Among the early Judeo-Christian Gnostics the Ebionites held that John the Baptist, James the Just and Jesus were vegetarians. Some religious orders of various Christian Churches practice pescatarianism, including the Benedictines, Franciscans, Trappists, Carthusians and Cistercians.
We know that ancient Israelites ate lamb and goat meat, but meat was probably more of a special treat for Jesus than a daily staple. Instead, he might have relied on legumes, like beans or lentils, and fish for protein.
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 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.
WE LEARN in the New Testament that Jesus ate fish from the Sea of Galilee, and, after the resurrection, that he even cooked fish and bread over coals for himself and his disciples (John 21.9). “We certainly know that Jesus ate clean unpolluted fish almost every day of his life,” Colbert concludes.
Scriptures show Jesus' Mediterranean diet included figs, fish, lamb, wine, and olive oil. What can God do in your life with one Bible verse a day?
After the Great Flood, God changes the rule, allowing consumption of meat: “Every creature that lives shall be yours to eat; as with the green grasses, I give you all these” (Gen. 9:3). There are, however, restrictions: “You must not, however, eat flesh with its life-blood in it.
"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.
In Leviticus 11, the Lord speaks to Moses and Aaron and sets out which animals can be eaten and which cannot: “You may eat any animal that has a divided hoof and that chews the cud. There are some that only chew the cud or only have a divided hoof, but you must not eat them.
In the Bible, however, Noah is the world's first meat eater. Everyone was vegetarian before the Flood. Not long after the ark settled on Mount Ararat, God gave Noah the right to eat animals as well as exercise dominion over them.
Jesus essentially ate a Mediterranean diet rich in whole grains, fish, fruit and vegetables and with modest amounts of olive oil, meat and wine, Colbert says.
The Holy Tradition (written and oral) of the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church, while advising avoidance of olive oil, meat, fish, milk, and dairy products every Wednesday and Friday throughout the year, additionally includes four principal fasting periods per year when meat as well as dairy products and eggs are ...
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.
He may have stood about 5-ft.-5-in. (166 cm) tall, the average man's height at the time.
All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall. So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God.
Biblical references to eggs are only in reference to gathering them from the wild (for example, Deuteronomy 22:6–7 and Isaiah 10:14). Eggs seem to have increased in use for food only with the introduction of chickens as food and were commonly used as food by Roman times.
The catechism says explicitly what we all know to be true in our hearts: Causing animals to suffer needlessly is a sin. Since no one has to eat meat, and in fact we'd all be better off without it, then it is a sin to eat meat.
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 ...
No, they're not here for the purpose of being our food, and it's made abundantly clear throughout scripture that God shows displeasure at animals being killed (Isaiah 1: 11- 17; 11:6-9; 66:3; Daniel 1:8-17; Psalms 50:8-13).
Mark 7 – Jesus declares all foods clean
Most Christians maintain that Jesus's teaching in Mark 7 demonstrates that Christians can eat whatever they want, that dietary choices are a matter of "Christian liberty", and that therefore vegetarianism or veganism could never be obligatory for Christians.
John 6:35. “Then Jesus said, 'I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. '”
Once humans shifted to even occasional meat eating, it didn't take long to make it a major part of our diet. Zaraska says there's ample archaeological evidence that by 2 million years ago the first Homo species were actively eating meat on a regular basis. Neanderthals hunting a zebra for food.
When eating with friends like Lazarus and his sisters Martha and Mary, Jesus probably would have enjoyed a vegetable stew made of beans, lentils, onions and garlic, cucumbers, or leeks. People often dipped chunks of bread into such a mixture. Butter and cheese, made from cows' and goats' milk, were popular.
It is only in Leviticus 11:7 that eating pork is forbidden to God's people for the very first time—“… and the swine, though it divides the hoof, having cloven hooves, yet does not chew the cud, is unclean to you.” This is where and when pork in all its forms (including ham, bacon, sausage, etc.)
In Leviticus 11:27, God forbids Moses and his followers to eat swine “because it parts the hoof but does not chew the cud.” Furthermore, the prohibition goes, “Of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch; they are unclean to you.” That message is later reinforced in Deuteronomy.