The original diet
God sets the first table before any sin enters the world. Plants are given for food. Animals are not hunted or eaten.
Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat.
Genesis 1:29–30 · KJV
Adam is placed in the garden to dress it and to keep it
(Genesis 2:15). The human role is to care for the garden, not to take life from it.
Peace restored
The prophet looks ahead to a time when the natural order is healed. Predators stop harming their prey, and the lion eats straw.
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
Isaiah 11:6–7 · KJV
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.
Isaiah 11:9 · KJV
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.
Isaiah 65:25 · KJV
Isaiah also speaks plainly about sacrifice: He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man
(Isaiah 66:3). The same chapter ties worship to the heart, not to the altar.
The end, and the new creation
The story closes where it began. The river and the tree of life return, and the tree's leaves are for healing. Nothing in the new creation is killed or eaten.
In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
Revelation 22:2 · KJV
Isaiah's promise of peace (65:17, 25) and John's vision of the new heaven and earth describe the same restored world.
Objections, stated fairly
Readers who see it differently point to these passages. They are part of the same Bible and deserve the same honesty.
- Genesis 9:3, after the flood:
Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
- Leviticus and the sacrificial system, which regulated the killing of animals for worship and food under the law.
- Revelation 19:17–18, the
supper of the great God
, which uses the image of a feast.
The argument on this page is that Eden and the new creation show God's original and final will, and that Isaiah confirms it. Whether these passages carry the same weight as Genesis 1 is a question each reader works out with scripture and prayer.