.-J. Lagrange: ‘On dirait que tout cet épisode baigne dans une nuée qui ne permet pas de dessiner nettement les lignes. La réalité n'en est pas moins vivante. La vérité la plus utile à l'esprit et au cœur n'est pas toujours celle qui supporte le mieux une analyse minutieuse’ (L'Évangile de Jésus-Christ [Paris 1939] 76f.). To sum it up, therefore:

i) the texts of all three evangelists — the incident is omitted by John — are substantially well enough established both by MSS and citations from the Fathers of the Church;

ii) although it is difficult to establish the exact way in which the three diabolic temptations took place, the incident seems to have been derived by Luke from Matthew, or by each of them from a common source;

iii) from Luke it is clear that the fast portrayed by the sources was not the ordinary Jewish fast until sundown, but one in which nothing was eaten ‘in those days.’ The exact length of the fast need not perhaps have been numerically forty days, for this might well be an accepted Jewish symbol: cf. J. Sauer, ‘Zahlensymbolik,’ LThK 10 (1938) 1025ff. Lastly, there is no reason — short of accepting the reading of some of the minuscules mentioned above — for concluding that Christ drank no water during the forty days.

¹⁵ Matth. 6.16–18; Luke 18.12. Google Scholar

¹⁶ Matth. 9.14. Google Scholar

¹⁷ Matth. 11.19; cf. Jo. 2.7ff. Google Scholar

¹⁸ Matth. 14.13ff.; 15.29ff. Google Scholar

¹⁹ Matth. 12.1. Google Scholar

²⁰ It is omitted e.g. by B, S∗ (Sinaiticus, first hand) and Θ; the verse is omitted by Nestle, but included by Merk and Bover (who in this case does not follow Θ as he sometimes does). So too in the parallel passage, Mark 9.29, the Vatican and Sinaitic MSS omit the addition ‘and fasting,’ and this is followed by Nestle, not by Merk and Bover. Luke has the incident (9.37ff.) but does not conclude with the Marcan verse ‘this type of spirit, etc.’ Although it is difficult to be certain, it would seem extremely likely that the Marcan verse (perhaps without the ‘and fasting’) was interpolated in the narrative of Matthew.Google Scholar

²¹ Mark 2.20 (with negligible textual variants); Luke 5.35. Here, however, it is not clear, in Our Lord's reply, whether the future ‘they will fast’ has descriptive or prescriptive force, and whether ‘fast’ here does not, in the reply, simply mean ‘mourn.’ Google Scholar

²² Cf. Acts 13.2–3; 14.22. Google Scholar

²³ Acts 9.9. Google Scholar

²⁴ Cf. Bouvet, L., L'ascèse dans Saint Paul , (above, n. 10) 139–40.Google Scholar

²⁵ Ep. ad Cor . 17.1 (ed. Funk, Patres Apostolici I 122).Google Scholar

²⁶ Ibid. 55.6 (Funk I 168): ‘For with fasting and self-humiliation she entreated the Lord of the ages who sees all things.’Google Scholar

²⁷ Doctrina xii Apostolorum 1. -4 (ed. Klauser, T., FlP 14).Google Scholar

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²⁹ Epist . i ad Virg. 12.5 (Funk-Diekamp, 3rd ed. II 24).Google Scholar

³⁰ Ibid. Google Scholar

³¹ Martyrium s. Ignatii 1.1 (Funk-Diekamp 324).Google Scholar

³² Ad Philip. 7.2 (ed. Funk, , 1.304).Google Scholar

³³ Vita 25-6 (Funk-Diekamp 438).Google Scholar

³⁴ Mart s. Polycarpi 7.2 (Funk 320).Google Scholar

³⁵ Legum allegoriae 3.138 (Cohn 143).Google Scholar

³⁶ Leg. alleg. 3.141 (Cohn 144).Google Scholar

³⁷ Völker, W., Fortschritt und Vollendung bei Philo von Alexandreia (Leipzig 1938) 237. For Völker, Philo is the great intermediary link between the pagan asceticism of the Platonic and Stoic schools and the Christian martyrs and ascetics; the intermediary influence would, of course, be channelled by Clement of Alexandria and the Alexandrian school: see 349. See also, in general, Wolfson, H. A., Philo. Foundation of Religious Philosophy in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (2 vols. Harvard Univ. Press 1948) II 218ff. (‘Moral Virtues and Actions’).Google Scholar

³⁸ For a discussion, see Hanson, R. P. C., Origen's Doctrine of Tradition 53ff. (‘Clement's Doctrine … of Secret Tradition’).Google Scholar

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⁴¹ Hanson, , op. cit. 71f.Google Scholar

