Meat of animals

(Gen. 1:29, 2:16). In the first period after the creation of the world, it was not permitted to man to eat meat, but after the flood, besides herbs and fruit, he was permitted to eat the flesh of animals also, though with a certain restriction, such as, for instance, that it was forbidden to eat meat with blood in it, because the soul of the animal is contained in the blood (Gen. 9:2, 4). In the ordinary life of the people, in household use, cheese and milk were used more, but wealthy and well-to-do people generally used meat, and that in abundance (Is. 22:13).

According to the testimony of the Third Book of Kings (4:22, 23), “Solomon’s provision for one day was thirty measures of fine flour, and threescore measures of meal, ten fat oxen, and twenty oxen out of the pastures, and an hundred sheep, beside harts, and roebucks, and fallowdeer, and fatted fowl.” At the table of Nehemiah, the governor, there was prepared daily: one ox, six choice sheep, and fowls (Neh. 5:17, 18). Ravens brought meat to the prophet Elijah during the famine (1 Kings 17:6).

Plant food, however, always constituted one of the chief means of sustenance for the Hebrews. Meat, in hot countries in general, and in Judea in particular, was used more rarely than among us. Meat was used for the most part at sacrificial offerings and on special occasions (Luke 15:23). Concerning the use of meat food