Summary of the Evidence That Jesus Was a Vegetarian Who Opposed Animal Sacrifice (Part 5, Conclusion)

Was Jesus a Vegetarian? A Summary of the Evidence

“As long as man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower living beings he will never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love.” - Pythagoras, 6th Century BCE

Was the revolutionary first Century spiritual teacher most commonly knows as Jesus actually a vegetarian who held to the Pythagorean philosophy that it is wrong to kill animals and therefore that animal sacrifices are in opposition to the divine will; and did he share the view put forth by Pythagoras that, “as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other”? This is the question I have been attempting to answer in a series on the subject of whether or no Jesus was a vegetarian, which have included four in-depth posts, for there is actually a mountain of evidence suggesting this is in fact the case.

In this post which will conclude this investigation, I just wanted to briefly summarize the evidence put forth in these previous posts, in an easy to read format, and touch on a few important points that weren't mentioned previously, further reinforcing the theory that Jesus was a vegetarian who opposed the Jewish animal sacrifices. Links to these four previous posts of this series, which contain links, quotes, and sources on all this information, will be posted at end of this post.

By comparing the teachings of Jesus along with the description we have of James his brother, who succeeded him as leader of the movement that grew up around him, with the unorthodox Jewish sect of the Essenes which existed at that time, it becomes apparent that Jesus and his brother were either both raised Essenes, or were at the least heavily influenced by Essene teachings and beliefs. These Essenes in turn are described by the Jewish historian Josephus as living the “same life” as the Pythagoreans.

Pythagoras, in his declaration that men can never know peace until they stop slaughtering animals, references the law of cause and effect, otherwise known as karma, summed up in the maxim, 'You reap what you sow,' as can be seen by his words, “he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love.” The Christian Bible also teaches this concept, though doesn't explicitly include treatment of animals, but neither does it explicitly exclude animals from such actions.

In the New Testament, Paul says (Galatians 6:7): “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” The same principle is found in the Old Testament, or Hebrew Bible, on numerous occasions, with the following just one example: “Whosoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed” (Genesis 9:6). It naturally follows then, that men who continually shed the blood of innocent animals - “he who sows the seeds of murder and pain” as Pythagoras said - will indeed reap negative effects from those actions. Jesus himself teaches this principle on numerous occasions in the gospels, and in one example we will examine, found in the Sermon on the Mount, he says: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” Animals are not excluded from this statement, and considering that on two other occasions Jesus quotes Hosea in the context of mercy relating to a rejection of animal sacrifice - ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice’ - we can certainly imagine that Jesus had animals in mind as being included among the acts of mercy he is referencing here: those seeds of mercy being sown, which the merciful sower will then reap a reward of mercy as his harvest. The teachings of Jesus are in fact not at all incompatible with this Pythagorean view, and there is indeed much evidence to suggest that Jesus was a vegetarian who taught some form of this very philosophy.

All of the closest original disciples of Jesus, the 12 apostles, were vegetarians who abstained from both animal flesh and wine, according to the catholic church tradition recorded by the early 'church fathers' and various early Christian texts. James, the brother of Jesus, his successor who became the leader of the Jesus movement after his death, was also a vegetarian and teetotaler, and was raised that way from birth, strongly suggesting Jesus too was raised a vegetarian. Various relatives of Jesus continued to rule the church, even after the martyrdom of James in 64 CE, and the early church fathers record that many of these relatives of Jesus which survived the Jewish war and destruction of the temple in 70 CE settled in a town called Kochoba on the east bank of the Jordan River. Church history also records that the disciples and original Jewish Christians led by James escaped Jerusalem before the temple was destroyed during the Roman-Jewish war, and also settled on the east bank of the Jordan river in the region of Pella, very close to Kochoba.

