Dear Catholic Exchange:
I am wondering about the forty days Jesus spent in the desert. First of all, are these days to be understood as forty twenty-four-hour days, or is the amount of days more symbolic? If the days are to be understood as twenty-four-hour days, how could He have survived in the desert? I would think He would need at least some bread and water, yet nothing is said of whether He had any food or water or anything.
Thanks and God bless,
Jim
Dear Jim,
Peace in Christ! The number forty does hold great symbolism in Scripture. This does not mean, however, that the passages about Jesus’ fasting for forty days should be understood as symbolic.
In Scripture, the number forty is generally understood to signify a sense of completion. One might say it speaks of a “fullness of time.”
Speaking of the number forty in terms of the “fullness of time” makes sense when we look at the key scriptural texts that make use of the number forty. There are several, but I will list here the most significant. There is the flood in Genesis 7; Israel wandered forty years in the desert (Exodus 16:35, Numbers 32:13) and Moses fasted in the mountain of God forty days and nights (Exodus 24:18); Elijah fasted at Mt. Horeb (I Kings 19:8); and, of course, the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ fast in the desert before His temptation.
Checking with a concordance, what one sees in these and other passages is that the number forty symbolizes something old passing away and something new beginning. With each of the aforementioned events, there was an entering into a new life. The word Lent comes from an Anglo-Saxon word (lencten), which means, “spring.” Whether we have the children of Israel entering into the Promised Land after forty years or Jesus’ beginning His public ministry after forty days, we can see the fulfillment of divine purpose and promise. When one thinks about it, Lent would make little sense apart from the promise of Easter.
Thus, the number forty symbolizes fulfillment, completion and, one can even say, new birth. For example, the number eight symbolizes resurrection, new birth, etc., and the number five is the number of grace. Eight times five equals forty. The grace of God and Christ being resurrected for our justification equals eternal life and the fulfillment of divine purpose.
This symbolism, however, does not call into question the historicity of the accounts. In Dei Verbum, the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, the Church states:
Since, therefore, all that the inspired authors, or sacred writers, affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture, firmly, faithfully, and without error, teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the sacred Scriptures (no. 11).
According to this teaching, any “meaning which the sacred authors really had in mind” (no. 12) was included in “whatever [God] wanted written, and not more” (no. 11), and must therefore be free from error. Anything the sacred authors truly intended to affirm—doctrinally, morally, historically, etc.—is true. If the evangelists intended for the accounts of Jesus’ fasting and temptation to be understood as history, which there is no real reason to question, then they are authentic history. Indeed, the Church affirms the Gospels’ historicity (no. 19).
Unless it can be shown with solid evidence that the author, who for all appearances was writing historically, intended to use only an historical form to “set forth a parable,” the presumption must be that the author intends what the genre, e.g., historical narrative, signifies. In this case, you doubt whether it is physically possible to fast for forty days and nights. While it seems impossible, people still complete fasts of forty days (note: this should not be attempted without consulting a doctor). Monks at an Orthodox monastery in the Holy Land hold such a fast yearly (as reported in Catholic Digest, April 2001).
I hope this answers your question. If you have further questions on this or would like more information about Catholics United for the Faith, please contact us at 1-800-MY-FAITH (693-2484). Please keep us in your prayers as we endeavor to “support, defend, and advance the efforts of the teaching Church.”
United in the Faith,
Amy Barragree
Information Specialist
Catholics United for the Faith
827 North Fourth Street
Steubenville, OH 43952
800-MY-FAITH (800-693-2484)
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