# Need help finding a Bible passage **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 25, 2006, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-finding-a-bible-passage/341525 "2006-01-25T06:33:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JimSox5](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5a626/32.png) [@JimSox5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimSox5)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-finding-a-bible-passage/341525/1 "2006-01-25T06:33:03Z")
I know it’s late and it might be unlikely, but I’m looking for some quick help. If it has to wait until morning, though, it can. Anyway, I’ve got a few friends and a few family members who seem to have become very, for lack of a better term, “fundie” about their Christianity. I am starting to tire of this. Well, actually, I feel as if I’m very close to snapping on them. In any case, I think it would be a very effective point if I could point out a certain Bible passage. The problem is, I have no recollection where it is, just that it exists. If I remember correctly, Jesus is talking to a group of people and tells them how wrong it is of those who fast and let the whole world know they are fasting so that everybody knows how pious they are. I believe he gives a few more examples of this, but I can’t remember what they are. So, if anybody knows what passage I’m talking about and where it might be, please let me know, because I’m baffled. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![lel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8797f3/32.png) [@lel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lel)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-finding-a-bible-passage/341525/2 "2006-01-25T06:45:13Z")
Here’s a short passage on fasting: Matthew 6:16-18 (NIV) > [@](#): > > 16"When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 17But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. You might also want to check out Matthew 6:1-4. Is this perhaps part of what you seek? ---
**Author:** ![JimSox5](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5a626/32.png) [@JimSox5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimSox5)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-finding-a-bible-passage/341525/3 "2006-01-25T06:52:12Z")
Aha! That’s exactly it! Thanks a million, **lel**! ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-finding-a-bible-passage/341525/4 "2006-01-25T17:53:29Z")
There’s also a passage in Isaiah against fasting for its own sake: > [@Isaiah 58:3-7](#): > > ‘Why have we fasted,’ say they,‘and you don’t see? why have we afflicted our soul, and you take no knowledge?’ "Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exact all your labors. Behold, you fast for strife and contention, and to strike with the fist of wickedness: you don’t fast this day so as to make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I have chosen? the day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to Yahweh? "Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Isn’t it to distribute your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh? There’s a verse in Matthew against praying in public to show how pious you are: > [@Matthew 6:5-6](#): > > When you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Most certainly, I tell you, they have received their reward. But you, when you pray, enter into your inner chamber, and having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.