Old Testament

[Sunny]

My son in college is studying Bibley literature and said that there’s a passage in the Old Testament that tells us that the Lord stated we can only eat things from the ocean with fins and scales. Levit. Chapt 11 Verse 9-12. Please help with the interpretation of this. Should we take it as it is written???

 

[Exporter]

Levit 11:9 - 12. Here is commentary from the 1588 Douay-Rheims Bible by great Bishops and Schoolastics.

9.The Egyptians and the priests of the Syrian goddess abstained from fish. But God said fish with scales and fins from rivers or the sea can be eaten.
10 Numa forbade fish without fins to be used for the sacrifice.

11 & 12. All other things that move in the waters without fins and scales are to be avoided.

Should you take it as written? If you were a Jew living at the time of Moses, you should take it literally. Yes, a Jew of Moses time had to obey this directive from God.

 

[rwoehmke]

This is one of many Jewish dietary laws which are still observed by orthodox Jews today. These have not been followed by Christians since St. Paul converted gentles and the early church decided at a Council in Jerusalem that the Mosiac Law for cicumcision and dietary practice etc. did not apply to these new Christians. James, Peter, and Paul were involved in that decision which is described in Acts of the Apostles.

 

[stillsmallvoice]

Hi all!

r posted:

Quite correct.

See jewfaq.org/kashrut.htm#Animals.

Be well!

ssv

 

[Fidelis]

Jewish dietary and ritual laws are not binding on Christians. Christians are, however, still bound by moral laws (as summarized in the 10 commandments).

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

JESUS AND THE LAW

CCC 577 At the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus issued a solemn warning in which he presented God’s law, given on Sinai during the first covenant, in light of the grace of the New Covenant:

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets: I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law, until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

578 Jesus, Israel’s Messiah and therefore the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, was to fulfill the Law by keeping it in its all embracing detail - according to his own words, down to “the least of these commandments”. He is in fact the only one who could keep it perfectly. On their own admission the Jews were never able to observe the Law in its entirety without violating the least of its precepts. This is why every year on the Day of Atonement the children of Israel ask God’s forgiveness for their transgressions of the Law. The Law indeed makes up one inseparable whole, and St. James recalls, “Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.”

579 This principle of integral observance of the Law not only in letter but in spirit was dear to the Pharisees. By giving Israel this principle they had led many Jews of Jesus’ time to an extreme religious zeal. This zeal, were it not to lapse into “hypocritical” casuistry, could only prepare the People for the unprecedented intervention of God through the perfect fulfillment of the Law by the only Righteous One in place of all sinners.

**581 ** The Jewish people and their spiritual leaders viewed Jesus as a rabbi. He often argued within the framework of rabbinical interpretation of the Law. Yet Jesus could not help but offend the teachers of the Law, for he was not content to propose his interpretation alongside theirs but taught the people “as one who had authority, and not as their scribes”. In Jesus, the same Word of God that had resounded on Mount Sinai to give the written Law to Moses, made itself heard anew on the Mount of the Beatitudes. Jesus did not abolish the Law but fulfilled it by giving its ultimate interpretation in a divine way: “You have heard that it was said to the men of old. . . But I say to you. . .” With this same divine authority, he disavowed certain human traditions of the Pharisees that were “making void the word of God”.

582 Going even further, Jesus perfects the dietary law, so important in Jewish daily life, by revealing its pedagogical meaning through a divine interpretation: “Whatever goes into a man from outside cannot defile him. . . (Thus he declared all foods clean.). . . What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts. . .” In presenting with divine authority the definitive interpretation of the Law, Jesus found himself confronted by certain teachers of the Law who did not accept his interpretation of the Law, guaranteed though it was by the divine signs that accompanied it. This was the case especially with the sabbath laws, for he recalls, often with rabbinical arguments, that the sabbath rest is not violated by serving God and neighbor, which his own healings did.

 

[BrotherCamillus]

The dietary passage you are speaking of is found in Leviticus and has been nullified in or around ACTS 9-10 (?) wherein God tells Peter that the dietary laws have been rescinded, and all foods may be eaten. Remember: The Laws were given to keep the nation Israel (untainted/pure/undefiled/)separated from the surrounding nations as Israel is His chosen people. He chose them to reveal Himself to the world. They are His chosen people.

 

[Todd_Easton]

In Mark 7:14-22, it says,
And he [Jesus]called the people to him again, and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what defile him.” And when he had entered the house, and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a man from outside cannot defile him, since it enters, not his heart but his stomach, and so passes on?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man.”

 

[Gottle_of_Geer]

Sunny:

My son in college is studying Bibley literature and said that there’s a passage in the Old Testament that tells us that the Lord stated we can only eat things from the ocean with fins and scales. Levit. Chapt 11 Verse 9-12. Please help with the interpretation of this. Should we take it as it is written???

The answer is in Acts 10 and Acts 15​