Hunger
Hunger
(, raah’; ) AND THIRST are the symbols of affliction. Thus in Deu 8:3, He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, where the latter is the instrument of the former. So Deu 32:24, They shall be burnt with hunger; i.e. they shall be tormented or afflicted. So tofaist is often called to afflict one’s soul, as in Lev 16:29-31; Isa 58:5. In Aristophanes (Aves) hunger is proverbially used for great misery. See 1Co 4:11; 2Co 11:27; Php 4:12. In our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, to hunger and thirst signifies to long for and relish the Gospel (Mat 5:6; Luk 6:21), but elsewhere to be in want of hearing God’s word; that is, to be hindered by persecution from worshipping God in peace (Psalms 23; Ecclesiastes 24:19; Joh 4:13; Joh 6:35; Amo 8:11; Eze 7:26). SEE FAMINE.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Hunger
HUNGER.The substantive hunger (Authorized and Revised Versions ) is the equivalent of a Greek word () which in the NT is used either of the suffering of an individual (Luk 15:17, cf. 2Co 11:27), or, more generally, of the widespread plague of famine (cf. Mar 13:8, Luk 4:25 etc.; see Blass Gram. of NT Greek, p. 299, for the combination [parechesis]). The more frequently occurring verb is an altogether different word (), and it is sometimes found where we might expect or its cognates (Mat 5:6 and Luk 6:21). The latter occurs in but 6 places in the Gospels, while the former is found no fewer than 17 times.
There is, perhaps, no feature of Jesus human experience so vividly instructive as that which is portrayed for us in the simple incidental expression He hungered (Mat 4:2 = Luk 4:2, Mat 21:18 = Mar 11:12). This is noted twice by the Synoptists; and though we have no such direct statement by St. John, we are not left by the latter without a reference to this side of the humiliation of Christ. The story of Jesus conversation with the woman of Samaria conveys the same impression as to the physical limitations to which He was subject with which we are struck in the Synoptic writings. The anxiety of the disciples for the satisfaction of their Masters needs (Joh 4:31 , ) explains at least one cause of the bodily weariness which compelled Him to rest thus by the well.
It is of the greatest interest to notice that, on the two occasions when it is definitely stated that Jesus suffered the pangs of hunger, the writer has pointedly attached to the narrative a lesson of psychological and spiritual value. St. Matthew and St. Luke both inform us not only that on the completion of His forty days fast he hungered; they also tell us that the Tempter attacked Him on the side of His consequent weakness. If thou art the Son of God, command that these stones become bread (Mat 4:3, cf. the stronger and more graphic mould in which St. Luke casts the narrative by adopting the singular for and for , Luk 4:3), expresses the subtle nature of this temptation in a manner which is profoundly in keeping with all human experience (see F. W. Robertsons sermon on Elijah, second series).
It is surely more rational to accept the Synoptic statement that this was, in point of fact, the first of the three temptations, for the reason given above, than to adopt the order given in the Gospel according to the Hebrews, as O. Holtzmann is inclined to do (cf. his Leben Jesu, English translation pp. 94 and 140150). The author of this Gospel places the temptation by hunger after that on the high mountain, which he puts first in the series. Holtzmann, moreover, argues that the first temptation, according to the First and Third Evangelists, occurred last of all. Among other reasons for this inversion, he bases his statement on the fact that Jesus met the suggestion to convert the stone into a loaf by a quotation taken from Deu 8:3, whereas His answers to the other two are quotations from an earlier part, of the same book (Deu 6:13; Deu 6:16). To the present writer this looks like trifling with the evidence, and seems to expose this author to the charge of adopting any statement as having prima facie claims to being historical provided it be a contradiction of the sacred books. The very simplicity of the narratives as we have them forbids us to assume that the writers manufactured an order by means of a gradation as regards localities, or by presenting a series of grand climactericssatisfaction of hunger, miraculous action, and sovereignty of the world. [For the curious passage in the Gospel according to the Hebrews ( , ) which makes Mt. Tabor the scene of the Temptation, see Origen, in Joann. tom. ii. 6f., given in Nestles Graecum Supplementum, p. 77. The same passage is quoted more than once by Jerome, who each time refers it to the Evangelium quod secundum (juxta) Hebraeos (e.g. in Isa 15:11)].
The other recorded occasion on which Jesus suffered from hunger was at the end of His ministry, and during that week when His last conflict with the religious authorities of His nation culminated in His Passion and Death. The incident affords an example of the way in which the Evangelists, in their choice of literary material, were guided to subordinate the selection of historical facts to the moral and spiritual importance attaching to them. Neither St. Matthew nor St. Mark was deterred from relating the story of the fruitless fig-tree by a fear lest the appearance of harshness and petulance should detract from the moral dignity of their Master. Their portrait of Him was too faithful and their insight too keen to permit any suggestion, to themselves at least, of an unworthy display, in an angry moment, of thaumaturgical energy. See art. Fig-tree.
The union between Christ and His people, so repeatedly insisted on by Jesus as indispensable to their higher life (see, e.g., Joh 15:4 ff.), is postulated in His great eschatological discourse. The sufferings of redeemed humanity are His sufferings, and the loving service, which clothes the naked and feeds the hungry, is hallowed because it is done, not merely in His cause, but for Himself (Mat 25:35 ff; cf. Mat 10:40 ff.) There is something more in these words than an expression of sympathy by a brother who has himself experienced deprivation and suffering (cf. Heb 4:15), and who feels for one who is passing through similar stages. We have in them a vivid portraiture of that essential and spiritual oneness upon which the writer of the Fourth Gospel lays such emphasis (cf. Joh 14:20; Joh 17:21; Joh 17:23; Joh 17:26 etc.; see also Act 9:5 ).
