Christians and Food Laws discussion notes

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Why did God classify some foods as “unclean”?

• The simple answer, because God said so!
• The Bible focuses on the purpose which explains the rationale;
• Primarily for religious reasons, to distinguish one nation from the others: 

Lev 11.8 "they are unclean to you."

Lev. 11.28 "they are unclean to you."

Meier, A Marginal Jew Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Volume 5, 1991:

"The most frequent use of “clean” and “unclean” in the Jewish Scriptures is in the context of cult." 

• As a sign to the nations:

Leviticus 20:24b I am the LORD your God, who has set you apart from the peoples.

25 You are therefore to distinguish between clean and unclean animals and birds. 

26 You are to be holy to Me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be My own.

Are food laws for health issues?

• It was not always so; In the beginning, all foods are clean; God’s Covenant with Noah declared all foods clean: Genesis 9

2 "Every bird of the air, every creature that crawls on the ground, and all the fish of the sea. They are delivered into your hand. 

3 Everything that lives and moves will be food for you."

• NOTE: “unclean” does not equal bad, cp. Gen 1.25

God made all sorts of wild animals, livestock, and small animals, each able to produce offspring of the same kind. And God saw that it was good.

Jer. 27.5

With my great strength and powerful arm I made the earth and all its people and every animal. I can give these things of mine to anyone I choose.

• Unclean does not equal unhealthy: ESV Study Bible, Lev. 11.1-8

The diet of these animals is apparently not the basis of their cleanness or uncleanness. The passage itself says nothing about what the animals eat, and the camel, rock badger (hyrax), and hare are exclusively vegetarian but unclean. 

• Improper cooking/serving of any meat can be unhealthy!
• For Christians, the NT removes all distinctions: Jesus, Mar 7:14-20; God, Acts 10-11; Jerusalem church, Acts 14; James, 21; Paul, Rom 14.14, 20, etc.

Tyndale, Acts by I.H. Marshall.

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 (Mk. 7:19). 

Similarly, Paul ((Rom. 14:14).... 

For the NT the words common = unclean are synonymous!

• Unclean animals came to be called "common" during the Maccabean period, BC times.
• Hence, in the NT Greek koinos common is synonymous with akarthatos unclean used in LXX of Leviticus:

Mark 7.2, 5 "common hands";

Mark 7:15 "Nothing that enters a man from the outside can defile make them unclean, koinos."

Mark 7:19b, most translations.

“In saying this Jesus declared all foods clean [katharizon].”

Cp. parallel account in Luke 11.41 GNT

“But give what is in your cups and plates to the poor, and everything will be ritually clean [kathara] for you.”

• The Dr. Historian Luke:

Acts 10.14b NASB 1995

But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy [koinos] and unclean[akathartos].”

Acts 11.8b NIV

“Nothing impure [koinos] or unclean [akathartos] has ever entered my mouth.”

• The Apostle Paul

Romans 14.14 

“I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean [koinos] in itself.”

Romans 14.20b

“All food is clean [katharos]."

NOTE: Jew-Gentile Table-fellowship established by Jesus.

• Jesus ate with “sinners," i.e., Jews or Gentiles who did not meet the demands of the purityregulations of the Torah.  

Matt 9:10-17; Mark 2:15-22; Luke 5:29-39.

• Jewish ID markers removed by Jesus meaning non-Torah keeper and Gentile inclusion in the Messianic banquet: Luke 13:

28“There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. 

29 People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. 

BOTTOM LINE: Apostolic council verdict

• Gentiles should not be circumcicsed, i.e., not keep the Law of Moses!

Acts 15.19

“And so my judgment is that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.”

Acts 21:25a, almost 10 years later!

“With regard to the Gentiles who have believed, we have written a letter containing our decision and concluded that they observe no such thing.”

Summary:

• In Rom 14.14, 20 Paul was convinced, by the teaching of the lord Jesus himself back in Mar 7, that everything is clean!
• As a result, the HS directs the Jewish Jerusalem Council "concluded that they observe no such thing.”
• NT warnings! Col 2.16a

"So don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink" 

Heb 13.9, etc. 

“Don’t be swept off your course by all sorts of outlandish teachings. 

It is good that we should gain inner strength from the grace of God and not from rules about food, which have never benefited those who observed them.”