Over time, the most prominent of a number of Jewish Christian sects claiming to carry on the original traditions of Jesus handed down by his original disciples and his brother James had their beginnings in this very region of Pella on the east bank of the Jordan, and one of these groups was even situated in the very town of Kochoba where Jesus' relatives had settled! This of course strongly suggests that the original Jewish Christians and relatives of Jesus did pass on authentic traditions of Jesus directly to the founders of these sects, or were themselves the founders of one or all of these groups. The biggest and most well known of these sects was called the Ebionites, derived from the Hebrew word for 'poor', along with the Nazoraeans who also have the very same name as the original followers of Jesus (the 'Nazoraean' according to several New Testament passages), which were called 'the sect of the Nazoraeans' in the book of Acts. There is some evidence to suggest these were actually just two different names for the same group, but there were still a couple other smaller Jewish Christian sects with similar beliefs as well.

These Jewish Christian sects all practiced vegetarianism and avoided wine, teaching that it was unlawful to eat meat, that the Christ Jesus had revealed this to them, and for the same reason they rejected the Jewish animal sacrifices. They said the sacrifices had not been originally ordained by God nor commanded by Moses, and they used a gospel in which Jesus is quoted as saying, “I have come to abolish the sacrifices, and if ye cease not from sacrifice, the wrath will not cease from you.” Interestingly, in the old Syriac manuscripts of the gospel of Luke, Jesus himself is recorded as warning his disciples against the eating of flesh and the intoxication of wine, again strongly suggesting that this tradition originated with Jesus himself, and was found in his original teachings but later edited out by the catholic church in the 4th century, when certain “correctors” were commissioned to compile a set of scriptures agreeable to the Roman Empire and Catholic orthodoxy.

Interestingly, there existed in the centuries before and during the time of Jesus an unorthodox Jewish sect that also rejected the sacrifices, known as the Essenes, who generally abstained from wine and meat as well, living the life of the Pythagoreans, those who followed the way of Pythagoras who is considered the very father of vegetarianism in the west. The teachings and practices of these Essenes were so similar to the teachings of Jesus and the descriptions of his brother James that we have, it is hard not to conclude that Jesus was either raised in an Essene family himself, or at the very least was heavily influenced by their philosophy.

This notion shared by all these groups, that the God of Israel neither commanded animal sacrifice nor desired his creatures be slain for their flesh to to be consumed by mankind – and therefore that it was “unlawful to eat meat” as the Ebionites claimed – is surprisingly not foreign to the Hebrew scriptures which are now also a part of the Christian Bible. Indeed, in the very first chapter of the very first book of the Bible, the Creator is described as instituting a vegan diet for all creatures, both humanity and the entire animal kingdom, and then declaring this peaceful diet which was entirely absent of any bloodshed to be “very good.”

We know that at some point people began to kill animals and eat their meat, and scholars are in general agreement that this is the origin of animal sacrifice. As the early Christian leader Clement of Alexandria said: “Men invented animal sacrifice as a pretext to eat meat.”

It wasn't until many generations later, after the story of the great flood during the days of Noah, that the Bible then has God permitting mankind to eat animals. The Bible then has the prophet Moses instituting animal sacrifice in the name of God much later, but again the scholarly consensus is that the Israelite practice of animal sacrifice actually originated from their neighbors and was later assimilated into the Hebrew religion. The predominant view by scholars called the Documentary Hypothesis also suggests that the commands regarding sacrifice found in what they have named the priestly document were the latest and final addition to the Hebrew scriptures.

After animal sacrifice and meat-eating had been fully assimilated into the Hebrew religion, a line of anti-establishment Hebrew prophets began to come along and condemn the animal sacrifices (as well as human sacrifice and other evils), and we have many of their writings in our Bibles today. Isaiah made it clear that the God of Israel didn't require animal sacrifices and was fed up with the innocent bloodshed in his name, he couldn't stand their feast days, and said anyone who sacrificed a bull was as if he had killed a man. “Who has required this at your hand, this trampling of my courts?” he asks, “I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams, and I do not delight in the blood of bulls, goats and lambs.” Jeremiah directly stated that God had never commanded the sacrifices in the first place - “For I did not command your fathers concerning sacrifice and burnt offerings.” Amos likewise intimated that the Israelites had actually never offered sacrifices to the God of Israel, but rather only to Moloch, and also voices his displeasure with the feast days, the times when all the people would have been eating meat. Many of the other prophets likewise voiced their displeasure with the animal sacrifices, and insisted God really just wanted mercy and justice instead.

