What would Jesus eat?
Give us this day our daily bread.
Society ran on whole meal flat bread.
Olives, dates, figs, wine, eggs and cheese. It was the Pax Romana there are safe roads from India to Europe. Exotic species from the East were available in the markets as were rice and lentils. Vinegar allowed for pickling and onions were grown at home. Tree nuts were plentiful. Dried fish was a staple protein. Meat was for special occasions.
No cane sugar, tomato’s, chilli, capsicum, potatoes, coffee, peanuts or cane sugar. They were only available in the New World.
Then there’s the fussy meat issue. Jerusalem was a very cosmopolitan city on a busy trade route between India and Europe. There was plenty to tempt a Jew from these seemingly arbitrary rules. Some are more easily tempted than others. We know pork is out, because it doesn’t have the right sort of feet. So is rabbit; which was available in the markets. From hunters who lived in wilderness and would exchange their catch for bread and other provisions. You could eat any thing from the sea as long as it has scales and fins. You can’t cook meat in milk. And it goes on. Seemingly for no good reason at all.
There are five feasts allotted to the Jews. The big one falls around the Spring Equinox; Passover. Even if you can’t get it together for the other four, get it together for Passover. There are all sorts of other feasts going on in the towns and villages; feasts dedicated to foreign gods.
Stuff it I don’t want to be rude by turning them down and I’m hungry. Or be a good Jew and honour the god of Abraham.
Your choice?
Then an angel comes to a law abiding Jew and shows him a banner with all kinds of animals on it.
“Eat all these things.”
“I have never eaten anything unclean in my life.”
“You are to take my story to the Gentiles tell them they can eat what they want. And they can still follow Christ.”
It was a cheap healthy diet.
Clown Artist Philosopher
There is wisdom behind the mask of folly
Clown Artist Philosopher 