Andy Alexis-Baker discusses A Faith Embracing All Creatures, a new edited volume that addresses some of the most common questions asked to and by Christian Vegetarians and Vegans. Authors such as Carol Adams and Stephen R.L. Clark tackle such questions as “Didn’t God give man dominion over animals?”, “Doesn’t Christianity regard humans as superior to animals?” and, of course, “Was Jesus a Vegetarian?”
Whether you’re a Christian trying to reconcile your compassion for animals with your faith, an animal activist trying to engage with Christians, or just fascinated by religious history and the nuances of Christian scripture, this interview is sure to captivate!
Listen right now:
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Andy Alexis-Baker gives sad commentary as to whether or not Jesus was a vegetarian. I was surprised to hear him say he believe Jesus ate fish. What is the purpose of his animal rights ministry if he believes Jesus was cruel to animals?!
Religion may be about having faith, but sensible faith is based on some logic and common sense and this will help show that Jesus must have been vegan or at least vegetarian:
1. Jesus preached compassion, love and kindness to all. He is quoted many, many times regarding this. I doubt if such a man with His morals and ethics would then go and eat animal flesh.
2. As with John the baptist being commonly mistaken to have eaten locusts and honey, there most likely could have been confusion in using the word “fish” or “meat” in the bible. There’s a longstanding confusion in the etymological origin of the word locust. Locust is both a bean from the carob plant and an insect. The Greek word for cakes or bread made from the flour of the carob bean is ‘egkrides’ and the Greek word for locust the insect is ‘akrides’. The insect locust is approved to be clean for consumption in Leviticus. It was a delicacy in those days and was mostly consumed by the upper and/or priestly class.
John the Baptist belonged to a group of ascetics who believed in repentance and in leading an austere lifestyle. The carob bean was seen as the diet of the lower class who normally endured hardship and exploitation from the priestly class. So most likely John the Baptist ate locust plant seed from the carob tree.
Also, regarding honey, it could be anything from saps of certain trees to juice of the crushed dates. Carob flour and crushed dates made a good damper or sweet rustic cake, hence the word ‘egkrides’ in the Greek version of the Bible.
Some Church Fathers circa 400AD put forth an injunction to change the word ‘egkrides’ in the Bible meaning cakes to ‘akrides’ the insect locust, not realising that locust the insect was a delicacy enjoyed by the priestly upper crust, from whom John the Baptist and people like John distanced themselves from.
Words in the Bible have been known to be erroneously translated.
3. The Bible isn’t the only source that mentions Jesus’ life. Check out the book, The Gospel of the Nazirenes. This book tells us that Jesus did not eat animals, and it also details the accuracy of their scripture in the beginning of the book. I believe this version of the New Testament because it agrees with Jesus’ nature of being non-violent.
4. Jesus was a known rebel during His time on earth. He, many times, did not go along with what people often did, hence what was one of the reasons why He was persecuted. It makes sense that one of the things He rebelled against was eating animal flesh because, as I mentioned earlier, Jesus was a very moral and ethical person.
For the animals~~
I have my own animal rights ministry at the site below, which mentions several books and information regarding religion, veganism and animal rights:
Faith and Animal Reverence Ministry
http://faithandanimalreverenceministry.blogspot.com
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Jesus wasn’t a vegetarian because Jesus is a myth. There is no evidence outside of the bible he even existed. And the bible is simply not reliable.