It is not without significance that not only have we this mystic union adumbrated by the Synoptists which is elaborated and, inchoatively at least, systematized by St. John; we have also recorded in the writings of all three an incident illustrative of that complete companionship in privations as well as in privileges which He demanded as the essence of discipleship from the scribe who would follow Him whithersoever He went (Luk 9:38 = Mat 8:20; cf. Mat 10:38; Mat 16:24, Luk 9:23, Mar 8:34 etc.). The fact that the disciples suffered hunger is specifically mentioned by St. Matthew, though it is only to be inferred from the parallel passages in the other two Synoptists (cf. Mar 2:23 ff. = Mat 12:1 ff. = Luk 6:1 ff.). On this occasion Jesus takes advantage of the opportunity afforded by the carping criticism of the Pharisees to emphasize, by an appeal to the case of the hungry David, His teaching on the Sabbath question. A fine touch is added by each of the Synoptists which beautifully illustrates the spirit of camaraderie existing between Jesus and His disciples. The touch is incidental, and therefore the more effective. Each of the writers expressly states that it was the disciples who were plucking the ears of corn and not Jesus, though each commences the narrative by making Jesus the subject of the story ( , …, Mat 12:1; , Mar 2:23, Luk 6:1). It was through the disciples that the Pharisees attacked Him (cf., however, Luk 6:2); and it was in their defence that Jesus met them with the unanswerable argument taken from their own armourythe OT.
It will not surprise us to find Jesus transferring the idea of physical hunger to the spiritual life and experience, as this habit of transposition forms one of the most attractive and powerful features in His teaching. Just as in mans physical life hunger is a sign of health, and becomes an evil only when its cravings cannot be satisfied, so Jesus counts those blessed whose souls health is robust enough to cause them to cry out from hunger after righteousness (note the peculiar construction which has the accusative after instead of the genitive of classical writers; cf. Od. xx. 137; Xen. Cyr. viii. iii. 39; Plato, Rep. 521 A; see Blass Grammar of NT Greek, p. 89 f.; and Liddell and Scotts Lexicon). That need, because it is felt, shall be met in the fullest possible way, hence their blessedness ( , Mat 5:6; cf. Luk 6:21).
On the other hand, they are to be pitied whose spiritual appetite is so deranged that they feel no need at all, because the day shall come when they must feel, and the pangs of hunger shall remain without hope of alleviation ( , Luk 6:25). That He possessed the power of permanently satisfying the deepest needs of the human soul, Jesus categorically asserts on more than one occasion (Joh 6:35, cf. Joh 4:14 and Joh 7:37). In these express assurances we may see the profoundest explanation of the words of the Magnificat: The hungry he hath filled with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away (Luk 1:53), which are but the echo of the words in which the Psalmist long before had clothed his experience (Psa 107:9).
J. R. Willis.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Hunger
hunger (, raabh; , limos (subs.), , peinao (vb.): (1) The desire for food, a physiological sensation associated with emptiness of the stomach, and dependent on some state of the mucous membrane; (2) starvation as the effect of want of food, as Exo 16:3; Isa 49:10; (3) to feel the craving for food as Deu 8:3; when used to indicate the condition due to general scarcity of food as Jer 38:9; Eze 34:29 it is replaced in the Revised Version (British and American) by famine. The word is used to express the poverty which follows idleness and sloth (Pro 19:15). The absence of this condition is given as one of the characteristics of the future state of happiness (Isa 49:10; Eze 34:29; Rev 7:16). Metaphorically the passionate striving for moral and spiritual rectitude is called hungering and thirsting after righteousness (Mat 5:6); and the satisfaction of the soul which receives Christ is described as a state in which he shall not hunger (Joh 6:35).
On two occasions it is said of our Lord that He hungered (Mat 21:18; Luk 4:2); 9 times the old English expression an hungred is used, the an being a prefix which indicates that the condition is being continued (Mat 12:1, Mat 12:3; Mat 25:35, Mat 25:37, Mat 25:42, Mat 25:44; Mar 2:25; Luk 6:3 the King James Version). In Mat 4:2 the King James Version, an hungred has been changed to hungered in the Revised Version (British and American). Hard bestead and hungry in Isa 8:21 means bested (that is, placed) in a condition of hardship, sore distressed, the American Standard Revised Version. The word occurs in Spenser, Thus ill bestedd and fearful more of shame (I, i, 24). The reference of the aggravation of the sensation of hunger when one who is starving awakes from a dream of food (Isa 29:8) is graphically illustrated by the experience of the antarctic voyager (Shackleton, Heart of the Antarctic, II, 9).
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Hunger
Of Jesus
Mat 4:2-4; Mat 21:18; Mar 11:12; Luk 4:2-4; Joh 4:8
A stimulus to work
Pro 16:26
No hunger in heaven
Rev 7:16-17 Famine
Spiritual
– General references
Pro 2:3-5; Isa 55:1-2; Amo 8:11-13; Mat 5:6; Luk 6:21; 1Pe 2:2 Desire, Spiritual; Thirst
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Hunger
Isa 49:10 (b) This refers to the time when Israel is restored as a nation and will be satisfied again with GOD, His Word, and His ways. Their desire for peace, comfort and prosperity will be gratified. (See Joh 6:35).
Mat 5:6 (b) This represents a deep desire for GOD, as David so often desired. (See Luk 1:53).
Luk 15:17 (b) The prodigal could never find heart satisfaction away from his father’s house. He felt deeply the need of the blessings that came from being associated with his father. So the child of GOD must be in fellowship with GOD to be happy.