Biblical Dietary Restrictions

[CMBlaise]

I wondering about the change we see in Genesis, where all of creation is initially depicted as being entirely vegetarian:

[bibledrb]Genesis 1:29-30[/bibledrb]

And then after the Flood, we get to eat pretty much everything:

[bibledrb]Genesis 9:3-4[/bibledrb]

So I was curious, is there some sort of theological significance behind this change, and have people written extensively about it? It seems minor, but I bet it could potentially be very interesting.

 

[NHInsider]

Thomas Howard deals with this a little in Hallowed Be This House - basically he sees a theology of sacrifice that foreshadows the Redemption - your life depends on the death of another creature. Good read, btw, not just for this topic - I love Tom Howard’s stuff.

 

[diggerdomer]

I wondering about the change we see in Genesis, where all of creation is initially depicted as being entirely vegetarian:

[bibledrb]Genesis 1:29-30[/bibledrb]

And then after the Flood, we get to eat pretty much everything:

[bibledrb]Genesis 9:3-4[/bibledrb]

So I was curious, is there some sort of theological significance behind this change, and have people written extensively about it? It seems minor, but I bet it could potentially be very interesting.

We don’t know that all of creation was initially vegetarian. That’s not anything the Catholic Church teaches.

 

[CMBlaise]

Thanks, NH Insider. I’ll check it out!

We don’t know that all of creation was initially vegetarian. That’s not anything the Catholic Church teaches.

Of course, I apologize for misspeaking. What I meant was that the quote from Genesis seems to imply that initially, God intended mankind to eat specifically from the plants in the garden, and then after the Flood, they were allowed to eat animals, as well. I wouldn’t have thought much about it, were it not for the wording of this particular verse:

Every creature that is alive shall be yours to eat; I give them all to you as I did the green plants.

• Gen 9:3 (NAB)

It seems to imply that man was not allowed to eat animals before the Flood. Also, the NAB has a footnote dealing with this particular verse:

Antediluvian creatures, including man, are depicted as vegetarians (Genesis 1:29-30), becoming carnivorous only after the flood.

I thought it was an interesting bit.