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Was Jesus a vegetarian?

Jerrell

Active Member
No, Jesus ate fish, Jesus ate Lamb (at the passover), Jesus ate all the Kosher foods, he was a Jew and Jews ate meat.

Vegetarians should not try and make Jesus a Vegetarian to try and advocate, or make wrong the eating of meat when the Bible says, that God created meats to be recieved with thanksgiving (1 Timothy 4:3). There is so much more in the bible about eating meats and not eating them, but classifying Jesus as a Vegetarian is a lie.
 

Jerrell

Active Member
kai said:
anyone born two thousand years ago would eat what they could get surely?

It is not as if back in Jesus' time that they were uncivilized folk unable of an organized economy. Jesus lived within the Roman Empire, Jews had a powerful economy, the Temple was very powerful and rich. The Jews as a whole did not have to go hunting except for to get an offering for God to take to the Temple.
 

mattlevan

Member
I think we should look more upon current events to decide whether to be vegeterian or not. We, as one human family, eat meat. That meat either comes straight from nature, or is processed in farms. Not many people hunt their own meat anymore, even in rural towns. Instead, we buy meat from a local supermarket or butcher. Most of the time, the supermarket receives meat from a major corporation that raises meat in unnatural ways. Some of these corporations decide to sacrifice respect for the animals in turn for increased profits; therefore, the corporations inflict suffering upon these animals that wouldn't have been inflicted if the animals had been hunted as they were before industrialization. For me, that's one reason not to eat meat-- I can survive and be happy without meat, and I can benefit from animals in many other, non-violent ways.

Second, the processes in which meat is produced in major industries is harmful to the environment and extremely hard to sustain. To produce one kilogram of beef, you need to feed the cow 11 kilograms of grain. To produce a kilogram of pork, you need 7 kilograms of grain, and for a kilogram of chicken, you need 4.

The Eastern regions have already realized why eating too much meat is bad for the environment, economy, and individual. If you look at the overall health and welfare of Eastern countries, you will notice that it is significantly higher than that of America. Search "red meat health issues" in Google. There are too many articles to count about the adverse effects of red meat.

I guess you could call me a vegetarian. :)


Matt
 
Jerrell said:
No, Jesus ate fish, Jesus ate Lamb (at the passover), Jesus ate all the Kosher foods, he was a Jew and Jews ate meat.

You made the point before I got to it. Jesus probably kept kosher.
 

Valjean

Veteran Member
Premium Member
ΩRôghênΩ said:
Also note that there is nothing wrong with eating animals. eating meat is just as bad as eating plants. if we completely stopped eating animals we would see a massive overpopulation of animals in whte world, ther5efore combined with our foresting etc.; the destruction of plants massively. This would watrp the food chaion, which cannot be allowed. we should stick to what we eat now, and keep a balance i n what we eat.

1. Every time vegetarianism is discussed this bizarre assertion comes up; that if we stopped eating animals they would overpopulate.
We do not harvest our meat from wild populations. Our food animals are bred, just like Ford pickup trucks are manufactured. If the general public stopped consuming pickup trucks there would be no overpopulation/glut -- Ford would stop making them.
If people stopped eating cows, pigs and chickens, farmers would stop breeding them and turn to something more lucrative.

2. Most grain, in the US, anyway, goes to feeding livestock. Remove the livestock and the human population could be maintained on a fraction of the acerage now under cultivation. Millions of hectares could be returned to Nature.

3. The idea that people in biblical times ate "what was available" is questionable. Perhaps the Romans did, but the Jews, and many other peoples, lived with strict dietary restrictions. The Essenes were a Jewish sect, and they were known to practice vegetarianism. Some speculate that Jesus was influenced by Essene teachings. Alas, any definitive knowledge of Jesus' life is lost in the mists of time.
 

Katzpur

Not your average Mormon
Maize said:
As some of you know, I am a vegetarian and this is something that is very important in my life.
I just want to tell you how much I admire this about you, Amy. I have thought and thought and thought about being a vegetarian. I just don't think I have the self-discipline to do it, as admirable as I find it.

