Ray MacDonald: Hello, and great to have you with us. We have a special guest today, Peter Shir. Peter, thank you for joining us. You are a student of the Bible, Jewish studies, Second Temple literature, and the New Testament. You are involved with distance education at the Israel Bible Center and you lecture at a Christian college. Tell us a little bit about more yourself.
Peter Shir: Obviously, I am in education; I’m a teacher. That is what I enjoy. Biblical studies, Jewish studies, and the Second Temple era are my areas of expertise. I think that is very interesting to many Christians because the New Testament falls into that era. We call it the “New Testament,” but it is really a Jewish part of history out of which Christianity and Judaism emerge. There are a lot of moving parts in that time; things are not nailed down, and there are many questions.
I am used to having conversations that cross the lines of Judaism and Christianity. These traditions have developed in their own directions and sometimes drifted into territory that isn’t the same, but the foundations are identical. That is where I come in—I act as the bridge between them.
Ray MacDonald: Sounds interesting. Now, food. What is more basic than food? I work with Leket Israel, the National Food Bank, providing food for Israel’s needy. The Bible talks a tremendous amount about food. In fact, what is the first controversy in the Bible?
Peter Shir: The Bible begins with food. The story in the Garden is about food that is allowed and food that is prohibited. You have the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. That is not food for Adam and Eve; perhaps it is food for God. He is allowed to know everything about good and evil, but Adam and Eve are not. They have the Tree of Life and all the other trees, but they cannot eat from that tree reserved for God.
The deception in the Garden is about food—the temptation to taste this food and know things that only God should know. That is the sin of rebellion: taking something that doesn’t belong to them. In Jewish tradition, there is certain food that belongs to God.
If you think about the Temple, it is very similar. There are sacrifices priests do not eat, sacrifices priests do eat, and sacrifices the worshipper eats. There are categories: “Most Holy” (God-only food), priest food, and food for the worshipper. You see the same pattern in the Garden of Eden, the Temple, and the laws given in the Torah: food you can eat, food you can give away, and food you should not touch.
Ray MacDonald: That is interesting. God set those boundaries for ancient Israel just as parents set boundaries for children. People often debate the reasons behind this.
Peter Shir: People ask, “Is this for health reasons?” I tell them I really don’t know. God sets up rules. He doesn’t always tell us the reasons; He just does it. We are supposed to believe He is looking out for us, so if He tells us to do things, we take it for what it is.
Ray MacDonald: In the Torah, I see three types of commandments: ritual, moral/ethical, and the third category I refer to as “I don’t know why.” Why can’t I have a lobster dinner? As Christians, we hear the expression “kosher.” Can you give us a brief breakdown of clean, unclean, kashrut, and kosher?
Peter Shir: I realize that question can be confusing if you don’t live in that world. The biblical categories are “clean” and “unclean.” All fruits and vegetables are 100% clean. The issue arises with animal products. In the Bible, God says these animals are clean, and these are unclean. Why? I don’t know. It is not a qualitative judgment—why a goat is clean but a kitten is not. God simply gives us biological features to recognize the categories. When you talk about clean in the Bible, you are talking about animals and animal products only.
Now, kashrut (kosher) is a different category. These are post-biblical ideas developed in the Jewish community based on rabbinic teachings. For example, a chunk of beef is biblically clean. However, if it is the rump, it is not kosher. Or, if it wasn’t butchered properly, it isn’t kosher. Biblical “clean” and rabbinic “kosher” are two different languages from two different eras with different concerns.
Ray MacDonald: So, in order to be kosher, it has to first be clean. But being clean doesn’t automatically make something kosher.
Peter Shir: Exactly. Kosher is a different measurement. When you see a “Kosher” stamp on a chicken at Trader Joe’s, it isn’t just a regular chicken that a rabbi blessed. It was slaughtered in a particular way, the blood was drained, and it was soaked in salt and water. It went through a specific process. For observant Jewish people, this is a way of life and a tradition they are faithful to.
Ray MacDonald: It is interesting how ubiquitous kosher certification is in our grocery stores. You see the “OU” or the “K.” I have friends in food processing who tell me the rabbi comes in to check the operation, ensuring cleanliness and ingredients.
Peter Shir: It is like a certification stamp, similar to “Certified Organic.” It gives the consumer peace of mind that the product has been checked. It is a modern phenomenon due to the commercialization of food production.
Ray MacDonald: Peter, your website is PShir.com. What will we find there?
