Shemini 6th Portion Part 1
Clean and Unclean Food
1
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron [Moses to tell Aaron and Aaron to
tell Elazar and Ithamar],
2 “Say
to the Israelites [All of the above were made equal in this embassy for having
remained silent and accepted God’s decree (the death of Nadab and Abihu) with
love]: ‘Of all the animals that live on land, these [Moses took hold of the
animal and showed it to Israel] are the ones (חַיָּה) [connoting “חַיִּים” (life)—because
Israel cleaves to the Lord and merits (eternal) life, it is (to that end)
separated from what is unclean and given commandments] you may eat:
Mat 15:11
What goes into someone’s mouth does not
defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.
Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
Referring to the charge made by the
Pharisees in Mat 15:2. The Pharisees taught that sin consisted mainly in the
neglect of prescribed rites, and the contracting of outward and ceremonial
impurities. Jesus shows that moral and spiritual corruption and impurity is
what they ought to be most anxious to shun.
The Adam Clarke Commentary
What goes into someone’s mouth does
not defile—This is an answer to the carping
question of the Pharisees, mentioned Mat 15:2, Why do your disciples eat with
unwashed hands? To which our Lord here replies, That what goes into someone’s
mouth defiles not the man; i.e. that if, in eating with unwashed hands, any
particles of dust, etc., cleaving to the hands, might happen to be taken into
the mouth with the food, this did not defile, did not constitute a man a
sinner; for it is on this alone the question hinges: your disciples eat with
unwashed hands; therefore they are sinners; for they break the tradition of the
elders, i.e. the oral law, which they considered equal in authority to the
written law; and, indeed, often preferred the former to the latter, so as to
make it of none effect, totally to destroy its nature and design, as we have
often seen in the preceding notes.
What comes out of their mouth—That is, what springs from a corrupt unregenerate heart—a perverse
will and impure passions—these defile, i.e. make him a sinner.
Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy
Bible
What goes into someone’s mouth does
not defile—Our Lord, addressing the multitude,
observed to them, that nothing could be more absurd than the precepts which the
Scribes and Pharisee endeavoured to inculcate: anxious about trifles, they
neglected the great duties of morality, which are of unchangeable obligation.
They shuddered with horror at hands unwashed, but were
perfectly easy under the guilt of impure minds; although what
goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them; because, in the sight of
God, cleanness and uncleanness are qualities not of the body, but of the mind,
which can be polluted by nothing but sin. Our Lord did not at all mean to
overthrow the distinction which the law had established between things clean
and unclean in the matter of men's food; that distinction, like all the other
emblematical institutions of Moses, was wisely appointed, being designed to
teach the Israelites how carefully the familiar company and conversation of the
wicked is to be avoided: he only affirmed; that in itself no kind of meat can
defile the mind, which is the man, though by
accident it may: a man may bring guilt upon himself by wilfully eating what is
pernicious to his health, or by excess in the quantity of food and liquor; and
a Jew might have done it by presumptuously eating what was forbidden by the
Mosaic law, which still continued in force; yet inall these instances the
pollution would arise from the wickedness of the heart, and be proportionable
to it: which is all that our Lord asserts. See Macknight, Doddridge, Calmet.
Mar 7:15
Nothing outside a person can defile
them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles
them.
John Wesley's Explanatory Notes on
the Whole Bible
Nothing outside going into a person
can defile them—Though it is very true, a man may
bring guilt, which is moral defilement, upon himself by eating what hurts his
health, or by excess either in meat or drink yet even here the pollution arises
from the wickedness of the heart, and is just proportionable to it. And this is
all that our Lord asserts.
The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Though it is very true, says Dr.
Doddridge, that a man may bring guilt upon himself by eating to excess, and a
Jew, by eating what was forbidden by the Mosaic law; yet still the pollution
would arise from the wickedness of the heart, and be just proportionable to it,
which is all our Lord asserts.
Mar 7:18
“Are you so dull?” he
asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside
can defile them?”
The Fourfold Gospel
Are you so dull? It was to be expected that the multitude, swayed by the teaching of
the Pharisees, would be slow to grasp what Jesus said about uncleanness; but
the disciples, having been so long taught of him, and having felt free to eat
with unwashed hands, should have been more quick of understanding.
Can defile them—Thus Jesus sets forth the simple doctrine that a man's moral and
spiritual state is not dependent upon the symbolic cleanness of his physical
diet, much less is it dependent on ceremonial observances in regard to things
eaten, or the dishes from which they are eaten. Of course, Jesus did not mean
at this time to abrogate the Mosaic law of legal uncleanness.
Mar 7:19
For it doesn’t go into their heart but
into their stomach, and then out of the body. (In saying this, Jesus
declared all foods clean.)
E.W. Bullinger’s Companion Bible
Notes
Body—Sewer.
Syriac reads “digestive process” purging all meats. Supply the Ellipsis
thus (being the Divine comment on the Lord’s words): “this he said, making
all meats clean,” as in Act 10:15. The Syriac reads “carrying off all that is
eaten:” making it part of the Lord’s parable.
