A Clue in Peter I About the Original Alexandrian Fasting Practices

I found an interesting clue in Peter of Alexandria's Canons which give us a greater idea of the shape of the Alexandrian Church's traditional fasting rituals. Peter writes:

No one shall find fault with us for observing the fourth day of the week, and the preparation, on which it is reasonably enjoined us to fast according to the tradition. On the fourth day, indeed, because on it the Jews took counsel for the betrayal of the Lord; and on the sixth, because on it He himself suffered for us. But the Lord’s day we celebrate as a day of joy, because on it He rose again, on which day we have received it for a custom not even to bow the knee.[Peter of Alexandria Canon 15]

A number of contemporary scholars read this statement as if Peter is just saying that the community just fasted on the Wednesday and Friday of Holy Week but this is clearly a misreading of the statement as Origen makes clear:

we have the fourth and the sixth day of the week on which we regularly fast [On Lev.Homily X.2.95-103 (SC 287,138)]

So we see clear evidence in Alexandria that BEFORE the reforms of Athanasius, there were PERPETUAL FASTS on Wednesday and Friday. As we read in the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles:

But let not your fasts be with the hypocrites [i.e. the Jews] for they fast on the second and fifth day of the week; but do ye fast on the fourth day and the Preparation (Friday). Neither pray as the hypocrites; but as the Lord commanded in His Gospel, thus pray: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. Give us to-day our daily (needful) bread, and forgive us our debt as we also forgive our debtors. And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one (or, evil); for Thine is the power and the glory for ever. Thrice in the day thus pray. [Teaching of the Twelve Apostles 7]

Of course some would argue that this pattern of fasting was very different from that practiced by the Marcionites. Ephrem tells us over and over again how rigorous the Marcionite fasting and prayers were. Ephrem notes that 'Marcion fasted like a snake' [Ephrem Against the Heresies 1.17] Ephiphanius, Tertullian and a number of other early witnesses repeatedly identify 'Marcion' as instituting a Saturday fast IN ADDITION to what Tertullian identifies as other 'perpetual fasts.'

Indeed Ephrem provides us with the clearest portrait of the 'excessive' fasts of the Marcionites in his treatise Against Marcion. He begins by asking:

Why forsooth do they say that there was no fasting (in the world), seeing that when all the scattered groups (lit. fragments) of the followers of Marcion are gathered together they cannot keep the fast of Ezekiel, nor have they (ever) prayed, nor do they (now) pray, a prayer like that of the friends of Daniel? If they say, 'We are praying the whole day,' let us see whether their prayer is accepted. But perhaps they will say, '(It is.) for how do you know that it is not accepted ?' I say, 'From the fact that He does not do for them here anything at all.' And if they say that He does (something) for them, let them show (it) us, and we will accept (it) ! For Daniel used to pray three times a day and by means of his prayer he interpreted dreams and brought back the People from Babylon, and angels used to come to him at the time of his prayer. But the Marcionites, because they pray more than Daniel, as they say, will not accomplish more than he, nor even as much as he, but less than he. But since they pray more than the righteous, as they say, and yet are not answered even as much as sinners (are answered), it is clear that, because they pray to one who does not exist, on that account they are not heard or answered when they pray. [Ephrem Against Marcion I]

Could it be that the Marcionites weren't that different from the other witnesses who had weekly Wednesday and Friday fasts? Consider the number of orthodox figures who shared the 'Saturday fast' of the Marcionites.

The Liber Pontificalis notes that the Roman Pope Calixtus (whom Marcia the beloved concubine of Commodus rescued from the mines in the second century) "instituted a fast from corn, wine and oil upon the Sabbath day thrice per year, according to the word of the prophet, of a fourth, of a seventh, and of a tenth." Hippolytus' language is actually much stronger against the contemporary practices of Calixtus "[e]ven today some allow themselves the same audacities : they order fasting on the Sabbath of which Christ has not spoken, dishonoring even the Gospel of Christ."

Eventually of course the Canon of the Apostles explicitly outlawed the Saturday fast but it is interesting to note how Catholic writers like the late third cenury Victorinus of Pettua who offers a picture of how Catholic practice could be made indistinguishable from the Marcionite practice.

