We have been looking closer at 3 Overlooked Dietary Laws in the New Testament. The last installment discussed why the admonition to abstain from food that is strangled may be moral in nature, not ceremonial.

We mentioned that commentators struggle with Acts 15:20, 29; and 21:25 because the prohibition against eating strangled meat (a seemingly ceremonial law) is side by side an obviously moral law (abstaining from sexual immorality).

We gave 3 Reasons this Dietary Law may Be Moral, Not Ceremonial. Here is a quick summary:

1. If the law was merely ceremonial, why command it when the ceremonial law was fulfilled in Christ?
2. The law has moral implications: since God is the owner of animals, we are obligated to treat them as He commands.
3. The law is not rooted in the ceremonial law, but in a deeper law that was established before the law of Moses.

Today we will answer the question: Was the Early Church Trying to Placate the Jews with this Dietary Law?

Commentators Don’t Want to Offend.

We noted before that this is the position of many commentators. They claim that the sole purpose of this dietary law was to appease the Jews so they would not be offended at the eating of food that was forbidden by their Jewish law.

Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers states of this restriction: “Here the moral element falls entirely into the background, and the prohibition has simply the character of a concordat to avoid offence.”

Matthew Henry writes:

They were counselled to abstain from things strangled, and from eating blood; this was forbidden by the law of Moses, and also here, from reverence to the blood of the sacrifices, which being then still offered, it would needlessly grieve the Jewish converts, and further prejudice the unconverted Jews. But as the reason has long ceased, we are left free in this, as in the like matters.

Based on these commentaries and the practice of the modern church, most Christians treat this dietary law as non-binding today. The widely held position is that the laws were only put into place temporarily in the early church to avoid offending the Jewish believers.

Are the Commentators Correct?

But is this the best way to understand these dietary laws?  Continue reading “Was The Early Church Trying to Placate the Jews with This Dietary Law?” →

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Scripture quotations taken from the NASB.

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© 2017 Mischelle Sandowich
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