DID YESHUA REALLY DECLARE “ALL FOODS CLEAN?”

 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)