# Genesis 1:29: Eat Meat?



## Romans922

Genesis 1:29 says, "And God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food."

So we can't eat meat?  I can hear the argument now (though never personally heard it), we were never commanded to eat meat/animals until after the fall (Gen. 9:3). Here before the fall, man is commanded to eat of the plants only. So we shouldn't eat meat. 

Answer?


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## Rufus

Didn't God also give dominion over the beasts of the earth? Or what about the dietary laws that restricted certain meats, but not all meats? Or Passover? Or what about the fish that Jesus ate with his disciples post-ressurection?

At a friends house so I'm not gonna look up the verse but doesn't Pauls letters mention this.

I've also heard this verse used to justify marijuana, and the one with Paul used to justify marijuana (the meat that some didn't want to have because there faith said no was weed and those that have stronger faith are premitted by faith to smoke)


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## Bill The Baptist

We didn't eat meat before the fall because there was no death. Can't exactly eat a steak unless you kill the cow first. After the fall, God commands us to eat meat


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## AThornquist

Bill The Baptist said:


> We didn't eat meat before the fall because there was no death. Can't exactly eat a steak unless you kill the cow first. After the fall, God commands us to eat meat


 
Indeed. Acts 10, Peter saw a meat buffet descending from the sky -- a real life pig in a blanket, no less -- and was given total liberty of conscience to eat of animal-kind. Pre-fall Adam and Eve pranced around nude; are you (hypothetical person) going to advocate that as well?


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## Romans922

Great answers guys.


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## LawrenceU

Gen. 9:3ff _Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat._

It can be argued that before the flood God fearing men, or perhaps all men, did not eat meat. Obviously something changed upon Noah exiting the ark, else God would not have said what he said.


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## athanatos

Rufus said:


> Didn't God also give dominion over the beasts of the earth? Or what about the dietary laws that restricted certain meats, but not all meats? Or Passover? Or what about the fish that Jesus ate with his disciples post-ressurection?
> 
> At a friends house so I'm not gonna look up the verse but doesn't Pauls letters mention this.



Well, in Mark 9 it says that Jesus declared all meats "clean", but I think you're talking about Acts 15 (?) where Paul is given the charge in a vision to go to the "unclean" Gentiles, whom God made clean. This passage is also used to justify eating pork and other "unclean" things --this also the case, because of the first council in Jerusalem, where they make no such restrictions of diet on the Gentiles. Only that they don't eat animals that were strangled.

I am a Jew by faith, but a Gentile by birth. Do the Laws of Moses apply to me?


[edit]
Mark 7:18-19
18 “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them?
19 For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)

*Peter**'s vision was explained as directly relating to the Gentiles in Acts 11:4-18, and the council in Jerusalem was in Acts 15, where they only forbade them in the following:

"It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: 29 You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the *meat of strangled animals* and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things." (emphasis mine)


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## au5t1n

Romans922 said:


> Answer?



Your question contains the answer:



Romans922 said:


> Gen. 9:3


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## Michael

After the flood God gave man the provision of meat [a rarely recognized somber moment if you ask me]. Since we weren't physically created to consume meat like the animals we are 'omnivores' that cook our food. In the new heavens and new earth we won't be sustaining life with death anymore...so no steaks or fried chicken in heaven.


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## LawrenceU

Like this:
[video=youtube;KypEQkIJGZk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KypEQkIJGZk[/video]


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## matthew11v25

This may sound ridiculous, but Adam and Eve "harvesting" fruit/vegetables before the fall wasnt considered killing because the plant itself was not killed?! Where as you cant simply harvest a leg off a chicken without killing the chicken, right?

does that make sense?


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## Michael

Plants are a lower life form and do not have the same capacity of cognitive function, feeling, and emotion as animals. So the two are not readily comparable in that sense of harvesting without killing.


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## Grillsy

AThornquist said:


> Indeed. Acts 10, Peter saw a meat buffet descending from the sky -- a real life pig in a blanket, no less -- and was given total liberty of conscience to eat of animal-kind. Pre-fall Adam and Eve pranced around nude; are you (hypothetical person) going to advocate that as well?



I could be mistaken but I thought Peter's vision referred primarily to the Gentiles. I think that is explained in Acts 11.


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## goodnews

LawrenceU said:


> Gen. 9:3ff _Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat._
> 
> It can be argued that before the flood God fearing men, or perhaps all men, did not eat meat. Obviously something changed upon Noah exiting the ark, else God would not have said what he said.



This is exactly right. I don't think God gave meat for sustenance until after the flood. But, I was thinking about this the other day. Genesis 4 tells that that Abel kept flocks. But why? Was it simply for the purpose of making religious sacrifices? To clothe sinners the way God clothed Adam and Eve? But, Abel brought God a sacrifice from the fat portions and that pleased God. There's no mention that any meat was eaten there. So why were the "fat portions" (the choicest meat?) mentioned? If no one was eating meat why the need to mentioned the best meat to eat?


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## TimV

> So we shouldn't eat meat.



So Christ sinned both during His incarnation when He ate the Passover lamb and after the resurrection when He ate fish.

Sheesh. Some people want everyone except the Christ to be their examples. Sheesh....


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## littlepeople

flocks are good for wool. And i think the fat portions would still make sense without their eating of the sheep. The fat portions burn better and produce the pleasing aroma.....yum now I want to grill something

---------- Post added at 08:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:19 PM ----------

and to the original question, no it wouldn't follow that eating meat is a sin for us. Certain forms of divorce are not sinful, although it was not the original design, and God later made it lawful under certain restrictions.


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