MEAT, MEATS

MEAT, MEATS. The import of this word seems to have undergone a considerable change since our version was made, for in this it means food in general, or, when confined to one species of food, always meal, flour or grain, but never flesh, which is now its usual acceptation. A "meat-offering" in the Scriptures is always a vegetable and never an animal offering, a cake made of flour and oil. Lev 2; Lev 6:14-23. Meat-Offering. At the first settling of the church there were many disputes concerning the use of meats offered to idols. Some newly-converted Christians, convinced that an idol was nothing, and that the distinction of clean and unclean creatures was abolished by our Saviour, ate indifferently of whatever was served up to them, even among pagans, without inquiring whether the meat had been offered to idols. They took the same liberty in buying meat sold in the market, not regarding whether it were pure or impure according to the Jews, or whether it had been offered to idols or not. But other Christians, weaker or less instructed, were offended at this liberty, and thought that eating of meat which had been offered to idols was a kind of partaking in that wicked and sacrilegious act. This diversity of opinion produced some scandal until Paul stepped forward and gave his decision that all things were clean to such as were clean. Tit 1:15, and that an idol was nothing at all; that a man might safely eat of whatever was sold in the market, and need not scrupulously inquire from whence it came; and that if an unbeliever should invite a believer to eat with him, the believer might eat of whatever was set before him, etc.1 Cor 10:25, etc. But at the same time he enjoins that the laws of charity and prudence should be observed, that believers should be cautious of scandalizing or offending weak minds; for though all things might be lawful, yet all things were not always expedient.