Posted on 06/09/2025 7:48:39 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Among the most surprising finds is that the inhabitants of the earliest cities of the Bronze Age (3500–1200 b.c.) were enthusiastic pig eaters, and that even later Iron Age (1200–586 b.c.) residents of Jerusalem enjoyed the occasional pork feast. Yet despite a wealth of data and new techniques including ancient DNA analysis, archaeologists still wrestle with many porcine mysteries, including why the once plentiful animal gradually became scarce long before religious taboos were enacted...
In the 1990s, at the site of Hallan Çemi in southeastern Anatolia, archaeologists unearthed 51,000 animal bones dating to about 10,000 b.c. Of these, boar bones made up nearly one in five of the recovered remains, suggesting that the animal was an important source of meat. Researchers also found that nearly half the boars were less than a year old when killed, and that most of the rest were under three.
Archaeologist Melinda Zeder of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History argues that settlements such as Hallan Çemi mark the start of the long process of pig domestication, which began around the same time humans started to live in permanent settlements and to transform wild grasses into cultivated grain. "Boars were drawn to places humans inhabited, with their accumulation of trash, as well as to their fields," Zeder says. The animals' proximity allowed hunters to pick and choose their prey... Pigs' significance to the people of these early settlements is reflected in the numerous representations of wild boars that have been discovered at the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (ca. 10,000–8200 b.c.) site of Göbeklitepe, also in southeastern Anatolia.
(Excerpt) Read more at archaeology.org ...
One of the T-shaped limestone pillars at the site of Göbeklitepe in southeastern Anatolia includes images of a crouching cat and a wild boar. The sculpture dates to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period (ca. 10,000–8200 b.c.), a time when wild boars were an important source of food for hunter-gatherers.Jarrett A. Lobell
Hogs following pigs. There's a pleasant thought. Lol
Bacon! Bacon! Bacon! Yum.
Yep. Once somebody figured out how to do bacon, the wild boars were no longer a nuisance..
“enthusiastic pig eaters”
Certainly in my DNA 😏
Most scholars believe that the Hebrew Bible was written down in Jerusalem between around 600 and 300 b.c.
I put it more at 13th century BC, at least for the Torah (the earliest prohibitions of pork in the Bible). The more recent dating of the Torah at 6th century to 4th century are from people trying to pretend that Moses didn't really exist and was made up almost a thousand years later.
As far as WHY for prohibiting pork, I have a couple of theories, neither of which I'm certain of. One is that the Canaanites used pork in some of their sexual hedonistic sacrifices. So God telling the Jews to diss pork was in some ways God telling them to not even flirt with things that remind them of the sexual hedonism of the Canaanites. (And since Abraham moved his son, Isaac, and nephew, Lot, from that area centuries before Moses, an argument could be made that prohibiting pork was a way of saying to do away with their ties to their ancestors' past neighbors, and current neighbors.)
The other theory of God prohibiting pork is for health issues, especially parasites that can be in pork. With today's meat handling regulations that might mean little, especially during the Modern Warm Period when deaths by plague don't happen as frequently. But during cooling periods like the one before the Minoan Warm Period, and also during the Greek Dark Age Cooling Period, healthy habits are vital for a culture to survive.
Look at the two red humps titled "Holocene Climate Optimum". As that goes down to the right (a cooling period) it bottoms out roughly the era when Moses began his ministry. Thus, the Jewish patriarchs lived during a horrible cooling period. The Minoan Warm Period after that (from the lowest part of the blue to the highest point of the untitled red hump to the left of the Roman Warm Period) corresponds to the Era of Judges (Moses to Samuel). The Greek Dark Age Cooling Period (which FYI corresponds to the Era of Kings) begins at the top of the un-labeled red hump and goes down to the lowest blue point in the big dip left of the Roman Warm Period. It was during this horrible cooling period that the Minoan Civilization ceased to exist (some say it was from this cooling period introducing plagues similar to the Plague at Athens).
When I first learned about the compatibility of pig heart transplants in humans it made me wonder about Gods admonition to the Israelites about consuming pork.
My thought process was that as human flesh consumption can cause disease (Kuru) perhaps the close compatibility of pork could cause something similar, but all I could find was parasitic concerns and nothing similar to kuru, even among subsets of the human population - thinking maybe some were more genetically disposed than others.
