Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
For behold, the Lord God of hosts is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah support and supply, all support of bread, and all support of water; the mighty man and the soldier, the judge and the prophet, the diviner and the elder, the captain of fifty and the man of rank, the counselor and the skillful magician and the expert in charms.
And I will make boys their princes, and infants shall rule over them. And the people will oppress one another, every one his fellow and every one his neighbor; the youth will be insolent to the elder, and the despised to the honorable. And the pig, because it parts the hoof and is cloven-footed but does not chew the cud, is unclean to you. You shall not eat any of their flesh, and you shall not touch their carcasses; they are unclean to you. Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?
Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,. At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort, a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God. And now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place.
He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Who sit in tombs, and spend the night in secret places; who eat pig's flesh, and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels;.
You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God.
You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord. The sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine,. The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth.
In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed.
For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands, holding to the tradition of the elders, and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches. Every animal that parts the hoof and has the hoof cloven in two and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat.
Since both of these have been addressed in the New Testament, they are still statutes that remain to this day. If the law is confirmed or restated in the New Testament, it absolutely still applies to us now. As previously stated, we are not bound to follow many of the laws of the Old Covenant. Especially in regards to God setting Israel apart from other nations, we are also called to be different and separate from the world.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. We must continue to seek out the Lord to gain wisdom for which of these laws we should continue to follow. Pray continually, read the words of Christ often, for He will give you discernment on the confusing passages. Whether it is determining whether eating shrimp is okay or not, or other old laws, seek the Lord for the answer.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Skip to content Skip to primary sidebar. These water purifiers are the ultimate filter feeders. Mollusks carry salmonella, E Coli, cholera, hepatitis A and the Norwalk virus. Even though we should never eat these foods raw, the cooking process does not guarantee complete elimination of the toxins either.
Individuals with low stomach acid levels or people with weakened immune systems should avoid mollusk consumption as the risk for infection is significantly high. As waterways continue to become flooded with toxins from chemical pollutants in our society, mollusks will continue to take on a higher toxic load. Shellfish spoils quickly and easily, making them the perfect food source for pathogenic bacteria.
Even though generally cooked, shellfish is difficult to properly prepare. Millions of people are exposed to undercooked or spoiled crab, shrimp, oysters and other shellfish alike. These food sources pose a tremendous threat of bacteria, viruses and active parasites. Compared to the Biblical days the world around us is much more contaminated. Our oceans, rivers, lakes and waterways have a higher toxicity level in the 21 st century than ever before.
Methyl-mercury is certainly an issue because it originates from burning fossil fuels. It is taken up into the Jet stream and precipitated down mostly into the oceans in the form of rain. Bioaccumulation is a major issue for such contaminants as mercury and lead in mollusks. Both fish and crustaceans are able to excrete some of these contaminants and may not have as high a toxic load. Crustaceans have the highest risk of carrying parasites and accumulating xenoestrogen.
Xenoestrogenic chemicals are found in industry products like plastics as well as pesticides and dioxins. These contaminants are often found at the bottom level of the waterways where shellfish gather.
Most marketed shrimp are sourced from areas where there may be no restrictions on PCB, dioxin and the presence of other contaminants. In early Biblical days, infectious disease was the greatest threat to shortened lifespans.
Disease could quickly demolish families, tribes and cities easily in the pre-medical era. Health principles are contained in the book of Numbers, Leviticus and Deuteronomy to help us minimize infectious disease. Regarding shellfish in the Bible, I believe God called shellfish detestable because He wants us to understand the health threat they pose in our lives given their bacterial, parasitic and viral load.
There was no refrigeration in the Biblical days but there were also fewer environmental dangers. The subscript therefore provides no real rationale for the regulations, and the Bible is unclear as to why it is desirable to make distinctions among living creatures.
Thus, the question arises whether there is "a common denominator, or organizing principle, that can account for the. One explanation of the absence of a biblical justification for the food regulations is that no explanation in fact exists. Traditional Judaism considers the dietary laws to be among the hukkim 39 , laws for which there is no explanation. As modern biblical scholar Jacob Milgrom explains, "The traditionalist view is that the list of prohibited animals is simply arbitrary, the unalterable and inscrutable will of God.
But what can I do? For my father in heaven has made a decree. Friedlander New York: Dover Publications,. Maimonides rejects the view of those who find these laws arbitrary and incompatible with reason:. There are persons who find it difficult to give a reason for any of the commandments, and consider it right to assume that the commandments and prohibitions have no rational basis whatever. They are led to adopt this theory by a certain disease in their soul..
For they imagine that these precepts, if they were useful in any respect, and were commanded because of their usefulness, would seem to originate in the thought and reason of some intelligent being. But as things which are not objects of reason and serve no purpose, they would undoubtedly be attributed to God, because no thought of man could have produced them.
