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→History and Tradition
The Christians inherited the tradition of fasting from the [[Judaism|Jews]]. Jesus, too, gave examples of fasting to his [[disciple]]s, most notably preceding his forty days in the desert when he was tempted by the [[devil]] ([[Gospel of Matthew|Matt]] 4:1-11).
"...you fast on Wednesdays and Fridays" (Didache 8:1). That Wednesday and Friday fasting was general practice in early Christianity is attested by first or early second century writing known as The Didache, or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles; outside of the Eastern Church it was not generally recognized that this fasting tradition had been preserved unchanged from such an early date until the discovery of Greek and Latin mss. of The Didache in 1873 and 1900 respectively.
==See also==
