"Meat from the Heavens": The Prohibition on Meat Consumption Imposed on Adam and the Jewish-Christian Polemic
Toward the end of the Noahide commandment pericope in the Talmud (b. Sanh. 56-60), we find a sugya (pericope) featuring the prohibition on meat consumption imposed on Adam and its permission to the Noahides. This unique sugya pieces together halakic and haggadic sources that reinterpret the Garden o...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2024
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| In: |
Harvard theological review
Year: 2024, Volume: 117, Issue: 3, Pages: 436-455 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Talmûd bavlî. Sanhedrin 59b
/ Adam, Biblical person
/ Bible
/ Prohibition
/ Meat consumption
/ Halacha
/ Judaism
/ Christianity
/ Polemics
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| RelBib Classification: | AX Inter-religious relations BH Judaism HB Old Testament HC New Testament NCA Ethics |
| Further subjects: | B
Judeo-Christian polemic
B Noahide commandment B Bavli B haggada B Acts |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Toward the end of the Noahide commandment pericope in the Talmud (b. Sanh. 56-60), we find a sugya (pericope) featuring the prohibition on meat consumption imposed on Adam and its permission to the Noahides. This unique sugya pieces together halakic and haggadic sources that reinterpret the Garden of Eden story and address the complex relationship between humans and animals. This article will examine this sugya, focusing on its closing story, which describes a pietist who merits a gift of heavenly flesh. I will demonstrate that the story has many levels of meaning, grounded in both its immediate and wider contexts, and claim that it conceals a polemic with a similar Christian story (Acts 10), which describes impure meat that descends from the sky, undermining the cultural and halakic divisions between Jews and non-Jews. The comparison between the two stories reveals opposing worldviews with regard to law and lawlessness, utopia and redemption. |
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| ISSN: | 1475-4517 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Harvard theological review
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/S0017816024000178 |
