Christianity and eating meat

Major stumbling blocks for many Christians are the belief that Christ ate meat and the many references to meat in the New Testament. But close study of the original Greek manuscripts shows that the vast majority of the words translated as "meat" are trophe, brome and other words that simply mean "food" or "eating" in the broadest sense. For example, in the Gospel (Luke 8.55) we read that Jesus raised a woman from the dead and "commanded to give her meat." The original Greek word actually translated as "meat" is phago, which means only "to eat". So, what Christ actually said was, "Let her eat." The original Greek word for meat is kreas ("flesh"), and it is never used in connection with Christ. In Luke 24:41-43 the disciples offered him a fish and a honeycomb and he took IT (singular, we can quess which one).

Nowhere in the New Testament is there any direct reference to Jesus eating meat. This is in line with Isaiahs famous prophecy: "Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, ahd shall call his name Immanuel. He shall eat butter and honey, so that he may know the evil from the good." (Isaiah 7:14-15) )this itself says that meat eating destroys all good discretion in man. It is quite typical, that the second part of the sentence is omited in Matthew 1.23).

He rebuked the pharisees with the words:..."and if you had known whar it means: "i desire mercy and not sacrifice, ...you would not condemn the innocent,"(Matthew 12:6) which clearly disapproves of the killing of animals, as this is a verse taken from Hosea 6:6: "I desire mercy instead of sacrifice, the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings..." (note: again the 2nd part of the sentence is omited in Matthew 12:6).

He strong;y oopposed the custom of temple animal sacrifices, violently driving those who were selling oxen, sheep and pigeons and the money-changers out of the temple (John 2:13-15).

His words: "...you shall not make my father's house a house of trade (which in earlier translations always was translated as "murders' den").

We all know that according to Matthew 3:4 John the Baptist was refusing to eat meat. ("...and his food was wild locust(bean) and wild honey." (orig. greek: enkris, oil cake and akris: locust/honey)

But we never hear of the sheer overwhelming evidence which points to Jesus being a vegetarian: No less thab seven of Jesus' twelve disciples refused meat food (the rest we do not know). This naturally reflects the teachings of Jesus, as: "...a servant is not greater than his master..."(John 14.16) The seven are:

1. Peter;..."whose food was bread, olives and herbs..."(Hoer 15:cf, Clem.Hom.XII,6

2.James: Church Father Eusebius, quoting Hegesippus (about 160 AD) that "...James the brother of theLord was holy from birth. He drank no wine or ate the flesh of animals..."

3. Thomas: according to an early christian document he was "...wearing a single garment, giving what he had to others and was abstaining from eating og flesh and drinking wine..."(James Vernnon Bartlet,M.A."The Apocyphal Gospels form the History of Christianity in the Light of Modern Knowledge)

4.Matthew:"...lived upon seeds and nuts, fruits and vegetables without the use of flesh...(Clement of Alexandria / Clem. Instructor)

5.Matthias (who filled the place of Judas (Acts 1:21-26). His food as told by Church Father Clement of Alexandria was the same as Matthews.

6.Andrew and 7.Jude: Andrew (Peters brother in both flesh and faith) and Jude of Bethsaida, originally two of John the Baptists' followers, must have followed the Baptist's austere diet.

Paul also says: "Destroy not the work of God for the sake of food...It is good neither to drink wine or eat flesh..."(Roman 14:20,21) though his commitment altogether seems somewhat less categorical.

Beyond that there are strong arguments of a similar nature by many of the Fathers of the early Church:

"...How unworthy do you press the example of Christ as having come to eating and drinknf into the service of your lusts: I think that He who pronounced not the full,but the hungry and thirsty 'Blessed,' who professed His work to be the completion of His Father's Will, I think that he was wont to abstain, instructing them to labour for that 'Meat' which lasts to eternal life, and enjoying in their common prayers petition, not for flesh food but for bread only..."-Quintus Septimus Tertullianus (AD 155).

This knowledge of Tertullianis was supported by fragments of the writings by the Apostolic Father Papias (AD 60-125).

