The Daniel Solution: Eating and Drinking in an Idolatrous World
by Norm Young | 18 June 2024 |
It was a crisis; a test of faith.
King Nebuchadnezzar himself had arranged that the daily provisions for Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah would be supplied from his own table and from his festive wine (Dan 1:5–6).
The arrangement confronted these young Jews with a problem regarding their religion. Daniel determined in his heart to draw the line at this: what he ate would be the clean diet chosen by his God (Lev 11:2–44; Deut 14:3–21) and not the one appointed by the idolatrous Babylonian king. If he did not stand firm on this issue he could find himself inadvertently defiled by consuming shrimp in the soup or pork in the pie that was supplied from the king’s table.
Furthermore, the king’s wine, as well as his provisions, had probably been dedicated to a pagan god before it was offered to Daniel and his three fellows. Daniel realized that he was on a slippery slope, and if he abandoned the distinction between clean and unclean foods, he and his three friends would next be required to worship the Babylonian gods (Dan 3).
There was only one way to avoid unintended defilement and that was to cease eating any meat or drinking any wine.
The palace master, Ashpenaz, was reluctant to assist them with any change to their diet since it was the king who had appointed their food (brōsis) and drink (posis) (Dan 1:10 LXX). Hence, if Daniel and his three colleagues looked in any way inferior to the other youthful foreign captives, who had consumed the provisions that the king had provided, it might cost the palace master his life.
So Daniel approached his own guard to propose a ten-day trial in which he and his three companions were to eat only seeds of the earth (ospriōn tēs gēs, that is, legumes) and to drink nothing but plain water (hudropotein) (v. 12 LXX). With God’s blessing Daniel and his compatriots all flourished both physically and mentally on this plain diet (vv. 18–20).
“So the guard continued to withdraw their royal rations and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables [seeds, LXX]” (v. 16).
Daniel’s solution was a temporary expedient to solve a problem brought about by his inability to control his meals. Rather than risk inadvertently transgressing the Torah’s teaching on clean and unclean foods and its commandment against eating food sacrificed to idols (Exod 34:15), Daniel and his companions were willing to limit their diet to vegetables and water.
Please note: in normal circumstances these young men would have eaten everything on the kosher menu, which included clean meat and uncontaminated wine (kreas kai oinos) (Dan 10:3 LXX).
Food sacrificed to idols
The Daniel Solution was also employed by the “weak,” as Paul called them, in apostolic times. And it is to this context that we now turn.
Most meat that was sold in the first-century markets was a by-product of worship in the pagan temples. Temples were the abattoirs of the ancient world. For Jews such food was “food sacrificed to idols” (eidōlothuton), and so it was avoided by an observant Jew.
Food sacrificed to idols was quite an issue for the early believers in the first century, and indeed much later. We see it twice in the letters to the churches in Revelation. In the spirit of Balaam (Num 25:1–2), someone in the assembly in Pergamum was enticing its members to “eat food sacrificed to idols and engage in sexual immorality” (Rev 2:14). In the Thyatiran assembly there was a woman who claimed to be a prophet, but whose conduct revealed that she was really a Jezebel (2 Kings 9:22), because she was “beguiling my [Jesus’] servants to engage in sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols” (Rev 2:20).
To facilitate the fellowship between Jewish and Gentile believers in their communal meals, the Jerusalem council emphasized the same two concerns as in Revelation and urged the assemblies “to abstain only from things polluted by idols and from sexual immorality and from whatever has been strangled and from blood” (Acts 15:20, 29; 21:25). These were pagan practices that were particularly offensive to Jews. Says historian Paula Fredriksen,
“No other gods and no images—the first two of Judaism’s Ten Commandments—were always the sine qua non for any and all gentiles joining the [Jesus] movement.”
Paul and food
The most thorough response to the issue of food sacrificed to idols is found in the Pauline letters, namely 1 Corinthians 8–10 and Romans 14–15. In the Corinthian assembly there were those who possessed the knowledge “that no idol in the world really exists” (1 Cor. 8:4). Since gods behind the idols did not really exist, their view was that the food sacrificed to idols remained nutritious and could be consumed. However, not everyone in the assembly had this knowledge. They
“still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol, and their conscience [understanding], being weak, is defiled” (1 Cor 8:7b italics added).
The “still” (heōs arti) indicates the “weak” (vv. 7, 9, 10, 11, 12) are former pagans.
Paul saw the issue as non-essential (adiaphora): “We are no worse off if we do not eat and no better off if we do” (v. 8). However, if one with knowledge exercised his freedom by eating food in the temple of an idol, the one who lacked the knowledge “might be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols” (v. 10). Thus by one member’s freedom to eat food sacrificed to idols “the weak brother or sister for whom Christ died is destroyed” (v. 11).
