Dietary Laws in Medieval Christian-Jewish Polemics: A Survey
By Irven Resnick
Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations, Volume 6 (2011)
Medieval feasting – British LIbrary MS Additional 24189 f. 5v
Abstract: In the religious debate between Jews and Christians, the biblical dietary laws come to illustrate important assumptions concerning the “other.” Early medieval Christians asserted that Christians were not bound by the dietary laws and tended to explicate them allegorically or figuratively. Although the biblical dietary laws prohibit many foods to Jews, as pork became a more important part of the medieval diet, the prohibition against swine’s flesh became central to the debate. Christians will assert not only that the consumption of pork proclaims a correct messianic theology, but also that the Lord, like a good physician, ordained a special diet for the Jews because they—and not Christians—have a corrupt bodily nature that is subject to deleterious influences from pork that incline Jews to gluttony and wantonness. Therefore, when a Jew converted to Christianity, the consumption of pork became a sign of his transfer from one religious community to another, as well as a sign of a physical, intellectual, and moral transformation.
Introduction: As is well known, the biblical dietary laws (that is, kashrut) indicate the foods that Jews may or may not eat, dividing those animals that are clean from unclean. In Lv 11:3-7 and Dt 14:6-8, among the land quadrupeds only those that both ruminate and have a split hoof are ―clean, and the swine, camel, and hare are among those explicitly identified as forbidden foods. Generally, early Christians developed a consensus, however, that the dietary laws of the Jews ceased to be binding once the Old Law had been fulfilled by Jesus. In part, this conviction stems from the report in Mark‘s gospel that Jesus inquired of his disciples, ― ‘Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?‘(Thus He declared all foods clean). (Mk 7: 18-19; cf. Mt 15:11, 18); in part too it is based on the experience of Peter, who was instructed by a heavenly voice to eat any manner of four-footed beast (Acts 10:11-15), seemingly subverting the dietary regulations.
If any dietary scruple remained at all in early Christian communities, it concerned only food sacrificed to idols, animals that had been strangled, or blood (cf. Acts 15:20). Although these restrictions may have been observed in some Christian communities until as late as the fifth century, gradually they too disappear. For medieval Christians, however, the fact that Jews continued to observe the biblical dietary laws will symbolize their carnal understanding and help to define a sense of Jewish otherness, as we shall demonstrate below.
Dietary Laws in Medieval Christian-Jewish Polemics: A Survey
By Irven Resnick
Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations, Volume 6 (2011)
Abstract: In the religious debate between Jews and Christians, the biblical dietary laws come to illustrate important assumptions concerning the “other.” Early medieval Christians asserted that Christians were not bound by the dietary laws and tended to explicate them allegorically or figuratively. Although the biblical dietary laws prohibit many foods to Jews, as pork became a more important part of the medieval diet, the prohibition against swine’s flesh became central to the debate. Christians will assert not only that the consumption of pork proclaims a correct messianic theology, but also that the Lord, like a good physician, ordained a special diet for the Jews because they—and not Christians—have a corrupt bodily nature that is subject to deleterious influences from pork that incline Jews to gluttony and wantonness. Therefore, when a Jew converted to Christianity, the consumption of pork became a sign of his transfer from one religious community to another, as well as a sign of a physical, intellectual, and moral transformation.
Introduction: As is well known, the biblical dietary laws (that is, kashrut) indicate the foods that Jews may or may not eat, dividing those animals that are clean from unclean. In Lv 11:3-7 and Dt 14:6-8, among the land quadrupeds only those that both ruminate and have a split hoof are ―clean, and the swine, camel, and hare are among those explicitly identified as forbidden foods. Generally, early Christians developed a consensus, however, that the dietary laws of the Jews ceased to be binding once the Old Law had been fulfilled by Jesus. In part, this conviction stems from the report in Mark‘s gospel that Jesus inquired of his disciples, ― ‘Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?‘(Thus He declared all foods clean). (Mk 7: 18-19; cf. Mt 15:11, 18); in part too it is based on the experience of Peter, who was instructed by a heavenly voice to eat any manner of four-footed beast (Acts 10:11-15), seemingly subverting the dietary regulations.
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