These prophets also describe a future time when the kingdom of God reigns on earth, in which both war among the nations and violence among animals will be eradicated, described in most detail by Isaiah but also mentioned by Hosea and Micah; when all the animals will go back to the original vegan diets described in Genesis, and will live in peace with each other and with mankind, when all weapons will be abolished from the land, and there will be no more bloodshed and only peace on the earth as depicted in the beginning of the Bible in the Garden of Eden. The same prophets predict a coming Messiah to usher in this kingdom of peace on earth. In fact, in one of the most beloved prophesies of Jesus among Christians, Isaiah even describes this child as growing up a vegetarian, “that he will know to choose the good and reject the evil.”

This reference to a vegetarian diet mentioned alongside choosing the good and rejecting the bad, reminds me of a description by Swami Rama of the Indian community that populated the villages of the Himalayas which was vegetarian, called the Hamsa, which means 'swan'; as the swan in Indian mythology is said to have the power to separating out and drinking only the milk in a mixture of milk and water, symbolizing the choosing of the good and rejection of the bad. (Living with the Himalayan Masters, pp. 19)

And as we know, at least his brother known as James the Just or the Just One was raised a vegetarian, “holy from his mother's womb,” so it makes perfect sense that Jesus too would have been raised a vegetarian as Isaiah suggests, and that this is connected to living a just and righteous life.

The necessity of condemning animal sacrifices while practicing and teaching a vegetarian lifestyle in order to accomplish the peace on earth between both man and animal described by Isaiah should be self evident. If Jesus was indeed this Messiah prophesied by Isaiah, he would have to have been a vegetarian who rejected animal slaughter, in order to make the end as it was 'in the beginning', with all creatures subsisting on a peaceful diet free from bloodshed. A quote attributed to Saint Jerome of the 5th Century, who was acquainted with the Ebionites and the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew which many Jewish Christians used, said this very thing regarding the purpose of Jesus as Messiah coming to earth.

“The consumption of animal flesh was unknown up until the great flood. But since the great flood, we have had animal flesh stuffed into our mouths. Jesus, the Christ, who appeared when the time was fulfilled, again joined the end to the beginning, so that we are now no longer allowed to eat animal flesh.”

When Jesus came, there can be no doubt that he saw himself ushering in this peaceful kingdom, as the 'kingdom of heaven' is the central theme of his teachings; and the first words he is recorded speaking when he began his ministry were, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” In the Sermon on the Mount it is made absolutely clear that nonviolence forms the core of his moral teachings, and he often replacing the commands found in the law of Moses (such as “an eye for an eye”) with his own higher moral teachings. It would not be surprising, therefore, to image that he would have done the same thing with animal sacrifice, but unfortunately no such teaching or explanation regarding the temple animal sacrifices is recorded in our Bible. The only reference Jesus makes regarding sacrifice is in Matthew where he twice quotes the prophet Hosea's rejection of sacrifice: “If you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice', you would not have condemned the innocent.” But this is not in the greater context of speaking on the temple sacrifices.

However there is one teaching that clearly shows Jesus had a higher regard for the way things were depicted 'in the beginning' in the Garden of Eden than as accepted and practiced by the Hebrews, so much so that he once referenced the original design of the Creator as more authoritative than the law of Moses in order to defend his own teaching on divorce which directly contradicted the accepted Jewish law regarding divorce.

The law of Moses said that if a man wanted to divorce his wife, he must get a certificate of divorce, but Jesus came teaching that if a man divorced his wife for any reason other than unfaithfulness, it was a violation of the higher law. At one point in the Bible, we are told that the religious leaders confronted him on this issue, asking if it was lawful for a man to divorce his wife for “any reason.” This was his answer, according to the gospel of Matthew, found in chapter 19:

Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them mle and female,' 'For this reason a man shall leave his mother and father be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? […] Therefore what God has joined together, let no man separate.

