(To fully understand this post, see the previous two posts, “COVID-19: Part 9: Jesus Did Not Abolish Mosaic Food Laws” and “COVID-19: Part 10: Peter Did Not Abolish Mosaic Food Laws.”)
Some New Testament scholars who claim that Jesus (in Mark 7.19b) and Peter (in Acts 10-11) abolished the Mosaic food laws in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 also cite two texts in the Apostle Paul’s writings for support: Romans 14.14 and 1 Timothy 4.4.
In Romans 14, Paul instructs believers at Rome to not be judgmental about certain gray areas. He says not to be “quarreling over opinion” (v. 1). One is vegetarianism (vv. 1-4). Paul says, “Those who eat [meat] must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat; for God has welcomed them” (v. 3 NRSV).
Paul then writes the same about holy days (Romans 14.5-6). His main axiom is this: “Let all be fully convinced in their own minds” (v. 5). He asks, “Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister?” (v. 10). But this should’t be taken out of context.
In 1 Corinthians, Paul shames the church at Corinth for not passing judgement about one of its members committing “sexual immorality” in “living with his father’s wife” (1 Cor 5.1). Paul scolds the leaders of the church as being “arrogant” about it (v. 2). He says, “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral persons,” that is, “not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother or sister who is sexually immoral or greedy, or is an idolator, reviler, drunkard, or robber. Do not even eat with such a one. . . . Is it not those who are inside [the church] that you are to judge? God will judge those outside. ‘Drive out the wicked person from among you'” (1 Cor 5.9-13). Sexual immorality is not a gray area, whereas being vegetarian or treating some days as holy is.
Paul continues in Romans 14, “Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of another. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. If your brother or sister is being injured by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love” (vv. 13-15). In verse 14, the prepositional phrase, “in the Lord Jesus,” translates en kurio Iesou.” The Greek preposition en usually means “in,” but it can mean “by.” I think it should be rendered the latter, thus “by the Lord Jesus.” If correct, Paul very likely refers to a Jesus saying then well-known in oral tradition. If so, it would surely be the narrative in Matthew and Mark about Jesus’ answer to the question about eating with unwashed hands. James D. G. Dunn suggests this in his two-volume commentary on Romans (p. 818). He also cites four other scholars, including C. E. B. Cranfield, who do likewise in their commentaries on Romans.
In Romans 14.14a, this would not be the only time Paul has referred to a particular Jesus saying in Christian oral tradition. He also does so in 1 Thessalonians 4.13-17 regarding the resurrection at the second coming of Christ. He writes, “For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died” (v. 15). In saying “by the word of the Lord,” I believe Paul refers to Jesus’ memorable conversation with Martha, Lazarus’ sister, right before Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from the dead (John 11.17-44). Paul refers to Jesus saying to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die” (vv. 25-26). And the word “by,” in the phrase “by the word of the Lord” in 1 Thessalonians 4.15, translates en in the Greek text, as in the Greek text of Romans 14.14a.
Some scholars who claim Mark 7.19b indicates Jesus abolished the Mosaic food laws also cite something in Paul’s first letter to Timothy for support. Paul predicts, “in the later times some will renounce the faith . . . They forbid marriage and demand abstinence from foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected provided it is received with thanksgiving” (1 Timothy 4.1, 3-4). So, these scholars think Paul’s words, “everything created by God is good” and not “to be rejected,” affirm that unclean animals in the Mosaic food laws are now clean.
As with with Jesus answering the Pharisees about eating food with unwashed hands, the subject is food in general, not just meat as in the Mosaic food laws, so that food, here, refers to all food: meat, vegetables, and fruit. And I think it is more likely that Paul saying, “everything created by God is good,” should be understood as food that is acceptable to eat and therefore within in the confines of the Mosaic food laws. Thus, Paul would not overturned, with this short phrase, what God through Moses had commanded for all Jews.
[See my book at amazon.com, Moses Predicted COVID-19, published June 1, 2020.]
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