Ancient Practice

One might ask: is the separation of meat and dairy an ancient custom? Was this the original interpretation of the passage, or did it develop later? Specifically, was this the custom in the first century, and would our master Yeshua have interpreted it that way?

Mishnah

The Temple: a model of the Jerusalem Temple in the First Century (source)This interpretation was already firmly in place at the time that the Mishnah was codified (c. 200 CE).1 Hillel and Shammai were famous sages who lived in the generation just prior to our master Yeshua. The school of Hillel had a reputation for being more lenient than the school of Shammai in most areas of Jewish law. On the separation of meat and dairy, however, Hillel was more strict than Shammai, prohibiting even placing poultry and dairy on the same table. (Shammai prohibited placing red meat and dairy on the same table and eating poultry with dairy, but he allowed poultry to be on the same table as dairy.) There are numerous parallels between Hillel and our master Yeshua, and his rulings overwhelmingly seem to match those of Hillel.

The schools of Hillel and Shammai differed on many points of Jewish law, but on the basics of meat and dairy, they are in complete agreement. Both held that red meat and dairy must be kept separate as a matter of biblical law, and poultry and dairy must be kept separate as a matter of rabbinic law. The fact that these two schools agreed on these points suggests that the interpretation pre-dates the division of the two schools, placing it at least as early as the beginning of the first century CE.

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz writes:

The biblical passage "Thou shalt not cook the kid in its mother's milk" (Exodus 23:19) was understood from very ancient times, and, at least in the middle of the Second Temple era, as a ban on cooking any animal flesh in milk. Over the centuries it was extended until (from about the time of the Houses of Hillel and Shammai) it encompassed birds as well.2

Targumim

Another helpful source of information is the targumim. The targumim are ancient translations of the Hebrew Scriptures into Aramaic. They were used alongside the Hebrew in places where Aramaic was better understood. These translations were quite interpretive, making them more of a commentary or exposition. This is helpful because it teaches us some of the scriptural interpretations that were common at the time that the targumim were written.

The most famous of the targumim on the Torah is Targum Onkelos. This targum is attributed to a man named Onkelos (or Aquilas in Greek), who lived about 35-120 CE.3

As far as targumim go, Onkelos tends to be more literal than most. Yet, note how Onkelos translates the passages in question:

Samaritans

Samaritans are an example of a group well outside the realm of rabbinic interpretation.5 Their appearances in the Gospels frequently reflect the posture of hostility between the Samaritans and the Jewish community. And yet, Samaritans also practice the separation of meat and dairy. In fact, they are even more strict when it comes to cheese. Cheese is typically made from rennet, an enzyme extracted from the stomach lining of an animal. Jewish law permits this if the animal is properly slaughtered, but Samaritans require that the enzymes come from plant sources.6 The fact that Samaritans observe this prohibition suggests that it is of ancient origin, since Samaritan practice originated at the time of the first exile.

No Dairy Offerings

The Torah repeatedly praises the land of Israel by speaking of it as a "land flowing with milk and honey," even during the declaration of first fruits, as a person brings gifts from their harvest to God.7 One would expect that since milk was something that symbolized the bounty of the land, it would be prescribed as an offering in the Temple. Fruit, grain, oil, and meat were presented before God, but why do we not find milk, cheese, or other dairy offerings?

One possibility is that dairy was not brought into the Tabernacle in order to prevent the combination of meat and dairy. If this is true, then the separation of meat and dairy dates back to the Torah itself.

Yeshua and Separation of Meat and Dairy

Did our master Yeshua separate meat and dairy? Consider these factors:

• Separation of meat and dairy was standard practice in the first century.
• The Master never raises any objection to the separation of meat and dairy.
• His contemporaries never accused him of eating meat and dairy together, even though in the Talmudic era combining poultry with dairy was enough to merit excommunication.8
• No examples of combined meat and dairy foods can be found in the New Testament.
• The Master was invited into the inner circle of Pharisaic meals.9 Since this was an exclusive group with strict standards, it suggests that his standards of kosher were reasonably similar to theirs.

1. 1. m.Chullin 8.1.
2. 2. Adin Steinsaltz, The Essential Talmud. Chaya Galai (Trans). (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1976), 189.
3. 3. Another important targum is commonly called Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, although its date of origin is probably much later, so I have not included it as an example here. Nonetheless Targum Pseudo-Jonathan is even more emphatic about the separation of meat and dairy.
4. 4. Translation from J. W. Etheridge, M.A. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel: On the Pentateuch With The Fragments of the Jerusalem Targum From the Chaldee
5. 5. The Samaritans do not even accept the books of the Prophets and Writings, let alone Oral Law.
6. 6. Vered, Ronit. "8 days on Mount Gerizim" Haaretz August 16, 2007 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/891943.html
7. 7. Deuteronomy 26:9.
8. 8. b.Shabbat 130a.
9. 9. Luke 7:36, 11:37, 14:1