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Exercise, bodily - (1 Tim. 4:8). An ascetic ( practicing strict self-denial as a measure of personal and especially spiritual discipline) mortification of the flesh and denial of personal gratification (comp. Col. 2:23) to which some sects of the Jews, especially the Essenes (a member of a monastic brotherhood of Jews in Palestine from the 2d century B ·c. to the 2d century A ·d.), attached importance.

SOURCE: Easton's Bible Dictionary