God Permitted Noah to Eat Creeping Plants, NOT Animals. By Dr Chapman Chen

Summary: Many flesh-eaters seize upon "The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth… into your hands are they delivered” (Genesis 9:2 KJV) and “Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you” (Gen. 9:3 KJV) to claim that God thereby gave humans permission to kill and eat any animals they fancy. Upon close scrutiny, this interpretation is incorrect.  

1. Gen. 9:2 as a Description, Not an Approval

Judging from its context, Gen. 9:2 is a descriptive preview of how Noah and his offspring were going to terrorize the non-human inhabitants of the world, rather than an authorization to abuse animals (cf. Barad 2012:17; Phelps 2002, 95-96; Wescoe 2017) (note 1). The original Hebrew word for “moving thing” (Gen. 9:3) is remes, derived from the root ramas, meaning “collective creeping things” (Brown-Driver-Briggs) (note 2). In the Exegeses Companion Bible (ECB), a literal translation, the phrase appears as “every living creeper” (Jahn 1992: Col.11).  

1.1. Two Kinds of Creepers

There are two kinds of creepers: plant creepers (e.g., vines and grape tendrils) and animal creepers (i.e., reptiles). The kind of “creeper” that God permitted Noah to eat must be a plant creeper—new vegetation that had grown after the Deluge. It could not possibly mean creeping animals, for the eating of such “creeping things”—including creatures like snails, snakes, and toads—was strictly forbidden under the Law of Moses (Lev. 11:41) (cf. Metcalfe 1840, Ch. 12-13; Stiles 2024).

1.2. A Vineyard Planted by Noah & his Sons

In fact, the Genesis Apocryphon (one of the Dead Sea Scrolls written in Aramaic, discovered in 1947 Cave 1 near Qumran) version of Gen. 3 reads, “Behold, I give all of it to you and your descendants for eating vegetables and plants (produced) by the land, but any sort of blood you will not eat” (Reeves 2014).

This is confirmed by Noah and his sons subsequently planting a vineyard (Gen. 9:20 ) (cf. Metcalfe 1840, Ch.12-13).

2. Flesh, Life, & Blood are Expressions of One Living Being!

The creeper plant theory is also corroborated by God immediately afterwards adding, “even as the green herb have I given you all things”, reminding Noah of God’s originally prescribed vegan diet for Adam and Eve (Gen. 1:29). Then, God even declared “Flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof shall ye not eat” (Gen. 9:4 KJV). Mainstream Kosher dietary law interprets this as God permitting the eating of flesh, provided that its blood is completely drained. However, in biblical anthropology, life (nephesh), blood (dam), and flesh (basar) are not three separable components, but three expressions of one living being. “For the life (nephesh) of the flesh is in the blood.” (Lev. 17:11); “The blood is the life.” (Deut. 12:23).

3. A Descriptive Modifier

Grammatically, the clause “with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof” in Gen. 9:4 functions as a descriptive modifier of the noun “flesh”, rather than a limiting condition that would permit some flesh to be eaten and forbid only flesh containing blood. If the intention were to allow flesh only after blood-draining, the Hebrew would need a conditional formulation (e.g., “you may eat flesh after you pour out the blood”).

4. A Covenant with Animals

Equally importantly, God soon afterwards made a covenant with BOTH humans and animals, a point emphasized seven times in Genesis 9:9–17 (note 3). Outside of Genesis, God also recognizes animals as covenant partners in Hosea: “In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heaven, and the creeping things of the ground; and I will break the bow and the sword and war from the land…” (Hosea 2:18).

5. God Calls Humans to Account for the Taking of Animals Lives

The ensuing phrase “your blood for your lives will I require” in Gen. 9:5 is also indicative. It may be linked in 2 grammatically legitimate directions, because Hebrew uses parataxis. Read retrospectively, it refers back to verse 4 and reinforces the principle that the blood is the life (nephesh) of every living creature. In this case, the meaning is that God will call humans to account for the taking of any life whose soul resides in its blood, including the lives of animals. Alternatively, when read prospectively, the clause introduces verse 6, in which God requires retribution for the shedding of human blood. The backward-reading is more coherent with the immediate context, which has just affirmed that the life-soul of all living beings is bound up with their blood. Thus, Genesis 9:5 may be understood as a divine ban on flesh-eating.

