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The Bible and Killing for Food the Reverend Dr The Bible and Killing for Food The Reverend Dr. Andrew Linzey Oxford University "(A)s I gave you the the green plants, I give you everything" (9:3). In the light ofthis, the question might not unreasonably be posed: Cannot both vegetarians and carnivores appeal to scripture for justification and both with equal support? Food of Paradise In order to unravel this conundrum we have first of all to appreciate that the community whose spokesperson wrote Genesis 1 were not themselves vegetarians. Few appreciate that Genesis 1 and 2 are And God said, "Behold, I have given you every themselves the products of much later reflection by the plant yielding seed which is upon the face of biblical writers themselves. How is it then that the very all the earth, and every tree with seed in its people who were not themselves vegetarian imagined fruit; you shall have them for food. And to a beginning of time when all who lived were vegetarian every beast of the earth, and to every bird of (herbivore to be precise) by divine command? the air, and to everything that creeps on the To appreciate this perspective we need to recall earth, everything that has the breath of life, I the major elements of the first creation saga. God have given every green plant for food." creates a world of great diversity and fertility. Every (Genesis 1:29-30; RSV). living creature is given life and space (Gen. 1:9-10; 24-25), earth to live on and blessing to enable life itself And God blessed Noah and his sons, and (1:22). Living creatures are pronounced good (1:25). said to them " ...Every moving thing that Humans are made in God's image (1:27), given lives shall be food for you; as I gave you dominion (1:26-29), and then prescribed a vegetarian the green plants, I give you everything." diet (1:29-30). God then pronounces that everything (Genesis 9:1-4; RSV). was "very good" (1:31). Together the whole creation rests on the sabbath with God (2:2-3). When examined At first glance, these two passages may be taken as © Copyright A. Linzey, 1991 epitomising the difficulty of appealing to scripture in the contemporary debate about animal rights. The sheer contradictoriness of these statements presses itself upon us. Genesis 1 clearly depicts vegetarianism as divine command. Indeed "everything" that has the breath of RELIGION life in it, is given "green plant for food". Genesis 9, however, reverses this command quite specifically. Winter 1993 1 Between the Species The Bible and Killing for Food in this way, we should see immediately that Genesis 1 nature as it is. Corruption and wickedness had made a describes a state ofparadisiacal existence. There is no mess of God's highest hopes for creation. There just hint of violence between or among different species. had to be some accommodation to human sinfulness. Dominion, so often interpreted as justifying killing, "Every moving thing shall be food for you; and as I actually precedes the command to be vegetarian. Herb­ gave you the green plants, I give you everything." (Gen. eating dominion is hardly a license for tyranny. The 9:3). For many students of the Bible this seems to have answer seems to be then that even though the early settled the matter of whether humans can be justified Hebrews were neither pacifists or vegetarians, they in killing animals for food. In the end, it has been were deeply convinced of the view that violence thought, God allows it. And there can be no doubt that between humans and animals, and indeed between throughout the centuries this view has prevailed. Meat­ animal species themselves, was not God's original will eating has become the norm. Vegetarians, especially for creation. Christian vegetarians, have survived from century to But if this is true, how are we to reconcile Genesis century to find themselves a rather beleaguered 1 with Genesis 9, the vision of original peacefulness minority. The majority view can be summed up in this with the apparent legitimacy of killing for food? The beautifully prosaic line of Calvin: answer seems to be that as the Hebrews began to construct the story ofearly human beginnings, they were For it is an insupportable tyranny, when God, struck by the prevalence and enormity of human the Creator of all things, has laid open to us wickedness. The stories of Adam and Eve, Cain and the earth and the air, in order that we may Abel, Noah and his descendants are testimonies to the thence take food as from his storehouse, for inability of humankind to fulfil the providential these to be shut up from us by mortal man, purposes ofGod in creation. The issue is made explicit who is not able to create even a snail or a fly.! in the story of Noah: What Calvin appears to overlook, however, as has Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and most of the Christian tradition, is that the permission the earth was filled with violence. And God to kill for food in Genesis 9 is far from unconditional saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for or absolute: all flesh had corrupted their way upon .the earth. And God said to Noah, "I have Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that determined to make an end ofall flesh; for the is, its blood. For your lifeblood I will surely earth is filled with violence through them." require a reckoning; of every beast I will (Gen. 6:11-14; RSV). require it and of man... (Gen. 1:4-5; RSV). The radical message of the Noah story (so often Understanding these lines is far from straight­ overlooked by commentators) is that God would rather forward. At first sight these qualificatory lines might not have us be at all ifwe must be violent. It is violence be seen as obliterating the permission itself. After all, itselfwithin every part ofcreation that is the preeminent who can take animal life without the shedding ofblood? mark of corruption and sinfulness. It is not for nothing Who can kill without the taking of blood, that is, the that God concludes that: "I am sorry that I have made life itself? In asking these questions we move to the them." (Gen. 6:7) heart of the problem. For the early Hebrews life was symbolised by, even constituted by, blood itself. To kill Ambiguous Permission was to take blood. And yet it is precisely this permission which is denied. It is in this context-subsequent to the Fall and the It is not surprising then that commentators have Flood-that we need to understand the permission to simply passed over these verses suggesting that some kill for food in Genesis 9. Itreflects entirely the situation ritual, symbolic significance was here entertained but of the biblical writers at the time they were writing. one which in no way substantially affected the divine Killing--{)f both humans as well as animals-was allowance to kill. But this, I suggest, is to minimise the simply inevitable given the world as it is and human significance of these verses. Rereading these verses in Between the Species 2 Winter 1993 The Bible and Killing for Food the light of their original context should go rather like shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy this: The world in which you live has been corrupted. mountain; for the earth shall be full of the And yet God has not given up on you. God has signified knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover a new relationship-a covenant with you-despite all the sea. (Isaiah 11:6-9; RSY). your violence and unworthiness. Part of this covenant involves a new regulation concerning diet. What was Itseems therefore that while the early Hebrews were previously forbidden can now-in the present neither vegetarians nor pacifists, the ideal of the circumstances-be allowed. You may kill for food. But peaceable kingdom was never lost sight of. In the end, you may kill only on the understanding that you it was believed, the world would one day be restored remember that the life you kill is not your own-it according to God's original will for all creation. Note, belongs to God. You must not misappropriate what is for example, how the vision of peaceable living also not your own. As you kill what is not your own­ extends to relations between animals themselves. Not either animal or human life-so you need to remember only, it seems, are humans to live peaceably with that for every life you kill you are personally animals, but also formerly aggressive animals are to accountable to God.2 live peaceably with other animals. Ifthis reading is correct, and I believe few scholars We may sum up the main elements of the biblical would now dissent from this interpretation, it will be approach as follows: Killing for food appears essential seen immediately that Genesis 9 does not grant in the world as we now know it, influenced as it is by humankind some absolute right to kill animals for food. corruption and wickedness. But such a state of affairs Indeed, properly speaking, there is no right to kill. God is not as God originally willed it. Even when we kill allows it only under the conditions of necessity. Arecent under situations ofnecessity we have to remember that statement by the Union of Liberal and Progressive the lives we kill do not belong to us and that we are Synagogues expresses it this way: "Only after the Flood accountable to God.
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