But anyway, there are those who believe that Jesus was vegetarian and even if ihe wasn't, he would be one today because of how we treat the animals that end up on the dinner plate. That being said, if it was proven that Jesus was a vegetarian, should all Christians be vegetarians as well?
Well, the Bible does mention Jesus eating fish, so strictly speaking, I don't believe he was a vegetarian.

Lastly, I know that other religions believe in not eating meat and I'm interested in hearing about those religions and there reasons for being vegetarian, or having a mostly vegetarian diet.
And here's something I'll bet you didn't know... Most people know that the Latter-day Saints have a health code that prohibits us from using alcohol, tobacco, tea and coffee. But this same health code urges us to eat meat "sparingly." That's what I try to do.
 

mattlevan

Member
Seyorni said:
Our food animals are bred, just like Ford pickup trucks are manufactured. If the general public stopped consuming pickup trucks there would be no overpopulation/glut -- Ford would stop making them.

If people stopped eating cows, pigs and chickens, farmers would stop breeding them and turn to something more lucrative.

Great point, Seyorni! When I talk about my choice to be vegetarian, I sometimes hear comments along this line: "We farmed the cows, so what does it matter if we slaughter them?" I'm glad not to have stumbled upon such a low argument here in the Religious Education Forums!

A question to debate that argument would be: Does the cow still have feeling? How is unnatural life any different from natural life? Would you consider the child conceived from injected semen any less of a human?

I thought that was quite hilarious, hehe. :)

By the way, Seyorni, fantastic avatar!

Matt
 

kai

ragamuffin
mattlevan said:
Great point, Seyorni! When I talk about my choice to be vegetarian, I sometimes hear comments along this line: "We farmed the cows, so what does it matter if we slaughter them?" I'm glad not to have stumbled upon such a low argument here in the Religious Education Forums!

A question to debate that argument would be: Does the cow still have feeling? How is unnatural life any different from natural life? Would you consider the child conceived from injected semen any less of a human?

I thought that was quite hilarious, hehe. :)

By the way, Seyorni, fantastic avatar!

Matt
yes there is an interesting moral question as to whether there would actually be any cows ,pigs,sheep etc if we didnt eat them?
 

Valjean

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Moral question?

More an economic question, I should think!

If the market dried up I'm sure there would be a few enthusiasts who bred Guernseys or Rhode Island Reds as a hobby, but serious businessmen would quickly switch to whatever commodity the market demanded.
 

kai

ragamuffin
Seyorni said:
Moral question?

More an economic question, I should think!

If the market dried up I'm sure there would be a few enthusiasts who bred Guernseys or Rhode Island Reds as a hobby, but serious businessmen would quickly switch to whatever commodity the market demanded.
yes but i am thinking there wouldnt be any domestic animals because their usefulness would have ceased years ago do you see what i mean, its just a thought
 

kai

ragamuffin
Seyorni said:
Moral question?

More an economic question, I should think!

If the market dried up I'm sure there would be a few enthusiasts who bred Guernseys or Rhode Island Reds as a hobby, but serious businessmen would quickly switch to whatever commodity the market demanded.
yes and domesticated animals will join the ranks of the endangered species , its just a thought that cows pigs sheep etc are only around today because they were needed by humans , i am not making a point here about vegetarians or carnivores just thinking out loud
 

GoldenDragon

Active Member
You mean like how dogs exist only because humans needed them?

Plus I don't know if Jesus was vegetarian but any time he ate anything mentioned in the Bible it was always fish and bread. Fish isn't usually considered meat,the kosher law treats fish as if its not meat and in the Catholic faith during Lent we can't eat meat on Fridays but we can eat fish.Why is fish not considered meat in some cultures ? But anyway I assume Jesus would have ate lamb during the Passover feast being he was a pious Jew. Maybe he was sort of semi-vegetarian if that's possible..?
 

gnostic

The Lost One
Can vegetarians eat egg or cheese? Or fish?

