FAMINE

death upon the accusation of his parents (Dt 21'*-"). See also art. Child.

4. Family duties. — The claims of the family upon the various members of it were strongly felt. Many laws provide for the vengeance and protection of the injured and defenceless by their next-of-kin. Brothers were the guardians of their sisters (Gn 34). A childless widow could demand, though not enforce, re-marriage with her brother-in-law (Dt 25'-"). Boaz, as the nearest relation, performed this duty towards Ruth. In spite of the prohibition of the later code (Lv 20"), levirate marriage seems to have been practised at the time of Christ (Mt 22^ff). Its purpose was perhaps rather for the preservation of the particular branch of the family than for the advantage of the widow herself: in any case it illustrates the strong sense of duty towards the family as a whole.

Children owed obedience and respect to their parents. Even a married man would consider himself still under the authority of his father, whether living with him or not ; and his wife would be subject to her father-in-law even after her husband's death.

To an Israelite, 'family' conveyed the notions of unity, security, order, and discipline. These conceptions were nourished by the reUgious customs and observances in the home, the most conspicuous instance of which was the keeping of the Passover. Such observances no doubt helped to bind the members of the family in close religious and spiritual sympathies. The common longing to love and to serve God was the base of the family affection and unity — from patriarchal times when the head of each family would offer sacrifice upon his own altar, until the hour in which Mary's Son asked in tender surprise of her and Joseph: 'Wist ye not that I must be in my Father's house?' (Lk 2").

E. G. Romanes.

FASnNS .—In Palestine, famine is usually due to failure of the rainfall (Lv 26", Am 4«- '). Both crops and pastur-age depend on the proper amount falling at the right time, the 'early rain 'in Oct.-Nov., the 'latter 'in March -April. Its importance and uncertainty caused it to be regarded as the special gift of God (Dt 11"- "). Accord-ingly famine is almost always a direct judgment from Him (1 K 17', Ezk 5, and continually in the Prophets; Ja S"). Hence we find it amongst the terrors of the eschatological passages of NT (Mk 138, Rev IS'). The idea is spiritualized in Am 8" 'a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.' In Egypt, famine is due to the failure of the annual inundation of the Nile, which is ultimately traceable to lack of rain in the Abyssinian highlands of the interior.

Crops may be destroyed by other causes — hail and thunder-storms . (Ex 9", 1 S 12"); locusts and similar pests (Ex 10", Jl V, Am 4"). Further, famine is the usual accompaniment of war, the most horrible accounts of famines being connected with sieges (2 K 6" 25', Jer 219, La 4").

These passages should be compared with the terrible description of Dt 28"-", and with Josephus' account of the last siege of Jerusalem (BJ v. x. 3). So in Rev 6' scarcity, connected with the black horse, follows on bloodshed and conquest; but a maximum price is fixed for wheat and barley, and oil and wine are untouched, so that the full horrors of famine are delayed. A natural result of famine is pestilence, due to improper and in-sufBcient food, lack of water, and insanitary conditions. The two are frequently connected, especially in Ezk. and Jer. (1 K 8", Jer 21», Lk 21" [not Mt 24']).

Famines are recorded in connexion with Abraham (Gn 12") and Isaac (26'). There is the famous seven years' famine of Gn 41 ff., which included Syria as well as Egypt. It apparently affected cereals rather than pasturage, beasts of transport being unharmed (of. per contra 1 K 18'). The device by which Joseph warded off its worst effects is illustrated by Egyptian inscriptions. In one, Baba, who lived about the time of Joseph, says:

FASTING

'I colleotea corn, as a friend of the harvest-god, and was watchful at the time of sowing. And when a famine arose, lasting many years, I distributed corn to the city each year of famine' (see Driver, Genesis, p. 346). Other famines, besides those already referred to, are mentioned in Ru 1', 2 S 21'. The famine of Ac ll^s is usually identified with one mentioned by Josephus (Ant. XX. ii. 5, v. 2), which is dated a.d. 45. But famines were characteristic of the reign of Claudius (Suetonius mentions 'assiduae sterilitates'), so that the exact reference remains uncertain. C. W. Emmet.

FAN.— The tan of Scripture (Is 30", Mt 3'^, Lk 3") is the five- or six-pronged wooden winnowing -fork, for which see Agriculture, § 3. The corresponding verb is rendered 'winnow,' Is SO^*, Ru 3^, but 'fan' elsewhere (Amer. RV has 'winnow' throughout); the fanners of Jer 51^ (AV, RVm and Versions) are the 'winnowers,' as Amer. RVm. Fanning or winnowing is a frequent figure for the Divine sifting and chastisement, Jer 4" 15' etc. A. R. S. Kennedy.

FARTHING.— See Monet, § 7.

FASTING.— I. In the OT.— 'To afflict the soul' is the term by which fasting is usually mentioned (cf. Lv 16^-31 23"- 32, Nu 29' 3013; the two terms are combined in Ps 35", Is SS'- '). In the period preceding the Captivity we find no universal fast prescribed. The institution of the Day of Atonement — the only fast ordained in the Law — was traditionally ascribed to this period; but there is no certain reference to it before Sir 60"-. Zechariah does not allude to it, and Ezk 40-48 prescribes a more simple ceremonial for such an occasion, whence it may be inferred that the elaborate ritual of Lv 16 was not yet customary. Neh T"-9^> records a general fast on the 24th day of the 7th month, and therefore the 10th day of that month — the proper date for the Day of Atonement — was probably not yet set apart for this purpose. Moreover, the characteristic ideas of the fast — its public confession, its emphasis on sin and atonement — are late, and can be compared with post-exilic analogies (Ezr 9, Neh 1*-" 9'). See Atone-ment [Day of]. Previously to the Captivity fasting was observed by individuals or the whole people on special occasions (cf. 2 S 12", 1 K 21", Jg 20», 1 S 7", 2 Ch 203).

After the Captivity this type of fasts of course con-tinued (cf. Ezr 8" -23, Neh V 9'). But in Zee 7'-' 8'» we hear of four general fasts which were observed with comparative regularity. On 17th Tammuz (July) a fast was ordained to commemorate the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar (Jer 39^ 52'). This was celebrated on the 17th day of the 4th month, and not on the 9th, because, according to the Talmudic tradition, the 17th was the day on which Moses broke the tables of the Law, on which the daily offering ceased owing to the famine caused by the Chaldeean siege, and on which Antiochus Epiphanes burnt the Law and introduced, an idol into the Holy Place. On the 9th day of the 6th month (Ab) was celebrated a fast in memory of the burning of the Temple and city (2 K 253, Jer 52'2). The 9th, and not the 7th or 10th, was the prescribed day, because tradition placed on the 9th the announcement that the Israelites were not to enter Canaan, and the destruction of the Second Temple. On the 3rd of Tishri (October) the murder of Gedaliah was commemorated by a fast (Jer 41'), and on the 10th of Tebeth (January) another fast recalled the 'siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldaeans (2 K 25', Jer 62*). Besides these, we hear of a Fast of Esther being observed; on this see Purim.

Fasting probably meant complete abstinence, though the Talmud allowed lentils to be eaten during the period of mourning. No work was done during a fast (Lv 1629. 31 2332, Nu 29'), and sackcloth and ashes were sometimes used (Dn 93, Jon 3«- '). The usual reasons for a fast were either mourning (1 S 31'3) or a wish to deprecate the Divine wrath (2 S 12"' ").

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