The
Jews were taught in the Tawrat (the Torah) that pork
was unclean. Why? We find the answer in the same book of Torah.
Talking
to the people of Israel God said, “You shall not make yourselves abominable
with any creeping thing that creeps; nor shall you make yourselves unclean with
them, lest you be defiled by them. For I am the LORD
your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be
holy; for I am holy. Neither shall you defile yourselves with any
creeping thing that creeps on the earth. For I am the
LORD who brings you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You
shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.
This is the law of the animals and the birds and every living creature
that moves in the waters, and of every creature that creeps on the earth, to
distinguish between the unclean and the clean, and between the animal that may
be eaten and the animal that may not be eaten,” (Leviticus 11:41-47)
You
see God had a specific purpose in giving this law. It was not intended merely
for a bill of far, or as the directions of a
physician about their diet, but God would hereby teach them to be holy. That is
they must hereby learn to put a difference between good and evil and to
distinguish themselves from all their neighbors, as a
people set apart for God- all this in holiness
Jesus,
however, taught that cleanness and uncleanness in God’s eyes are more a matter
of what goes on secretly in our hearts than what we eat or don’t eat. This is
the teaching that he gave when he had a dispute with the Jewish teachers about
keeping traditions concerning cleanliness:
“There is nothing that enters a man from
outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man. If anyone has
ears to hear, let him hear!...Do you not perceive
that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not
enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all
foods?...What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of
the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy,
pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.”
(Mark 7:15-23)