(Avid pork/bacon consumer)
I tend to think it’s partly due to observing the omnivorous pigs. “Don’t eat what eats anything.”
the taboo started when an ancient karen had an castrated male boar chop with ‘boar taint’.
see, only 50% of the people have the genes that can detect it. and when it hits, it’s the foulest piece of meat ever.
it’s probably loaded with juicy Trichinosis too, since the ancient karen probably ate it raw.
Pork and human flesh are basically indistinguishable from one another. Besides being forbidden in most cultures, cannibalism is an even better way of contracting many things that humans are heir to. And human flesh is more likely than not to be easier to come by than pork.
Some people avoid catfish because “they eat off the bottom”.
I avoid crab and lobster for no other reason. Don't mind pork, the dangers (like tapeworm) are understood and suppliers operate with due diligence.
But generally speaking, you're taking some chances, eating a scavenger. In the not-too-distant past, pigs were kept to consume the excrement that people tossed from their homes; they kept the castle clean, and later the city streets. So there's an "eww" factor.
“Yessir. Makes ye wonder some about the Bible and about hogs too, don’t it? Yes, Holme said.” Cormac McCarthy.
Keep it all in the family.
The first sin dealt with eating a prohibited food. Apparently that lesson doesn't click with most people. It caused the death of Adam and Eve (and all of their descendants), so it has more import than most people want to give it. They love bacon and they don't care if God likes it or not.
My take. And I promise that I mean this as a respectful discussion among fellow FReepers.
1) I think you may have a point about scavenger meat profaning the body/temple. At least from an Old Testament perspective of why God may have chosen to prohibit pork.
2) Where you lose me is double-quoting "Christians", implying that Christians are watering down the Christian faith if they don't follow the OT eating rules. If I understand you correctly, then I disagree for these reasons.
A) I think it's a bit much to demand Christians honor daily life rules (doctrine) from the OT. Obviously, there are some rules that we don't want to demand (i.e. killing the non-believers in Canaan, forcing menstruating women to be apart from others, etc.) So I'm always a bit hesitant to expect my fellow Christians honor rules that I see only in the OT. This is one of theBible cannon is categorized into Old Testament and New Testament.
B) Was Peter's vision in Acts 10 permission to eat pork? It was definitely an allegory to include Gentiles in the hearing of the message of Christ. Does it also mean that eating pork is permissible? Because that part's not adamantly clear from the text, I'm okay with either way on that. And because of that, I hate to slam too hard on someone who sees it one way or the other.
C) Then there's the Apostle Paul's teaching in 1st Corinthians 8 about eating meat offered to idols. Is that about eating meat that has already gone through the idol worship ritual? Or is it about eating the types of meat that idol worshippers use (even if the portion or animal you eat was never used in idol worship)? I don't know. Either way, Paul says it's permissible as long as it's not a stumbling block to their faith. So I'm not going to try to push it onto you, but I ask you not to restrain others just because it's your stumbling block. Romans 1:1-4 is talking about a vegetarian vs meat eater debate in the same matter.
Evidently, dietary rules aren't the kind of rules we should draw a line in the sand on. Or, at least that's how I read it.
D) If you really want to get into honoring the body as part of God's temple, which I think we should, it probably shouldn't be focused on what we eat or smoke (though I'm not a smoker). We should focus on our sexual habits. Why do I say that? Look at the search for the word "temple" in the New Testament. The only times I see the word "body" in the same verse as "temple" are:
i) John 2:21 -- But He was speaking of the temple which was His body. (Obviously not part of this discussion since Jesus was talking about His death on the cross, not about dietary habits.)
ii) 1 Corinthians 6:10 -- Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is within you, whom you have [received as a gift] from God, and that you are not your own [property]? The fuller context is about sexual immorality being equivalent to defiling the temple (though your body).
I don't consider it a stumbling block for me. I consider it Gods wish. New Testament Jews did not eat pork. Jesus did not eat pork and God made it clear in the OT He does not wish us to eat pork. To me, that's clear enough.
What is sin? Going against the wishes of God. Food and appetite has caused some stumbling blocks in the Bible. Best to avoid them.
YMMV
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