wasn't god's OT demand for his followers to not eat pig slightly arbirtrary?

Question

the apologetical response is that god said that because pigs were diseased and it was to deter food poisening, but that response really better lends to the idea that it was human authors who were trying to deter the action.
And if god really meant it like that, why didn't he just say, "they will give you food poisening"?
it seems that jews, from those days until this modern era, have always taken it literally, assuming that he didn't want them to eat it for the simple reason that he said not to.

sigh. exactly what i thought.
that's the funny thing, as one answerer points out. despite apologetics saying that it was for health reason, the way god said it was for spiritual reasons.
god said it in a way that you couldn't really interpret it any other way than god wanting you to show your spiritual strength by not eating it just becuase he demanded so.

scrapicorn geo could not have made his response any funnier if he was a stand up comedian.
he stays firm with the health reasons, and recognizes that jews had the ability to cook things (thusly removing bacteria and such), but implies that god said so because demanding them to not eat it all was less complicated than saying "cook it so it is no longer poisonious"
the hilarious thing is that every jew in that day even until now has understood it as god giving demand to not do so because of the simple reason that god would find it immoral. why is this so hard to understand. I think that it is a sin to stand behind laughable apologetics just to assure yourself that you are going to recieve an eternity in heaven. for shame.

Answer 1

I don't believe that anything was forbidden, just strongly advised against. I believe that all the so called laws in the scriptures originally had common sense and logic, and scientific knowledge behind them. I think that it changed later, to just being laws, and the reasons behind the laws were forgotten. *sm*

Answer 2

I did not know there was no reason given. I would be quite resentful if my father said, "Just do it because I said so!"

Unless someone knows the explanation, these religious bans on foods are quite kooky.

Edit: scrapiron, how does that possibly help modern-day Jews, then? We've got all the necessary equipment to cook it, yet they are still forbidden? They're being punished for the ignorance of the ancient people?

Answer 3

God was in the process of forming a unique -special people (Jews) for Himself, to be a model nation. God gave them various laws, statutes & dietary laws towards this end. Pigs were not "diseased" but were part of the special dietary laws to illustrate to the Gentile nations around them, that they [Jews] were a special people, as goes for the other animals forbidden. If these OT demands were "arbitrary" then, this would defeat the whole objective of God having the nation of Israelites -"a chosen people".

Answer 4

Well, ok, how would you explain why not to eat pork to a people with no concept of bacteria, and barely a concept of parasites? We no know that you can heat pork sufficiently long enough and high enough to kill the disease causing bacteria. In biblial times they had like 3 temps: hot warm and cold. Not very specific is it. Also pigs at the time ate a lot worse grade of slop than in more recent times. Feces and carrion were more common at the time in their diets (by this I mean domestic pigs). It was much better to make a specific statement: DO NOT eat pork, than a relative one : Do not eat undercooked pork. This could be interpreted many ways, while the previous statement was an absolute.

Answer 5

No.
No means no. Health reasons, but not as they state.
I do not eat pork. I do put on makeup once in a while which might have some pork fat in it, or eat pie with lard inadvertently. I also have eaten red jello which uses pork to make the color really red, or pig or horse hoof for the gel. Sometimes I eat pizza, but the sausage goes. I do my best.

Peter's vision was not a go ahead, eat what you want. It was referring to the gentiles, which to the Jews even still, are considered unclean.

Answer 6

The OT laws concerning clean and unclean animals covered a clean animal being one with a cloven hoof and chews a cud (basically a cow) and unclean being a foot either as a solid hoof or a foot with toes (such as horse and dog). A camel chews a cud but does not have a cloven hoof..unclean. The Pig is not specifically named, but falls within the parameters of what is unclean. Swine are basically the opposite of the camel in that they have cloven feet but do not chew a cud. There are several animals that cannot be eaten according to OT Law.

Much of the reason Jews still strictly follow OT Law is simply to obey God's commands and laws. Obedience to God.

Answer 7

Christians today rationalize that animal sacrifices are no further mandatory simply by "sacrifice" of Christ. it truly is wonderful to me that anybody can probable think of that a being efficient adequate to create the universe and immortal souls might have ever even considered animal sacrifice as a skill of 'atonement'. To me, it truly is plenty extra plausible that the old testomony is only the myths of the classic Hebrews. Primitive peoples international believed animal and human sacrifice replaced into demanded by skill of their gods. all of us understand universally have faith all of those different gods have been on no account genuine. Why can we expect of that Jehovah replaced into ever genuine?

Answer 8

Some things we have to take at face value. Peter certainly did struggle with eating pork as acceptable. Perhaps the prohibition was merely a way for God to show that future generations should not consider Gentiles as outcast under the new covenant.

Answer 9

Ah but that is the thing, pork was not prohibited because of health reasons.

The word for un-clean in Hebrew is Tumah pork is described as such. Other things that are described as Tumah are contact with the dead, menstrual blood, and other creatures.

The reason pork was prohibited to the Nation of Israel was because of its spiritual impurity.

Answer 10

In the Bible and in The Quran, it says that it is forbidden food. Also, the bible says that shrimp and sea creatures that are scavengers are forbidden. Some types of bird are also forbidden. This just shows how some people want to pick and choose what they want out of religions. It says that these foods are unclean.