Q&A: Did Yahshua Ever Eat Meat or Drink Milk?

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=168 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="129a11c3.png"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Welcome to the Heart4God Website!"><U><B><IMG SRC="4b55a500.png" border=0 width="90" height="80" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Writings of Joseph Herrin"><U><B>Writings by Date</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id212.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Writings of Joseph Herrin Organized "><U><B>Writings by Topic</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.heart4god.ws/Audio/index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.heart4god.ws/Audio/index.htm"><U><B>Audio Files</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id690.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Videos"><U><B>Videos</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id323.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Writings of Others"><U><B>Other Authors</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id324.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Links"><U><B>Links</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id339.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Questions and Answers"><U><B>Q&A</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id328.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Heart4God Email List"><U><B>Heart4God E-mail List</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.parablesblog.blogspot.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.parablesblog.blogspot.com"><U><B>Parables Blog</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id306.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="File Downloads"><U><B><IMG SRC="2b264140.png" border=0 width="100" height="20" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <bR> <div> <B>Q&A: Did Yahshua Ever Eat Meat or Drink Milk?</B></div> <div> <IMG SRC="c2827160.png" border=0 width="807" height="22" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Dear J., </div> <bR> <div> You asked: </div> <bR> <div> Where does it say that Jesus ever drank milk?<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> Your question implies that it is wrong to drink milk, and you have borne this out in your writings. You described drinking milk as drinking the "body fluids of animals." If you use this definition, then Christ began His life by drinking the body fluids of animals, for He was nursed at Mary's breasts. </div> <bR> <div> Luke 11:27<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div> While Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, "Blessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts at which You nursed." </div> <bR> <div> The Scriptures also speak these words of Messiah: </div> <bR> <div> Isaiah 7:14-15<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div> 14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. 15 Butter and honey shall he eat...<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> Barnes' Notes says this about the passage above: </div> <bR> <div> Isaiah 7:15<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div> [Butter and honey] The word rendered "butter" chem'aah (OT:2529), denotes not butter, but thick and curdled milk. This was the common mode of using milk as an article of food in the East, and is still. In no passage in the Old Testament does butter seem to be meant by the word. Jarchi says, that this circumstance denotes a state of plenty, meaning that the land should yield its usual increase notwithstanding the threatened invasion. Eustatius on this place says, that it denotes delicate food. The more probable interpretation is, that it was the usual food of children, and that it means that the child should be nourished in the customary manner. That this was the common nourishment of children, is abundantly proved by Bochart; "Hieroz." P. i. lib. xi. ch. li. p. 630. Barnabas, in his epistle says, 'The infant is first nourished with honey, and then with milk.' This was done usually by the prescription of physicians.<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> Paulus says, 'It is fit that the first food given to a child be honey, and then milk.' So Aetius, 'Give to a child, as its first food, honey;' see "Bochart." Some have, indeed, supposed that this refers to the fact that the Messiah should be "man" as well as God, and that his eating honey and butter was expressive of the fact that he had a "human nature!" But against this mode of interpretation, it is hoped, it is scarcely needful now to protest. It is suited to bring the Bible into contempt, and the whole science of exegesis into scorn. The Bible is a book of sense, and it should be interpreted on principles that commend themselves to the sober judgment of mankind. The word rendered "honey" - dªbash (OT:1706) - is the same word - "dibs" - which is now used by the Arabs to denote the syrup or jelly which is made by boiling down wine. This is about the consistence of molasses, and is used as an article of food. Whether it was so employed in the time of Isaiah, cannot now be determined, but the word here may be used to denote honey;</div> <div> (from Barnes' Notes, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft)</div> <bR> <div> The curdled milk that the children of Yahshua's day were fed may be compared to buttermilk today. When it states that He will be fed on butter, Barne's informs us that the understanding is "buttermilk". </div> <bR> <div> Matthew Henry has this to say of this same passage: </div> <bR> <div> Isaiah 7:10-16</div> <div> Of this child it is further foretold (v. 15) that though he shall not be born like other children, but of a virgin, yet he shall be really and truly man, and shall be nursed