Abstract
In the religious debate between Jews and Christians, the biblical dietary laws come to illustrate important assumptions concerning the “other.” Early medieval Christians asserted that Christians were not bound by the dietary laws and tended to explicate them allegorically or figuratively. Although the biblical dietary laws prohibit many foods to Jews, as pork became a more important part of the medieval diet, the prohibition against swine’s flesh became central to the debate. Christians will assert not only that the consumption of pork proclaims a correct messianic theology, but also that the Lord, like a good physician, ordained a special diet for the Jews because they—and not Christians—have a corrupt bodily nature that is subject to deleterious influences from pork that incline Jews to gluttony and wantonness. Therefore, when a Jew converted to Christianity, the consumption of pork became a sign of his transfer from one religious community to another, as well as a sign of a physical, intellectual, and moral transformation.
Highlights
As is well known, the biblical dietary laws indicate the foods that Jews may or may not eat, dividing those animals that are clean from unclean
The biblical dietary laws explicitly named numerous animals that were to be excluded from the diet, it was the pig—and not the camel or rock badger, for example—that occupied a central position in Jewish-Christian polemical exchanges concerning the dietary restrictions
Medieval Christian theologians sought to explain as a moral instruction the biblical dietary condemnation of swine, arguing that it is meant to instruct the faithful only to avoid sinful, pig-like behavior, while allowing the Christian to retain pork in his diet.[6]
Summary
The biblical dietary laws (that is, kashrut) indicate the foods that Jews may or may not eat, dividing those animals that are clean from unclean. The early thirteenth-century Jewish convert to Christianity, William of Bourges, treated the dietary laws as unnecessary for Christians but necessary for the Jews because of the Jews‘ obstinacy (duritia).[21] Since it was widely accepted that the foods we eat affect the body, the passions, and the will, the special diet God commanded for the Jews came to be seen as a way to address, if not fully correct, their stubbornness and natural inclination to vice. This is especially evident in medieval Christian explanations for the prohibition concerning pork. While individual Christians may elect to avoid these foods in order to restrain desire, the biblical food prohibitions were obligatory for all Jews, and for that reason they appear to have been intended by God to counteract the Jews‘ natural inclinations for gluttony, immorality, and illicit sexual activity
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