GENESIS 9:3-4

 

Q: This passage states after the flood God gave man everything for food. Was man

originally vegetarian prior to this? If God gave them everything to eat after the flood, why did the

Israelites observe some animals as being “unclean” and not permitted to eat?

 

Concerning the first question, most commentators feel that mankind was vegetarian before the flood, 

as referenced in Genesis 1:29. The only problem that some people see with this interpretation is that

the same  language (having green plants for food) is applied to all animals in 1:30, even those that 

are strictly carnivores today. Thus, others explain the Genesis 1 references as just meaning that all 

animals, even carnivores, ultimately depend on plants for food since that is the food utilized by the 

animals they in turn eat.

 

As far as the second question goes, remember that this was a covenant given to all mankind—the 

so-called Noachian Covenant. At this point in history, there was no such thing as an Israelite 

people at all. Later, when God chose one particular family to be the basis of the Jewish race, a holy

nation separated unto himself, further restrictions on which animals were clean to eat were 

imposed on them to help emphasize their distinction from the rest of humanity. (The earlier 

mention of clean and unclean animals in Genesis 7 probably refers only to which animals were

 acceptable for sacrificing to God.)

 

This is the background for the decision of Jerusalem Conference described in Acts 15:19-22 

whereby the Christian Gentiles were freed from the Jewish dietary laws but told to still keep the

command given  to Noah to refrain from eating animals from which the blood had not been first

drained.