Some people are vegan, some are vegetarian, and some are unashamed meat eaters of all kinds of meat. Cultures around the world eat many foods that are forbidden in the kosher* diet of the Israelites. So, what is the biblical diet for Christians?
The Bible has the following four food covenants listed in it.
1. The Adam and Eve covenant. In this covenant Adam and Eve were to eat plants, fruits and seeds (nuts). Most biblical experts believe this was an entirely vegan diet. Scripture: I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. (Genesis 1:29). No killing animals and eating meat was allowed.
2. The Noah food covenant. In this covenant Noah and his family and all their descendants were allowed to eat meat. Sorry, no animals were consumed on the Ark despite what the cartoons tell you. Scripture: Genesis 9:3 Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. 4 “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it.
3. The Moses food covenant. In this covenant Moses was charged with teaching the Israelites to observe kosher eating practices. There are many people who try to understand why this was imposed on the Jews, but no one knows exactly for sure. God desired it and that settled it. Kosher was a way to distinguish Israelites from surrounding pagans, however. Archaeologists can tell ancient Israelite towns from pagan towns because Israelite towns do not have pig bones in their trash heaps (ancient trash heaps are a source of joy for archaeologists). Leviticus 11:1-47, and Deuteronomy 14:9, 21 represent most of the kosher food practices.
4. The Jesus food covenant.
a. In Mark 7:18-19, Jesus states, “18 “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? 19 For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body. (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)” Jesus sets the stage to overturn the kosher diet.
b. In Acts 10:1-8, through a dream Peter was commanded to kill unclean foods and eat them. In the dream Peter stated he would not violate the kosher laws. He is told that God can command the suspension of those food laws. The dream, however, was to prepare Peter to receive and help a non-Jew (someone who was usually considered unclean) but now followed the Jewish God.
c. Finally, Paul kept baptizing gentiles (non-Jews) and a controversy arose whether the gentiles now needed to observe Jewish food laws as a part of their Christian faith. Paul’s understanding of the Bible said ‘no’, but he took the matter to the church leaders in Jerusalem to get a final ruling. The church leaders scratched their heads and looked back at what Jesus taught in ‘a’ and the Holy Spirit in ‘b’ above. They realized the gentiles had no obligation to follow kosher rules.
When looking in the Old Testament for other guidelines, they came across the food covenant given to Noah. They decided that Noah’s covenant fit the food requirements best for gentile followers of Jesus. They told the Apostle Paul their decision and he agreed wholeheartedly with it. The return to the food covenant of Noah is the food covenant Christians practice today. See Acts 21:25.
So, for Christians, there are no food limitations. You can select a vegan or a vegetarian diet or you can eat any kind of meat. It does not matter what goes into your mouth, as long as it is not infected and harmful to anyone who eats it. If I may paraphrase what Jesus said, ‘it is not what goes in you that defiles you, it is what comes out of your mouth from your heart that defiles you.’ Food has nothing to do with that.
*Kosher is a term here that may or may not fit a more modern application of Old Testament food laws. The Old Testament laws, however, are the basis of any Jewish kosher understanding of food.
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