Furthermore, these possessors of knowledge may themselves be in danger. True, they were baptized into Christ and partook of the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper, but in a sense, so did their ancestors (1 Cor 10:1–6). Yet despite this, their forebears bowed down to an idol and worshiped it as the god that had led them out of Egypt and then “the people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play” (v. 7b quoting Exod. 32:6b)—and the game they played was not fiddlesticks.
“We must not engage in sexual immorality, as some of them did … These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us” ( 1 Cor 8:8,11).
Paul is adamant that the pagan temples are totally incompatible with the worship of Christ.
“What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God” (2 Cor. 6:16).
Pagan idolatry is demonic (1 Cor. 10:20a), and whether one possesses knowledge or not, the cup of the Lord and the table of the Lord cannot “be partners with demons” (v. 20b). Therefore, flee from the worship of idols” (v. 14).
Away from the pagan temple, food sacrificed to idols was just plain food, so those who knew this were free to “eat whatever is sold in the meat market” (1 Cor. 10:25). Likewise, such a believer (who knew that food sacrificed to idols remained edible fare) if invited by an unbeliever to a social meal and he decides to attend, he should eat whatever is set before him (v. 27). However, if a “weak” brother informs him “this has been offered in sacrifice,” he should stop eating the meat out of consideration for the “weak” brother’s lack of understanding (vv. 27–28).
Paul clearly knows that an idol represents a god that does not exist, but he is willing, “if food is a cause of their falling,” not again to eat meat (v. 13). This is the Daniel Solution: he quits eating not for his own sake, but to prevent his freedom from causing a “weak” brother or sister to fall (v. 13b).
This is Paul’s point in chapter 9: that although he has the right to eat (phagein) and to drink (pein) as he pleases (v. 4), for the advancement of the gospel about Christ he is prepared to give up all his rights. Paul’s behavior is shaped by his conviction that “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (1 Cor. 8:1).
Clean and unclean
Paul’s emphasis so far has been on “food sacrificed to idols,” but in Romans 14 he shifts to the question of clean and unclean foods (v. 14). Wine is also an issue, so food sacrificed to idols is not absent (v. 21).
Paul notes that “the weak eat only vegetables” (v. 2), whereas the “strong” (Rom 15:1) in faith eat everything. The Roman assemblies were a mixture of those with a Jewish background, as well as former pagans. Communal meals in such a situation would cause the “weak” to feel uncertain about the purity of the food on the table. Paul appeals to the authority of Jesus (Mark 7:19–22)
“I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone [the “weak”] who considers it unclean” (v. 14b).
Hence the “weak” employ the Daniel Solution just in case: that is, eat only vegetables and drink only water.
Not about health
The Daniel Solution has nothing to do with a healthy vegetarian diet; it is a temporary change in the choice of food when someone suspects that some of the food being served is unclean. Furthermore, those who “abstain” (v. 6) are not fasting, but forgoing meat and wine in the context of a communal meal where the assembly has a diverse background. The Daniel Solution is used to avoid the possibility of unknowingly consuming something unclean. Those who have no such scruple eat anything that is on the table—clean or unclean.
For Paul the issue of clean food was a trivial matter of “quarreling over opinions” (v. 1). Nevertheless, it had serious implications in that it was causing friction between the eaters and the abstainers. Paul urged the eaters not to despise those who abstained and the abstainers not to be critical of those who ate (v. 3).
Clearly Paul agreed with the “strong” that “the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (v. 17). Yet he did not approve of indifference to the “weak.” If on account of food (brōma) your brother or sister is grieved, Paul argued, “you are no longer walking in love” (v. 15b). Indeed, do not let your food (brōma) destroy him/her for whom Christ died (v. 15c; cf. 1 Cor 8:11).
Happy gatherings
Paul’s main concern was not to settle a dispute over food. Paul was anxious that the Roman congregations affirmed one another through the love of Christ. Notice this theme repeated in the following passages in Romans 14 and 15:
- “Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another” (Rom 14:13).
- “Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding” (14:19).
- “Each of us must please our neighbor for the good purpose of building up the neighbor” (Rom 15:2).
- “May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus” (15:5).
- “Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God” (15:7).
Thus Paul urged his assemblies to live by the gospel of Christ’s love that resulted in mutual respect and harmony.
There are four things to note in conclusion.
First, that food eaten in a social setting is approved, but eating in a pagan temple is condemned.
Second, the New Testament always conjoins food sacrificed to idols with sexual immorality.
Third, Paul is more concerned with the “strong’s” conduct toward the “weak” than with their conviction that there is no longer such a thing as unclean food—although with that he seemed to agree.
Fourth, the Daniel Solution is a temporary diet chosen by someone convinced that eating unclean food defiles the consumer. Their dilemma occurred when they had no control over or certain knowledge of what was on or from the table.
Norm Young is Professor Emeritus of Avondale University in Cooranbong, Australia.