and brought up like other children: Butter and honey shall he eat, as other children do, particularly the children of that land which flowed with milk and honey. Though he be conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, yet he shall not therefore be fed with angels' food, but, as it becomes him, shall be in all things made like unto his brethren, Hebrews 2:17. Nor shall he, though born thus by extraordinary generation, be a man immediately, but, as other children, shall advance gradually through the several states of infancy, childhood, and youth, to that of manhood, and growing in wisdom and stature, shall at length wax strong in spirit, and come to maturity, so as to know how to refuse the evil and choose the good</div> <div> (from Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1991 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)</div> <bR> <div> Wycliffe" Bible Commentary has this to say of this same passage: </div> <bR> <div> Isaiah 7:14-25</div> <div> Butter and honey was the standard diet of those who lived in a devastated land that had reverted to pasturage. Such a diet the son of the prophetess was to eat as the result of the coming Assyrian depredations, as well as those of the neighboring nations (cf. II Chronicles 28). Read with the ASV, when he knoweth, rather than with the AV, that he may know (the Hebrew can signify either). That is, when he attains the age of legal accountability (doubtless twelve years of age). </div> <div> (from The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1962 by Moody Press)</div> <bR> <div> In your e-mail you have stated: </div> <bR> <div> I forget how many hundreds of gallons of blood is filtered through the udder of a cow every hour. In many ways, milk is like white blood, it is full of white blood cells. It is made to nourish baby calves. Even cows don't drink milk after they are weaned. Why do humans drink milk after they are weaned, and milk from other mammals at that? </div> <bR> <div> This is another argument you use to condemn the drinking of milk. You are equating it to drinking blood. Yet if this is true, then any baby that nurses at the breast of its mother is also drinking blood, and we would have to conclude that even Yahshua drank blood when He was nursed by Mary. Drinking blood was a clear prohibition of the Law, and we know that Christ perfectly kept the Law, so it is wrong to make this association with drinking milk and drinking blood. </div> <bR> <div> As we look at the Scriptures, drinking milk is portrayed in the most positive way. </div> <bR> <div> Genesis 18:7-8<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Georgia" > </FONT></div> <div> 7 Abraham also ran to the herd, and took a tender and choice calf and gave it to the servant, and he hurried to prepare it. 8 <I><B>He took curds and milk and the calf which he had prepared</B></I>, and placed it before them; and he was standing by them under the tree as they ate. </div> <bR> <div> Note that one of the people in this passage that Abraham presented this food to is identified as Yahweh.</div> <bR> <div> Genesis 49:10-12</div> <div> 10 "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, </div> <div> Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, </div> <div> Until Shiloh comes, </div> <div> And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. </div> <div> 11 "He ties his foal to the vine, </div> <div> And his donkey's colt to the choice vine; </div> <div> He washes his garments in wine, </div> <div> And his robes in the blood of grapes. </div> <div> 12 "His eyes are dull from wine, </div> <div> <I><B>And his teeth white from milk. </B></I></div> <bR> <div> Note that this was a <I>blessing</I> spoken to Judah's descendants. There is nothing evil or related to a curse in any part of this blessing.</div> <bR> <div> Proverbs 27:26-27</div> <div> <I><B>26 The lambs will be for your clothing, </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>And the goats will bring the price of a field, </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>27 And there will be goats' milk enough for your food, </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>For the food of your household, </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>And sustenance for your maidens. </B></I></div> <bR> <div> Song of Songs 5:1</div> <div> "I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; </div> <div> I have gathered my myrrh along with my balsam. </div> <div> I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey; </div> <div> <I><B>I have drunk my wine and my milk. </B></I></div> <div> Eat, friends; </div> <div> Drink and imbibe deeply, O lovers." </div> <bR> <div> Isaiah 55:1</div> <div> "Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; </div> <div> And you who have no money come, buy and eat. </div> <div> <I><B>Come, buy wine and milk </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Without money and without cost. </B></I></div> <bR> <div> This is but a very minor sampling of the instances throughout Scriptures where milk is used to signify health and prosperity and life and blessing. I have little doubt that even as an adult that Christ drank milk, for it was a staple of the Jewish diet, and it was considered Kosher. Yahshua confessed that He came both eating and drinking. He was not on the strict diet that John observed, though even one under the Nazarite vow was not forbidden to drink milk. </div> <bR> <div> May you be blessed with peace and understanding in these days, </div> <bR> <div> Joseph</div> <bR> <div> E-mail: </div> <div> website: <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Georgia" ><A HREF="http://heart4god.ws" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://heart4god.ws"><U><U>http://heart4god.ws</U></U></A></FONT></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>