The moral and spiritual ambiguity about eating meat is made more explicit in the ninth chapter of Genesis (Genesis 9:3-6) when God tells Noah in the covenant made with him after the Great Flood, "Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
“The Christian has freedom to eat meat without it being a question of conscience. In fact, not only can they do it, they are blessed when they do it and the source of the meat is not really an issue in the New Testament,” Jamison says. “We are allowed to eat meat from any type of animals.
Prohibited foods that may not be consumed in any form include all animals—and the products of animals—that do not chew the cud and do not have cloven hoofs (e.g., pigs and horses); fish without fins and scales; the blood of any animal; shellfish (e.g., clams, oysters, shrimp, crabs) and all other living creatures that ...
"And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb-bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for food." In the second chapter of Genesis (2:16-17) vegetarianism is re-affirmed as people's spiritually proper diet.
You may eat any animal that has a split hoof completely divided and that chews the cud. "`There are some that only chew the cud or only have a split hoof, but you must not eat them.
Let's look directly at Genesis 9:3, the verse that Jews have cited countless times over the millennia to justify the eating of meat. Yes, Genesis 9:3 does quote God as saying, “Every creature that lives shall be yours to eat.”
Here is a quote from Genesis 1:29: "And God said, 'Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
Animals are blessed by God and urged to “be fruitful and multiply” but they are lower on the order of sanctity than people. Vegetables and fruits and grains are, however, still lower on the sanctity scale and therefore eating them is spiritually preferable, if not actually commanded.
The only dietary restrictions specified for Christians in the New Testament are to "abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meat of strangled animals" (Acts 15:29), teachings that the early Church Fathers, such as Clement of Alexandria and Origen, preached for believers to follow.
Many biblical scholars believe that Jesus was a vegetarian. Jesus' message is one of love and compassion, and there is nothing loving or compassionate about factory farms and slaughterhouses, where billions of animals live miserable lives and die violent, bloody deaths.
And it was so. In this passage, God prescribes a plant-based diet not just for humans, but for all land-based non-human animals. Christian vegetarians and vegans point out that it was this creation—where all creatures ate plants—that God then declared "very good" in verse 31.
They ate from the trees in the garden and didn't need to labor for food. While they had dominion over the animals, they didn't need for animals for clothing, labor or food and did not yet have a desire to eat meat, though it seems meat eating was permissible.
What did Jesus eat on a typical day? The short answer: a lot of bread. Bread was a staple in the typical daily diet in the first-century Greco-Roman world, supplemented with limited amounts of local fruits and vegetables, oil, and salt. Bread in first-century Galilee would have been made with wheat or barley flour.
It was contrary to His plan to have the life of any creature taken. There was to be no death in Eden. The fruit of the trees in the garden was the food man's wants required.” In the words of St Paul, “So then, if food makes a believer sin, I will never eat meat again, so as not to make a believer fall into sin.”
The Friday fast is a Christian practice of abstaining from meat, dairy products and alcohol, on Fridays, or holding a fast on Fridays, that is found most frequently in the Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican and Methodist traditions.
JESUS' FAVORITE FOOD WAS FISH
But there does seem to be a lot of fish in the New Testament accounts about His life. For one, He chose to call “fishermen” as His followers.
Each day began with a light breakfast of bread or a piece for fruit. Bread was kneaded and baked every day, one of the mother's main chores. At midday, those in the Holy Land would eat a light lunch of bread, grain, olives, and figs. The main meal was eaten at the end of the day.
A bean stew, lamb, olives, bitter herbs, a fish sauce, unleavened bread, dates and aromatized wine likely were on the menu at the Last Supper, says recent research into Palestinian cuisine during Jesus's time.
India's 400 million vegetarians
Plant-based eating is deeply rooted in three of the prominent religions practiced in India – Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. All these religions believe in the concept of Ahimsa, which means kindness and non-violence towards all living things.
No; our guts aren't long enough, and our teeth don't quite fit the bill. We are, it seems, omnivores; our bodies can handle both meat and plant matter pretty well. It's not quite that simple, though. Just looking at an animal's teeth and gut is no surefire way to distinguish its diet.
Parshwanatha founded Jain vegetarianism in 9th century BCE, which is widely considered to be the earliest form of planned vegetarian diet.
And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food. ' And it was so. In these verses, God institutes a plant-based diet for both humans and non-human animals alike.
According to two passages in the Bible, Daniel fasted twice. During the first fast, he ate only vegetables and water to set himself apart for God. For a second fast mentioned in a later chapter, Daniel stopped eating meat, wine and other rich foods.
Why might Christians consider going vegan? There are four reasons that overlap with the reasons anyone else might give: concern for the environment, concern for animals, concern for human welfare, and the desire to adopt a more healthy diet.
The earth and animals are important to God, and as a caretaker for God's creation, stewardship of animals is important. You are God's deputies. The life of every living thing is in His hands and the breath of every human being.