Biblical food commandments

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The biblical dietary laws belong to the religious dietary regulations and can be differentiated into:

  1. Food laws in the narrower sense: food taboos and regulations on the preparation of permitted foods;
  2. Purity laws: Regulations on the way in which food is consumed, ie how a meal participant prepares himself (for example by ritual hand washing) and how the vessels used at the meal are to be treated.

For early Christianity , obeying the food laws because of mission among non-Jews became an urgent question, because table community could only be practiced with a (minimal) consensus.

Religious-historical classification

According to Mary Douglas , concepts of purity can be found in all religions and cultures. The classification of objects and people in one's own environment into pure and impure leads to rules as to how the ego may come into contact with them. This is how norms of social behavior emerge: delimitation from the outside and unity - with simultaneous internal differentiation - in one's own community. Since every culture has its own concept of purity, it functions as a means of constructing its own identity. In the course of the New Perspective on Paul , Krister Stendahl and others advocate the thesis that Paul of Tarsus does not wrestle so much with the meaning of the Torah as a “way of salvation” for Christians, but with its importance for the construction of a (own) Jewish identity and the demarcation to the outside.

Ancient Judaism

The food laws were not a fixed system in ancient Judaism, but a bundle of numerous regulations (halachoth) that were constantly evolving. The food commandments laid down in the two lists Lev 11 and Deut 14 were particularly important, as they were observed by all Jews who were observing the Torah. Both texts establish a connection between the holiness of Israel and the avoidance of "hideous" foods ( Hebrew שֶׁקֶץ sheḳets ). In terms of content, it is primarily about the consumption of meat: The meat of which animals can be considered as food? How are these animals killed? How is their meat prepared?

Slaughter permit and blood taboo

The Exegesis of the Old Testament describes a written source as a priestly script, which was combined with older materials to form the entire work of the Torah. It divides the story into three epochs:

  • From creation to the flood.
  • Spread of humanity over the whole earth and separation of the family of Abraham.
  • From the Abrahamic covenant (Gen 17) to the beginning of the worship service in the tent sanctuary.
Chutes a chicken

Each of these three periods is associated with food imperatives. According to Gen 1.29-31  EU, humans and animals are vegetarians with a separate menu. Since fish and pets do not compete with humans for food, they are not specifically mentioned here. At the end of the priestly tale of the Flood, meat is tolerated as food. “In the time between creation and the Sinai revelation, the foundation of the order for Jewish life in its pagan environment falls. This ... [includes] the permission to slaughter with a fundamental ban on the consumption of blood (Gen 9). "

“Then God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: Be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth! The fear and horror of you shall be upon all the animals of the earth, on all the birds of the sky, on all that stirs on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hand. Everything that moves and lives should serve as nourishment for you. I hand all this over to you like the green plants. You are not allowed to eat only meat with its life, its blood. "

- Gen 9.1-4  EU

In order to observe the taboo of enjoying blood, a certain form of slaughter ( shafts ) is required. Whether or not the meat of an animal can be eaten does not only depend on the species, but on the way the animal died. Animals of the species permitted for consumption that have died due to injury, illness or old age are not actually considered as food, but the strictness of the prohibition varies within the Torah: those who touch or eat carrion are unclean for a certain period of time.

Lists of clean and unclean animals

Most recent research assumes that both texts Lev 11 and Deut 14 are independent adaptations of a common source.

Priestly scripture

As a prelude to the priestly instruction on cleanliness and uncleanliness (Lev. 11-16) there is a list of clean and unclean animals in chapter 11. A basic set of verses 1–23, 41–42 has been expanded by several editors.

In its original form, the list divided the animal world into the following categories, which are incompatible with modern zoological classification due to their time of origin:

