Are the Meat-Eating Christians Wrong? Is It True that Christians Did Not Eat Meat Until the Romans Took Over?!
Are the Meat-Eating Christians Wrong? Is It True that Christians Did Not Eat Meat Until the Romans Took Over?
“And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat." Genesis 1:29-30
"The early Christian fathers adhered to a meatless regime...many early Christian groups supported the meatless way of life.
In fact, the writings of the early Church indicate that meat eating was not officially allowed until the 4th century, when the Emperor Constantine decided that his version of Christianity would be the version for everyone.
A meat eating interpretation of the Bible became the official creed of the Roman Empire, and vegetarian Christians had to practice in secret or risk being put to death for heresy.
Is it ironic that Pagan Rome has had such an influence upon present day Christianity?
source: The Holy Bible and
http://www.ivu.org/history/christian/chr...
Answers:
Actually, pagans did not eat a lot of meat. They probably ate less meat than Jews--or Christians. First off, the overwhelming majority of people were poor and did not eat meat on a daily basis because they just couldn't afford it. Second, taking of life for no reason was a taboo thing among some pagans--such as the ancient Romans. Animals couldn't just be killed for food; they had to be sacrified to a deity. Ordinary people mostly only got to eat meat on "feast" days when animals were sacrificed to one or another deity. The priests were the butchers. Because the ancient Hebrews could not eat meat offered to "idols" and pagan deities, they had to set up their own butchers. I am not aware of a vegan or vegetarian history regarding the early Church but I wouldn't doubt that, among the very many early Christian groups that were out there, vegetarianism was a trend among some of them but probably as a form of a renunciative and stoic lifestyle rather than something that had to do with ethical concerns about animals. Some also were celibate and lived like monks and nuns because they thought there was no point in procreating because the end of the world was coming. That meat eating came with Constantine's official acceptance of Christianity as the State religion or the standardization of Christianity or that Christians who didn't eat meat would be persecuted is highly unlikely and a misinterpretation of the literature you cite.