The apocryphical Acts of Thomas, which were widely in use among early Christian sects, depict the disciples of Jesus as ascetics:"...He continually fasts and prays, wears the same garment in all weather, accepts nothing from anyone, gives whatever he has to others and abstains from meat and wine..."

"...The unnatural eating of flesh is as polluting as the heathens worship of devils with its sacrifices and impure feasts, through participation in which a man becomes a fellow eater with devils..."(2nd century scripture Clemente Homilies (Hom.XII)

Clemens Prudentius, the first Christian hymn writer exhorts in one of his hymns his fellow Christians..."not to pollute their hands and hearts by the slaughter of innocent cows and sheep..."

"...It is far better to be happy than to have the devil dwelling in us, for happiness is found only in the practise of virtue. Accordingly the Apostle Matthew, partook of seeds, and nuts, and vegetables, without the useof flesh...is there not within a temperate simplicity, a wholesome variety of eatables, vegetables, roots, olives, herbs, milk, cheese, fruits?" - Churchfather Clement of Alexandria (Titus Flavius Clemens / AD 150-220)

"...We the Christian leaders practice abstinence from the flesh of animals to subdue our bodies. The unnatural eating of flesh is of demonic origin."

And about the early Christians: "...No streams of blood are among them. No dainty cookery, no heaviness of head. Nor are horrible smells of flesh meats among them or disagreeable fumes fromthe kitchen.." - St. Chrysostomos (AD 347-404)

"...Since Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the Messiah who restores all things, it is no longer permitted t o divorce or t o eat flesh...and so too i say to you: if you wish to be perfect, it is good not to drink wine or to eat flesh..."-St. Jerome, (AD340-420), who gave the Vulgate, the authorized latin version of the Biblle still in use today.

"The steam of meat darkens the light of the spirit...One hardly can have virtue when one enjoys meat meals and feasts..." - St. Basil (AD320-79)

Besides that: Many heathen observers describe the early Christian as abstaining from meat:

Pliny, Governor of Bithynia (where Peter preached) referred to the early Christians in a letter to Trajan, the Roman Emperor, as a ..."contagious superstition abstaining from flesh food..."

Seneca, (5BC-65AD), stoic Philosopher and tutor of Nero, describes the Christians as "...a foreign cultus or superstition (under imperial suspicion) who abstain from flesh food..."

And Josephus Flavius says about the early Christians: "...They assemble before sunrising and speak not a word of profane matters but put up certain prayers...and sit down together each one to a single plate of one sort of innocent food..."

In an old Aramaic scripture, recovered and translated by E.M. Szeekely, Jesus is quoted: "...Therefore, he who kills, kills his brother...And the flesh of slain beasts in his body will become his own tomb. For I tell you truly, he who kills, kills himself, and who so eats the flesh of slain beasts, eats of the body of death...Kill neither men, nor beasts, nor the food which goes into your mouth...For like comes from life, and from death comes always death. For everything which kills your foods, kills your bodies also. And your bodies become what you foods are, even as your spirits become what your thoughts are..." -E.M.Szeekely, Gospel of Peace.

Hence Albert Schweitzer says: "...Ethics has not only to do with mankind but with the animal creation as well. This is witnessed in the purpse of St. Francis of Assisi. Thus we shall arrive that ethics is reverence for all like, This is the ethic of love widened universally. It is the ethic of Jesus now recognized as a neccessity of thought...Only a universal ethic which embraces every living creation can put us in touch with the universe and the will which is there manifest..."

Cardinal John. Henry Newman (1801-90) says..."Cruelty to animals is as if man did not love God...They have done us no harm, they have no power of resistence...there is something dreadful, so satanic in tormenting thoses who have never harmed us and who cannot defend themselves, who arer utterly in our power..."

Tolstoy and Dukhobor )Orthodox Russian Christian) were of the opinion that meat-eating is against the tenets of Christianity.

While it clearly says according to Judeo-Christian scriptures, "Thou shalt not kill," they are giving all kinds of excuses. Even the heads of religions indulge in killing animals while trying to pass as saintly persons. This mockery and hypocrisy in human society has brought about unlimited calamities..."