⁴² In Num. hom. 27.1. in Rufinus’ Latin version (Baehrens 255). See also Tollinton, R. B. Selections from the Commentaries and Homilies of Origen (London 1929) 265f. Origen's doctrine on fasting must be seen against his entire view of asceticism: see especially Völker, W., Das Vollkommenheitsideal des Origenes: eine Untersuchung zur Geschichte der Frömmigkeit und zu den Anfängen christlicher Mystik (Beitr. zur histor. Theologie 7; Tübingen 1931) esp. 46ff.Google Scholar

⁴³ In Lev. hom. 10.2 in Rufinus’ Latin (Baehrens 444); the passage, although rhetorically unsuited to Origen's style, definitely seems to express his substantial views.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Ibid. (Baehrens 445).Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Expos . 16.17 (PG 17.196 B).Google Scholar

⁴⁶ In Ierem. hom . 27.9 (Klostermann 188).Google Scholar

⁴⁷ In Num. hom. 25.4 (Baehrens 238), in the Latin of Rufinus.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Contra Celsum 5.49 (Koetschau 53).Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Art. ‘Askese,’ RAC 1 (1950) 763. Google Scholar

⁵⁰ HE 6.3.9 (Schwartz 2.526).Google Scholar

⁵¹ Ibid. (Schwartz 529).Google Scholar

⁵² Orat. 5.123 (PG 35.664 A).Google Scholar

⁵³ Def. minus exactae 1.2.34, 202 (PG 37.960).Google Scholar

⁵⁴ In Macchabaeorum laudem 12 (PG 35.934 A).Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Or. 26 in seipsum 11 (PG 35.1444 A).Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Praecepta ad virgines 1.2.2, 38ff. (PG 37.636A).Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Hom. 18 ad pop. Ant. 1 (PG 49.180–1); cf. also Hom. de sanct. mart. 3 (PG 50.711).Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Hom. 10 in Matth. 6 (PG 57.191); cf. Hom. 11 in Matth. 8 (PG 57.202); Hom. 39 in Io. 4 (PG 59.227).Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Hom. 15 ad pop. Ant. 4 (PG 49.519).Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Hom. 1 in 2 Thess. 2 (PG 62.470).Google Scholar

⁶¹ Hom. 30 (31) in Matth. 3 (PG 57.366). Cf. Adv. Iudaeos or. 8, 7 (PG 48.938), ‘We have been given a mortal body not that we might embrace sinful practices by means of its passions, but that we might utilize its passions towards our personal holiness.’Google Scholar

⁶² Hom. de sanct. mart. 3 (PG 50. 711).Google Scholar

⁶³ Hom. 31 in Rom. 1 (PG 60.669).Google Scholar

⁶⁴ 6 (PG 31.640 B). Google Scholar

⁶⁵ De ieiun. hom. 1.1 (PG 31.165 A).Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Cf. De ascet. disciplina 2 (PG 31.652 A); Hom. 13 in sanct. bapt. 5 (PG 31.436 A); Epist. 22 (Deferrari 1.133). Google Scholar

⁶⁷ 2 Cor. 12.10 quoted in De ieiun. hom. 1.9 (PG 31.180 A). Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Especially Regulae fusius tractatae 16.2 (PG 31.860 A-B); cf. also Reg. brev. tract. 128 (PG 31.1168 C-D). Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Hom. pasch. 1.3 (PG 77.412 A-C).Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Ibid. 4 (PG 412 D).Google Scholar

⁷¹ Ibid. (PG 412 D - 413 A).Google Scholar

⁷² Hom. pasch. 11.2 (PG 77.637 A ff.).Google Scholar

⁷³ Hom. pasch. 4.2 (PG 77.453 B - D).Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Hom. pasch. 28.3 (PG 77.948 D). Cf. also Hom. pasch. 18.2: ‘Fasting will save us from every calamity; it will open to us the path of every virtue’ (PG 77.809 B); Hom. pasch. 20, 3: ‘By wasting our bodies by fasting we necessarily bring on the habits of uprightness’ (PG 77.848 A). Such statements as these are hardly meant to be scrutinized from a doctrinal point of view: they are emotive and not descriptive.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ De poen. 9 (PG 60.698).Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Nilus of Sinai, Capita paraenetica 53 (PG 79.1253 B). Cf. St. Ephraem, Hymni de ieiun. 6.4 (Lamy 2.680), and 8.2 (ibid. 694): ‘fasting is the bow whose arrows pierce the evil one.’ Google Scholar

