Scholars
affirming the carnivorous Christian establishment are embarrassed by the
topic of
vegetarianism and most
won't even the word vegetarian in their indices. They fear the concept.
They fear it as an idea and an attitude resurrecting itself throughout
the world and posing a real ideological threat to the absurdities of carnivorism,
which they defend. Most scholars of early Christianity that I have
read constantly hedge, i.e. equivocate, purposely make ambiguous, the vegetarianism
of many early Christians. For example, Frend, in his Martyrdom
and Persecution in the Early Church, says that Jews and Christians argued
in the early days of Christianity whether Leviticus 11 or Isaiah 7: 14
should be adhered to. What Frend doesn't say is that Isaiah 7: 14
advocates lacto-vegetarianism as the ideal diet, not flesh, as does Leviticus
11. Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church: A
Study of a Conflict from the Maccabees to Donatus, by William Hugh Clifford
Frend. New York: New York University Press, 1967.
Pliny the Younger persecuted
and killed the Vegetarian Christians in Bithynia. (112 c.e.)
See the Letter of Pliny
the Younger to Emperor Trajan (112 c.e.)
Pliny applying
the sacrifice test successfully to Christians during Trajan's time reported
that
the effect was "Temples
were frequented again and there was a general demand for the
sacrificial animals once
more." Ibid. 166. In other words, once the vegetarian Christians
were
killed, persecuted, threatened,
displaced, there was a return to carnivorism and a taxable meat industry
profitable to Rome.
Early martyrs following
Jesus regarded themselves as representatives of a vegetarian way
and were consequently
dressed in the garb of vegetarian deities
when martyred by their
Roman oppressors.
That the
martyrs saw the last supper, the eucharist, as a restoration to the vegetarian
covenant, and saw themselves
as representatives of vegetarianism is seen in Ignatius'
statement "I am the wheat
of Christ, and am ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may
be found the pure bread
of God." p. 256. Ibid. And Frend comments "Note the macabre
practice of dressing
those condemned to the beasts in the amphitheatre at Carthage in clothes
of Saturn or priestesses
of Ceres." Footnote 3, p. 424. Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early
Church. Saturn is god of the harvest, ruler of capricorn, sign of the
cornucopia, the plentiful harvest of fruits, vegetables, grains and other
vegetation. Ceres, from which the word cereal is derived, was goddess
of grains. Early Christian martyrs are associated with the vegetable
realm, not the realm of animal carcasses. In Eusebius 4: 15. 26, the Smyrnaeans
accuse Polycarp thusly: "This fellow is the teacher of Asia, the destroyer
of our gods, who teaches numbers of people not to sacrifice or even worship."
Though we are indebted to Frend for giving us evidence of the vegetarianism
of the earliest followers of Jesus, He, like other scholars of early Christianity,
doesn't even have vegetarianism in his index, and doesn't even mention
the word vegetarian by name in his text. He appears to be much like
the Christian Dead Sea scholars, embarrassed even that he has to deal with
values radically different from those of his peer group, and, more importantly,
of his patrons who pay him.
"Is the term Christian scholar an oxymoron?"
There is in fact such a widespread suppression of the vegetarian origins of Christianity that we must legitimately ask: "Is the term Christian scholar an oxymoron?" Only the smallest minority of Christian scholars deal with the concept that the earliest followers of Jesus were vegetarians in spite of
1. The clear statement in "Epistle to the Hebrews" that Jesus' mission is to abolish the animal sacrifices, which are necessary for a carnivorous diet.
2. Jesus' one day demonstration against the animal sacrifices, that is, the cleansing of the temple, which, besides overthrowing the moneychangers' tables, consisted of chasing the animals who were to be sacrificed out of the temple.
3. Jesus constantly quoting the late vegetarian Jewish prophets, such as Ezekiel, Isaias, Jeremiah, Joel, Amos, Haggai, Hosea and Zechariah.
4. The earliest followers of Jesus being dressed in the garb of vegetarian deities by their Roman oppressors.
5. The Roman governor Pliny the Younger informing Trajan that he has persecuted and killed the followers of Chrestus, that is Christ, in Bithynia, where Peter had preached, and restored the sacrifices.
6. The earliest followers of Jesus wore the bindi or tilaka worn by Hindus (and some Buddhists) as seen in Hippolytus' Daniel.
7. The elect or saved in "Revelations" also wear the mark on the forehead, or bindi, and that the image of the rider on the white horse (said to be Christ) is derived from a Hindu prophecy regarding the return of Krishna as Kalki, riding on a white horse to rid the world of error.
8. The statement by a saint of the Catholic Church, Epiphanius, who admits the earliest followers of Jesus were called Essenes and Nazarenes, both of which groups were vegetarian.
9. And the statement by Epiphanius that the Ebionite Gospel, which even Church fathers admit to be the first Gospel written about Jesus, presents John the Baptist, Jesus and his followers as eating no flesh.
10. Peter is presented as vegetarian in the Clementine literature.
11. Matthew is presented as vegetarian by Clement of Alexandria.
12. James the brother of Jesus is presented as a vegan vegetarian in one of the first official histories of the Church, Ecclesiastical History, by Eusebius.
13. Vegetarianism persisted in the monastic order of Pachomias in Egypt.
14. Vegetarianism persisted in the works of such fathers such as Lactantius and John Chrysologus.
Vegetarianism,
even veganism, not only existed in the earliest days of Christianity, but
was one of the essential teachings. It was overthrown successfully
as the model diet advocated by Jesus and his disciples by a large-scale
Roman effort which included a military as well as an ideological arsenal
such as in the person of Paul, an ideological front man for the Romans.
And Paul's authority rested on his words alone, not on a personal relationship
with Jesus that was had by Jesus' hand-picked disciples. Economics,
the large profit made then and now by the meat and animal foods producers,
was the motive behind the subversion.