According to the theory of those weak-minded persons, man is more perfect than his Creator. For what man says or does has a certain object, whilst the actions of God are different; He commands us to do what is of no use to us, and forbids us to do what is harmiess. Far be this! On the contrary, the sole object of the law is to benefit us. Whether or not a reason for the biblical food laws exists or can be understood by mankind does not affect the requirement to observe them, asserts Nehama Leibowitz, a traditional modem commentator.
The observance of any precept is. Let us also remember, that in our study of the reasons, advanced by our sages and thinkers for various commandments, we are merely dealing with their own subjective opinions, which can. A-B, Whether we accept them or not, they have no bearing on observance, which "applies at all times and at all places", whether we have succeeded in arriving at an acceptable reason or not. Another view holds that a reason for the laws exists, but it is beyond the power of man to understand it.
According to Maimonides, the sages believed that the commandments are not arbitrary and do have an underlying purpose: "Our Sages do not think that such precepts have no cause whatever, and serve no purpose; for this would lead us to assume that God's actions are purposeless.
On the contrary, they hold that even these ordinances have a cause, and are certainly intended for some use, although it is not known to us; owing either to the deficiency of our knowledge or the weakness of our intellect.
Their explanations will be discussed in the various applicable sections. Biblical law's regulation of food exists to protect the health of the Israelite people. This is one of the most persistent explanations of the biblical food regulations, and scholars who attempt to offer an alternative explanation will often first try to refute the health hypothesis. Philo, 48 a Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria during the first century, holds that Moses protected the health of the Israelites by choosing to prohibit the most delicious meats:.
The health and hygiene rationale claims other distinguished proponents such as Maimonides and. Perplexed that health reasons are the motivation behind many of the biblical food regulations:. I maintain that the food which is forbidden by the Law is unwholesome.
There is nothing among the forbidden kinds of food whose injurious character is doubted, except pork Lev. But also in these cases the doubt is not justified. For pork contains more moisture than necessary [for human food], and too much of superfluous matter. The fat of the intestines makes us full, interrupts our digestion, and produces cold and thick blood; it is more fit for fuel [than for human food].
Blood Lev. The characteristics given in the Law Lev. The natural food of man consists of vegetables and of the flesh of animals; the best meat is that of animals permitted to be used as food.
No doctor has any doubts about Nahmanides likewise believes that the forbidden foods cause harm to the body. As he explains in his Commentary on the Torah:. The reason why fins and scales [are signs of permissibility as food] is that those fish which have them always dwell in the upper clear waters, and they are sustained through the air that enters there.
Therefore, their bodies contain a certain amount of heat which counteracts the abundance of moistness [of the waters], just as wool, hair, and nails function in man and beast. Those fish which have no fins and scales always dwell in the lower turbid waters and due to the great abundance of moistness and gatherings of water there, they cannot repel anything.
Hence they are creatures of cold fluid, which cleaves to them and is therefore more easily able to cause death, and it [the cold fluid] does in fact cause death in some waters, such as stagnant lakes. He also adds, "Now I have seen in some books of experiments that if an infant drinks of the milk of a swine, that child will become a leper.
This is a sign that there are very bad features to all unclean animals. He explains, "It is. Rabbi Dr. Charles B. Shilo Publishing House, , Subsequent citations to this work will be to Nahmanides, Leviticus. While the science of the medieval biblical scholars may not have been correct, their claims are nonetheless worthy of further investigation. During the middle ages, Jewish communities that observed the biblical dietary laws did not succumb to some of the plagues and epidemics that claimed many other communities.
It is indeed true that certain animals that are prohibited in the Bible may in fact cause disease. Rabbi James Lebeau notes that "shellfish and scavenger fish that dwell close to the bottom of bodies of water often carry typhoid or hepatitis.
Pigs may carry trichinosis. The hare may cause tularemia. Consumption of blood can produce problems since the blood's function is to carry off impurities from the body and it is in the blood that germs or spores of infectious disease circulate. His results indicated that the clean animals were less toxic to the plants than were the unclean animals, yet this is not decisive as concerns human consumption.
James M. The various attempts to prove that the Bible's food regulations exist to preserve the health of the Israelites have been criticized on a number of different grounds. Some scholars, like Lebeau, acknowledge that good hygiene may be an effect of the food regulations but deny that. One medieval commentator, Isaac Abrabanel, argued that attributing the biblical food. God forbid that I should believe that the reasons for forbidden foods are medicinal!
For were it so, the Book of God's Law would be in the same class as any of the minor brief medical books. Furthermore, our own eyes see that people who eat pork and insects and such. Moreover, there are more dangerous animals. And there are many poisonous herbs known to physicians which the Torah does not mention at all. All of which points to the conclusion that the Law of God did not come to heal bodies and seek their material welfare. Some modern scholars argue that because some of the permitted foods may cause a risk to human.
