Coupled with Mark 7:19 and Matthew 15 plus sweeping declarations in the Pauline epistles that New Testament believers in Jesus are under “grace” and not the “law”, this “prooftext” supposedly beefs up the argument that the Biblical diet prescribed in Leviticus 11 was done away with.
Checking the literary context of these verses, Chapter 10 opens with introducing a Roman centurion named Cornelius who lived in Caesarea. He’s described as a “devout man, a God-fearer, charitable to the Jewish people, who prayed constantly. He sees a vision of an angel who tells him God is pleased with him, and instructs him to dispatch some men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon [Peter] who is staying with a tanner whose name is also Simon. Whatever the reason for doing this is not specified, but who’s going to question an angel? So Cornelius obeys, sends a delegation and as they approach the house of Simon the tanner, Peter goes up to the roof top to pray because it is the 6th hour:
vs 10-16
And he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance; and he beheld the sky opened up, and a certain object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. And a voice came to him, “Arise, Peter, kill and eat!” But Peter said “By no means Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean. And again a voice came to him a second time, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy. And this happened three times, and immediately the object was taken up into the sky.
Image from eborg3.com
If you were Peter, what would you think? If the vision was isolated from the general context of Chapter 10, it would be easy to conclude, just as Peter did, that he was being commanded to eat creatures forbidden by Torah law. But consider Peter’s response, because it is crucial!
The God who appeared to Moses on Sinai educated His chosen people, the Israelites, about a lifestyle that would set them apart from the nations on different levels, not the least of which is a holistic health regimen to make them long-lived with a quality of life. God’s chosen people must not only be role models for the nations on all counts, they must survive for them to fulfil their God-given destiny!
As in ALL of Torah law, the blessing is in the observance, even in dietary, sanitary, hygienic instructions. Medical science has taken many millennia to get to what the Israelites were given their menu on a silver platter by the Divine Diet-Planner back in the days of antiquity.
It is doubtful that Peter, a Jew, or any other Jew who has been kosher-observant could actually develop an appetite for the meat of unclean animals. For that matter, people today (like yours truly) whose palates have long been retrained (whether for medical or biblical reasons) to become vegan or resort to the Biblical diet would have difficulty in suddenly ingesting unpalatable stuff they consider UNfit for human consumption. Peter would not have been any different. So what was this vision all about?
vs 17-19
Now while Peter was greatly perplexed in mind as to what the vision which he had seen might be, behold the men who had been sent by Cornelius, having asked directions for Simon’s house appeared at the gate; and calling out, they were asking whether Simon, who is also called Peter, was staying there. And while Peter was reflecting on the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you. But arise, go downstairs, and accompany them without misgivings; for I have sent them Myself.”
So while Peter is mulling over whether or not he’s going to change his kosher diet, the centurion’s delegation knock on the door. There you have it, Peter’s vision is connected with the vision of Cornelius. The Jewish Peter then meets with gentile Cornelius. The social context to be considered here is Jews and gentiles don’t normally mix and in this case, Jewish citizens in Judea under Roman occupation probably stayed clear of Roman centurions. But supposedly, God arranged this encounter to emphasize something that was going to change in the Jew-gentile relationship.
New Testament scriptures give many examples of Jewish attitude toward gentiles and vice-versa. Jesus words to the Syrophoenician woman in Matthew 15:21-28/Mark 7:24-30 are surprising for an itinerant preacher teaching love for God and fellowmen: It is not meet to take the children’s bread and cast it to the dogs. To this woman’s credit, her humble response elicits praise from Jesus for her great faith: Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.
So, what are we getting at?
Christian teachers consider Peter’s vision as a sign that there are no more food restrictions for those under the ‘New Covenant’. To their credit, messianic teachers emphasize that the context is key to understanding what the 2 visions are all about; that God is now extending the “gospel of Jesus Christ” to the gentiles even if Jesus himself kept repeating during his ministry on earth, that “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
So much more can be said in this article but we are not in a classroom situation; suffice it to say that this vision is NOT about opening up the floodgates for unclean animals to make it to our dinner plate. Sure, with man’s freedom of choice, he can eat anything he wants but—be ready to suffer the consequences. Health statistics will bear out the blessings and the curses of the strict observance or violation of the “Maker’s Diet”, to borrow Dr. Jordan Rubin’s perfect title for his mouth-watering health alert.
NSB@S6K
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