Friday, April 16, 1999
Scholars are skeptical Jeses was a vegetarian
BY JULIE IRWIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Was Jesus a vegetarian? Probably not, scholars say, despite claims from animal-rights activists to the contrary.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has launched a media campaign to convince Christians that their faith's founder refused to eat meat. In billboards, advertisements and a Web site, the Virginia-based group offers scriptural and moral arguments in favor of vegetarianism.
But many of the scriptural arguments are shaky at best. For instance, the animal-rights group says that the Gospels don't mention Jesus eating lamb at the Last Supper and that's evidence of his vegetarianism. But the Gospels don't mention any other food either, except for bread and wine.
PETA also argues that by calling fishermen to be his disciples, Jesus was trying to stop the killing of fish — even though fisherman was a common occupation at that time and place. And the group chalks up the miracle of the loaves and fishes to a mistranslation or possibly a later change to the story.
Scholars are largely skeptical of the claims.
“It's pretty far-fetched,” says Richard Sarason, professor of rabbinic literature and thought at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. “It's possible there may have been some groups (at the time of Jesus) that didn't eat meat, but not for the reasons contemporary people don't eat meat ... It was a form of self-mortification. It had nothing to do with animal rights.”
PETA's full argument can be found at www.jesusveg.com.
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