After reading Genesis and the story of Creation, it is clear that both Man and animals were vegetarian. Couls you give me the verse where meat is eaten for the first time? I would like to know how that happened.
I guess it has to do with sacrifice, but I’ m just guessing now.
Thank you
When God made a covenant with Noah after
he came out from the ark, he OFFERED a
sacrifice of clean animals, God said that he
and his family could eat them!(See Gen 8)
And God said: “Every moving thing that lives
shall be food for you” Gen 9:3
It has to do with explaining the order of creation. I’ll explain briefly but to answer the question, God gave meat to Noah in Genesis 9 after the flood.
***Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. *(Genesis 9:2-3)
This is the third creation account. Reading all of Genesis 8 and 9 makes this clear. The verbiage is the same as the first two creation accounts (Genesis 1 and Genesis 2-3). God recreates life starting with Noah and his family after destroying all life through the flood.
In all three creation accounts God is establishing an order to creation. Food illustrates this order - who gets to eat what. The eaten are a gift to the eaters and those who eat are to protect and minister to the eaten as a gift. Names are used this way in the second creation account - God names man and man names the beasts. We get our purpose and identity from the one who names us.
What is interesting in God’s recreation in Genesis 9 is that man is given flesh to eat. Man is allowed to flesh but God reserves the consumption of blood because “the life is in the blood.” God is preparing man for redemption - allowing man to eat flesh in preparation for eating the flesh of Jesus. God does not permit the consumption of blood however, because “The life is in the blood.” We are to wait for the Blood of Jesus. The life is in the blood so if we eat the blood of animals we will live the life of animals but if we eat the Blood of Jesus we will live the life of Jesus.
So it is a recreation. It established the proper order of creation. It is also a step in God plan, a preparation for consuming the flesh and blood of Jesus.
-Tim-
later jesus says he does not want sacrifice, so does that mean we shouldn’t eat meat anymore?
I don’t see it that way, since he said not what you eat make you impure AND that sacrifice is nothing if in our hearts we don’t do penance. The two are not related.
And I admit i must have missed the sacrifice of Noah in these chapters. All I read is that we are given the animals by God, to dominate them and to be our food. [edit 8:20]
Adam and Eve were clothed with skins of animal. (Genesis 3:21) Can’t we assume that they ate the meat of the animals as well? Abel kept sheep and sacrificed sheep to God. (Genesis 4:2,4) Can’t we assume that he ate the meat of the sheep as well?
We might, but all we know is that God provided them.
I’m not sure if we can assume that, because the offerings might have been Burnt Offerings, which no one legally could eat because all of the animal was burned up. The only thing that was not burned was the hide. But the complete law of the offerings had not been given yet, so I don’t think there were any rules to go by yet.
Hum after some thinking I guess you can’t, since they werent given the animals as food.
For sure it was in Genesis, I would say by Genesis 9:9 we see where man ate meat. Then of course you see how God ordered the sacrifice of the lamb and to eat it. That went al the way through until Jesus came. Then Jesus did do the miracles of the fish.
God isn’t opposed to sacrifice. He asks that we do it all the time. We sacrifice our worldly desires, our sufferings, and our disappointments to the Lord.
What God does not want is animal sacrifice. After the sacrifice of His Son, nothing else can compare! We continue to offer Jesus’ gift of redemption every time we celebrate the Eucharist together, otherwise known as the “Sacrifice of the Mass”.
We are not bound to the Old Law, but rather the Law of Christ. The Old law was given to the Hebrew people, but all things are now brought forward with the coming of Christ and those laws do not define true faith for the Christian. Faith is bound up in our obedience to the will of God and acceptance of His Divine Mercy and Love.
“The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every bird of the air, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.”
I found an article that you might find interesting. It is not a Catholic site, but it seems to be fully compatible with Catholic teaching. It does not answer your question about when the permission was granted, but rather affirms that it was allowed. Here are a few excerpts:
lavistachurchofchrist.org/LVanswers/2007/11-20.html
“… observe the Passover to the LORD. In the second month on the fourteenth day at twilight, they shall observe it; they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They shall leave none of it until morning, nor break a bone of it; according to all the statute of the Passover they shall observe it. But the man who is clean and is not on a journey, and yet neglects to observe the Passover, that person shall then be cut off from his people, for he did not present the offering of the LORD at its appointed time. That man will bear his sin” (Numbers 9:10-13).
…Jesus had to have eaten the Passover lamb because he was a Jew living under the law of Moses and the Bible states that he did so without sin.
Under the law of Christ, the New Testament, the decision whether to eat meat or not is a personal one… “Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him. Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand” (Romans 14:1-4). The eating of only vegetables is called the weaker position because the person is placing more limits upon himself than God has placed. It is not wrong to do so, but it isn’t an accurate reflection of God’s teachings. …notice the command that is specifically given to the vegetarian, “let not him who does not eat judge him who eats.”
Bold and underlining are mine.
Of course, the sacrifice of an animal was for the sins of the people, before the animals were used, people were used.
And we also know that eating animals or not makes no difference to God.
Yes but animal sacrifice must be done with penance, like we should at confession. Without it, the sacrifice is worthless, and it should be better to do penance without it, if you could!
I’d just like to add Romans 14 : 6-7 
Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.
I’ve no idea, because I’ve never sacrificed an animal for my sins 
I’ve just read this is how people throughout history progressed from thinking of God needing an offering of a human, animal or food…
The you here was meant by analogy, as to say “if one” you could say " if you. But Ok 
Well yes animal sacrifice should be done with penance, or penance alone is more effective than just killing a goat.
I knew what you meant
**
Killing an animal as a sacrifice to God would not be morally acceptable today for Christians. It would be the unnecessary killing of God’s creature. This is no longer an appropriate sacrifice.