The camel, a callous sole, was not recognized as a cloven-hoofed animal after inspection
  • Quadrupeds , divided into cattle and wild animals. A common rule applies to both: Whatever ruminates and has split hooves (= ungulates) can be eaten. The classification follows the appearance, therefore the camel is not counted among the artifacts and is called unclean. The chewing movements of rock snotters and hares are interpreted as ruminating, but based on the criterion of their feet, it is determined that both animal species are unclean. The whole system of the quadruped pursues the goal of marking the (wild) pig as unclean: "The ruler of the universe knows that there is no other animal that has cleft hooves and is unclean than the pig." ( Babylonian Talmud , Chullin 59a)
  • Teeming with water . From the landlocked perspective, it succinctly states that edible fish must have fins and scales. All other aquatic animals are called "hideous". Fish hardly played a role in the diet of the Jerusalem population: there are no fish in the Dead Sea , the Sea of ​​Galilee is too far away for fish to have been brought from there to Jerusalem, and the eastern Mediterranean was only created through the construction of the Suez Canal populated by the fauna of the Red Sea . The consequence of this is that the Jerusalem fish knew at best as stockfish and not a single type of fish is named in the entire Hebrew Bible , but the mythical sea creatures Tanninim and Leviathan are .
  • Winged . In contrast to the aquatic animals, the bird world is presented with a wealth of species and knowledge. This reflects the importance of the Jordan Valley for the route of migratory birds. Pigeons are mentioned in the Torah as sacrificial animals, quail had a certain importance in the menu, and chickens have been bred as domestic animals since the Persian era . The bird list in Lev 11: 13–19  EU does not go into this, but enumerates numerous “hideous” winged animals. Their names are very difficult to interpret because they were onomatopoeic based on their reputation. Raven, stork, hoopoe and various species of vulture as well as the bat are secured. A common criterion for their "abomination" could be that they are scavengers and / or nocturnal.
Locusts are used as food in African countries, here a grasshopper dish from Chad . The Torah describes some types of locusts as kosher, and Yemeni Jews still count locusts as a food today
  • Swarm of air . Flying insects, strangely referred to as "four-footed", are all considered "hideous," with the exception of locusts, four of which are named and identified as edible.
  • Swarm of land . The verses Lev 11,41-42  EU are separated from the rest of the list by an addendum in the final text, but form one unit. All small animals among the land animals are "hideous" and inedible. Meant are snakes, millipedes, beetles.

A first addendum to the list can be found in Lev 11,24-38  EU . He explains what to do in the event of animal contamination, and in verse 26 answers the question of how ungulates (horse, donkey, mule, onager) should be classified. They are meant when the terminology of the priestly scriptures speaks of animals that are neither ruminants nor couple herders. In everyday life they played an important role as pack animals and mounts. Therefore, as one could misunderstand the text, it is not forbidden to touch live ungulates, but their carrion makes unclean. Even animals with paws (e.g. bears, dogs, cats, foxes) are forbidden for consumption according to verse 27. A further specification in verses 29–30 lists eight types of vegetation by name which, because of their size, were considered as food and were therefore expressly forbidden. Here, too, the translation of the animal names is very difficult. This addendum contains important regulations on the ritual impurity of vessels with a view to the history of their effects. Vessels can themselves accept impurity through impure food and then transfer this impurity to every content with which they are filled.

Another addendum in verses 43–45 sharpens the “abomination” of the country heavens. The fact that this is emphasized could be related to the fact that some of the animals categorized below are often found in the vicinity of food as pests.

Deuteronomy

The peculiarity of Dtn 14 compared to Lev 11 is that the large land animals suitable for consumption are now also named:

A forbidden preparation of food that is permitted in itself is the cooking of a baby boeck in its mother's milk ( Dtn 14.21  EU ), which is also found in the Torah in the federal book (Ex 23.19; Ex 34.26). There is no justification for this rule, nor does the reader learn whether a dish cooked in this way despite the prohibition may be eaten.

Meal fellowship with non-Jews

For ancient Judaism and then also for early Christianity, the meal community with non-Jews was a very sensitive issue. In the Torah, this problem is only just mentioned in Ex 34.15  EU . A common meal is refused on the grounds that the heathen sacrificed their idols on this occasion. As a consequence, the question arises on the horizon whether Jews are allowed to eat meat that was slaughtered by pagans in a cultic context, referred to in the New Testament as "meat offered to idols."

In addition, there are also texts in the Hebrew Bible in which eating at the table of non-Jews is presented as completely unproblematic ( 2 Kings 25.29–30  EU , Jer 52.31–32  EU ).

Pork taboo

Typical of Hellenistic Judaism are narrative texts that describe how their protagonists Tobit, Daniel and Ester stick to the food commands and master any problems that arise. The stories take place in the time of the Assyrians, Babylonians or Persians, but are intended to serve as models for behavior in the time of Hellenism and the Roman Empire. Authors of Hellenistic Judaism strongly emphasize the differences between the diets obeyed by Jews and non-Jews, with the focus on the pork taboo - a topic that is already heralded in the Hebrew Bible ( Isa 65.4  EU , Isa 66.17  EU ) and then perceived in the ancient world by Jewish and non-Jewish authors as one of the main points of the Jewish religion.

Early Christianity

Jesus of Nazareth

According to the presentation of the Gospels, Jesus of Nazareth relativized the importance of the food commandments. The Jesus Logion Mk 7.15 (Mt 15.11) is not easy to understand. For Mark the Evangelist it means that Jesus fundamentally abolished the distinction between clean and unclean. In this sense he adds the parenthesis at the end of v. 19 : "... with this he declared all dishes to be clean." The evangelist Matthew intervened here, but not so strongly that the Markinian understanding would be excluded. He understood the Logion as a pointed rhetorical formulation that ensures that the commandment of love is more important than cultic purity. Contrary to the view of the evangelist Mark and Paul , Jewish Christianity insisted that Jesus did not give up the Jewish food commandments in principle - historically this should be true, because the food commandments only became a problem when Christianity spread into the non-Jewish world.

