Saturday study 2/7/26

 Part 7: On food laws

Theme series in the form of this question: 

Did Jesus actually change the Law of Moses?

• The point is to see whether Jesus was merely repeating Moses…or whether, as the New Covenant lawgiver, he changed and even overturned Torah at certain points: 
• Today we look at the Jewish food laws and whether or not Jesus changed them. 

What was said? Leviticus 11; Deut 14

Later, in Leviticus 20:

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

25a 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.

• The real purpose for the food laws was 3-fold:

1. To separate Israel from other nations; 
2. To remind Israel they were God's special, chosen nation;
3. To test the obedience of His people.

For Health Reasons?

• Throughout history there have been claims that food laws were given for health reasons.
• I was surpirised to learn that one of the earliest proponents was a Jew, the noted Medieval scholar Maimonides. 
• His Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190AD) influenced modern-day Jewish kosherlaws as well as Islam's food laws, known as halal. 
• Jewish food laws had nothing to do with health, noted by most scholars and historians today.
• The ESV Study Bible comment on 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.”

• Food laws for health reasons opens too many troubling questions.

Deut 14.21a NASB 1995

“You shall not eat anything which dies of itself. 

You may give it to the alien who is in your town, so that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner, for you are a holy people to the LORD your God." 

• Did God want the rest of the nations to be unhealthy let alone poison themselves?

In Deuteronomy 12:21 God instructs certain clean animals to be slaughtered "as I have instructed you."

• Why if they're inherently healthier than unclean animals?
• Why would God not also give them laws for a healthy plant diet? 
• What about other animals not listed as "unclean" that might be dangerous to your health?
• The point is God did not want the rest of the nations to be unhealthy, let alone poison themselves! 
• And just because modern-science sees health benefits to some of the foods listed doesn't mean that's what the biblical writers were thinking too. 
• After all, any food selected properly and prepared can lead to a healthy diet.

But I say? Mark 7

• The Context has to do with later Jewish traditions that prescribed ritual washing of hands, utensils, and even furniture!
• But Jesus takes the opportunity to teach on the food laws.  

14 Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “All of you listen,” he said, “and try to understand. 

15 It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.”

• What goes into your body?
• As a result, Mark later says in v.19 that by saying these things Jesus had "declared all foods clean."

But what about? 

• Some recent scholars argue Jesus refers only to the digestive process (stomach "purifying" food by expelling waste into the latrine), based on the Greek and some ancient Jewish views of excrement as non-impure; 
• But this remains a fringe view with serious challenges mainly, the traditional-majority reading (Jesus declared "all foods clean") appears in the overwhelming majority of manuscripts and all major critical editions (Nestle-Aland 28, UBS5, SBLGNT, THGNT).
• And no significant textual variant omits or substantially alters the phrase;
• The noted Bruce Metzger in his Textual Commentary gives this reading an "A"rating (highest certainty).
• Jesus' core statement in Mark 7:15 (what you eat does not make you unclean), logically includes foods prohibited in Leviticus 11 & Deuteronomy 14—not just other added traditions.
• Regardless, if you follow the alternate interpretation, it would still mean that the digestive system “cleanses” all kinds of ritual impurity, including foods!

What did Jesus do?

• Jesus also practiced what he preached when he ate with sinners, i.e., non-Torah keeping Jews or Gentiles: Luke 5

30 The Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 

31 Jesus answered, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; 

32 I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.” Cp. Matt 9:10-17; Mark 2:15-22

• This also serves as a prelude to the coming KOG on earth: 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."

• NOTE: the patriarchs did not keep food laws.

Apostolic church: Acts 15; cp. Romans 14; 

• Later apostolic preaching & practice confirm the words of Jesus. 
• Peter’s resistance to eating unclean animals in Acts 10, the divine vision explicitly connects food laws with the removal of Jew-Gentile boundaries. 
• The Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 concludes that Gentiles are not required to get circumcised to keep the Law of Moses, note it's "a package deal";
• Paul recalls Jesus’ teachings with even greater clarity, read Rom. 14.
• Therefore, if you're a strong Christian you should put up with the weak Christian so as not to please yoursef but always with the goal that eventually all Christians must come to be like-minded in Jesus, read Rom 15:1-16.
• Note the clincher to Rom 14 in 15:

14 "But I myself am persuaded about you, my brothers and sisters, that you are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another."

• For Paul to reintroduce food laws would mean a weak Church because the barrier between Jew and Gentile has not been removed in Messiah (Eph. 2:14; Col. 2:16-17; Gal. 4:10).
• He warns in 1 Timothy 4:3–5:

“These people forbid marriage and demand abstinence from foods which God created to be eaten with thanksgiving… For everything created by God is good, and no food should be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving…” 

• Paul even goes beyond the council's verdict declaring that meat offered to idols is “nothing” (read 1 Cor. 8). 
• Paul says this type of new "knowledge" (gnosis) comes with a greater level of responsibility, as Paul repeatedly warns throughout his letters;  

Summary

• OT purpose: national separation, identity, and obedience-test for Israel.
• Jesus is not simply repeating Moses; he is the New Covenant lawgiver(Moses redivivus).
• Jesus explicitly teaches: what you eat does not defile you (Mark 7:15).
• Later, Mark interprets this as Jesus declaring all foods clean; took awhile for some Apostles to grasp full NC ministry of Jesus, cp. Peter;
• Jesus’ practice (eating with “sinners”) anticipates the Kingdom, Jew-Gentile table fellowship.
• The Apostolic church verdict, led by the Spirit, verified Jesus;
• Paul’s letters go betond council verdict, meats sacrificed to idols are allowed;
• Paul's call for the “strong” to limit their liberty for the sake of the weak does not mean he’s partly re-establishing food laws in the church;
• Paul's goal is that, over time, everyone becomes like-minded in Messiah and understands the freedom he taught and won for his church;
• So in answer to the theme question: Yes, Jesus changed and effectively overturned significant parts of the Law of Moses, while fulfilling their deeper purpose in a new way.