Meat Offered to Idols
Daniel and his three companions refused to participate in the religious rituals of the Babylonian World-Power – Daniel 1:14.
Upon
arrival in Babylon, Daniel was confronted with a predicament. If he consumed the
food and drink of the king, it might impinge on his ritual impurity. While he
might have wished to avoid eating “unclean” meat, more likely, his
concern was that consuming the “king’s delicacies” would mean participation
in the idolatrous rituals of the Babylonian court - [Photo by Mary Winchester on Unsplash].
Daniel
objected to the “meats” and the “wine” from the royal table, but
in Leviticus, wine did not cause ritual defilement. Moreover, he made no
reference to the dietary regulations of the Torah, and the Hebrew term
rendered “defile” (ga’al) in the passage is not the same one rendered
“unclean” in Leviticus (ga’al appears nowhere in the
Pentateuch).
- (Daniel 1:8, 12) – “But Daniel laid it upon his heart not to defile himself with the meats of the king, nor with the wine which he drank, therefore, he sought the ruler of the eunuchs, that he might not defile (ga’al) himself… I pray you, prove your servants ten days, and let them give us vegetable food, that we may eat, and water that we may drink.”
The Hebrew
term pathbag more
correctly means “delicacies,” not “meats.” The royal provisions
would have included animal flesh, but that is not the point of the passage. Babylonian
religious customs suggest a different issue, participation in idolatrous practices.
Daniel objected to consuming provisions from the “table of the king,” and the stress is on the source
of the food - The royal table.
Daniel
proposed a “test.” For “ten days,” he and his friends would only
eat vegetables and drink water, and afterward, their Babylonian keeper could
compare their appearance with that of the other young men who did consume food
from the royal table.
Idols played
a key role in Babylonian rituals. It was believed the god was present in his or
her image within its temple. Such images were provided with daily meals of food
and drink. The king provided the required foodstuffs for the god’s “meal,” and
no one else present could eat before the deity had finished “consuming” it. The
remaining food was distributed for consumption at the royal table.
Thus, the king’s provisions were linked to the idolatry of the Babylonian temples
– (Joan Oates, Babylon, London - Thames and Hudson, 1986, p.
174-175).
The Book
of Revelation alludes to this story in its letter to the church
at Smyrna. The congregation was told to expect persecution - “You
will be tried,
and you will have tribulation ten
days.” The Greek verb rendered “tried” in the Septuagint version
of Daniel (peirazō) is the same one used in the Greek text of the
letter to Smyrna - (Daniel 1:14, Revelation 2:8-11).
Christians
at Smyrna were “slandered by them who say they are Jews and are not,
but instead, are a synagogue of Satan.” Consequently, some believers found
themselves “cast into prison.” Nevertheless, those who remained “faithful
until death” would receive “the crown of life and not be hurt of the second
death.”
The “slander”
referred to false charges leveled against Christians before civil magistrates,
probably for refusal to participate in the imperial cult. In Pergamos, Jesus
rebuked church members who tolerated deceivers that taught believers “to
eat things sacrificed to idols,” the “doctrine of the
Nicolaitans.” Likewise, in Thyatira, the church was reprimanded
for allowing the false prophetess, Jezebel, “to seduce my servants to
fornicate and to eat things sacrificed to idols.” And in Revelation,
“fornicate” is applied metaphorically to idolatry - (Revelation
2:12-17, 17:2, 18:3, 18:9).
The issue
in Daniel was not ritually “unclean” food, but participation in
idolatrous rituals. Likewise, in Revelation, first-century Christians
were called by Jesus to avoid participation in the idolatrous worship of “Babylon,”
that is, Rome. “Fornicate” and “eating meat offered to idols”
refer to participating in the imperial cult, the veneration of the emperor.
In the
same way, believers today must refuse to render homage to the idolatrous
demands of end-time “Babylon, the Great Harlot” when she entices one
and all to give allegiance to the “beast from the sea” and to its “image.”
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