The Original Mosaic Law was Vegan. By Dr Chapman Chen

According to 2 Kings 22, two versions of Moses’ Law were in circulation, one corrupt and one authentic. The latter was discovered by Hilkiah the priest during the reign of King Josiah. When it was presented to the king, he tore his robe and acknowledged that the nation had been acting wrongly.

1. “Christ has Revealed this to me!”

According to Kam Waters (2024), the corrupted version of the Law was anti-vegan, whereas the authentic Mosaic Law was vegan. This understanding was later affirmed by the Ebionites, the earliest followers of Jesus. When Epiphanius questioned them as to how they knew the original Mosaic Law was vegan, they replied, “Christ had revealed this to me!” (Panarion 30.18.9).

2. Deuteronomy as Example

Prof. James Tabor (2024) takes Deuteronomy for an example. In Deut. 11:26, God announces a blessing and a curse. The 15 chapters that ensue are devoted to a set of complex codes on animal sacrifice and flesh consumption. Then, out of nowhere, Chapt. 27 resumes the blessing and curse narrative in Chapt. 11. There’s good reason to believe that the middle part is an interpolation inserted by “the lying pen of the scribes” (Jeremiah 8:8 NIV), especially when we consider the fact the Shapira Manuscript, the original copy of Deut. dismissed by pseudoscience in the 1880s but recently rehabilitated by Idan Dershowitz and James Tabor (2021), does not contain any animal sacrifice rituals.

3. Profit-Driven Fabrications

Prof. James Tabor (2024) argues that all animal sacrificial rituals in the OT are interpolations added by greedy priests like the priestly writers of Leviticus 3:12-16, Numbers 28: 2-6, and Exodus 29.

The motivation of the fabricating priests and scribes was mainly pecuniary. The Temple elite, led by the chief priests and legitimised by scribal authority, extracted enormous, structural profits from the Temple economy — not by killing animals themselves, but by controlling every choke-point in a compulsory sacrificial system: the restriction of all legitimate sacrifice to the Jerusalem Temple alone; priestly inspection and rejection of privately supplied animals; Temple-licensed livestock markets; mandatory exchange into Tyrian silver for the Temple tax; control of tithes, votive offerings, and purification rites; juridical rulings on purity and forgiveness that generated further sacrificial obligation; and the political protection of Rome, which enforced this cultic monopoly in the name of public order. The Temple had effectively become a state-protected monopoly.

4. Five Prophets Opposed Animal Sacrifice

On the other hand, there are at least five great vegan prophets in the OT who explicitly opposed the animal sacrificial cult:-

Isaiah 1:11: “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts… I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.”

Amos 5:21–22: “I hate, I despise your feasts… Even though you offer me your burnt offerings…I will not accept them.”

Micah 6:6–8: “Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams…? He has told you, O man, what is good… to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”

Jeremiah 7:22–23: “For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.” (Jeremiah was Hilkiah’s son)

Hosea 6:6: “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

These prophets emphasized ethical living and inner devotion over ritual animal sacrifice, often highlighting God's preference for justice, mercy, and compassion.

5. Jesus the Martyr for Animal Liberation

Their legacy was later inherited by Jesus who twice declared, “I desire compassion, not sacrifice!” (Matt. 9:13, 12:7). In emptying the Temple of innocent creatures about to be slaughtered for sacrifice, and in calling the Temple-turned-butcher-shop "a den of robbers/murderers" (Mark 11:16, Luke 20:46, Matt. 21:12-13), Jesus debunked the evil and fraudulent nature of animal sacrifice and disrupted the chief priests' and scribes' lucrative revenue stream. Immediately afterwards, they conspired to destroy Him (Mark 11:15-18), eventually leading to His arrest, trial, crucifixion, and resurrection at Easter (cf. Keith Akers 2000, pp.113-134). 

6. Conclusion

Let’s stick to the original, genuine, compassionate version of Moses’ Law, abstain from animal sacrifice in the broad sense – sacrifice of animals’ lives to the gluttonous belly-idol (Proverbs 23:20- 21; Philippians 3:19) – and go vegan.

(Traditionally, Torah scrolls were written on parchment made from the skin of kosher animals, reflecting the technological limitations of the ancient world rather than a theological endorsement of animal killing.)  #VeganChrist #VeganGod #VeganTheology #VeganChurch

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