Jubilees 22:16

Pseudepigrapha

14 ‘May he purify you from all filthy pollution so that you may be pardoned for all the guilt of your sins of ignorance. May he strengthen and bless you; may you possess the entire earth.’ 15 ‘May he renew his covenant with you so that you may be for him the people of his heritage throughout all ages. May he truly and rightly be God for you and your descendants throughout all the time of the earth.’ 16 ‘Now you, my son Jacob, remember what I say and keep the commandments of your father Abraham. Separate from the nations, and do not eat with them. Do not act as they do, and do not become their companion, for their actions are something that is impure, and all their ways are defiled and something abominable and detestable.’ 17They offer their sacrifices to the dead, and they worship demons. They eat in tombs, and everything they do is empty and worthless.’ 18 ‘They have no mind to think, and their eyes do not see what they do and how they err in saying to a piece of wood: “You are my god”; or to a stone: “You are my Lord; you are my deliverer.” They have no mind.’

Galatians 2:12

New Testament

11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he had clearly done wrong. 12 Until certain people came from James, he had been eating with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he stopped doing this and separated himself because he was afraid of those who were pro-circumcision. 13 And the rest of the Jews also joined with him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray with them by their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that they were not behaving consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “If you, although you are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you try to force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

 Notes and References

"... The significance attaching meals in the ancient world in general, as among Jews in particular, made sharing a meal the most intimate form of association between people other than sexual relations.'" This is why Jubilees, which so strongly opposes intermarriage, also says ... This makes clear that the reason sharing meals is forbidden is because the Torah requires "separation" from the Gentiles and from their corrupting influence (Leviticus 20:22-26; compare Nehemiah 9:2; 10:28). This general concern is not, as we have seen, by any means limited to Jubilees. As others have documented, sharing a meal with Gentiles, especially if provided by Gentiles in their own home, entailed serious risks of ipso facto committing idolatry: the meat might well have been sacrificed to idols in the pagan temple, the wine would have been put to idolatrous use by pouring a libation from it, and oil could also be tainted with idolatry." It is these dangers, as well as forbidden animals and blood, that the literary examples of Daniel (Daniel 1:3-17), Judith (Judith 12:1-4, 19) and Esther (Esther 14:17) avoid by not taking pagan meat and wine ..."

Bauckham, Richard The Missions of James, Peter, and Paul: Tensions in Early Christianity (pp. 91-142) Brill, 2004

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