Jesus fasting for 40 days, possible?

Saint

Saint

Valued Senior Member
Matthew4: 1Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted a by the devil. 2After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

How possible a normal human being can stop eating and drinking for 40 days and not die?
Is this bullshit story?
 
Saint said:
Matthew4: 1Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted a by the devil. 2After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

How possible a normal human being can stop eating and drinking for 40 days and not die?
Is this bullshit story?
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How possible a normal human being can be son of God, nailed on a cross, buried and then rise up? Is this bullshit story?
 
I don't know.
But talk about fasting, can a person eat nothing 40 days and still living?
 
Saint said:
I don't know.
But talk about fasting, can a person eat nothing 40 days and still living?
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I don't know, try it. People haven eaten little and survived for long periods of time as long as they have water.

People aren't know to be able to rise from the dead however so that's the part I'd be more concerned with.
 
We won't talk about rising from death,
but fasting is a common practice, can you not drink 40 days and survive?
Jesus fasting is supposed to include not eating and drinking.
Possible his skin can absorb moisture? :D
 
Saint said:
but fasting is a common practice, can you not drink 40 days and survive?
Jesus fasting is supposed to include not eating and drinking.
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Fasting means not eating. Fasting people still drink water (and occasionally other things.)
 
No, Muslim fast without drinking?
Did Jesus bring bottles of water to desert?
 
The Bible seems mean Jesus did not drink or eat anything.
Only after 40 days he felt hungry.

After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
 
Saint said:
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit
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Who was this spirit? Anyone we know?
Saint said:
Is this bullshit story?
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Definitely not.
Saint said:
But talk about fasting, can a person eat nothing 40 days and still living?
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I see humans in the shopping center that are carrying so much fat you could think they would last six months.

The story is symbolic...going into the desert is a way of saying that he actually went into a city which was devoid of morality and knowledge where he could not get an intelligent conversation with any of the inhabitants and the temptor is a parrallel for a smart arse who was actually saying you know the city and where the library is located so why don't you go there and read a book on battle strategy using cavalry behind foot soldiers.
So it really wasn't about being in the desert at all...the message simply was that if going on holidays in a strange city always take a good book in case you can't find their library.

Alex
 
Saint said:
The Bible seems mean Jesus did not drink or eat anything.
Only after 40 days he felt hungry. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
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My bold.
''Seems'', are you suggesting ''fake news'' in the Bible.
Saint said:
Matthew4: 1Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted a by the devil. 2After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
Click to expand...
This is the Bible your quoting right?
Somewhere there is probably a ten volume ''study'' of the meaning of days in the Bible. Something along the lines of... ''How long were days when God made the earth in six days?''
Did Jesus have a bottle?(led by the spirit)
 
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The longest hunger strike I've heard of was 57 days. That man died.
When I could not eat, I was still ambulatory and lucid at 24 days. However, I was given IV fluid with electrolytes after 10 days, so that doesn't equate to absolute fasting.
 
Never heard of fasting including no water - so I would think your definition is incorrect... But I have been known to be wrong a time or two.
 
Fasting does not normally exclude water. Nobody can survive long without water. Our bodies store a reserve of fuel in the form of fat, but we have no reservoir for the water required by every function of every cell every second of our life.
Depending on the environment, a person would die of dehydration in 3-7 days; in a desert, maybe even two.
Yes, Jesus (or anybody habitually traveling in arid climates) would certainly carry water at all times; typically, a pouch made of leather, slung over the shoulder on a thong or cord.

(btw - after a long fast, you do not feel 'hungry'. That passes after a few days, as the stomach stops producing acid. You might feel weak, off-balance, light-headed, perhaps disoriented, but also quiescent, passive. Physical sensations are dulled and disconnected.
When it's time to eat again, you're more likely to be repelled by food: the smell is too strong; the challenge of chewing and swallowing seems insurmountable. The first couple of days, you have to take small amounts of a bland soup or something to prime the digestive process and gradually work up to a proper meal.
So, that temptation wouldn't have been hard to resist - especially looking at stones as potential food.)

Correction to my earlier post: I'm told that at least three people have survived over 60 days on a hunger strike.
 
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Jeeves said:
The longest hunger strike I've heard of was 57 days. That man died.
When I could not eat, I was still ambulatory and lucid at 24 days. However, I was given IV fluid with electrolytes after 10 days, so that doesn't equate to absolute fasting.
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Do you want to tell us any more about that?

That sounds like a very serious event.
 
Saint said:
I don't know.
But talk about fasting, can a person eat nothing 40 days and still living?
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Eating nothing 40 days is possible, even without serious harm following from this.
Drinking nothing is possible only for much less time.
 
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