Food and Faith: The Ethical Foundations of the Biblical Diet Laws - The BAS Library
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Home > Magazines > Bible Review > December 1992

Food and Faith: The Ethical Foundations of the Biblical Diet Laws

The Bible has worked out a system of restrictions whereby humans may satiate their lust for animal flesh and not be dehumanized. These laws teach reverence for life.

By Jacob Milgrom

The biblical diet laws are most often thought of as health measures dictated by the primitive hygienic conditions of the ancient world. However, this theory cannot explain even one of the laws’ three basic rules. First, the prohibition against ingesting blood is incumbent on all people, not just the Israelites (Genesis 9:4; Leviticus 3). Second, animals that are permitted as food—to take quadrupeds as an example—are limited to three domesticated species: sheep, goats and cattle (the seven permitted wild species are largely unidentifiable; see Deuteronomy 14:4–5) and there is no restriction whatsoever in the vegetable and fruit kingdom—not even […]

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Footnotes

1.

Scholars divide the Pentateuch into four principal authorial strands: J for the Yahwist (Jahwist in German), because Yahweh is the customary appellation of God in this strand; E for the Elohist, because Elohim or a form of that name is the customary appellation of God in this strand; P for the Priestly code; and D for the Deuteronomist.

Endnotes

1.

See William W. Hallo, “The Origins of the Sacrificial Cult: New Evidence from Mesopotamia and Israel,” in Ancient Israelite Religion: Frank Moore Cross Festschrift, ed. P.D. Miller et al. (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987), pp. 3–13.

2.

Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, Anchor Bible Series, vol. 3 (New York: Doubleday, 1991), pp. 704–742 (reviewed in Bible Books, BR 08:04).