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under the false impression that they should not eat meat should not be condemned. Whether we actually eat meat or not is an unimportant matter as he says elsewhere: "But meat does not commend us to God; neither if we should not eat do we come short; nor if we should eat have we an advantage" (1 Corinthians 8:8). Apart from the total prohibition on the eating of flesh required by vegetarianism, the question of whether one should not eat certain meats was apparently a bone of contention in the early church. The Mosaic law laid down what should be eaten and what not (Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14:3-21). Gentiles were never under the Mosaic law and the first church council made clear that they should not be brought under it (Acts 15:19-21; 21:25). Paul was quite clear that actually Jews as well as Gentiles were under no obligation to keep the law: "So that, my brethren, ye also have been made dead to the law by the body of the Christ, to be to another, who has been raised up from among [the] dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God." (Romans 7:4). Paul, however, was not out to offend people but to act in such a way that they would be saved, as he says: "And I became to the Jews as a Jew... " (1 Corinthians 9:20-23). In practice this meant that he was prepared to circumcise Timothy (Acts 16:1-5), though Paul saw no value in circumcision itself beyond the fact that to a Jew it was a matter of keeping God's commandments (Genesis 17:9-14; 1 Corinthians 7:19). The important matter is the inward circumcision of the heart (Romans 2:28/29).

Although, as we have seen, there is no obligation on either believing Jews or Gentiles to keep the provisions of the law of Moses, this does not mean that there is nothing to be learned from them and this applies to the regulations regarding the eating of meat. Some meats prohibited by the law are in fact offensive to most people, such as those regarding creatures that have a great many feet (Leviticus 11:42). The thought of eating centipedes and millipedes would make most people feel sick. Those that were acceptable were largely herbivores so far as land animals were concerned; carnivores were not acceptable. There are no doubt good reasons for this and in making these prohibitions the law of Moses is largely following the practice of animals in the wild. Much more could be said on this subject (for instance, the more intelligent and sensitive animals were prohibited), but this is outside the scope of this article. We are not to concern ourselves with the prohibitions as such. Peter had to learn that all animals were to be regarded as clean. God had cleansed them (Acts 10:9-16). The interpretation of Peter's vision was that what he thought of as unclean animals were the Gentiles which as a result of the death of Christ were now to be regarded as clean (Acts 10:28; 1 John 2:2). The vision incidentally gives no comfort to vegetarians as the verses in Acts 10 show that God in using the lower creation to bring home a point to Peter at the same time showed his approval of the eating of animals saying: "Rise, Peter, slay and eat" (Acts 10:13; 11:7).

July 1999

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