Dietary Laws

Biblical Texts and Content

The dietary laws are set out in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14:3–21. Their principal criteria are as follows.

• Land animals: Only animals that both have a divided hoof and chew the cud may be eaten (Leviticus 11:3). The camel, the coney, the hare, and the swine are forbidden because each meets only one of the two conditions (Leviticus 11:4–7).
• Water creatures: Only those with fins and scales may be eaten (Leviticus 11:9–12).
• Birds: No general criterion is given; instead, the birds that may not be eaten, such as the eagle, are listed one by one (Leviticus 11:13–19).
• Insects: Winged insects that creep are forbidden, but the various kinds of locust are permitted (Leviticus 11:20–23).
• Other regulations: Alongside these are the commands not to eat blood (Genesis 9:4; Leviticus 17:10–14), not to eat the fat of sacrifices (Leviticus 7:23), not to eat anything that dies of itself (Deuteronomy 14:21), and not to boil a kid in its mother's milk (Exodus 23:19).

The purpose stated in the text itself is holiness. As the words "ye shall be holy; for I am holy" (Leviticus 11:44–45) indicate, these laws are presented as a mark of a people set apart to God (Deuteronomy 14:2).

Background

The Hebrew word for "clean" is tahor, and the word for "unclean" is tame'. Uncleanness here refers not to physical dirtiness but to a ritual state of being unfit to approach God. Judaism continues to observe these laws today and calls food that conforms to them "kosher" (meaning "fit"). After the Babylonian exile, the dietary laws became an important marker of identity for Jews living in Gentile lands. A well-known example is Daniel's resolve not to defile himself with the king's food (Daniel 1:8).

In the New Testament

In Mark 7:18–19, Jesus teaches that what enters a person from outside does not defile him, and the Gospel writer comments that he thereby declared all foods clean (rendered in the KJV as "purging all meats"). At Joppa, Peter sees a vision of unclean animals and hears a voice saying, "What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common" (Acts 10:15). He understood this vision as a call to receive Gentiles such as Cornelius (Acts 10:28). The Council of Jerusalem required of Gentile believers only that they abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from fornication (Acts 15:28–29). Paul urges believers not to judge one another over matters of food (Romans 14; Colossians 2:16) and states that the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking (Romans 14:17).

Interpretations and Issues

• Most Protestants hold that the dietary laws have been fulfilled in Christ and no longer bind believers. The Reformed tradition divides the law into moral, ceremonial, and civil law and places the dietary laws within the ceremonial law, and the Westminster Confession of Faith confesses that the ceremonial law has been abrogated.
• The Seventh-day Adventist Church regards the distinction between clean and unclean meats as a health principle and still abstains from pork and similar foods. It is also known for encouraging a vegetarian diet.
• Jehovah's Witnesses refuse blood transfusions on the basis of the command in Acts 15 to abstain from blood. Most denominations, however, understand the council's decree as a measure intended to enable Jewish and Gentile believers of that time to have fellowship with one another.
• Explanations of the prohibition of pork on hygienic grounds are commonly repeated, but the text gives only holiness and separation as the reasons. Other explanations are later interpretations.

In the Korean Church

In the Korean church, the discussion of "things offered to idols" in 1 Corinthians 8 and 10 is often applied to the question of whether it is permissible to eat food offered in ancestral rites. This issue is connected to the discussion of ancestral rites and memorial services.