New Testament Finish Line

Unless I've overlooked something, this wraps it up for mentions of food and eating in the New Testament. My original intent was to jump from Revelation back into Genesis and start through the OT, but now I think not. For one thing, I've signed up as a Vineyard Bible Institute student, so I will be doing more specific studies with that which require their own focus. For another, figuring out what to eat doesn't seem as important now as when I started, especially given some of the scriptures I've pondered here about priorities. See entries for March 13, June 27, and maybe some other days I can't find now.

Actually, what to eat has recently been well stated, in my opinion, by Michael Pollen's three bottom-line Food Rules which in no way conflict with the Bible.

Eat real food. (You know what that means.)
Mostly plants. (Which is not to say all plants.)
Less of it.

Now I have to decide what to do next, if anything, with this blog spot.

Food Rules, not

~Hebrews 13.9-10

Your strength comes from God’s grace, not from rules about food, which don’t help those who follow them. We have an altar from which the priests in the Tabernacle have no right to eat.

In my search for principles of good eating from the Bible, the book which the creator of my body has out, here's another verse that says not to worry about rules for eating. sigh. But there is a difference: I'm looking for good health policies, not strict rules based on whether or not the food was first sacrificed to an idol. :-]

God's Table for Us

~Psalm 23.5

You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.

I have been reading in Romans in the chronological Bible and not hit on any food references for a week, so I decided to jump to Psalms in the meantime.

How wonderful that in David's most famous poem, his shepherd-influenced picture of how God loves and cares for his children, we have a table set for us. I picture it as an amazing feast. Perhaps it is the one Jesus mentions in the references below.

~Matthew 8.10-11

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said . . . “many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.

~Luke 13.29

People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God.

~Luke 14.15 [ The Parable of the Great Banquet ] When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus,

“Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”

Wow! Wonder what's on the menu. :-]

Was Paul a cook?

~Acts 19.12 . . . even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched [Paul] were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.

I'm reading alert for any mention of food, but near the end of the narrative part of the New Testament now, those references seem to be getting farther apart. Upon seeing the word apron I hopefully latched on to it. Was the Apostle Paul a cook? But alas, the Greek dictionary reports this as a workman's or artisan's apron. Paul was a tent maker. So while he may have been able to cook, I can't assume that on the fact that he wore aprons. Ah, well.

Superficial Blog

It's good to read the Bible and try to absorb some of the depths of its meaning. I love this book and its ability to feed us spiritually as no other. For this blog, however, I'd like to restate that my purpose is not to delve into spiritual mysteries but merely to think about what to eat. For these posts, I read focused on food. I record any mention of food or eating (or of not eating--fasting) in hope that I can learn how our creator designed these bodies to work for optimal health. Physical is superficial (by definition--haha) to spiritual, but the eating notes, habits, recommendations, examples, historical records of Bible people fascinate me, and I am finding principles can be learned from them. (I should summarize at some point.)

Sometimes my entries are short and far between because there's just not a lot of eating recorded where I'm reading, and sometimes because I don't read with this purpose every day as there are of course many other ways to interact with this book, which I do believe to be God's word.

Narcotic Refused

~Matthew 27.33-34 They came to a place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”). There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it.

~Mark 15,22-23 They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”). Then they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it.

One tradition holds that "respected women of Jerusalem provided a narcotic drink to those condemned to death in order to decrease their sensitivity to the excruciating pain" (http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/the-wine-jesus-drank). This seems reasonable. But Christ refused this wine. According to Tyndale's Bible dictionary he was determined "to die with an unclouded mind."

After hours on the cross however, he's offered the more vinegar-like wine, what the dictionary calls "the ordinary drink of laborers in the field and of the lower class of soldiers." We read these verses as Jesus, near death, cries out to God.

~Mark 15.35-36 Someone ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. NIV

"a sponge full of vinegar . . . on a reed" NASB, also KJV

"a sponge with vinegar (a mixture of sour wine and water)" Amplified Bible

"a sponge, soaked . . . in cheap wine" Good News Translation, or "sour wine" The Message

~John 19.28-30 Later, knowing that his mission had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

~also Matthew 27.48

Thank you Jesus.

It seems cold to come to this focal moment in history and consider the vinegar, not the sacrifice. But sticking to my purpose I note that apparently the line between wine and vinegar can be thin. I don't claim to know much about either.