Sunday, November 2, 2014

Did Y’shua really proclaim ALL foods to be clean?

No, He didn’t.  The Greek mindset and the Greek versions of the Bible have twisted His words into meaning something…well, Greek.  Even Stern’s Complete Jewish Bible has retained some of that “Greek” mindset.  Take a look at Stern’s version of Mark 7:17-19 which retained that faux passage “thus he declared all foods clean” (which was never in the original versions):

Mark 7:17 When he had left the people and entered the house, his talmidim asked him about the parable. 18 He replied to them, "So you too are without understanding? Don't you see that nothing going into a person from outside can make him unclean? 19 For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and it passes out into the latrine." (Thus he declared all foods ritually clean.)

Most don’t bother reading further into that passage, which serves to explain what was meant.  Let’s take a look at Andrew Gabriel Roth’s Aramaic English New Testament http://www.aent.org/ with footnotes that explain that entire passage:

Mark 7:17. And when Y’shua entered into the house away from the crowd, his disciples asked him about that saying.  18. He said to them, You are likewise slow to understand.  You do not know that everything which enters into a man from the outside is not able to defile him.  19. Because it does not enter into his heart, rather into his belly and is cast out by excretion, which purifies all the food.[1]  20. But anything that goes out from a man is that which defiles a man.  21. For from the inside, from the heart of the sons of men proceeds evil thoughts, adultery, fornication, theft, murder,  22. Extortion, wickedness, deceit, lust. An evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.  23. All these evil things, they do proceed from within a man and defile him. 
 

Explanation:

This chapter showcases one of the greatest discussions of oral versus written Jewish law that exists in these writings of the Renewed Covenant.  In many ways this presages the heated exchanges that would be recorded in the Talmud some 200 years later.  However, a major misunderstanding of this verse found its way into the modern translations with the parenthetical comment “in so doing Y’shua declared all foods clean.” 

Neither Aramaic nor early Greek manuscripts include this in the text, which is clearly an attempt by Gentile or Christian editors to abandon Torah’s dietary laws.  The point being established is that if you plot things like murder, lies, adulteries and so forth, then why be concerned about the food you eat, when weightier things are making you much more unclean than your food?  Even if a person kept a perfectly kosher diet, but had such unclean thoughts, such a one would rank among the most unkosher of people.  See Luke 11:40.

2 comments:

  1. Yes you are right. It says in scripture we are to take care of our bodies. I Cor 3:16, 17 is what I live by so I apply food to this.

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    1. Oh, where is that LIKE button when you need it? :)

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