Did Paul say to Timothy that it was okay to eat e.g., rabbit meat?

Question

1 Timothy 4:

1 The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. 2Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. 3They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. 4 For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer. 6If you point these things out to the brothers and sisters, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished on the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed.

Was it okay for Timothy to eat rabbit according to Paul?

Answer 1

Much of Paul's letter to Timothy concerns Gnosticism and asceticism, which frowns on physical pleasure, in particular with regard to eating meat of any kind.

"They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods" is referring to the attitudes of these people. Many of the new Christian converts come from that background, and many of their friends and family still hold to it. Paul is warning that these pagan beliefs will eventually find their way into Christianity.

Paul was speaking of the food that God had created for mankind to eat. The NIV translation in the question doesn't make this clear, but many other translations make it more obvious:

• CSB: foods that God created to be received with gratitude
• ESV: foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving
• NET: foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving
• NKJV: foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving
• NLT: God created those foods to be eaten with thanks
• RSV: foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving
• YLT: meats that God created to be received with thanksgiving

Paul is saying that God created certain animals to be eaten by man, and the ascetic rejection of meat goes against what God wants.

Unclean meat is not food that God created; clean meat is. Horses are meant to be ridden, not to be food for humans. Pigs are meant to be garbage disposals, not to be food for humans. Sheep and chickens were created by God to be food for humans, despite what the Gnostics believe.

When Paul says "everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected", he is referring to food created by God. He is not talking about rabbits, because God didn't create rabbits as food for humans.

If one thinks otherwise, then they must also accept that poisonous mushrooms are good and not to be rejected, because mushrooms were created by God. That is a ridiculous conclusion, but it makes just as much sense as applying the same logic to unkosher animals.

Answer 2

One point of clarification must be made first before I put my two cents in. Our modern conception of meat is animal flesh, however in King James day meat simply meant food (this included vegetables as we as animal flesh). For example, in the Old Testament, flour (Leviticus 23:13) was considered meat. Meat in the modern sense wasn’t used to mean animal flesh until the 14th century, even then they were primarily using the word meat to mean any food (https://www.etymonline.com/word/meat). Similarly, with word creature. Creature use to simply mean anything created (https://www.etymonline.com/word/creature). So, that should say food in that text. Many newer translations of the Bible translate that word as food.

But the clue that the scripture in that it must be sanctified with the word of God and prayer. Many proponents of the notion that you can eat anything you want tend to only focus on the prayer aspect. But the meat must sanctified by the “word of God.” The only word they had back then was the Old Testament. And while it is true that we are under Grace it is also true the we are not to abuse our liberty (Galatians 5:13). Paul wrote about to consequences of not controlling our our diet noting that God will judge us based on our restraint on diet generally (Galatians 5:13). We are also, in principle, not supposed to defile the body temple (1 Corinthians 3:17). Any thing that destroys or defiles our body is a sin. Lastly there is no example of early Christians eating any unclean meat. As someone stated in a previous answer, Paul was talking about Gnosticism creeping into the the church. This is something modern scholarship has failed to highlight. I will make one more note however as point of clarity. While the gnostics taught against marriage, they did not teach celibacy.

Answer 3

Of course. "Nothing is to be rejected if received with thanksgiving". In the Old Testament rabbit was prohibited but that was under the Mosaic law. We are not under that law as Christian's. We are under grace. The verses you quoted say that clearly.

Answer 4

Answer

Paul did not say to Timothy that it was okay to eat rabbit meat.

Explanation

Let us study the long Scripture the OP has given here and see the truth:

1 The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons (was Moses taught by demons?). 2Such teachings come through hypocritical liars (was Moses a hypocritical liar?), whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. 3They forbid people to marry (Did Moses forbid marriage?) and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth (Jesus said the Bible is the truth when He said, “Your Word is Truth” (John 17:17) and the Bible/Truth segregates clean meat from unclean meat). 4 For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5because it is consecrated by the word of God (the Word of God is the Bible and the Bible consecrates clean meat from unclean meat) and prayer. 6If you point these things out to the brothers and sisters, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished on the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed”.

So, we get a few points from the above Scripture:

1. Moses who gave us clean meat to eat and unclean meat to avoid was not taught by demons but by the living true God!

2. Moses who gave us clean meat to eat and unclean meat to avoid was not a liar but a true prophet of the living God.

3. Moses who gave us clean meat to eat and unclean meat to avoid did not forbid marriage nor did he receive any such command from the true God who established the institution of marriage.

4. The liars who are taught by evil spirits and demons teach to “abstain from certain “clean” foods. But God created these clean foods for the true believers who know their Bible (the Truth which segregates the food) and who eats such clean foods with thanksgiving.

5. All clean foods God created are good because they are segregated (consecrated) by the Bible in the OT (the Word of God).

I don’t see anything Paul teaches that is contrary to Moses.

Conclusion

So, no, Timothy cannot eat rabbit meat because he knows the Truth/Scripture that consecrates/segregates the clean meat from the unclean.