Early Christian Vegetarianism

Tara asks: "is it true that some early Christian communities were vegetarian?"

Short answer: It's very likely that some were, but probably not for the reasons that modern vegetarians have now.

Long Answer: I did some checking around, and it looks as though there are a few vegetarians out there who want to argue that Jesus, et. al. were vegetarian on the principle that meat is bad, animals are to be valued, etc. I find this very difficult to believe based on two pieces of evidence from the gospel: First, Jesus and the disciples were part of a fishing culture, and second, because of a story in which Jesus explains why he's not an ascetic.

In the story of the loaves and the fishes, found in all four of the gospels, Jesus and his disciples are out in the middle of nowhere, and a huge crowd of thousands has followed them there to hear Jesus talk. As it's getting on toward night, the disciples try to get Jesus to set some boundaries and send everyone home for the night. But Jesus' heart swells with compassion and he says, "Well, what kind of food do we have on hand?" There was a little boy there with a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish. Jesus blesses the paltry offering and sends the disciples out into the crowd to hand out the pieces. By the time they're done, the whole crowd has been fed--with leftovers. Based on that story, it would surprise me if Jesus didn't eat fish.

Second, going vegetarian in those days was a spiritual practice for ascetics. If you wanted to get in touch with God through self-denial, one route was by not eating meat. Jesus, however, was more of a party animal than an ascetic. On one occasion, some ascetics confront Jesus because he drinks wine and has a good time hanging out with sinners. Jesus says, "Look, you can't mourn while the bridgegroom is still here." In other words, Jesus wasn't an ascetic, although you could see in that story the early Christians trying to explain why they were fasters (now that the bridegroom is gone) while Jesus wasn't.

So what about those early Christian vegetarians? Basically, there were a couple of reasons why you might be a vegetarian back then: first, as a spiritual practice related to fasting. By eating less, fasters have more time to contemplate God's presence. It's a mystical thing.

Second, Christians became vegetarian in an effort to avoid eating meat offered to idols. Back in those days, all the meat was offered to the gods before people sat down to eat it. Some early Christians took the attitude that it didn't matter if they ate the food since the gods were fake anyway. But others were disturbed by that practice. In this passage, Paul advises against eating food sacrificed to idols, and hence advises a vegetarian diet.