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| 1 Tm 4:3 | abstention from food is evil [1]verse used to challenge Catholic teaching | Some anti-Catholics try to use this verse to condemn the Catholic practice of fasting.
Firstly, Catholics believe God's creation is good, just as the bible says. Catholics also know that "fasting" is used throughout the NT, even by Jesus, as the citations below will show. So something else must be going on in this passage. |
| 1 Tm 6:20 | avoid profanities of "false knowledge" | Paul's conclusion helps make clear what he is talking about throughout 1 Timothy. In the Greek, the word for "knowledge" is "gnosis." This was a common term used for the secret "knowledge" of some false teachers. (nb: Biblical commentators believe Paul is addressing either Judaistic numerology schemes or an early form of Gnosticism derived from the former.) Such "knowledge" wrongly held that only spirit was good and (thus) matter was evil. Some had falsely concluded that marriage and eating were evil too because they perpetuated our material selves. Paul is giving Timothy instruction on why and how to avoid these false teachings and the "false gnosis" schemes they are based on. |
| 1 Tm 4:4-5 | God's creations are good | Here again Paul is addressing an aspect of a heresy (nb: biblical commentators believe Paul is addressing either Judaistic numerology schemes or an early form of Gnosticism derived from the former) and their belief that matter is evil. |
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| Mk 7:18-19 | Christ declares all food clean | |
| Mt 9:15 | Jesus: disciples to fast in the future | Jesus tells of how His followers will fast in the future after He is gone. |
| Mk 2:20 | Jesus: disciples to fast in the future | |
| Lk 5:35 | Jesus: disciples to fast in the future | |
| Mt 6:16-18 | Jesus' rules concerning fasting | Public fasting is not here condemned, but rather seeking after vainglory and the praise of man. |
| Mt 17:20 | Jesus: fast needed to cast demon out | Here Jesus describes a situation where fasting is a requirement. |
| Mk 9:28 | Jesus: needed to cast out this demon | |
| Lk 2:36-38 | Anna in prayer and fasting | |
| AA 13:3 | prayer/fasting preparations | Even in the earliest days of the Church, prayer and fasting was an important practice. |
| AA 14:22 | prayer with fasting | |
| AA 27:33 | Apostles in prayer with fasting | |
| Mt 4:2 | Jesus fasts in the desert | 40 days and nights of fasting.
"When Christ fasted forty days, he fasted to set an example to carnal men."—S. Cyril |
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| Dn 10:3 | Daniel fasts for 3 weeks | |
| Tb 12:8 | Prayer is good with fasting | |
| Er 8:21-23 | fasting before God | Ezra proclams a fast before God, asking God to show them the right path they are to follow; and God responds favorably. |
| Ps 68:10-12 | fasting for the soul | Fasting helps our soul. We humble ourselves before God. |
| Je 36:9 | All of Jerusalem called to fast | Needed to show they have turned away from their wicked ways; and to place their supplications before the Lord. |
| Jl 1:4 | sanctification through fasting | Fasting is used to prepare ourselves before God |
| Zc 7:5-6 | Fast for God not self | Do you sorrow for the injury done to me; or did your regret only your own loss? When eating, was it for ourselves or God's glory? |