JUDAISM:

And God said:"...Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth and every tree in which the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat..."(Genesis 1:29)

"Thou shalt not kill." (Exodus 20.13)

"He that kills an ox is like him who kills a man; he that sacrifices a lamb, like him who breaks a dog's neck; he who presents a cereal offering, like him who offers swine's blood...yea they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations." Isaiah 66.3

"I am full of the burnt offering of rams and the fat of fed beasts. I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs , or of goats...Bring no more vain offerings...When you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes though you make many prayers, and I will not hear you. For your hands are full of blood..."(Isaiah 1:11-15)

"I will have mercyand not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings..." (Hosea 6:6)

When the children of Israel lusted after flesh it syas: "...Therefore the Lord will give you meat and you shall eat. You shall not eat one day or two days, or ten days or twenty days, but till it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you because you have rejected the Lord..."(Numbers 11:18-20) And "while the flesh was yet between their teeth, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord smote thepeople with a verygreat plague." (umber 11:33)

We also find the story of Daniel, who while imprisoned in Babylon refused to eat the meat offered by his jailers, preerring instead simple vegetarian food.

Isaac Bashevis Singer concludes: "When a hauman being kills an animal for food, he is neglecting his own hunger for justice; man prays for mercy, but is unwilling to extend it to others. Why, then, shouls man expect mercy from God? It is unfair to expect something that you are not willing to give."

THE HEALTH ARGUMENT

Coronary diseas: "Ninety to 97% of heart duseas, the cause of more than one half of the deaths in the US, could be prevented by a vegetarian diet."1961 Journal of the American Medical Association

"...The main cause of heart diseas and high blood pressure is the deposition of cholesterol on the inner walls of the blood-vessels. Eggs are the main source of cholesterol, followed by meat and milk-fats. the consumption of 100g of eggs per day amounts to an intake of 2 to 2 1/2 times more than needed cholesterol." Medical Basis of Vegetarian Nutrition

Cancer and tumors: "Eggs, animal , fish and birds also suffer from diseases like cancer and tumors etc. and it is well known that they are not properly investigated medically before they are slaughtered for food. Any diseas not evident on their exterior goes unnoticed and its germs and viruses enter the body of the body eater..."-Gopinath Aggarwal-Vegetarian or non-vegetarian:Choose Yourself

Colon cancer: "Evidence of the unsuitability of the human intestinal traact for digestion of flesh is the relationship, established by numerous studies, between colon cancer and meat-eating."Micheal J Hill, MD., Metaboloc Epidemiology of Dietary Factors in Large Bowel Cancer.

.."In AUstralia, which leads in meat consumption, and where the average yearly consumption of beef is 130kg per person, the occurence of intestinal cancer is maximum." Role of Vegetarian Diet in Health and Disease

Toxemmia: "...Consumption of meat and eggs destroys the body's capability for fighting toxins in the blood stream. The body becomes unable to defend itself even from mminor diseases. Many Americans and Bristish doctors have described eggs as a poison for human beings." Anda Zahar Hi Zahar.

Rheumatoid arthritus, gout:..."Flesh foods increase the amount of uric acid in the blood. Deposits of this acid in the joints causes rheumatoid arthritus, gout and other types of arthritus. It has been observed that discontinuation of meat, eggs, tea, coffe, etc brings relief to the patients suffering from these diseases." -Medical Basis of Vegetarian Nutrition

Athereosclerosis:"Athereosclerosis is the swelling of arteries which is caused by excess polyunsaturated fats, cholesterol and caleries in our food. Flesh foods and eggs are rich in these factors while vegetarian foods have very little of them. Their presence is almost negligible in fruits and vegetables. The result is that vegetarians avoid falling victims of atherosclerosis" -Medical Basis of Vegetarian Nutrition

Inherited diseases:"Research conducted at the State University of NY, Buffalo, brought to light the fact that more than 47,000children born in America every year suffer from various inherited diseases because of the consumption of flesh foods by their parents. These chldren can never grow uo to be healthy adults." Ahimsa Sandesh, June, 1989

