| Wonktonodi said:
but does it cover them all? and is there some clear place that covers all the ones that are kept and those that aren't? or are they all over and some just assumed? |
There are some obscure ones but in the grand scheme of things they really don't matter. I kind of answered prof about this though a second ago, take a quick look.
For example, female hygene is another trivial matter, since it deals with external matters, much like food. Christ put emphasis on the things of the heart (morality, sexual purity, honesty, generosity). Paul supports this idea by saying that sexual immorality is a sin against the body and our body was bought at a price. Eating unclean foods is not considered a sin against the body, but something that affects aspects that have little basis in morality. Luckily for christians, this also makes alot of sense.
Here's where the church reasoned this out as well, above and beyond Jesus' declaration of all foods clean, but they did forbid the eating of foods sacrificed to idols and sexual immorality. For foods sacrificed to idols, it's probs because idolatry is still against the will of God as it was never superceded. However, Paul even supercedes that with Christian logic (there is really no such thing as an idol, there is truly but one God in the end, 1 Corinthians 8). Anyways, without further ado the Council at Jerusalem in the book of acts. (to note, below, among other things, circumcision not necessary to be saved, no longer a requirement).
The Council at Jerusalem
15 Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question.3 The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the believers very glad. 4 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.
5 Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.”
6 The apostles and elders met to consider this question. 7 After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. 8 God, who knows the heart,showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9 He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. 10 Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? 11 No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”
12 The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them. 13 When they finished, James spoke up. “Brothers,” he said, “listen to me. 14 Simon[a] has described to us how God first intervened to choose a people for his name from the Gentiles. 15 The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written:
16 “‘After this I will return
and rebuild David’s fallen tent.
Its ruins I will rebuild,
and I will restore it,
17 that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord,
even all the Gentiles who bear my name,
says the Lord, who does these things’[b] —
18 things known from long ago.[c]
19 “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. 20 Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. 21 For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”