Then the religious leaders asked him, “Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce and to put her away?” He said to them, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because of the hardness of your hearts, but in the beginning it was not so.”

Jesus does not dispute the command said to have been given by Moses, but rather appeals to the way the Creator instituted things 'in the beginning' as the basis for his interpretation of the law. He clearly taught them that what God said “in the beginning” had more authority than what Moses “permitted” (or “commanded” according to Mark's version), and quotes the second book of Genesis when Adam and Eve are said to still be living in the Garden of Eden as his basis for this teaching. In other words, according to the understanding of Jesus, the depiction of life in the Garden of Eden and the commands given there by God in the beginning is exactly how things were meant to be, and it is this original way of peace Jesus came teaching.

From this, we can accurately surmise what a likely response from Jesus would have been, had he been asked about the temple sacrifices, and he surely was asked about this on at least one occasion, we just don't have the conversation recorded in the gospels. One can imagine that the religious leaders would have approached him and said something along the lines of, “The priests say that without bloodshed there can be no remission of sins as it is written in the law,” or “Noah was commanded to slay and eat the animals,” followed by a question such as, “Is it lawful to kill and eat the animals as the priests command as ordained in the law of Moses?”

And we can be almost certain he would have answered something like this: “Have you not read that in the beginning He gave the fruits and seeds of the earth to be food for mankind and even all creatures, and declared this to be 'very good'? As it is written, 'I have given you every herb bearing seed on the face of the earth, and every tree bearing fruit, to you it shall be food.”

And they surely would have asked, “Why then did God command Noah to 'slay and eat,' and why did Moses command that we should kill and eat the lamb in memory of the Passover?”

To which he surely would have said, “Moses permitted you to kill the animals and eat their flesh because of the hardness of your hearts, but from the beginning it was not so.” This follows the exact line of thinking seen in his answer above regarding divorce, and falls perfectly in line with a Messiah who came to usher in Isaiah's prophesied peaceful kingdom on earth. He may have followed that statement with something along the lines of: “Therefore I say to you who would be my disciples that it is unlawful to eat the flesh of the slain, and whosoever kills one of these innocent creatures of God is guilty of breaking the law, for as it is written in the prophets, whoever slaughters a bull is as if he kills a man.”

We can only guess at the exact words the Teacher would have used and the scriptures he would have quoted, and they surely would have been tailored to the specific question asked of him; but we can be most certain that Jesus came teaching the peaceful vegetarian diet as instituted by God in the beginning according to the book of Genesis, just as he did in regards to divorce, and that in his eyes it would have been unlawful to kill animals simply to satisfy a desire to consume their flesh, or as an act of worship to God, for “it was not so in the beginning.”

We are forced to concede then; that unless Jesus was entirely inconsistent regarding his teaching on the ways instituted by the Creator in the beginning as the ultimate authority and ideal way of life, and also regarding his philosophy of absolute nonviolence; then the only viable conclusion given the available evidence is clearly that Jesus was a vegetarian who opposed the practice of animal sacrifice and consumption of animal flesh as a practice ordained by God. We must concede that he came to institute Isaiah's vision of a peaceful kingdom of God on earth, to “join the end with the beginning” as Jerome put it, by teaching mankind “the ancient paths” referenced by the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 6:16), to “guide our feet into the way of peace” which Isaiah longed to see (Luke 1:79) – a reality where the world's weapons of war had been beaten into farm equipment and nobody trained for war anymore, where the former predatory animals lived at peace with those who had once been their prey, where all of humanity along with the entire animal kingdom lived at peace and in harmony with one another.