Food Poisoning:" in America alone, more than 40,000 cases are reported every year in which people suffer from illnesses caused by eating disease-infected eggs and meat." Ahimsa Sandesh,June 1989

Constipation:"American doctors say that vegetarians have greater inherent resistance to diseases as compared to meat eater. Non-vegetarians are generally prone to constipation which is an automatic breeder of illness..."Ahimsa Ssandesh June 1989

Long Life:"In a study conducted on the persons of Hunza Tribe of aged 90-110 years, it has been revealed that their long life and sound health is due to their being vegetarian" Ahimsa Sandesh June 1989

Good Health:"Grains and other vegetables, with the help of milk, cheese, and butter, or oil, where butter is not to be had, afford the most plentiful, the most wholesome, the most nourishing, and the most invigorating diet. Decency nowhere requires that any man should eat butcher's meat." Adam Smith The Wealth of Nations

Youthfulness:Once someone asked George Bernhard Shaw how it was that he looked so youthful. "I don't" Shaw retorted. "I look my age. It is the other people who look older than they are. What can you expect from people who eat corpses?"

Strenght ans well-being:"A diet consisting of any staple grain with milk, milk products and green leafy vegetables contains not only the right kind and amount of protein but everything else the body needs for helth, strength and well-being." Sir Robert McCarrison

Purity and Happiness:"I ardently believe that the vegetarian movement is the bottom and basis of all other movements towards Purity, Freedom, Justice and Happiness. I consider the vegetarian movement to be the most important movement of our age. i see in it the beginnig of true civilization."

"...You cannot violate the laws of God. As you cannot violate the laws of the state, similarly, if you violate, you have to suffer, You cannot expect peace and you go on killing animals, That is not possible. If you want peace, then you must think for others also. That is God consciousness. ow you can kill another animal? He is also as a child of God. A father may have some dozens of children. It may be one is useless, but that does not mean father will allow it to be killed. If the more intelligent child says, "My dear father, your son is useless. Let me kill him." How can the father sanction? Similarly, the animal may be less intelligent. They cannot protest. But because they cannot protest, they cannot rally support, you think you can kill them. Is that humanity? And you expect peace? If you violalte God's law you have to suffer, today or tomorrow..."

"...One cannot continue killing animals and at the same time be a spiritual person. That is the greatest hypocrisy. Jesus said, "Do not kill," but the hypocrites nevertheless maintain thousands of slaughterhouses while posing as Christians. Such hypocrisy is condemned. One should be happy to see others happy, and one should be unhappy to se others unhappy. This is the principle to be followed.

"The flesh eating is simply immoral, as it involves the performance of an act which is contrary to moral feeling: killing. By killing, man suppresses in himself, unnecessarily, the highest spiritual capacity, that of sympathy and pity towards living creatures like himself and by violating his own feelings becomes cruel."-Leo Tolstoy

"As long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seeds of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love." pythagoras

"Flesh eating is unprovoked murder." Benjamin Franklin

"We pray on Sundays that we may have light/To guide our footsteps on the path we tread/We are sick of war, we don't want to fight,/ And yet we gorge ourseoves upon the dead." George Bernhard Shaw

"Cruelty to animals is as if man did not love God." Cardinal John H Newman

"Plant life intead of animal food is the keystone of regeneration. Jesus used bread instead of flesh and wine in place of blood at the Lord's Supper."-German Composer Richard Wagner(1813)

"How can he be possessed of kindness who, to increase his own flesh, eats the flesh of other creatures." "As those possess no property who do not take care of it, so those possess no kindness who feed on flesh."

Like the (murderous)mind of him who carries a weapon (in his hand), the mind of him who feasts with pleasure on the body of another (creatue), has no regard for goodness."..."If it be asked what is kindness and what its opposite, the answer would be presevation and destruction of life; and therefore it is not right to feed on the flesh (obtaind by taking away life)..."-Thirukkural

"If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and piety, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men."-St Francis of Assisi

..."Killing is a denial of love. To kill or to eat what another has killed is to rejoice in cruelty. And cruelty hardens our hearts and blinds our vision, and we are unable to see that they whom we kill are our fellow brohters and sisters in the One Family of Creation." -G.L/Rudd, author of Why Kill For Food?

