Impure foods and Peter

[josersoto]

If Jesus had already taught his Apostles about being able to eat all foods in Mark 7:18-19 then why did Peter not want to eat impure foods in Acts 10?

 

[irenaeuslyons]

Peter was evangelizing the Jews and it would have been unnecessarily provocative to eat impure foods in front of them while at the same time trying to change their hearts and minds.

 

[TK421]

The apostles didn’t understand much of the Gospel until after the fact; sometimes long after the fact. The sacred author includes an excerpt in the Gospel about how Jesus made all food clean, but this was written long after the events in Acts.

 

[Todd_Easton]

If Jesus had already taught his Apostles about being able to eat all foods in Mark 7:18-19 then why did Peter not want to eat impure foods in Acts 10?

Jesus’ actual teaching in Mark 7:18-19 that “whatever goes into a man from outside cannot defile him, since it enters, not his heart but his stomach, and so passes on” was prompted by questions about eating with unwashed hands and Peter apparently didn’t fully understand the implication of Jesus’ teaching, i.e., that he was thus declaring “all foods clean,” until his vision in Acts 10.”

 

[Hodos]

It is quite likely that the apostles did not recognize the significance of what Jesus stated in Mark 7:18-19 when Christ initially said it, and it was only through the vision received by Peter and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the household of Cornelius that Peter and the apostles fully recognized the significance of what Christ had said years before. Often times we see that the apostles missed the boat until something more significant happens later (such as the resurrection).

 

[Gorgias]

If Jesus had already taught his Apostles about being able to eat all foods in Mark 7:18-19 then why did Peter not want to eat impure foods in Acts 10?

You might want to consider that the Gospel of Mark – and the gloss on Mk 7:19 – was written after the events of Acts 10. If Jesus didn’t say that explicitly, it may have been those events themselves that helped Christians (and the Evangelist himself!) understand the import of Christ’s words, don’t you think?