Unlike Peter of Alexandria who connects the Wednesday and Friday fasts with events during the Passion, says that they derive from the creation of the world. Victorinus writes that:

Now is manifested the reason of the truth why the fourth day is called the Tetras, why we fast even to the ninth hour, or even to the evening, or why there should be a passing over even to the next day ... [t]herefore on account of His captivity by a quaternion, on account of the majesty of His works,—that the seasons also, wholesome to humanity, joyful for the harvests, tranquil for the tempests, may roll on,—therefore we make the fourth day a station or a supernumerary fast.

Victorinus then goes on to explain the sixth day fast as follows:

On the sixth day the things that were wanting were created; and thus God raised up man from the soil, as lord of all the things which He created upon the earth and the water. Yet He created angels and archangels before He created man, placing spiritual beings before earthly ones. For light was made before sky and the earth. This sixth day is called parasceve (παρασκευή) that is to say, the preparation of the kingdom. For He perfected Adam, whom He made after His image and likeness. But for this reason He completed His works before He created angels and fashioned man, lest perchance they should falsely assert that they had been His helpers. On this day also, on account of the passion of the Lord Jesus Christ, we make either a station to God, or a fast. [ibid]

Of course Victorinus makes clear that his community actually maintained weekly fasts on Wednesday, Friday AND Saturday but avoided explicitly acknowledging the Saturday fast, maintaining instead that it was merely a 'continuation' from the Friday Fast.

We read in what immediately follows in Victorinus that:

On the seventh day He rested from all His works, and blessed it, and sanctified it. On the former day we are accustomed to fast rigorously, that on the Lord’s day we may go forth to our bread with giving of thanks. And let the parasceve become a rigorous fast, lest we should appear to observe any Sabbath with the Jews, which Christ Himself, the Lord of the Sabbath, says by His prophets that “His soul hateth;”[Isa. i. 13, 14]. which Sabbath He in His body abolished, although, nevertheless, He had formerly Himself commanded Moses that circumcision should not pass over the eighth day, which day very frequently happens on the Sabbath, as we read written in the Gospel. [John vii. 22]

I suspect that ALL those who maintained a Wednesday and Friday likely hid the fact that they shared the Marcionite Saturday fast by claiming that their members were so 'enthusiastic' that they carried over the 'allowed' Friday fast to the day that it was deemed heretical to abstain.

This seems to be confirmed by the very early Apostolic Constitutions which says "do ye who are able fast the day of the preparation and the Sabbath-day entirely, tasting nothing till the cock-crowing of the night; but if any one is not able to join them both together, at least let him observe the Sabbath-day; for the Lord says somewhere, speaking of Himself: 'When the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, in those days shall they fast.'"

Tertullian also slams his Roman contemporaries for doing much the same thing "Why do we devote to Stations the fourth and sixth days of the week, and to fasts the "preparation-day?" Anyhow, you sometimes continue your Station even over the Sabbath,-a day never to be kept as a fast except at the passover season, according to a reason elsewhere given." [On Fasting 14]

Hippolytus blames the Marcionites for Calixtus and we should notice a little later in Victorinus' discussion the Marcionite slip regarding "the seven churches in Paul." There is no reference to Paul having 'seven churches' in the Catholic Church and MUST be based on the arrangement of the Marcionite canon.

So when we go back to the clue we found in Peter of Alexandria regarding the Wednesday and Friday fast. Isn't it possible that the Alexandrians shared the Saturday fast of the Marcionites but just hid it by extending the Friday fast? The two commentators on the Canons of Peter - Balsamon and Zonaras seem to hint as much as they go to great lengths to defend Peter's orthodoxy.

Balsamon jumps to Peter's defense writing:

Conformably to the sixty-fourth Apostolical canon, which decrees that we are not to fast on the Sabbath, with one exception, the great Sabbath; and to the sixty-ninth canon, which severely punishes those who do not fast in the Holy Lent, and on every fourth day of the week and day of preparation. Thus also does the present canon decree.

While Zonaras notes that:

Always, says he, are the fourth and sixth days of every week to be kept as fasts; nor will any one find fault with us for fasting on them; and the reasons he subjoins. But on the Lord’s day we ought not to fast, for it is a day of joy for the resurrection of the Lord, and on it, says he, we have received that we ought not even to bow the knee. This word, therefore, is to be carefully observed, “we have received,” and “it is enjoined upon us according to the tradition.” For from hence it is evident that long-established custom was taken for law.

I think it is highly probable that the Alexandrian fast was the same as the Marcionite fast. It will just take a little more research to prove it ...