"Vegetarinism is a way of life that we should all move toward for economic survival, physical well-being and spiritual integrity." Father Thomas Berry, Fordham University, New York

"To be nonviolent to human beings and to be a killer or enemy of poor animals is Satan's philosophy. In this age there is always enmity against animals, and therfore the poor creatures are always anxious. The reaction of the poor animals is being forced on human society, and therfore ther is always the straiiiiiiin of cold orhot war between men, individually, colllectively or nationally... SP

"The earth affords a lavish supply of riches, of innocent foods, and offers you banques that involve no bloodshed or slaught; only beasts satisfy their hunger with flesh, and not even all of those, because horses, cattle, and sheep live on grass. As long as men massacre anniamls, they will kill each other. inded, he who sows the seeds of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love."-Pythagoras

The biographer Diogenes tells us that Pythagoras ate bread and honey in the morning and raw vegetables at night. He would also pay fishermen to throw their catch back into the sea.

THE ROMANS:

"Can you really ask what reason Pythagoras had for abstinence from flesh? For my part i rather wonder both by what accident and in what state of mind the first man touched his mouth to gore and brought his lips to the flesh of a dead creature, set forth tables of dead, stale bodies, and ventured to call food and nourishment the parts that had a little begore bellowed and cied, moved and lived. How could his eyes endure the slaughter when throats were slit and hides flayed and limbs torn fom limb? How could his nose endure the stench? How was it yhat the pollution did not turn away his taste, which made contact with sores of others and sucked juices and serums from mortal wounds? It is certainly not lions or wolves that we eat out of self-defence; on the contrary, we ignore these and slaughter harmless, tame creature withou stings or teeth to harm us. For the sake of a little flesh we deprive them of sun, of light, of the duration of life to which they are entitled by birth and being." -Plutarch in his essay On Eating Flesh

Economically provrn that resources- grains, water etc more suited to a vegetarian diet.

MEAT EATING AND WORLD HUNGER

Consider the following statistics. One thousand acres of soybeans yield 1124 pounds of usuable protein. One thousand acres of rice yield 938 pounds of usable protein. 1,000 cres of corn yield 100 pounds of usable protein. 1,000 acres wheat yield 1943 pounds usable protein. Now, consider: this 1,000 acres soybeans, corn, rice or wheat, when fed to a steer, will yield only about 125 pounds of usab;e protein.

Some nutrionists, environmentalists and politicians have pointed out that if the US were to feed that same grain to the poor and starving people of the world as is fed to livestosk, w could wipe out starvation and its corollary horrors.

It is a matter of record; interms of land,water and resources, meat is the most expensice and inefficient food anyone can eat.Only about 10% of the protein and calories we fed to livestock is returned in the meat those aniamls provide. In addition 100's of 1,000's of acres of arable land are occupied in raising livestock for food.

one acre to raise a steer + one pound protein

cf " " planted with soybeans = 17 pounds protein

one pound wheat required 60 ponds water

cf " " meat requires 2,500 -6,000pounds water

"If a cow yields an average of 10kg of mild per day for an average of 10 months in a year, it amounts to 3000kgs of milk which can satisfy the hunger of 6000persons once. In its 15 productive years on an average, a cow in its whole life can thus satisfy the hunger of 90000 persons at least once. But ift eh same cow is killed and its flesh used for eating, it cannot satisfy even 100 persons one time." Gopinath Aggarwa;. Vegetarian of Non-Vegetaian: Choose Yourself

"A diet of grains, gvegetab;es, and beans will support 20times more people than a diet of meat. As to stands now, about half the harvested acreage in America is used to feed animals" Dr Aaron Alshul.Proteins; Their Chemistry and Politics

reseach shows that ofr every 16 pounds of grain we get back only one pound of beef" USDA's Economicsal Research Service)