Did Peter's Vision of the Sheet Mean People & Food?

[Benny]

For sake of brevity, I am not quoting all that is said, just the main points:


a) In response to your comment "a shadow of the true circumcision that is the heart.":

I stated that:
one should not misconstrue the act of circumcision as only a physical, commandment, without a spiritual dimension. This is seen from the Moses speech to Israel, Circumcise your hearts...
because, in fact, circumcision has always been two fold, part of it is the physical act and part of it is the "heart", as I referred to with Moses saying [Deuteronomy 10.16], "Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff necked." Jeremiah [4.4] echoes this later on, saying, "Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem."

Likewise, the promise of God circumcising the hearts of ISRAEL, is part of the promise of the "new" covenant; however, this promise is one of:
a) return to the Torah of Moses in all its phases
b) a return to the Land of Israel
c) etc.

This is as it says in Deut 30.1-10:
1 And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call [them] to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee,
2 And shall return unto the LORD thy God, and obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul:
3 That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee.
4 If [any] of thine be driven out unto the outmost [parts] of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee:
5 And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.
6 And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.
7 And the LORD thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee.
8 And thou shalt return and obey the voice of the LORD, and do all his commandments which I command thee this day.
9 And the LORD thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land, for good: for the LORD will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers:
10 If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, [and] if thou turn unto the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.

And this is often echoed in the prophets, as happening in the ACHARIT HAYAMIM - the end of days. Many of the promises connected to this, world peace, etc, show that it has not yet happened.
However, the purpose of point out such passages as these is, again, to show that the act of circumcision always has been both a physical and spiritual [ie of the heart] act.

b) As for the paraphrase...
If 'the washing of hands' mentioned is a 'tradition of the elders', then it stands to reason that it is not in Scripture, aside from allusions to it here. That said, to understand a conversation that is based around it, we need to look at 'the elders' writings concerning it. This was the reason for citing a 'non Scripture' reference. Once we understand the concept of the 'washing of hands', then we can understand the unclean/defiling concept that Jesus refers to, in context.
As for the knowledge that it is for a bread meal...a) I refer to the fact that it says in the NT "when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands..." [Mark 7.2]. In line with the 'tradition of the elders' which, with background info from the elders, states that such a hand washing is for before eating a bread meal [aside from the few other cases, where one may have touched a part of the body that is normally covered, and requires a slightly different kind of washing the hands- which are not relevant in this case].
The impurity is not referring to the food as being non-kosher foods, because the issue in question is not on the food itself, but the 'eating without washing the hands'. This is addressing the impurity point you were making to Ne'aryah, which you say refers to food.

As for the priests in the Temple comment...understandably, what I said concerning them doesn't makes sense. The intent was they were already required to eat in purity. Therefore, I focused on the lay people, which is entirely rabbinic in nature, though considered serious in nature in practice.

Therefore, with all that in mind, I attempted to paraphrase Jesus with an 'explanatory paraphrase', if that makes sense.

c1) I am not saying that anybody [non-Jewish, aside from those who may subscribe to being of the 10 tribes, of which there is not specific proof to any individual being of them] should be running out to get circumcised or be washing their hands etc. I am just trying to address the texts.
c2) Are there other passages that concern these two issues that cause one to question circumcision, kosher food, etc [such as galatians, for example]? For sure, I have questions on the other texts, in context...though I have my thoughts, their applied consistency needs to be examined.

Be well.