A question regarding the 40 days and 40 Nights Fast of Jesus
 

Why did he need to fast for 40 days and 40 nights? Could he not be tempted without the fasting? Do we all have to go through a similar experience to be close to god? He is the example right?

Any thoughts on this?

You're assuming "he needed it" as opposed to examining as it, as "it happened so."

Not trying to be a jerk, but just examining. Is this a true event, or an exaggeration?

I read a while ago that "40" did not actually mean "40" but rather meant "many," and thus is the reason it appears so frequently in stories in the Bible. As for why he fasted, I think it is because it is an eternal principle that brings blessings and Satan took advantage of the time to further tempt him.

The potential reasons behind doing so are numerous, and not particularly interesting, IMO.

I choose to believe He did it because He was asked to, and Satan chose this time to tempt him due to his unusual state of physical weakness. In other words, Christ didn't fast so he could be tempted. It was simply the moment Satan chose to do so.

And that's not to say that was the only time Christ was tempted...

Are you saying its a story like Job?

the thing I find interesting is that we don't have a ritual relating to this. I would consider this a very important part of Christ's life yet for us there is nothing to relate us to this experience. Unless one conisders the monthly fast as our comparison to this

Matthew 4:2

tesserakonta means forty the last time I checked. According to the Greek, the word forty is used. Perhaps Solon or AA will contradict me and if so, believe them not me.

1. What sort of ritual would you suggest?

2. Why would the monthly (or even the unscheduled fasts for revelation/healing/etc.) not apply as the ritual?

I'm not saying there has to be I was just wondering why we don't have one.

we get baptized to follow christ. We get the gift of the holy ghost as the ritual associated with the Dove ascending after his baptism. We take the sacrament as the ritual associated with his sacrifice. We have the endowment as the ritual associated with the mount of transfiguration. Yet with his 40 days spriitual awakening we have no ritual associated with it. It just seems rather odd.

It is forty, and it means forty, just like "myriad" means thousand. The idea here being cited I have actually heard before, that they would say "forty" days when they meant "many." "Myriad" similarly means "thousand", but can just as easily mean "countless."

My understanding, anyway.