Why Meat?

[Old_Joe]

[quote name='cappie' post='1816826' date='Mar 26 2009, 05:56 AM']It has something to do with the classifications of animals. Thus the way it's stated in latin ("carne"?) which we translate 'meat' is more specific than that and does not include fish ( or other animal products like eggs and milk)

The Latin term used is CARNE. That term only covers warm blooded animals.

And since Western Church law is definitive in Latin, (and no other language), we are to abstain from CARNE specifically.

In the Eastern Churches, which have their own Canon Law, all animal products, including fish, eggs and dairy are prohibited on days of Abstinence.[/quote]

Okay then, why CARNE? Why not grain, fruit, or vegetables?

[Thy Geekdom Come]

I could be wrong (there's a long history behind Lent, which you can read [url="http://newadvent.org/cathen/09152a.htm"]here[/url]), but I believe meat was simply the only thing left on the fast after various exceptions were made. In the ancient world, a fast was pretty much a fast from everything except heavy carbs (because people needed to go on working, which in those days was usually manual labor, especially in light of Jesus' instructions about fasting and not appearing to fast). There were exceptions in various cultures and there doesn't seem to have been a strict rule across all of Christendom for some time, but they all seem to have excluded meat. It makes sense, then, that meat was the one thing that was universally forbidden, since all could agree on it. Of course, I think until quite recently, it was also understood that one should abstain from animal byproducts. So the most logical answer would seem to me to be that unlike the other items on the menu, meat was considered an unnecessary luxury and a perfect thing to fast from without inhibiting work.

God bless Zach,

Micah