“Do Not Become Heavy With the Eating of Flesh!” Warns Jesus. By Dr Chapman Chen
- Chapman Chen
- 19 minutes ago
- 3 min read
In the Curetonian Syriac version of Luke 21:34, translated by F. C. Burkitt (1904), Jesus seriously warns against meatism:-“Now beware in yourselves that your hearts do not become heavy with the EATING OF FLESH [ܐܟܠܬܐ ܕܒܣܪܐ (ʾākaltā d-besrā)]…that day will come up upon you suddenly; for as a snare it will come upon all of them that sit on the surface of the earth.” (note 1)
The Curetonian Gospels are one of the two surviving Old Syriac Gospel manuscripts (the other is the Sinaitic Palimpsest). The manuscript dates to the 5th century, and its language is Old Syriac. Containing the four separate Gospels, it is called Evangelion da-Mepharreshe (“Separated Gospels”). However, scholars believe that the translation itself may be much earlier, possibly 2nd century. The 19th century editor William Cureton believed the Syriac Gospels might preserve an original Aramaic form of the Gospel. Many modern textual critics believe that the Old Syriac Gospels were translated from Greek manuscripts but the translator may have used an earlier Greek manuscript now lost.
The Old Syriac (Curetonian) Gospel wording of Luke 21:34 is usually reconstructed approximately as follows:
ܐܙܕܗܪܘ ܠܟܘܢ ܕܠܐ ܢܬܝܩܪܘܢ ܠܒܘܬܟܘܢ ܒܐܟܠܬܐ ܕܒܣܪܐ ܘܒܪܘܝܘܬܐ ܕܚܡܪܐ ܘܒܨܦ̈ܬܐ ܕܥܠܡܐ
Transliteration
ʾezdaharū lkhon d-lā netyaqqarū lebwātkhon b-ʾākaltā d-besrā w-berwāyūṯā d-ḥamrā w-b-ṣap̄ṯē d-ʿālmā.
Literal English rendering
“Take heed to yourselves lest your hearts become heavy with the eating of flesh, and with drunkenness of wine, and with the cares of the world.”
Specifically, the key phrase ܐܟܠܬܐ ܕܒܣܪܐ means ʾākaltā (eating) d- (of) besrā (flesh/meat). So literally it reads: “eating of flesh”.
(Note: In the standard Greek manuscripts of Luke 21:34, Jesus says, “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing (κραιπάλῃ), drunkenness, and the cares of life.” And the phrase ākaltā d-besrā could also be interpreted more broadly as gluttonous feasting.)
This vegan warning of Jesus is confirmed by his famously declaring twice in the Gospels: “I desire COMPASSION, not sacrifice” (Matt 9:13, 12:7, cf. Hosea 6:6). Above all, Jesus died for animal liberation. In emptying the Temple of animals about to be slaughtered for sacrifice, and in calling the Temple-turned-butcher-shop "a den of murderers" (note 2), quoting Jeremiah 7:11, Jesus debunked the fraudulent and evil nature of animal sacrifice, and disrupted the lucrative revenue stream of the chief priests and scribes, who immediately afterwards conspired to destroy Him (Mark 11:15-18), eventually leading to His arrest, trial, and crucifixion (Akers 2000).
Jesus’ caution against flesh-eating is also corroborated by Saying 87 of the Gospel of Thomas, as translated and edited by Stevan Davies (2002), wherein Jesus says, “Wretched is a body depending on a body.” Now, how can a body be dependent on another body? Only if the body eats another body. Hence, Davies (2002) concludes that Thomas is not stating that all bodies are “wretched,” but only those bodies that depend on other dead bodies—in other words, flesh—for food.
This association between flesh-eating and spiritual corruption appears in early Jewish-Christian literature, too. In the Clementine Recognitions (Hom. 7, Ch. IV), Peter declares that ““the things which are well-pleasing to God include, among others, “to abstain from the table of devils, not to taste dead flesh!”
Thus, cut out all meaty vice; follow the Vegan Christ!
Notes
2. As pointed out by Prof. James Tabor (2024), the phrase is commonly mistranslated as “a den of thieves” in English Bibles, following the King James Version (KJV), which renders λῃστής (lēstēs) as thieves. However, lēstēs more accurately means brigands or violent criminals (Strong’s Concordance). Even more significantly, Jesus was quoting Jeremiah 7:11, where the Hebrew מָּרִיץ (parits) is translated as robbers but actually means violent murderers or ravenous destroyers (Brown-Driver-Briggs; Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance). Tabor (2024) argues that Jesus’ outcry should be understood in this original Hebrew context. In Jeremiah 7:11, the phrase “Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers [parits] in your eyes?” appears, yet the Hebrew verb parats (from which parits derives) means to break through, to shatter, to shred. Its Arabic equivalent, فتح (fatah), conveys meanings such as to cut, to slit, to tear open, or to rend apart.
Comments