⁷⁷ Nilus, , Tract. de octo spir. malitiae 1 (PG 79.1145 A).Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Hyperechius, , Exhort. ad mon. 80 (PG 79.1481 B).Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Climacus, John, Scala Paradisi , gradus 1 (PG 88.636 D).Google Scholar

⁸⁰ De ieiun. 2 (PG 65.1113 A-B); as an alternative, he suggests the practice of always leaving the table somewhat hungry (ibid. 1, PG 1112 A): cf. the pseudo-Athanasian Ep. 2 ad Castorem 1 (PG 28.873 A-C).Google Scholar

⁸¹ Capita de charitate 86 (PG 90.1044 B).Google Scholar

⁸² De contemptu mundi 53 (PG 86.883f.); and compare the similar advice in Dorotheus, De compositione monachi (PG 88.1835 C).Google Scholar

⁸³ PG 89.1453 A-B. Cf. Diadochus of Photice, Centum capita 43 (ed. Weis-Liebersdorf, 50–51), and des Places, E., Cent chapitres sur la perfection spirituelle (Sources chrétiennes 5; Paris 1943) 105; more important still, the same scholars new edition, Diadoque de Photice, Œuvres spirituelles (Sources chrét. 5 bis; Paris 1955) 110.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ De temperantia et virtute 1.12 (PG 93.1484 D-85A).Google Scholar

⁸⁵ Ibid. 1.1 (PG 1480 D).Google Scholar

⁸⁶ Ibid. 2.63 (PG 1532 C).Google Scholar

⁸⁷ Cf. for example Kirk, K. E., The Vision of God (2nd ed. London 1946) 192ff. (‘Monasticism and the Vision of God’); and Chadwick, O., John Cassian: a Study in Primitive Monasticism (Cambridge 1950) 79ff. and 139ff.Google Scholar

¹ This peculiar work, for which we are still in need of a scientific edition, was attributed to John (or his circle) even by the latest editors, Woodward, G. R. and Mattingly, H. (Loeb Library 1914). The late Paul Peeters, S.J., in his revolutionary article, ‘La première traduction latine de “Barlaam et Joasaph” et son original grec,’ Anal. Boll. 49 (1931) 276ff., considered it as practically proven that the Greek version was written by St. Euthymius the Hagiorite, abbot of the Laura of St. Athanasius (d. 1028); Euthymius, in turn, had derived it through a Georgian version from an ancient Hindu tale. This hypothesis was unequivocally accepted by most recent scholars, including Altaner. Franz Dölger of Munich in 1953 published a monograph entitled Der griechische Barlaam-Roman : ein Werk des Johannes H. von Damaskos (Ettal 1953), in which he felt that Peeters’ theory must be definitively rejected. Dölger's list of parallels between Barlaam and the works of John deserve study; Dölger does not, however, adduce any parallels for the ‘martyr idéal’ of asceticism, and this is extremely odd, in view of the dominance of this motif in Barlaam and Joasaph. Google Scholar

² Barlaam et Ioasaph 12.101 -2 (ed. Woodward-Mattingly, 170). The editors reproduce, more carefully than Migne (PG 96) the text of Boissonade, which was based primarily on Cod. Paris. gr. 904 (s. xii).Google Scholar

³ Ibid. 102 (p. 172).Google Scholar

⁴ Ibid. 103 (p. 174).Google Scholar

⁵ Ibid. 105–6 (pp. 176, 178).Google Scholar

⁶ Ibid. 107 (p. 180).Google Scholar

⁷ Ibid. 108 (p. 182).Google Scholar

⁸ Ibid. Proem. (pp. 2, 4).Google Scholar

⁹ Ibid. 40.362 (pp. 602, 604). Cf. also in 11.18 (p. 28), when King Abenner exiles his chief satrap for becoming a Christian instead of killing him, the satrap ‘grieved because he could not become a martyr, [he] withdrew into the desert, to become a martyr in his conscience every day’ (μαϱτύϱῶν δὲ ϰαθ’ᾑμέϱαν τᾗ συνειδήσει), a phrase which recalls Athanasius’ Vita Antonii 47 (PG 26.912: ᾖν ἐκεΙ καθ’ ᾑμέϱαν μαϱτϱῶν τᾗ συνειδήσει) although it is not exactly clear whether Antony is a martyr or simply ‘is giving testimony of the Christian life by a good conscience.’ The parallel is, however, instructive and should not have been omitted by Dölger, op. cit. Google Scholar

¹⁰ ‘ Martyre et perfection,’ RAM 6 (1925) 3–25; ‘Le martyre et l'ascèse,’ RAM ibid. 105–42; Resch, P. La doctrine ascétique des premiers maîtres égyptiens du IV^e siècle (Paris 1931) 248–57; M. Viller and Rahner, K., Aszese und Mystik in der Väterzeit (Freiburg 1931) 38ff.Google Scholar

