The Jewish Dietary Laws in the Ancient World

In The Jewish Dietary Laws in the AncientWorld 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.
Rosenblum 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.