To abstain from food (religiously)
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Νηστεύω (nēsteuō) means to fast, voluntarily abstaining from food for a religious purpose. Jesus fasts forty days in the wilderness and experiences real hunger before resisting the tempter through God's word.
Reader summary
Full entry for νηστεύω (G3522) · Open the biblical lexicon
Νηστεύω (nēsteuō) means to fast, voluntarily abstaining from food for a religious purpose. Jesus fasts forty days in the wilderness and experiences real hunger before resisting the tempter through God's word.
The BSB source-word alignment has 20 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include fast (7), they will fast (3), fasting (2), - (1), [your] fasting (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 4:2. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (8), Mark (6), Luke (4), Acts (2).
Νηστεύω (nēsteuō) means to fast, voluntarily abstaining from food for a religious purpose. Jesus fasts forty days in the wilderness and experiences real hunger before resisting the tempter through God's word. Questions about His disciples not fasting like John's disciples and the Pharisees lead Jesus to speak of the bridegroom's presence and future absence, placing fasting within redemptive time rather than competitive rigor.
At Antioch, the church worships and fasts as the Holy Spirit sets apart Barnabas and Saul for mission. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus assumes His disciples will fast but forbids visible performance designed to win human notice. Fasting is embodied dependence, mourning, prayerful attentiveness, or concentrated worship; it is not hunger as merit, bodily punishment, or a technique for forcing divine guidance.
Νηστεύω describes religious abstinence from food. Jesus fasts in testing, explains fasting through the bridegroom's presence and absence, the Antioch church fasts in worship and mission, and disciples must fast without display.
After fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry.
After forty days and nights of fasting, Jesus is hungry and faces temptation as the obedient Son who depends on every word from God's mouth.
Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were often fasting. So people came to Jesus and asked, “Why don’t Your disciples fast like John’s disciples and those of the Pharisees?”
Questions about competing fasting practices receive a bridegroom answer: Jesus' presence makes the moment festive, while His coming removal will bring fitting fasting.
Then they said to Him, “John’s disciples and those of the Pharisees frequently fast and pray, but Yours keep on eating and drinking.”
Luke's parallel joins fasting with prayer and contrasts the disciples' table fellowship, which Jesus interprets through the newness of His mission rather than laxity.
While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”
The Antioch leaders worship and fast when the Spirit names Barnabas and Saul for a work already called by Him, joining discernment to obedient sending.
When you fast, do not be somber like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward.
Jesus says “when you fast” but condemns disfigured faces meant to advertise deprivation; the Father who sees in secret becomes the governing audience.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Religious self-denial through food abstinence, typically for spiritual focus or penitence.
Religious self-denial through food abstinence, typically for spiritual focus or penitence.
(νῆστις), [in LXX for צוּם ;] to fast (Arist., Aristoph., al.): Mat.4:2 6:16-18 9:14-15 Mrk.2:18-20, Luk.5:33-35 18:12, Act.13:2-3.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 21 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I fast
Read verseI fast
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Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
How this verb appears across 19 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect reflects grammatical form — not authorial emphasis. Participles and infinitives are verbal adjectives and nouns respectively.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 20 lexical occurrence verses.
νηστεύω is built from this root:
Defines fasting as covenant dependence rather than religious performance.Matthew 6:16–18
Fasting is meaningful when hunger serves faith rather than reputation. Jesus' wilderness fast reveals genuine bodily weakness without moral failure; the Son answers temptation through trust in God's word. His response to critics prevents fasting from becoming a timeless contest of severity. The bridegroom is present, so celebration is fitting, and His removal will create a different season.
Antioch shows fasting within corporate worship as the Spirit directs an outward mission, yet the call originates with Him and requires the church's obedient release of gifted leaders. Matthew examines motive: a fast displayed for admiration receives only the audience's reward. Churches may fast in repentance, grief, intercession, or discernment, but should not measure holiness by visible hunger, impose the practice as a means of justification, or promise that abstinence obligates God to reveal a preferred answer.
Matt.4.2
Νηστεύω is the verb for fasting or abstaining from food. Duration and purpose usually come from context. The word does not by itself specify a complete fast, permitted liquids, communal rule, or motive.
Moses and prophets fast, Israel's fasts are judged by justice, Jesus fasts as the obedient Son, and churches fast within prayerful worship and mission.