Paul of Tarsus

Paul addressed the issue of whether Christians were bound by food laws on several occasions. In a fundamental way he clarified this subject in the 14th chapter of Romans. He first stated that his addressees followed a different practice: "One believes that he (may) eat everything, the other, weak (as he is), eats (only) vegetables." (Verse 2) Ulrich Wilckens explains that “vegetable eaters” is a polemical term for Christians who grew up in the Jewish tradition and who, as Christians, did not want to miss the usual diet. In the “pagan 'contaminated' city” of Rome, you could never be sure whether the meat you bought met the requirements of the Torah; For the same concern, some Christians in Rome also did not drink wine ( Rom 14.21  EU ). Paul agreed with them: The observance of the food commandments is not necessary for Christians to be saved, but through baptism Christians live in the freedom to be able to arrange their menu according to their own conscience - nobody is forced to break taboos. For himself, Paul shared the position of the “strong”: No food is inherently unclean ( Rom 14:14  EU ). But the offense of fellow Christians by showing one's not eating as wrong by ostentatiously eating is a violation of the law of love.

"[T] he kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, it is justice, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."

- Rom 14.17  EU

Paul took a sentence here that originally warned against excessive behavior and gave it a new meaning: The kingdom of God , in which Christians participate, does not consist in eating or avoiding food, but in the way we treat one another.

Lucanian history

Food regulations for Christians, so-called James Clauses , formulated by the Apostles' Council in Jerusalem:

“For the Holy Spirit and we have decided not to impose any more burden on you than these necessary things: meat sacrificed to idols, blood, strangled meat [that is, meat from animals that are not bled to death] and fornication. If you guard against it, you will act correctly. "

- Acts 15: 28-29  EU

How does such a short version of the biblical food commandments come about? Two explanations are suggested, both of which have their problems:

  • It could be an adaptation of the commandments that non-Israelites had to obey in order to be tolerated in the Land of Israel ( Lev 17: 8–16  EU ). Against this is the fact that these commandments do not establish a table fellowship between Israelites and non-Israelites, furthermore that the regulation should be practiced in Antioch on the Orontes or in the ancient Mediterranean region at all, i.e. there is no reference to the Land of Israel, which is constitutive for Lev 17.
  • It could be an adaptation of the Noachidian commandments . The main argument against this is that the compilation of the Noachidic commandments comes from the Tosefta and is therefore younger than the New Testament.

Christian reception history

For the Jewish reception history see the main article Kashrut . When the literal observance of the biblical food commandments had become obsolete for many Christian authors in late antiquity, allegory offered the possibility of extracting spiritual messages from the text. For example, Gregory the Great explained that fish with fins (the scales were neglected in this context) are able to jump over the surface of the water. In the same way, the Christian should leave the seabed of worries and soar up to God.

Today only a few Christian communities obey the Old Testament diets. These include the Seventh-day Adventists and smaller Adventist groups, Molokans , parts of the Thomas Christians, and some messianic Jewish communities.

Many people who are faithful to the Bible justify their vegetarianism with the diet of people after creation (Gen. 1.29) :

“Then God said, I hereby give you all the plants in the whole earth that bear seeds, and all the trees with seed-bearing fruits. They should serve you as food. "

- Gen 1.29  EU

Since it is not explicitly mentioned at this point that animals should also serve as food, there is the view that according to the Bible, as God's creation, man should actually live vegetarian or even vegan at his behest . Rastafari refer to this diet as I-tal : "We are basically vegetarians and only seldom enjoy animal meat, but it is absolutely forbidden to eat pork in all forms, from mussels, scaly fish, snails etc." (Samuel Elisha Brown)