Indeed, the early leaders of the catholic church were in agreement that Jesus had come to fulfill this vision of Isaiah, and that he was that prophesied Messiah who came to setup this peaceful kingdom. Iraneus, of the 2nd Century, described it thus:

“...the new covenant which brings back peace, and the law which gives life, has gone out over the whole earth, as the prophets said: “For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem; and he shall rebuke many people, and they shall break down their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, and they shall no longer learn to fight […] but if the law of liberty, that is the word of God, preached by the apostles throughout the earth caused such a change in things […] then the prophets have not spoken these things of any other person, but of him who affected them. This person is our Lord.” (Against Heresies 4.34.4)

The new covenant being referenced here is spoken of by the prophet Hosea as a covenant specifically with the animals, not just humanity, in which all weapons of violence will be destroyed from the face of the earth, and Iraneus quotes Isaiah's vision, which included peace among the animals.

Furthermore, the 4th Century archbishop of Constantinople and orthodox catholic historian Eusebius, Constantine's right hand man in reforming the catholic church in the image of Rome and no friend of the vegetarian Christians, even admitted the doctrine of Jesus was opposed to the idea of animal sacrifice.

“He left no command that God should be honored with sacrifices of bulls or the slaughter of unreasoning animals, with flood, fire, or the incense of earthly things. He thought these mean and lowly, and in no way worthy of the immortal nature of God.” (Proof of the Gospel 3.3)

And as the descriptions of Jesus 'cleansing the temple' in the four gospels make clear (when compared with each other), this confrontation in the temple which immediately lead to his arrest and crucifixion, was in reality an act of animal liberation aimed at disrupting the temple sacrifices during the busiest holiday of the entire year for the lucrative sacrificial industry – Passover. A Passover meal which, according to the gospels, Jesus did share with his disciples, but which did not include lamb on the menu. This glaring omission of Jesus and his disciples eating the lamb during a Passover meal by the gospels , when the same accounts do in fact mention bread and wine ('fruit of the vine' - not necessarily alcoholic), is highly indicative that Jesus and his inner circle of 12 disciples were vegetarians, just as the early Christian history indicates.

This is further supported by Pope Benedict XIV, who stated:

“In all likelihood he [Jesus] celebrated the Passover with his disciples in accordance with the Qumran calendar, hence, at least one day earlier; he celebrated it without a lamb, like the Qumran community which did not recognize Herod’s temple and was waiting for the new temple.”

While there is no way to prove the issue either way, I believe that the available evidence strongly supports the view of a vegetarian Jesus who stood in opposition of the needless killing of animals for any reason, a tradition relayed clearly in the Gospel of the Holy Twelve, which, though not a historical text, does appear to reflect the available historical evidence we do have on this issue. The following is but one of many quotes on this issue attributed to the Master in this gospel:

"For of the fruits of the trees and the seeds of the herbs alone do I partake, [..]. Of these alone and their like shall ye eat who believe in me, and are my disciples, for of these, in the Spirit come life and health and healing unto man." (Gospel of the Holy 12, Lection 12:4)

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Was Jesus a Vegetarian? Part 1, Vegetarianism & Nonviolence in Early Christianity:
https://steemit.com/history/@jasonliberty/was-jesus-a-vegetarian-part-1-vegetarianism-and-nonviolence-in-early-christianity

The Origin of Sacrifice and Vegetarianism in the Bible - Making the Case for a Vegetarian Jesus, Part 2:
https://steemit.com/steemchurch/@jasonliberty/the-origin-of-sacrifice-and-vegetarianism-in-the-bible-making-the-case-for-a-vegetarian-jesus-part-2

'I have come to abolish the sacrifices...' - Making the Case for a Vegetarian Jesus, Part 3:
https://steemit.com/religion/@jasonliberty/i-have-come-to-abolish-the-sacrifices-making-the-case-for-a-vegetarian-jesus-part-3

Pythagoreans, Essenes & Jesus The Nazarene: Missing Links in Christianity (Making the Case for a Vegetarian Jesus, Part 4):
https://steemit.com/history/@jasonliberty/pythagoreans-essenes-and-jesus-the-nazarene-missing-links-in-christianity-making-the-case-for-a-vegetarian-jesus-part-4