Leibowitz writes, "Since the Torah offered. Quoted in Frederick J. Lebeau, 17; Forst, 24; Houston, He believes the food regulations would have been required of. Anthropologist Marvin Harris sees no special health benefit to the biblical food laws:. All domestic animals are potentially hazardous to human health. Undercooked beef, for example, is a prolific source of tape worms, which can grow to a length of sixteen to twenty feet inside the human gut, induce a severe case of anemia, and lower the body's resistance to other diseases.
Cattle, goat, and sheep transmit the bacterial disease known as brucellosis, whose symptoms include fever, aches, pains, and lassitude. The most dangerous disease transmitted by cattle, sheep, and goats is anthrax, a fairly common disease of both animals and humans in Europe and Asia until the introduction of Louis Pasteur's anthrax vaccine in Unlike trichinosis, which does not produce symptoms in the majority of infected individuals and rarely has a fatal outcome, anthrax runs a swift course that begins with an outbreak of boils and ends in death.
Anthropologist Mary Douglas also finds the health hypothesis unsatisfactory, declaring: "Even if. Aryeh Newman. Subsequent citations to this work will be to Leibowitz, Leviticus. The ethical or moral interpretation of the food prohibitions dates to the time of Alexander the Great and the Hellenic influence on Jewish culture.
They differ, however, in their explanations of which ethical norms are promoted by the food laws and how the biblical food laws achieve the desired result. Aristeas, an Egyptian Jew who likely lived during the first century B. For all the winged creatures, of which we partake, are tame and distinguished by cleanly habits, feeding on wheat and pulse But as touching the forbidden winged creatures, thou wilt find that they are wild and carnivorous and use the strength which they possess to oppress the remainder of their kind and get their food by cruelly preying on the aforesaid tame creatures; and not on these only, but they also carry off lambs and kids, and do violence to dead men and living.
By these creatures, then, which he called unclean, the lawgiver gave a sign that those for whom the laws were ordained must practise righteousness in their hearts and oppress no one, trusting in their own strength, nor rob one of anything, but must direct their lives by righteous motives, even as the tame birds above mentioned consume the pulse that grows on the earth. By such symbols, then, the lawgiver has taught the understanding to note that they must be just and do nothing by violence, nor oppress others in.
Rabinowicz, "Dietary Laws," in Encyclopaedia Judaica, ed. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, , Philo also finds the biblical food regulations to be ethically motivated and believes that the dietary laws are symbolic of the virtues to which man should aspire. He likens the process of chewing the cud to the process of learning, for "the man who is being instructed, having received the doctrines and speculations of wisdom in at his ears from his instructor, derives a considerable amount of learning from him, but still is not able to hold it firmly and to embrace it all at once, until he has resolved over in his mind everything which he has heard by the continued exercise of his memory.
For this reason all animals with solid hoofs.. Of the creatures that live in the sea, only those which possess both fins and scales are permitted as food under the biblical food laws. Philo believes this law to be symbolic of the virtue of perseverance:. Those creatures which are destitute of both [fins and scales], or even of one of the two, are sucked down by the current, not being able to resist the force of the stream; but those which have both these characteristics can stem the water, and oppose it in front, and strive against it as against an adversary, and struggle with invincible good will and courage, so that if they are pushed they push in their turn; and if they are pursued they turn upon their foe and pursue it in their turn, making themselves broad roads in a pathless district, so as to have an easy passage to and fro.
Now both these things are symbols; the former of a soul devoted to pleasure, and the latter of one which loves perseverance and temperance. For the road which leads to pleasure is a down-hill one and very easy, being rather an absorbing gulf than a path. But the path which leads to temperance is up hill and laborious, but above all other roads advantageous.
And the one leads men downwards, and prevents those who travel by it from retracing their steps until they have arrived at the very lowest bottom, but the other leads to heaven; making those who do not weary before they reach it immortal, if they are only able to endure its rugged and difficult ascent.
Philo believes the dietary laws prohibiting the consumption of reptiles and the creatures that swarm upon the earth are also symbolic of admirable behavior:. When [the lawgiver] mentions reptiles he intimates under a figurative form of expression those who are devoted to their bellies, gorging themselves..
And when he speaks of animals with four legs and many feet, he intends to designate the miserable slaves not of one single passion, appetite, but of all the passions.. For the weight of the body being naturally heavy, drags down with it those who are but of small wisdom, strangling it and pressing it down by the weight of the flesh.
But blessed are they to whose lot it has fallen, inasmuch as they have been well and solidly instructed in the rules of sound education, to resist successfully the power of mere strength, so as to be able, by reason of what they have learnt, to spring up from the earth and all low things, to the air and the periodical revolutions of.