literature

  • Mary Douglas : Purity and Danger. A Study of Perceptions of Pollution and Taboo. Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-496-00767-2 , pp. 60-78 (“The horrors of the third book of Mose”).
  • Christina Eschner : Eating in ancient Judaism and early Christianity: Discourses on the social significance of table community, food bans and purity regulations . Brill, Leiden 2019. ISBN 978-9004-39183-3 .
  • Christoph Heil: The rejection of the food commandments by Paul. On the question of the apostle's position in relation to the law. (Bonn Biblical Contributions 96) Beltz Athenaeum Verlag, Weinheim 1994, ISBN 3-89547-062-7 .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christina Eschner: Essen in ancient Judaism and early Christianity , Leiden 2019, pp. 12–15.
  2. ↑ Christina Eschner: Essen in ancient Judaism and early Christianity , Leiden 2019, pp. 12–15.
  3. ↑ Christina Eschner: Essen in ancient Judaism and early Christianity , Leiden 2019, p. 29.
  4. ↑ Christina Eschner: Essen in ancient Judaism and early Christianity , Leiden 2019, pp. 48–51.
  5. ↑ Annette Schellenberg: Man, the image of God? On the idea of ​​a special position of humans in the Old Testament and in other ancient oriental sources . Zurich 2011, p. 48-49 .
  6. ↑ Jan Christian Gertz : The first book of Mose (Genesis). The prehistory Gen 1–11 . Göttingen 2018, p. 70 .
  7. ↑ Jan-Christian Gertz: Torah and Front Prophets . In: Jan Christian Gertz (Hrsg.): Basic information Old Testament . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 6th, revised and expanded edition Göttingen 2019, pp. 193–312, here p. 245.
  8. ↑ Christina Eschner: Essen in ancient Judaism and early Christianity , Leiden 2019, p. 35 f. 41.
  9. ↑ Christina Eschner: Essen in ancient Judaism and early Christianity , Leiden 2019, p. 33.
  10. ↑ Thomas Staubli: The books Leviticus, Numbers (= New Stuttgart Commentary on the Old Testament . Volume 3). Verlag Katholisches Bibelwerk, Stuttgart 1996, p. 96.
  11. ↑ Thomas Staubli: The books Leviticus, Numbers (= New Stuttgart Commentary on the Old Testament . Volume 3). Verlag Katholisches Bibelwerk, Stuttgart 1996, p. 97.
  12. ↑ Thomas Staubli: The books Leviticus, Numbers (= New Stuttgart Commentary on the Old Testament . Volume 3). Verlag Katholisches Bibelwerk, Stuttgart 1996, p. 98 f.
  13. ↑ Example: Hebrew פֶּרֶס pereṣ bearded vulture or lammergeyer , named for its habit of dropping bones from a great height in order to break them (סרס).
  14. ↑ Thomas Staubli: The books Leviticus, Numbers (= New Stuttgart Commentary on the Old Testament . Volume 3). Verlag Katholisches Bibelwerk, Stuttgart 1996, p. 99 f.
  15. ↑ Thomas Staubli: The books Leviticus, Numbers (= New Stuttgart Commentary on the Old Testament . Volume 3). Verlag Katholisches Bibelwerk, Stuttgart 1996, p. 100.
  16. ^ A b Thomas Staubli: The books Leviticus, Numbers (= New Stuttgart Commentary on the Old Testament . Volume 3). Verlag Katholisches Bibelwerk, Stuttgart 1996, p. 102.
  17. ↑ Thomas Staubli: The books Leviticus, Numbers (= New Stuttgart Commentary on the Old Testament . Volume 3). Verlag Katholisches Bibelwerk, Stuttgart 1996, p. 101.
  18. ↑ Christina Eschner: Essen in ancient Judaism and early Christianity , Leiden 2019, p. 54.
  19. ↑ Christina Eschner: Essen in ancient Judaism and early Christianity , Leiden 2019, pp. 48–51.
  20. ↑ Christina Eschner: Essen in ancient Judaism and early Christianity , Leiden 2019, p. 37.
  21. ↑ Christina Eschner: Essen in ancient Judaism and early Christianity , Leiden 2019, pp. 56–58.
  22. ↑ Christina Eschner: Essen in ancient Judaism and early Christianity , Leiden 2019, pp. 60–64.
  23. ↑ Joachim Gnilka : The Gospel according to Markus, Mk 1–8,26 (= EKK Volume II / 1), Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1979, p. 278.
  24. ↑ Ulrich Luz : The Gospel according to Matthew, Mt 8-17 (= EKK Volume I / 2). Neukirchener Verlag, 3rd, reviewed edition 1999, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1999, p. 424 f.
  25. ^ Ulrich Wilckens: The letter to the Romans, Röm 12-16 (= EKK, Volume VI / 3), Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1982, p. 80.
  26. ↑ Ulrich Wilckens: The letter to the Romans, Röm 12-16 (= EKK, Volume VI / 3), Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1982, p. 83.
  27. ↑ Ulrich Wilckens: The letter to the Romans, Röm 12-16 (= EKK, Volume VI / 3), Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1982, p. 83.
  28. ↑ Ulrich Wilckens: The letter to the Romans, Röm 12-16 (= EKK, Volume VI / 3), Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1982, p. 92.
  29. ^ Ulrich Wilckens: The Letter to the Romans, Röm 12-16 (= EKK, Volume VI / 3), Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1982, p. 93.
  30. ↑ Meinolf Schumacher : The leaps of the fish. A meal prescription in metaphor and allegory . In: Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte 102, 1991, pp. 307-312 ( digitized version )
  31. ↑ Quoted from: Thomas Staubli: The Books Leviticus, Numbers (= New Stuttgart Commentary Old Testament . Volume 3). Verlag Katholisches Bibelwerk, Stuttgart 1996, p. 363.