Monday, November 15, 2021

When did God cancel the food laws?

“Evidently in the moment at which this was stated [in Acts 10:9-16]. But later Christians realized that the cancellation of this law was part of the new order brought by Jesus, and that some of the things said by Jesus implied the abolition of the Jewish distinction between things clean and unclean; this was the implication of what Jesus taught when he said that it was unnecessary to wash one's hand for ritual reasons (as distinct from hygienic reasons) before a meal, and Mark commented, 'Thus he declared all foods clean (Mk. 7:19). 

Similarly, Paul said, 'I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself((Rom. 14:14), and we can take it that this i principle was accepted in Corinth by the Jewish Christians who probably took their inspiration from Peter; what Paul was trying to teach them was not that ordinary food was 'clean' but that even food offered to idols and sold in the market place was 'clean', since idols were non-existent (1 Cor. 10:19). 

There need be no doubt, therefore, that at some early point, Peter and other Jewish Christians came to see that they could eat any kind of food and ignore the Old Testament ruling on the matter which was no longer valid.”

(Tyndale commentary on Acts by I.H. Marshall)

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