Act 10:12
It contained all kinds of four-footed
animals, as well as reptiles and birds.
Barnes’ Notes on the New Testament
It . . .—This particular vision was suggested by Peter’s hunger, Act 10:10.
It was designed, however, to teach him an important lesson in regard to the
introduction of all nations to the gospel. Its descending from heaven may have
been an intimation that that religion which was about to abolish the
distinction between the Jews and other nations was of divine origin. See Rev
21:2.
Family Bible New Testament
All kinds of four-footed animals . .
. and birds—Clean and unclean alike.
John Trapp Complete Commentary
All kinds of four-footed—Gr. παντα. All, that is, some of all sorts; so, omne
animal, every living creature, is said to be in Noah’s ark; and in the
like sense, Christ is said to die for all.
Matthew Poole’s English Annotations
on the Holy Bible
As well unclean beasts, such as were
forbidden by the law, as clean, such as by the law might be eaten.
William Godbey’s Commentary on the
New Testament
In which were all quadrupeds,
reptiles and birds—This vision forever sweeps away
all the restrictions of the Levitical law and the rigid fortifications of
exclusive Judaism in the Mosaic economy, unfurling the gospel banner to the
whole Gentile world, bidding them a hearty welcome to the redeeming cross, the
cleansing fountain, and the glorious triumph of Pentecostal sanctification,
perfect spiritual freedom, and illimitable gospel rights and privileges. The
vision has nothing to do with the problem of edibles and potables. The
signification is purely spiritual and evangelical, forever smashing the
impregnable walls which had separated the Jews and Gentiles from the days of
Abraham, thus completing the final elimination of the last vestige of the
Mosaic dispensation, now and forever superseded by Christ, the glorious
Antitype, in whom all the types and symbols converge and find their triumphant
verification. Doubtless the sheet was circular, representing the world, and
held up by four ropes, whose ends alone were seen, the one extending from the
North, the other from the South, another from the East and a fourth from the
West, thus representing the four cardinal points which constitute the world,
and focalizing all nations at the gospel feast. Why was the manifestation
repeated thrice? At the dispersion of Noah’s family from Mt. Ararat after the
Flood, he divided his estate, the whole world. [Europe, Asia, and Africa;
America, hidden behind the oceans, reserved for the enlargement of Europe in
the latter days, and included with it.] In this distribution he gave Ham,
Africa; Shem, Asia; and Japheth, Europe. In Hebrew, Ham means black, hence he
became the ancestor of the black races. Shem means red, therefore he became the
ancestor of the Mongolian races of Asia, from whom the American Indians also
came, doubtless having crossed Behring Strait from Asia into America at an
early day. Japheth means white, hence he became the ancestor of all the white
races of Europe, who, in the last four hundred years, have spread out over the
continent of America, pursuant to God’s promise to Noah:
“God shall enlarge Japheth and shall
dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan [Ham] shall be his servant.” (Gen 9:27)
This prophecy is now literally
fulfilled in America, where the white man, Japheth, dwells in the tents of Shem
[the Indians], and Ham [the colored people] is his servant. Hence you see the
persistency of the triple gospel proclamation symbolized by the three
repetitions of Jehovah’s call in this vision, forcefully indicative of the
world’s triple evangelism as we carry the gospel to the children of the dark
continent, to the Mongolian millions of Asia, and to all the white races of
Europe and America.
14 “Surely
not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”
The Adam Clarke Commentary
Impure or unclean—By impure, κοινον, whatever was in general use among the
Gentiles is to be understood; by ακαθαρτον, unclean, every thing that was
forbidden by the Mosaic law. However, the one word may be considered as
explanatory of the other. The rabbins themselves, and many of the primitive
fathers, believed that by the unclean animals forbidden by the law the Gentiles
were meant.
Rom 14:2
One person’s faith allows them to eat
anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables.
Commentary Critical and Explanatory
on the Whole Bible—Unabridged
One person’s faith allows them to
eat anything—Having learned the lesson taught to
Peter (Act 10:9-16, 28).
Another, whose faith is weak, eats
only vegetables—Restricting himself probably to a
vegetable diet, for fear of eating what might have been offered to idols, and
so would be unclean, (see 1Co 8).
Mark Dunagan Commentaries on the
Bible
Rom 14:2 One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but he that
is weak, eats only vegetables.
Faith allows them to eat anything—This is the “stronger brother;” he realizes that “all foods are
clean according to God.”
Mar 7:19 For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and
then out of the body. (This he said, making all foods clean.)
Foods—1033.
broma {bro-mah}; from the base of 977; food (literally or figuratively),
especially (ceremonially) articles allowed or forbidden by the Jewish law—meat,
victuals.
1Ti 4:3
They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which
God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know
the truth.
While God clearly informed Christians
that all foods were “clean,” and that is was perfectly alright to eat meat
sacrificed to idols as long as it was done with no worship to the idol and
others were not offended. And yet for those brought up under the Jewish dietary
laws or those brought up worshiping the idol, it would take time to remove all
your doubts.
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