Now of land animals, the swine is confessed to be the nicest of all meats by those who eat it, and of all aquatic animals the most delicate are the fish that have no scales; and Moses is above all other men skilful [sic] in training and inuring persons of a good natural disposition to the practice of virtue by frugality and abstinence, endeavoring to remove costly luxury from their characters, at the same time not approving of unnecessary rigour,.
Certain meats are prohibited as food in order to promote the gentle nature of man's soul, according to Philo's interpretation:. If man takes on the behavior characteristic of the animals which he consumes, according to Philo's understanding of the biblical food regulations, man's behavior will be in compliance with the noblest of ethical principles. The midrashic compilation Genesis Rabbah expresses the opinion that the dietary laws were given to refine humanity: "Ray said, 'The mitzvot [commandments] were given only to refine humans.
For what difference does it make to the Holy One Blessed Be He whether an animal is slaughtered from the nape of the neck? Therefore, the mitzvot were given only to refine humans. Tanhum b. Hanilai said: [The biblical food laws] may be compared with the case of a physician who went to visit two sick persons, one who [he judged] would live, and another who would [certainly] die.
To the one who [he judged] would live, he said:. But as for the one who was to die, he said: 'Give him whatever he asks. XI, 2f. While Maimonides and Nahmanides believed that some foods were prohibited or permitted for health reasons, they found that ethical principles motivated other food regulations. According to Maimonides, one such ethically motivated regulation is the prohibition of killing an animal with its young on the same day: Freedman, Rabbi Dr.
Midrash Rabbah: Leviticus, 3d ed. There is no difference in this case between the pain of man and the pain of other living beings, since the love and tenderness of the mother for her young ones is not produced by reasoning, but by imagination, and this faculty exists not only in man but in most living beings. This law applies only to ox and lamb, because of the domestic animals used as food these alone are permitted to us, and in these cases the.
Thus, according to Maimonides' understanding, this food law compels man to act ethically towards domestic animals used as food. Nahmanides' interpretation of the ban on killing an animal with its young accords with that of Maimonides, holding that the biblical food law against killing a mother and her young on the same day and the law prohibiting the taking of the mother bird with her young exist in order to make man more ethical.
Nahmanides explains that these laws are designed "to teach us the trait of compassion and that we should not be cruel, for cruelty proliferates in man's soul.
They are decrees upon us to guide us and to teach us traits. However, he notes that these regulations are "not a matter of God's mercy extending to the bird's nest or the dam and its young, since His mercies did not extend so far into.
Nahmanides shares Philo's view that people took on the characteristics of the foods they consume. In his commentary, he writes:. Chavel New. Now the most important sign [of unfitness as food] in fowls is preying, for every bird of prey is invariably unfit [as food]. The Torah removed it [from us] as food, because its blood becomes heated up due to its cruelty, and is dark and thick, which gives rise to that bitter [fluid in the body] which is mostly black and tends to make the heart cruel.
Thus the reason for certain birds being forbidden is on account of their cruel nature. It is also possible that the reason for certain animals [being forbidden] is similar, since no animal that chews the cud and has a parted hoof is a beast of prey.
Israel's food choices are thus restricted to those animals with gentle natures, lest the people of Israel take on the cruel natures of the prohibited animals.
It is likewise for the protection of the human soul that Nahmanides believes the blood prohibition to have been created:. Now it is. If one were to eat the life of all flesh, it would then attach itself to one' own blood and they would become united in one's heart, and the result would be a thickening and coarseness of the human soul so that it would closely approach the nature of the animal soul which resided in that which he ate, since blood does not require digestion as other foods do, which thereby become changed, and thus man's soul will become combined with the blood of the animal!
And Scripture states, Who knoweth the spirit of man whether it goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast whether it goeth downward to the earth? It is for this reason that He said, For as to the life of all flesh, the blood thereof is all one with the flesh thereof for all flesh, whether man or beast, has its soul in the blood, and it is not fitting to mix the soul that is destined to destruction with that which is to live [in the hereafter].
Abrabanel shares Nahmanides' view that the biblical food regulations exist to preserve the purity of the human soul:. It therefore forbade foods which revolt the pure and intellectual soul, clogging the human temperament, demoralising the character, promoting an unclean spirit, defiling in thought and deed, driving out the pure and holy spirit.
For this reason the Almighty used the phrase "Do not revolt your souls with all the vermin. They were rather unclean and abominating, indicating the spiritual rather than physical source of their prohibition.
The instruction that a kid may not be boiled in its mother's milk has been perceived as an. Abraham ibn Ezra believed it. A modern scholar, A. Heschel, "explains that the. It would, therefore, be an act of ingratitude to take the offspring of such an animal.
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