DANIEL – OF THE LION’S DEN FAME – was a vegan.
In a touch of irony, those lions – well-established carnivores – refused to dine on him when they had a chance (Daniel 6). As though they became temporary vegans too.
Daniel was a young Jewish noble taken captive to what is now Iraq. There, because of his smarts, he landed a gig in the palace. He served as one of many advisers to the king. So did three of his friends – Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the young Jews who would later survive a visit inside a blazing furnace (Daniel 3:19-30).
Daniel and his buddies were all kosher Jews. They observed Jewish food laws. If they ate meat, it had to be prepared according to Jewish law. No pink steaks, for example, because Jewish law said all blood belonged to God – it was reserved for use in sacrifices (Leviticus 17:10-12).
“Daniel was determined not to defile himself by eating the food and wine given to them by the king” (Daniel 1:8). Rather than risk eating non-kosher meat, he and his friends ate only veggies. As a result, they “looked healthier and better nourished than the young men who had been eating the food assigned by the king” (Daniel 1:15).
Strange and Mysterious Stuff from the Bible – from the Weird to the Wonderful, by Stephen M. Miller, Harvest House Publishers, 2014, pages 20-21.
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