Issue of pork in Bible

I was asked recently, as a former Christian, why do people eat pork though it seems to be forbidden in the Bible. Together with my mom, we made some research in this matter and here it goes.

It is indeed written in Old Testimony that pork is prohibited. You can read it at the beginning of Chapter 11 in Leviticus.

 

1

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron,

2
“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: Of all land animals these are the ones
you may eat:
3
any animal that has hoofs you may eat, provided it is cloven-footed and chews
the cud.
4
But you shall not eat any of the following that only chew the cud or only have
hoofs: the camel, which indeed chews the cud, but does not have hoofs and is
therefore unclean for you;
5
2 the rock badger, which indeed chews the cud, but does not have hoofs and is
therefore unclean for you;
6
the hare, which indeed chews the cud, but does not have hoofs and is therefore
unclean for you; and the pig,
7
which does indeed have hoofs and is cloven-footed, but does not chew the cud
and is therefore unclean for you.
8
Their flesh you shall not eat, and their dead bodies you shall not touch; they
are unclean for you.
(New American Bible)

The New Testamony however doesn’t say anything about pork, on a contrary, there are many verses that would give full liberty of choice.

And he [Jesus] called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand: Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.
(Matthew 15:10-11)

(…)there is nothing unclean of itself but to him who considers it to be unclean then to him it is unclean.
Romans 14:14

(…)every creature of God is good and nothing is to be refused if it is received with the prayer of thanksgiving.
1 Timothy 4:4

 

So now, how do people explain these two contradicting laws? Well, they moderate and destinguish between religious rules, that supposed to me made only for need of certain time. In Old Testimony God calls pigs unclean as they could be found in filthy paces, ate garbages and even couldn’t be used as a sacrifice! But in New Testimony, as it is believed, due to Jesus’s death and resurrection, world had been purified, sins were washed away and New Covenant has been made.

 

4
Peter began and explained everything to them precisely as it had happened:
5
I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. I saw
something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners,
and it came down to where I was.
6
I looked into it and saw four-footed animals
of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, and birds of the air.
7
Then I heard a
voice telling me, ‘Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.’
8
“I replied, ‘Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my
mouth.’
9
The voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that
God has made clean.”
10
This happened three times, and then it was all pulled up
to heaven again.
(Acts 11:4-10)

It has been also written:

Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. “Don’t you see that
whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the
body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart,
and these make a man ‘unclean.’ For out of the heart come evil
thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony,
slander. These are what make a man ‘unclean’; but eating with unwashed
hands does not make him ‘unclean.’
(Matthew 15:16-20)

 

For that in my humble opinion, Christians took liberty in deciding that pork is allowed and didn’t accept kosher doctrine. In the same time I know few Christians (my family for example) that refused to eat pork and believe it’s wrong

~ by Amina on March 17, 2008.