Feast

"feast; festal sacrifice." Cognates of this noun appear in Aramaic, Syriac, and Arabic. Biblical Hebrew attests it about 62 times and in all periods, except in the wisdom literature. This word refers especially to a "feast observed by a pilgrimage." That is its meaning in its first biblical occurrence, when Moses said to Pharaoh: "We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we must hold a feast unto the Lord" (Exod 10:9). Hag (or hag) usually represents Israel's three annual "pilgrimage feasts," which were celebrated with processions and dances. These special feasts are distinguished from the sacred seasons ("festal assemblies", Ezek 45:17), the new moon festivals, and the Sabbaths (Hos 2:11).

There are two unique uses of hag. First, Aaron proclaimed a "feast to the Lord" at the foot of Mt. Sinai. This "feast" involved no pilgrimage but was celebrated with burnt offerings, communal meals, singing, and dancing. The whole matter was displeasing to God (Exod 32:5-7). In two passages, hag represents the "victim sacrificed to God" (perhaps during one of the three annual sacrifices): "…Bind the [festal] sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar" (Psa 118:27; cf. Exod 23:18).

"a feast of festival," is used (a) especially of those of the Jews, and particularly of the Passover; the word is found mostly in John's Gospel (seventeen times); apart from the Gospels it is used in this way only in Act 18:21; (b) in a more general way, in Col 2:16, AV, "holy day," RV, "a feast day."

denotes (a) "the chief meal of the day," dinner or supper, taken at or towards evening; in the plural "feasts," Mat 23:6, Mar 6:21, Mar 12:39, Luk 20:46; otherwise translated "supper," Luk 14:12, Luk 1:14-17, Luk 14:24, Joh 12:2, Joh 13:2, Joh 13:4, Joh 21:20, 1Co 11:21 (of a social meal); (b) "the Lord's Supper," 1Co 11:20; (c) "the supper or feast" which will celebrate the marriage of Christ with His spirtual Bride, at the inauguration of His Kingdom, Rev 19:9; (d) figuratively, of that to which the birds of prey will be summoned after the overthrow of the enemies of the Lord at the termination of the war of Armageddon, Rev 19:17 (cp. Eze 39:4, Eze 1:39-20). See SUPPER.

"a reception feast, a banquet" (from dechomai, "to receive"), Luk 5:29, Luk 14:13 (not the same as No. 2; see Luk 14:12).

"a wedding," especially a wedding "feast" (akin to gameo, "to marry"); it is used in the plural in the following passages (the RV rightly has "marriage feast" for the AV, "marriage," or "wedding"), Mat 1:22-4, Mat 22:9 (in verses Mat 1:22-12, it is used in the singular, in connection with the wedding garment); Mat 25:10, Luk 12:36, Luk 14:8; in the following it signifies a wedding itself, Joh 1:2-2, Heb 13:4; and figuratively in Rev 19:7, of the marriage of the Lamb; in Rev 19:9 it is used in connection with the supper, the wedding supper (or what in English is termed "breakfast"), not the wedding itself, as in Rev 19:7.

"love," is used in the plural in Jud 1:12, signifying "love feasts," RV (AV, "feasts of charity"); in the corresponding passage, 2Pe 2:13, the most authentic mss. have the word apate, in the plural, "deceivings."

Notes: (1) In 1Co 10:27 the verb kaleo, "to call," in the sense of inviting to one's house, is translated "biddeth you (to a feast);" in the most authentic texts there is no separate phrase representing "to a feast," as in some mss., eis deipnon (No. 2). (2) In Mar 14:2, Joh 2:23 the AV translates heorte (see No. 1) by "feast day" (RV, "feast"). (3) For the "Feast of the Dedication," Joh 10:22, see DEDICATION.

"to keep festival" (akin to A, No. 1) is translated "let us keep the feast," in 1Co 5:8. This is not the Lord's Supper, nor the Passover, but has reference to the continuous life of the believer as a festival or holy-day (see AV, margin), in freedom from "the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."

"to entertain sumptuously with," is used in the Passive Voice, denoting "to feast sumptuously with" (sun, "together," and euochia, "good cheer"), "to revel with," translated "feast with" in 2Pe 2:13, Jud 1:12.