THE YEAR OF FAITH KNOW OUR CATHOLIC FAITH “THE ISSUE ON FORBIDDEN FOODS ACCORDING TO THE BIBLE” (final part) QUESTION: What about the issue on forbidden foods, especially blood and meat of strangled animals? On the other hand, someone quoted the Bible to me that all food is good when accepted with thanksgiving. What now is the truth? EXPLANATION: This again the classic example of an endless controversy and confusion on a topic, when regulations intended for the Jewish people are taken as though they are meant and binding for all. It is just like the Sabbath issue, or the issue on Purification Requirements, and so on. For instance, the prohibition against eating meat of strangled animals because there’s blood in it, if one looks hard at the pertinent biblical text in the matter, one sees clearly that it is a prohibition intended for the Jewish people to protect them from the other nations that did not worship Yahweh. The passage says: “Then the people extremely worn out, rushed to the spoils and took sheep, oxen, and calves, and after they had slaughtered them on the ground, they ate over the blood. Saul was told that the people were sinning against Yahweh by eating over the blood. He said: ‘You have acted like pagan people!” (1Samuel 14:32-33). If you observe well, the concern here was acting like the people of the other nations, the pagan people. Here, it’s important to note that the concern is not on the food as such, but on what the other nations are practicing. On the other hand, with the coming of Christ the change of attitude towards the Law of Moses is noticeable in the regulations the Apostles imposed on the new Community of Christians which not included non-Jewish converts. It was willing to do away with many Hewish regulations and requirements; however, still respecting the law that safeguarded Yahweh’s people from pagan practices. “Because of this, I think that we should not make difficulties for those non-Jews who are turning to God. let us just tell them not to eat food that is unclean from having been offered to idols;… and not to eat the flesh of animals that have been strangled, or any blood. For from the earlier times Moses has been taught in every place, and every Sabbath his laws are recalled” (Acts 19:20). Notice the word “idols”. It does not say, offered to Yahweh, but to idols, indicating the idolatrous practices of the non-Jews nations. This was to safeguard them from falling back into their pagan practices, while they became Christian converts. In other words, the issue was not so much on food as on protection and safeguards, which latter would lose their binding force with the establishment of the new people of God, the Christian Community. In the following Bible quotes we shall see the difference between the regulations given to the Jews as protection and safeguards, and the teachings later when Christ had come, when there’s no more distinction between Jew or Greek, man and woman, master or slave, as all are children of God. So we read in Galatians 3: “Now, in Christ Jesus, all of you are sons of God through faith… There is no longer any difference between Jew and Greek, or between slave and freeman, or between man and woman: but all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:26-28). With the new dispensation, we can now distinguish clearly between laws imposed on the Jews and laws binding for us Christians. See the following distinctions as to foods and blood: REGULATIONS FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE: “Let everyone distinguish between the clean and the unclean, between creatures that may be eaten and creatures that may not” (Lev 11:47). “Everything that moves and lives shall be food for you … Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood” (Gen 9:3-4). “All the fat belongs to Yahweh. This is a law forever for all your descendants, wherever they may live: never eat either fat or blood” (Lev 3:17). “Do not eat anything over the blood nor practice divination or astrology. Do not round off the side growth of your heads… Do not make cuttings in your flesh, or make tattoo marks on yourselves. I am Yahweh” (Lev 19:29). If you study the bible quotes you will notice that the things prohibited are not only certain meats and blood, but also, fat, divination, astrology, self-mutilation and tattoo in the same strain. REGULATIONS FOR US, CHRISTIANS: “Then a voice said to him, ‘Get up, Peter, kill and eat!’ But Peter replied, ‘Certainly not, Lord! I have never eaten any common or unclean creatures.’ And again a second time the voice spoke, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call common” (Acts 10:13-15). “II know, I am sure of this in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself, - it is only unclean to those who considers it unclean” (Rom 14:14). “Everything created by God is good, and all food is lawful; nothing is to be rejected if we receive it with thanksgiving, for it is blessed with the word of God and prayer, and made holy” (1Timothy 4:4). We learn from the foregoing biblical quotes that for us, Christians, there is nothing unclean. Only we must always receive the food with prayer and thanksgiving. FOR US, CHRISTIANS, THE LAW OF LOVE IS SUPREME: Our respect for the conscience of another person. We should always be careful not to scandalize our brothers and sisters because of food. “eat then, whatever is sold at the market, and do not have misgivings about where it comes from… However, if somebody tells you that the meat is from the offerings to idols, then do not eat out of consideration for those warning you and for the sake of their conscience” (1Cor 10:26-28). From here we can see that the giving of a scandal or a stumbling-block to another is one of the grave sins, because it is against the Law of Love. This way of understanding the Bible text is a parallel application of how the issue on carved images is to be handled and understood, always keeping in mind the distraction between prohibitions directed to the Jews and the laws that are biding for us, Christians. This way we become capable of interpreting and understanding the Bible texts properly and correctly, and we shall be able to do away with contradictions, since God doesn’t contradict himself… (by Erasio Flores, SVD)
Posted on: Sat, 08 Jun 2013 23:34:41 +0000
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