Do you really believe that Yeshua declared ALL foods clean? Of course he didn't! Neither Aramaic nor early Greek manuscripts include that parenthetical comment
in the text.
Let's check it out.
Mark 7:14. And Y'shua called all the crowd and said
to them, Hear me all of you and understand, 15. There isn't anything that is on
the outside of a man that enters into him that is able to defile him. But the
thing that goes out from him, that is the thing that defiles a man. 16. He who
has ears to hear, let him hear! 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. (AENT)
NOTE: 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."
The truth is, neither Aramaic nor early Greek manuscripts include this
in the text, which is clearly an attempt by some 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.)
So, what was Y'shua saying? First of all, everyone he
was addressing knew that no true believer would ingest anything YHWH considered
"unclean." Secondly, Y'shua wasn't advocating eating unclean foods;
he was trying to show that, unless we are living holy/set apart lives consecrated
to YHWH, our every thought, deed and action would be viewed as unholy. If we
hang out with drunkards, thieves, criminals and prostitutes, we will
automatically eventually behave like they do.
We live in a fallen world where it is very hard to refrain
from eating anything unclean. Not long ago, it came to light that the pink
coloring in some of Starbuck's drinks and cake products is cochineal extract,
an insect-derived red coloring. The Cochineal bug is an insect that sucks the
sap of prickly pear cactus and was originally used by the early Mixtec Indians
of pre-Hispanic Mexico as a red dye for clothing but the use of cochineal dye
eventually moved on to food. In the United States it is primarily as a food
dye, as in pork sausage, pies, dried fish and shrimp, candies, pills, jams,
lipstick and rouge, and the brightly colored maraschino cherries....
The thing is, the Cochineal bug isn't considered
"kosher" - which means, many unsuspecting Torah observant
followers are being sucked into "the world" without their knowledge!
Take a look:
Leviticus 11: 20 "'All winged swarming creatures
that go on all fours are a detestable thing for you; 21 except that of all
winged swarming creatures that go on all fours, you may eat those that have
jointed legs above their feet, enabling them to jump off the ground. 22
Specifically, of these you may eat the various kinds of locusts, grasshoppers,
katydids and crickets. 23 But other than that, all winged swarming creatures
having four feet are a detestable thing for you. (CJB)
Y'shua came NOT to abolish His Father's Divine Instructions (Torah), but to remove our past sins via his Divine Blood, and show us how to "walk the walk," His death had nothing, whatsoever to do with what we are allowed to eat...
Luke 4: 43 "But he (Yeshua/Jesus) said, "I must
preach the good news of the Kingdom of God to the other towns also, because
that is why I was sent." (AENT)
Luke 8: 1. And it happened after these things that Y'shua
was going around in the cities and in the villages and was preaching and
declaring the Kingdom of Elohim. (AENT)
