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Were they to make the Jews a distinct people?
Were they to make the Jews a distinct people?
Most of the food laws were to protect the health of the Israelites. For example, shellfish can absorb dangerous heavy metals. Pigs can carry Trichinosis, which is a very unpleasant parasitic illness. With modern farming techniques, it is possible to avoid these illnesses. But food laws certainly would have protected the world from SARS, maybe AIDS and certainly the Corona virus sweeping the world right now.Were they to make the Jews a distinct people?
Were they to make the Jews a distinct people?
Gentiles are clearly not obligated to those rules, but I don't think that we should be so quick to dismiss them.
It is clear that the Jews were required to obey just because God said so, but Gentile analysis has found corresponding health benefits, after-the-fact.The idea that it had to do with health is a purely modern anachronistic idea that has no support in either Scripture, or historic Jewish teaching.
Gentiles are clearly not obligated to those rules, but I don't think that we should be so quick to dismiss them.
Jesus made it very clear that hand-washing was of no spiritual value [Matthew 15:1-11]. Does that mean that we should forsake hand-washing altogether? No, it just means that we should keep it in perspective.Matthew 4:4
But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Hebrews 13:8
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
Malachi 3:6
For I am the Lord, I change not;
It is clear that the Jews were required to obey just because God said so, but Gentile analysis has found corresponding health benefits, after-the-fact.
Matthew 4:4
But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Hebrews 13:8
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
Malachi 3:6
For I am the Lord, I change not;
'And He said, "If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, the LORD, am your healer."'More-or-less. The dietary restrictions and food laws ensured that not only what was eaten, but how the food was raised, killed, treated, prepared, etc were all a certain way--and it was a point of major distinction between the Jews and their neighbors.
The idea that it had to do with health is a purely modern anachronistic idea that has no support in either Scripture, or historic Jewish teaching.
-CryptoLutheran
The Jews were spared from the bubonic plague because they regularly washed their hands.There were many laws relating to personal hygiene that make sense in those days. A great deal of suffering could have been avoided if European culture had followed those laws.
One of the greatest health advances was soap. It made personal hygiene so much simpler. Washing your hands is one of the medical profession's recommendations for avoiding viral infections.The Jews were spared from the bubonic plague because they regularly washed their hands.
The dietary laws didn't say "no pork", but rather any animal that A) doesn't ruminate and B) doesn't have split hooves is non-kosher.