If you can't eat fish, then Jesus is a vegetarian...however, I don't remember if he did eat them, where in the gospels that say he did?
 

Valjean

Veteran Member
Premium Member
gnostic said:
Can vegetarians eat egg or cheese? Or fish?

If you can't eat fish, then Jesus is a vegetarian...however, I don't remember if he did eat them, where in the gospels that say he did?

Weren't the gospels written dcades after jesus' death? How authoritative could they be about His diet?

"Vegetarian" is a pretty liberal term. Vegans eat no animal products at all. Lacto-veggies include dairy; ovo-veggies, eggs; pisco-veggies fish.
You can mix-n-match the prefixes, or create new ones describing anyone's diet.
 

spacemonkey

Pneumatic Spiritualist
Jerrell said:
It is not as if back in Jesus' time that they were uncivilized folk unable of an organized economy. Jesus lived within the Roman Empire, Jews had a powerful economy, the Temple was very powerful and rich. The Jews as a whole did not have to go hunting except for to get an offering for God to take to the Temple.

But they lacked proper refrigeration and other preserving technologies like canning, so fresh fruits and vegtables would not be available all the time.
 

spacemonkey

Pneumatic Spiritualist
Seyorni said:
3. The idea that people in biblical times ate "what was available" is questionable. Perhaps the Romans did, but the Jews, and many other peoples, lived with strict dietary restrictions. The Essenes were a Jewish sect, and they were known to practice vegetarianism. Some speculate that Jesus was influenced by Essene teachings. Alas, any definitive knowledge of Jesus' life is lost in the mists of time.

Most of these dietary laws were originated to prevent the contraction of parasites and deseases from improper preperation and storage of food in a time that, like I said before, did not have many options when it came to food preservation.
 

James the Persian

Dreptcredincios Crestin
GoldenDragon said:
You mean like how dogs exist only because humans needed them?

Plus I don't know if Jesus was vegetarian but any time he ate anything mentioned in the Bible it was always fish and bread. Fish isn't usually considered meat,the kosher law treats fish as if its not meat and in the Catholic faith during Lent we can't eat meat on Fridays but we can eat fish.Why is fish not considered meat in some cultures ? But anyway I assume Jesus would have ate lamb during the Passover feast being he was a pious Jew. Maybe he was sort of semi-vegetarian if that's possible..?

But you weren't originally allowed to eat fish during Lent either. Before the Schism the Roman Church had precisely the same fasting rules we do, and for Lent that means no meat, fish, dairy, (olive) oil or wine (alcohol), and not just on Friday but every day except Saturday, when oil and wine are allowed but the rest remains forbidden. Every Wednesday and every Friday in the year (with a few exceptions such as immediately after Pascha) are also fast days on which the above are not allowed. There are also partial fasts where only meat (Cheesefare week), meat and dairy (usually when a major feast falls during a fast), or meat, dairy and fish (usually Saturdays as mentioned above) are disallowed .

Traditionally the Church has never considered fish to be vegetarian food at all. Shellfish is a different matter. Historically this has been permitted in even the strictest fast, though with the change in modern diets most of us do not eat it now as we feel it's a rather legalistic loophole to take advantage of. All in all, Orthodox Christians (as was once the case for RCs) fast to one degree or another for just over half the year, with the majority being strict fasts as described above. On top of this, monastics eat no meat at all.

I feel that there is no evidence for the belief that Christ was actually vegetarian and a lot of evidence that he was not, but there has certainly been a semi-vegetarian aspect to Christian diet from the earliest times.

James
 

Quoth The Raven

Half Arsed Muse
spacemonkey said:
But they lacked proper refrigeration and other preserving technologies like canning, so fresh fruits and vegtables would not be available all the time.
Fresh, maybe not. Bet you could get anything you wanted dried though.
 
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