The Jewish Dietary Laws in the Ancient World

In The Jewish Dietary Laws in the Ancient World Jordan D. Rosenblum explores how cultures critique and defend their religious food practices. In particular he focuses on how ancient Jews defended the kosher laws or kashrut and how ancient Greeks Romans and early Christians critiqued these practices. As the kosher laws are first encountered in the Hebrew Bible this study is rooted in ancient biblical interpretation. It explores how commentators in antiquity understood applied altered innovated upon and contemporized biblical dietary regulations. He shows that these differing interpretations do not exist within a vacuum; rather they are informed by a variety of motives including theological moral political social and financial considerations. In analyzing these ancient conversations about culture and cuisine he dissects three rhetorical strategies deployed when justifying various interpretations of ancient Jewish dietary regulations: reason revelation and allegory. Finally Rosenblum reflects upon wider contemporary debates about food ethics.