What kind of fish did jesus eat?
Yes - he ate fish a great deal. We hear in the gospel stories
that he even cooked and ate fish after his resurrection. The main
reason is simply that fish was part of the staple diet of Jewish
people at that time. Meat was relatively scarce as there were few
cattle - so beef was not particularly popular, and a great deal of
cattle were used as sacrifies in the Temple. Mutton or lamb was
commonplace and ate very regularly as the terrain around was fine
for keeping sheep. Pork was forbidden by Jewish law as the pig was
thought to be an 'unclean' animal. So, as there was ample fishing
in the Mediterranean Sea, the River Jordan and the Sea of Galilee,
fish was an important source of protein and ate very regularly. And
it is tasty of course! The Dead Sea, it is believed, was still
lifeless because of the high salt content, even in those days, and
so this would not have been used fo fishing. We hear in the gospels
that of Jesus' disciples both Peter and his brother Andrew were
both fishermen in the Galilee area, as was Zebedee, the father of
disciple brothers James and John.
Another View:
Jesus did NOT eat fish. Jesus was about mercy, peace and love.
If someone has mercy, do you think he would be murdering and eating
God's creatures?
It should be noted that some scholars contend that the Greek
word for "fish weed" (a dried seaweed) has been mistranslated in
this story as "fish". It is certainly true that dried fishweed
would be more likely in a basket with bread, and fishweed remains a
popular food among Palestinian peasants like the people to whom
Jesus was speaking. Also, in the beginning of the story (Matthew
14:13) it says Jesus got to this place by boat. These people were
right by the sea. If they were out of fish, why not just go on a
quick fishing expedition? Surely with 5,000 men present it would
not be that hard to go fishing. With this in mind, it further
supports the thought that fishweed was being used, not actual
fish.
