Why Food Touches Holiness

Many people assume that the food laws of the Torah were early health advice, God’s way of protecting Israel from bad pork and parasites. There may have been health benefits. But that is not what the text says the purpose is. The food laws are concerned with the condition of the one who eats.

Unclean Makes Unclean

Leviticus 11:7 And the swine, because it parts the hoof and is cleft, splitting the cleft, but it does not ruminate the cud, it is unclean to you.

Leviticus 11:8 Of their flesh (basar בָּשָׂר baw-sawr') you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch; they are unclean to you.

“Unclean” is tamei טָמֵא taw-may'. And the uncleanness does not stay in the animal. It passes to the one who eats it:

Leviticus 11:43-44 Do not make your souls (nephesh נֶפֶשׁ neh'-fesh) detestable with any swarming thing that swarms, and do not make yourselves unclean with them, that you should be made unclean by them. For I am the LORD your God; and you shall sanctify yourselves, and you shall be holy, for I am holy; and you shall not defile your souls (nephesh) with any swarming thing that creeps upon the earth.

“Do not make your souls (nephesh) detestable.” “Do not make yourselves unclean with them.” What a person eats touches the person. And in the middle of these verses stands a sentence many readers will recognize: “you shall be holy, for I am holy.” Peter quoted it to the believers scattered among the nations:

1 Peter 1:16 since it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy."

You Do Not Walk into the Holy While Unclean

In ordinary life everyone becomes unclean at times, through touching a dead body, through a skin disease, or through a discharge. The Torah does not treat that as a crime. What it guards against is approaching holy things while unclean.

Think of a high-voltage power line. Electricity is not evil. But a person who is soaking wet and takes hold of the line will not survive the contact. The Torah speaks of holiness and uncleanness in much the same way: the two cannot touch without destruction.

Leviticus 7:21 And a soul (nephesh), when it touches anything unclean — the uncleanness of man (adam אָדָם aw-dawm'), or an unclean beast, or any unclean detestable thing — and eats of the flesh (basar) of the sacrifice of the peace offerings which is to the LORD, that soul (nephesh) shall be cut off from its peoples.

“Cut off.” The Hebrew is karat כָּרַת kaw-rath', to cut down, to sever.

Leviticus 15:31 And you shall separate the sons of Israel from their uncleanness, that they die not in their uncleanness, when they defile My tabernacle (mishkan מִשְׁכָּן mish-kawn') that is in their midst.

“That they die not in their uncleanness.”

Numbers 5:2-3 "Command (tzivvah צָוָה tsaw-vaw') the sons of Israel, that they send out from the camp every leper, and everyone who has a discharge, and everyone unclean by a soul (nephesh). From male to female you shall send out; to outside the camp you shall send them, that they not defile their camps, in the midst of which I am dwelling."

“Outside the camp.” And the reason is stated plainly: “in the midst of which I am dwelling.”

Numbers 19:20 And the man (ish אִישׁ eesh) that is unclean and does not purify himself, that soul (nephesh) shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of the LORD; the water of impurity has not been dashed upon him; he is unclean.

One reason runs beneath every one of these commands. God is present, and the unclean cannot stand in the presence of the holy.

That is why Paul purified himself before he went into the temple in Acts 21. He understood how the current ran.

“But We Have No Temple”

An objection follows naturally. All of that applied to Israel while there was a building in Jerusalem. We have no temple; we have churches. How can rules about approaching the holy apply to us?

The New Testament does not treat the community of believers as a social club. It calls that community the temple, and it applies the temple’s purity to it.

2 Corinthians 6:16-17 Or what agreement has the naos ναός nah-os'(temple, inner-sanctuary) of God with idols? For you are the naos(temple, inner-sanctuary) of the living God; just as God said, "I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people." "Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate," says the Lord, "and do not touch what is akatharton(unclean); and I will welcome you."

Paul is writing to Corinth, a church made up mostly of former pagans. He calls them the naos, the inner sanctuary. Then he quotes Isaiah:

Isaiah 52:11 Depart, depart, go out from there, touch no unclean thing; go out from her midst, be clean, you who bear the vessels of the LORD.

Isaiah was speaking to those who bore the vessels of the LORD, and Paul hands those words to Greeks in Corinth. Then he draws his conclusion:

2 Corinthians 7:1 Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of sarx σάρξ sarx(flesh) and pneuma πνεῦμα pnyoo'-mah(spirit), perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

The Table and the Altar

In Corinth, people were growing sick and dying because of the way they came to the Lord’s table.

1 Corinthians 10:18 Look at Israel according to sarx(flesh): are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar?

Paul compares the Lord’s table to the altar in Jerusalem. To eat at it is to share in the altar.

1 Corinthians 11:28-30 But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For the one who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner, eats and drinks krima κρίμα kree'-mah(verdict) to himself if he does not diakrino διακρίνω dee-ak-ree'-no(active: discern) the body of the Lord. For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.

“Krima(verdict).” “Weak and sick, and a number sleep.” Sleep is Paul’s gentle word for death.

Leviticus 7 and 1 Corinthians 11 stand side by side. Whoever eats a holy offering while unclean is cut off. Whoever eats at the Lord’s table without discerning the body eats a verdict upon himself. One was a stone altar and the other a household table, but the same current ran through both.

The Question Behind the Question

So the real question was never whether pork is bad for your health. The real question is whether a person may approach the holy while unclean. The Torah answers no. The New Testament, speaking to a community it calls a temple and about a table it compares to an altar, also answers no.

That raises a practical question about the first century. If all this was true, how close could an outsider come?