6. Abundant Vegetation After the Deluge

Some well-intentioned vegans argue that God permitted Noah and his descendants to eat animals only temporarily, on the assumption that there was no vegetation left after the Flood. However, the fact remains that Noah and his family remained inside the ark for around 11 months (Gen. 7:1-8:16) before stepping out of it! Months after the global flood, the earth must have become a giant greenhouse. The olive leaf brought to Noah by the dove (Gen. 8:11) constitutes direct biblical evidence that food-bearing vegetation had already been restored. Thus, the claim that Noah was forced to eat animals due to a lack of vegetation is not supported by the biblical text or narrative logic (cf. Steven Lee August 2022, 185–186).

7. Conclusion

In a word, Genesis 9:2–3 simply tells Noah that, after the Flood, humans may eat creeping plants (remes) in addition to the green plants already given in Genesis 1:29. It does not authorize the consumption of animal products. Rather, it describes the terrible fear and suffering that humans are about to inflict upon animals, and it warns humanity of the grave consequences of doing so. So that humans do not miss this point, God immediately reiterates His covenant with both humans and animals seven times in Genesis 9:9–17.

Full Text: https://www.vegantheology.net/post/god-permitted-noah-to-eat-creeping-plants-not-animals-by-dr-chapman-chen

Notes

1. Judging from its context (which will be further explained later when it comes to Gen. 9:3), Gen. 9:2 is much more likely to be a descriptive preview of what atrocities humans were going to inflict on the animals on earth (cf. Barad 2012:17; Phelps 2002, 95-96; Wescoe 2017), a visualization of how Noah and his offspring were going to terrorize the non-human inhabitants of the world, rather than an authorization to abuse animals. “How that must have saddened God…God was not commanding that it should be so, but acknowledging that humanity was still so mired in greed and violence that it could not be otherwise,” writes Norm Phelps (2002, 95-96). Per Judith Barad, this interpretation will dissipate “the tension in this passage between God’s loving nature and the words spoken (Barad 2012, 17). “The context of this passage is Noah exiting the ark and immediately killing animals as an offering to God, without any prompting by God for Noah to do so. God then warns Noah that the animals will be afraid and that this fear is tied to Noah seeing them as food. It makes sense to read Genesis 9:3 as part of that warning rather than to read it as permission,” comments Craig Wesceo (2017).

2. If “every moving thing” in Gen. 9:3 (KJV) were to mean every moving creature, it would include both animals and humans. But is God endorsing cannibalism? Certainly not. Therefore, “every moving thing” cannot mean every animal, and creeper plant (remes) makes more sense (Steven Lee August 2022, 182). 

3. Genesis 9 (KJV):

8 And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,

9 And I, behold, I establish my COVENANT with you, and with your seed after you;

10 And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth.

11 And I will establish my COVENANT with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.

12 And God said, This is the token of the COVENANT which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:

13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a COVENANT between me and the earth.

14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:

15 And I will remember my COVENANT, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.

16 And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting COVENANT between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.

17 And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the COVENANT, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.

References

Barad, Judith (2012). "What about the Covenant with Noah?". In York, Tripp; Alexis-Baker, Andy (eds.). A Faith Embracing All Creatures. 13.

Chen, Chapman (2022). "Meatism is Animal Sacrifice Detested by God." HKBNews, 29 Jun. https://www.hkbnews.net/post/meatism-is-animal-sacrifice-detested-by-god-by-chapman-chen-hkbnews  

Denny, Andrew Michael (2022). Shifting the Torah Paradigm: Exploring the Animal Sacrifice in the Context of Creation. Bloomington: LifeRich Publishing.

Linzey, Andrew (1993). "The Bible and Killing for Food." Between the Species: An Online Journal for the Study of Philosophy and Animals. https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1989&context=bts

Metcalfe, William (1840). Bible Testimony on Abstinence from the Flesh of Animals as Food: Being an Address Delivered in the Bible-Christian Church. Philadelphia : J. Metcalfe & Co. https://archive.org/details/bibletestimonyon11metc/page/7/mode/1up?ref=ol&view=theater

Wescoe, Craig (2017). "Permission and Going the Extra Mile." Swords to Plow Shares, 28 March. https://swords2plowshares.com/2017/03/28/permission-and-going-the-extra-mile/?fbclid=IwAR3vOmY1wIerXKrFOy7iwwNYZOU-CduKHHNW05MhckgnUIF0WbV1RXgM0Nk