Why locusts and wild honey

It only takes a minute to sign up. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. In Mark , John the Baptist is described, "John wore clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.

They replied, "He had a garment of hair and had a leather belt around his waist. Does his diet likewise look back to any figure from the Old Testament or otherwise carry any significance? I tried to do a search where honey and locusts are near each other but it only turned up this passage and the parallel in Matthew.

From the gospels and the Torah we learn about several restrictions on the diet of Yochannan John the Baptist. First, as for any Jew, he had to follow the laws of clean and unclean foods. Both locust insects and natural bee honey are considered kosher today in mainstream Judaism. The law permits eating locusts specifically Leviticus but not other "creeping things". Bee honey was ruled kosher by the elders and this conclusion is now Rabbinic tradition.

However, these foods, "locusts and wild honey" that John ate could also be widely misunderstood. These foods, plus his "camel hair" sackcloth clothing, are often used to style John the Baptist as a crazy hermit ; but I object to this characterization. There are indications that 'locusts' actually refers to Carob fruit. The word translated "locust" in Latin is locusta , in Greek akrides and in Aramaic qamsa , all literally meaning the locust insect.

But this still could just be the nickname for a fruit that does rather resemble a locust - judge for yourself. There is also the question of when live locusts, or carob fruit, would be available.

I have no idea. Regarding honey, even though Rabbinic tradition codified in the Mishnah, the "oral Torah" holds that bee honey is kosher, the written Torah does not say this explicitly. The elders inferred this through interpretation. Jesus, by contrast, taught that the traditions of the elders are not the inerrant Word of God Mark - though in some cases he followed the traditions, such as in the Passover meal.

John seems to have believed the same as Jesus did regarding the traditions. However, there are references to bee honey in Tanakh that seem to imply it is not unclean. Perhaps most definitive is Psalm The decrees of the LORD are firm, and all of them are righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb.

It would be strange to liken God's decrees to a substance unclean for food. And how does the psalmist know how honey from the honeycomb tastes, if it is unclean? I believe that the apostles referred instead to date honey for John's diet. Roman-occupied Judea was famous for its dates in that time and even featured date palms on coins. So dates would have been available. In the Aramaic text of Matthew we see ve' devsha d'bara translated as 'and wild honey'.

Looks like a match to me. Also, in the Torah the famous description of the Promised Land, "flowing with milk and honey", referred to date honey not bee honey. I fancy that "locusts and wild honey" may have been his favorite food - carob chocolate with date honey on top.

Sounds yummy! Definitely not the choice of a crazy hermit. Maybe I'll get the chance to try it myself someday! But that's only my own conjecture of course. The point of all this is, whether his favorite food was locust insects covered in bee honey which I will NOT be trying myself , or carob fruit with date honey, Yochannan ate kosher.

Secondly, Yochannan was a priest. This is known because his father Zakarya Zechariah was a priest of the order of Abijah Luke 1. There are some additional dietary laws specific to the priestly order, mostly concerning the eating of meat and grain brought in sacrifice. Thirdly, Yochannan lived under a Nazirite vow from birth until at least the day he baptized Yeshua Jesus in the Jordan river.

This is clearly implied by the instructions given by the Messenger angel to his father Zakarya in the Temple, that he should not partake of grapes Luke 1. Gregory says about this passage commenting on St. In that He in His own person partly converted the Jews, He received locusts for His food, which suddenly leaping up, at once fall to the ground. For the Jews leaped up when they promised to fulfil the precepts of the Lord; but they fell to the ground, when …they affirmed that they had not heard them.

They made therefore a leap upwards in words, and fell down by their actions. In other words, John points to the Lord who came to earth in order to draw everyone unto Himself. This has a comparison to eating in which food is drawn into the one who eats and is in fact, made to become one with the one who eats.

Another commentator, the blessed Theophylactus, the eleventh-century Byzantine exegete has this to say,. The food also of John not only denotes abstinence, but also shews forth the intellectual food, which the people then were eating, without understanding any thing lofty, but continually raising themselves on high, and again sinking to the earth. For such is the nature of locusts, leaping on high and again falling. Why speakest thou to them in parables? Who answered and said to them: Because to you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven: but to them it is not given…because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

In the same way the people ate honey, which had come from bees, that is, from the prophets; it was not however domestic, but wild, for the Jews had the Scriptures, which are as honey, but did not rightly understand them. It appears to me that Blessed Theophylactus is comparing the prophets to bees, which seems like an apt comparison.

Bees go busily about, sometimes stinging people, but ultimately their work is to bring sweetness and honey! In other words, Theophylactus is saying that this wild honey- the scripture misunderstood by the Jews, was the food of John the Baptist. I need to tell him to forget about his Protestant friends and do some research before listening to and preaching on what they say.

Thanks so much for succinctly answering my own inquiries into the information he preached about. At the moment, I cannot rightly recall whether the species is a true acridida are merely gryllidae crickets — authenticity is important. What an excellent suggestion. Thanks for the tip on All City Candy! I have no idea how the conversation came up, but one of the Ethiopians said that in Ethiopia people used to eat such food, but in the following way: They cleaned the locusts and put them into jars of honey to store them for a long time.

They would therefore have a source of both simple carbohydrates and protein which could last years in storage. In classical Greek it means the lower part of the back.

I need someone with Hebrew to tell me what the original says. None of this has to do with locusts and wild honey, which I was going to write about.

Maybe next post. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account.

Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. I am Mark Langley. In case you didn't notice, I am all about liberal education. Email Address:. The cost of the book and its rather technical presentation probably limits its audience to professors and doctoral students working in these areas. Project MUSE promotes the creation and dissemination of essential humanities and social science resources through collaboration with libraries, publishers, and scholars worldwide.

Forged from a partnership between a university press and a library, Project MUSE is a trusted part of the academic and scholarly community it serves. Built on the Johns Hopkins University Campus. This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website.

Without cookies your experience may not be seamless.