¹¹ Op. cit. (note 10).Google Scholar

¹² Strom. 4.15.3 (Stählin 2.255). And cf. the other passages cited by Viller, op. cit.; cf. also W. Völker, Fortschritt und Vollendung bei Philo (above, VIII n. 37) 349.Google Scholar

¹³ ‘ Le Martyre et l'ascèse,’ RAM 6 (1925) 118; cf. Resch, op. cit. 253: ‘La substitution de la ferveur ascétique au martyre est donc très claire chez Antoine.’ Both Viller and Resch, however, can only point to the passage from the Vita (47) quoted earlier, and it is not entirely clear that the context was intended to imply martyrdom at all.Google Scholar

¹⁴ PG 28.1424 C; cf. also PG 136.1113 D. Google Scholar

¹⁵ Symp. 7.3 (Bonwetsch 74).Google Scholar

¹⁶ De virg. 25 (PG 30.721 B).Google Scholar

¹⁷ Hom. 7 in Gen. 3 (PG 12.200 C-D), in Rufinus’ translation.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Cons. mon. 19 (PG 31.1388 B).Google Scholar

¹⁹ PG 31.508 B. Cf Ephraem, Hymn. 4 de confess. et mart. (Lamy 3.671). In Letter 207 (A.D. 375, to the clergy of Neo-Caesarea), Basil writes: ‘We have been accused by you because we have ascetics subject to us, … men who carry about in their bodies the death of Christ, taking up their cross to follow their God’ (Deferrari 3.184).Google Scholar

²⁰ Epist. 6 (Deferrari 1.41).Google Scholar

²¹ Symp. 11, epilogue (Bonwetsch 140).Google Scholar

²² Hom. 1 in Heb. 3 (PG 63.93 A).Google Scholar

²³ In Ps. 127, 3 (PG 55.369 A).Google Scholar

²⁴ De libertate mentis 17 (PG 34.949 B).Google Scholar

²⁵ Epist. 3.71 (PG 79.421 B-C).Google Scholar

²⁶ Centum capita 90 (ed. Weis-Liebersdorf, ); cf. E. des Places, Cent chapitres (supra, VIII n. 83) 28 ff.; Oeuvres spirituelles 151.Google Scholar

²⁷ Ad Diogn . 5.1, 4 (ed. Marrou, , Sources chrétiennes [Paris 1951] 62). I should be inclined to accept Marrou's date (c. 200), but not his attribution to Pantaenus; he is surely wrong not to divide the work into two separate parts.Google Scholar

²⁸ Euseb. HE 5.3 (Schwartz 2.432.). Google Scholar

²⁹ Mart. Polycarpi 7.2 (Funk 1.320). Other quotations are relatively unimportant: cf. e.g. Acta Apollonii 25f. (ed. Rauschen, FlP 1914, 95f.), where Apollonius explains the various types of death decreed by God for men: ‘For example, the disciples of Christ in our ranks die daily to pleasure. They mortify their passions by temperance and desire to live according to the divine commandments.’ The Acts are quoted by Eusebius and, although they reflect a certain amount of later reworking, probably belong to the third century.Google Scholar

³⁰ Passio ss. Perp. et Fel. 17 (ed. Beek, Van [Nijmegen 1936] 40), in the year 203.Google Scholar

³¹ 13.9 (ed. Schwartz 949). Google Scholar

³² HE 6.3.9–10 (Schwartz 538).Google Scholar

³³ Cf. Altaner, 196f. Google Scholar

³⁴ Symp . 7.3 (Bonwetsch 74).Google Scholar

³⁵ Within due limits, this fact may serve as a criterion for determining authorship and authenticity. Certain phrases in the Gospels, for example, which reveal interest in fasting may well have arisen at the time of Origen or later. Such are: the phrase in Luke 4.2 that Christ drank nothing (reported largely by the Ferrar group of MSS); the entire verse Matthew 17.21 (that such spirits are not cast out save by prayer and fasting), omitted by the Vatican MS and others; the words ‘and fasting’ of the parallel passage, Mark 9.29, omitted by the Vaticanus, the Sinaiticus and others. Similarly, the treatment of ascetical fasting can help much to sort out the various sermons De ieiunio in the corpus of Chrysostom, and to confirm the suspicions of those who would not assign the De virginitate or the Commentary on Isaias to Basil the Great. So too, at least those strata of the Pseudo-Clementines which deal with daemonic fasting can hardly be assigned a date earlier than the latter half of the third century. Google Scholar