2700 years ago Jews ate pigs

by fulltimestudent 16 Replies latest jw friends

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  fulltimestudent

  From Haaretz newspaper:

  What Does a Pig Skeleton Discovered in Jerusalem Say About First Temple Era Jews?

  The argument here is that sanctions on eating pork were only introduced in the 2nd Temple era.

  So what does that tell you bout biblical accuracy.

  
  

  Quite: "The find of swine adds to previous research showing that pork was occasionally on the menu for the ancient Israelites and that biblical taboos on this and other prohibited foods only came to be observed centuries later, in the Second Temple period. It also ties in to broader questions about when the Bible was written and when Judaism as we know it was born. The animal’s skull clearly identifies it as a domestic pig, as opposed to a wild swine, and its presence indicates that pigs were raised for food in the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Judah, says Lidar Sapir-Hen, an archaeozoologist at Tel Aviv University and at the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History.

  
  

  https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/MAGAZINE-what-does-a-pig-skeleton-discovered-in-jerusalem-say-about-first-temple-era-jews-1.9906708?fbclid=IwAR0Lra9ewyjR-tvJyf22E7rv2aQNdxEQDBiKUTqWml9aVox2UUSPnRI-OYY

  
  
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  smiddy3

  Maybe the stones are finally crying out ? luke 19:40
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  Phizzy

  The find of one skeleton surely does not prove they ATE the meat of the Pig does it ?

  Personally I don't doubt they did, and as said in the O.P, the Jewish Bible was compiled after the return from Babylon, as a Nation Builder, so the Levitical ban on eating Pork may well not have existed until the Editor/Compilers of the Jewish Bible wrote it in.
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  BluesBrother

  One skeleton does not prove that it was on their menu.

  it could easily be , a non Jew living there, a naughty Jew who fancied a bacon sandwich.

  Any other ideas?
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  HowTheBibleWasCreated

  There is an interesting issue here. Prof. Israel Finkelstein has noticed in his work the lack of pig bones in Israel.. (Northern Kingdom) But this article points down to Judah. I think you will find the Egyptians also didn't eat pigs. (I might be wrong about that I just remember reading it somewhere)

  Judah in 700 BCE was actually a brand new kingdom after the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Not only that they intermarried with the Assyrian rulers thus adapted their customs. (It is likely Hezekiah and Sennacherib were first cousins.)

  As for the law against pork in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 13 I actually would date them to the second century BCE after the overthrow of the Seleucids whose diet rich in pork was offensive to the now reigning Hasmoneans. (According to 2 Maccabees chapter 6 a man was forced to eat pork by having it forced down his throat and being beaten to death.)
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  stan livedeath

  Any other ideas?

  maybe pigs ate jews ?
  
  
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  Justaguy

  Speaking of pigs, in “Animal Farm” the communist leader are satirized as pigs who made famous the saying “all animals are equal, some are more equal than others”. Coincidence…i think not.
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  Earnest

  An abstract of the article written by the archaeologists responsible for this discovery in Near Eastern Archaeology says :

  Recent studies that reviewed data on pig frequencies in correlation to the subphases of the Iron Age have shown that while frequencies of pork consumption fluctuated in the Northern Kingdom, it remained constantly low in Judah throughout the Iron Age. In Jerusalem, the capital of Judah, low frequencies or absence of pigs (0–2 percent of livestock) were found in all excavated sites.

  Whenever the Bible was actually written, we know that although the First Temple-period Israelites believed in the God of the Bible, they also worshipped other deities and liberally made figurines and other graven images, ostensibly banned by the Second Commandment. If they worshipped other deities then eating the odd pork sausage now and again is no evidence that the law against doing so didn't yet exist.
  
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  Rocketman123

  Probably well smoked bacon which they had with sunny sideup eggs and a side of hash potatoes.
  
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  Bobcat

  Isa 65:2-4 & 66:17 seem to confirm that pork was on the menu for some Jews under the Law prior to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. So finding bones in that time frame is not surprising.