Peter Shir: You will find articles geared toward an audience that loves the Bible. Most of my audience is Christian, curious about digging into Hebrew, Greek, the New Testament, and Second Temple studies. I create educational videos and recommend books to answer the questions people get stuck on. I try to fill the gap where Christianity and Judaism converge, explaining things like Paul’s Jewish mindset or the rabbinic context of Jesus’ teachings.
Ray MacDonald: Excellent. We have the link below. Let’s dive into the New Testament. In Mark 7, there is a scene regarding Jesus’ disciples eating without washing their hands.
Peter Shir: Yes. In Mark 7 and Matthew 15, the disciples are eating bread with unwashed hands. The Pharisees ask Jesus, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders?”
You have to understand that the Pharisees believed impurity could pass from a source to food, and then to the person eating it. In the ancient world, with open sewage in the streets, people washed hands for practical and ceremonial reasons. The Pharisees took upon themselves the ritual purity rules of the priests out of a desire to worship God properly. They believed that if you invite God to your table, you shouldn’t be ritually impure.
Jesus challenges this. He explains that defilement is internal, not external—it comes out of a human being, not into them. The phrase “Thus he declared all foods clean” is a parenthetical explanation by Mark, but people take it too broadly. They weren’t eating lobster; they were eating bread. Jesus wasn’t wiping away the Levitical laws; he was saying that eating bread with unwashed hands does not defile you.
Ray MacDonald: So, Jesus wasn’t declaring non-food items (to a Jewish mind) as food. Let’s move to Acts 10. Peter is on the roof in Joppa, sees a vision of animals, and hears, “Rise, Peter, kill and eat.” He refuses. What is this about?
Peter Shir: The vision isn’t really about food; it is about Cornelius. Just as Peter sees the vision, men sent by Cornelius knock at his door. The spirit tells Peter to go with them. The issue is that Cornelius is a Gentile. Going into a non-Jewish house and sharing a meal was a cultural barrier.
The food in the vision represents the nations, which Peter considered untouchable. He is being told visually: “I know you don’t feel like it, but do it.” When Peter later defends himself in Jerusalem, the criticism isn’t “You ate bacon,” it is “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.” It is about who he ate with, not what he ate.
Ray MacDonald: Cornelius is described as a “God-fearer.”
Peter Shir: Yes. God-fearers were non-Jews who respected the God of Israel and lived within the community but didn’t fully convert or get circumcised. They sat on the fence. Cornelius gave charity and supported the synagogue. He knew the rules. If a Jew came to his house, he wouldn’t serve pork because he respected the community. For a Roman centurion, associating this closely with Jews was a stigma, yet he did it.
Ray MacDonald: Let’s look at Acts 15. The leaders of the church meet in Jerusalem to decide what to do with the Gentiles turning to God. James makes a pronouncement.
Peter Shir: The dispute is about whether Gentiles need to become Jews (be circumcised and follow the full Torah) to be saved. Peter argues that the Holy Spirit came upon Cornelius just as he was.
James concludes that they shouldn’t trouble the Gentiles but write to them to abstain from four things: things polluted by idols, sexual immorality, strangled things, and blood.
These prohibitions are about maintaining table fellowship. If food is offered to an idol, a Jew cannot eat it. If meat has blood in it (strangled), a Jew cannot eat it. These rules allowed Jews and Gentiles to eat together without offense. Other moral laws like “do not kill” were already obvious or covered by Roman law. As James says, “Moses is preached in every city every Sabbath.” The Gentiles would learn the rest by attending synagogue.
Ray MacDonald: It is interesting that the requirements for Gentiles focus on eating with the Jewish community. Speaking of community, I want to touch on the agricultural laws in Leviticus regarding the poor—leaving the corners of the field.
Peter Shir: Yes, Leviticus 19. When you reap the harvest, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field or gather the gleanings. You leave them for the poor and the stranger.
This lies at the core of Jewish and Christian ethics. We are supposed to take care of those who cannot take care of themselves, and do it with dignity. The rabbis noted that there is no limit on how big the “corner” must be; that depends on the farmer’s generosity.
This system allowed the poor to work for their food if they were able-bodied. If the food comes directly from the field—from God—rather than as a handout from a person, it maintains dignity. It emphasizes that God is the provider. God has always judged the community by the way we help our own.
Ray MacDonald: Excellent, Peter. We encourage everyone to check out Peter’s website, PShir.com, and his book Missing Ingredient. It looks like a cookbook, but it is a recipe for a greater understanding of God’s Word. Also, please visit ChristianFriendsOfLeket.org to partner with what God is doing in Israel. Peter, thank you for sharing with us.
Peter Shir: Happy to do so.