FAQ

Strictly speaking, followers of religions of the law, namely Jews and Muslims, continue to adhere to the prohibition against eating pork. However, Christians do, in fact, disregard it. There are several reasons for this, among which one can name one essential and several historical ones.

Essentially: the dietary prohibitions (and a whole series of similar restrictions) of the Old Testament were of a temporary nature and were annulled by the New Testament. In the Old Testament, these prohibitions were primarily aimed at protecting the chosen people from detrimental intermingling with pagans. This purpose was served by a whole complex of ideas regarding ritual purity and prohibitions against mixing one thing with another. Among others, the prohibition against eating pork also served this purpose. The relevance of these prohibitions was lost in the New Testament, primarily due to its universality and openness to all nations. Furthermore, and most importantly, the New Testament places the center of gravity in the worship of God in the spiritual realm, not the ritual one (even if the practical life of Christians poorly reflects this).

"Worship in spirit and truth," of which the Lord Jesus Christ speaks in the 4th chapter of the Gospel of John, goes far beyond the bounds of ritual restrictions. Furthermore, the New Testament views impurity exclusively as the result of sin, considering that "there is nothing unclean of itself," except sin. Therefore, the words of Christ, "There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man... For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts... All these evil things come from within and defile a man" (Mar 7:15-23) render dietary prohibitions meaningless. A detailed discussion on dietary rituals can also be found in the writings of the Apostle Paul in the 14th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, where the apostle formulates a view on ritual piety in general and dietary prohibitions in particular as a matter of each person's conscience.

The historical reasons for the lifting of the prohibition on eating pork, related to the aforementioned, stem from the fact that already two decades after the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ, a significant proportion, if not the majority, of the Church consisted of Christians from among the Gentiles. For them, the prohibition against eating pork was unfounded, and they did not inherit the ritual life of the Old Testament. When the entry of Gentiles into the Church was just beginning, the Lord showed the Apostle Peter in a vision a multitude of foods forbidden to the Jews (presumably including pork). To Peter, who refused all this, it was said: "What God has cleansed you must not call common" (Act 10:15).

After a period of disagreements and disputes over whether Gentile Christians should observe the ritual prescriptions of the Mosaic Law, at the Council of Jerusalem in the year 49, the apostles decreed: "For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, from sexual immorality, and not to do to others what you would not want done to yourselves. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well" (Act 15:28-29). Thus, dietary restrictions and a whole series of other Jewish ritual prescriptions were formally recognized as non-binding for Christians.