Bible (Archive 3)

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Subject: can I eat shellfish?

Bible Note: Mark 7 is Jesus discussing washing hands before you eat. The Oral Law of the time said you had to do this or you would contaminate the food. Jesus disagrees with adding this burden that the Torah did not intend.

When he mentions "food" he is speaking of "clean" food. Anything that was "unclean" would not have fit the category of "food."

Deut 4:2 says "You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you."

READ Deut 13. Jews memorize this book, and then we tell them to follow Jesus, and they should do this because he proved himself by miracles and signs (sound familiar?) and then we add, o' by the way, you don't need to follow that silly "OLD" law anymore. In light of Deut 13, Jesus would be a false prophet.

As the Messiah, Jesus could not have sinned by even breaking the least of the commandments. What people suggest, however, is that not only did Jesus break the laws of eating "clean", but that he violated Deut 4:2 and said such law was no longer applicable, and he did this before his death. If so, he can't be the Messiah. I

The NIV adds the words, "In saying this, Jesus declared all food clean." This is not in the text. To make the Greek makes sense, a translator has to re-word this in some way, which means they have to interpret what Jesus meant.

Even if Jesus "declared all food clean", the word "foods" would apply only to "clean" foods in context. Jesus wouldn't have referred to something unclean as being "food." Remember his audience is Jewish and the topic is cleaning hands. All “clean” foods are “clean” and can not be made otherwise by unwashed hands.

In all of this let’s not forget the larger principle that Jesus is teaching…it is what comes from the heart the truly matters and the Pharisees in this passage have some big problems there.

For my response to the Acts passage, see my response in this thread entitled "The Acts 15 council..."

MJH