by jimwalton » Sat Sep 29, 2018 5:13 am
No, God didn't change the genetic structure of pigs. But neither did God allow people to eat pigs because he didn't care about their wellbeing. There's an obvious 3rd choice: God changed the rules about food because now righteousness came because of the death and resurrection of Jesus and no longer because of cultic rituals.
We don't really understand (no one does) the reasons behind which animals are designated as "clean" and which as "unclean," but we do know it has nothing to do with their being "dirty." "Cleanness is a ritual category, not a physical one. The category in Deuteronomy 14.3 is what is "detestable," meaning that which is contrary to the inherent sense of order. (The ancient worldview saw everything in terms of order, disorder, and nonorder, categories very foreign to us today.) It's not that pigs were dirty and it's OK with God if we are eating something dirty, but rather than pigs used to be considered ceremonially unclean, but after Jesus, the law was fulfilled and now there is no such thing as ceremonial uncleanness. The food laws were symbolic of the distinctions between Jews and Gentiles, and that separation has been abolished in Christ.
No, God didn't change the genetic structure of pigs. But neither did God allow people to eat pigs because he didn't care about their wellbeing. There's an obvious 3rd choice: God changed the rules about food because now righteousness came because of the death and resurrection of Jesus and no longer because of cultic rituals.
We don't really understand (no one does) the reasons behind which animals are designated as "clean" and which as "unclean," but we do know it has nothing to do with their being "dirty." "Cleanness is a ritual category, not a physical one. The category in Deuteronomy 14.3 is what is "detestable," meaning that which is contrary to the inherent sense of order. (The ancient worldview saw everything in terms of order, disorder, and nonorder, categories very foreign to us today.) It's not that pigs were dirty and it's OK with God if we are eating something dirty, but rather than pigs used to be considered ceremonially unclean, but after Jesus, the law was fulfilled and now there is no such thing as ceremonial uncleanness. The food laws were symbolic of the distinctions between Jews and Gentiles, and that separation has been abolished in Christ.