The Literal Commandment
You shall bring the choice first fruits of your soil into the house of the LORD your God. 'You are not to boil a young goat in the milk of its mother." (Exodus 23:19)
The literal commandment is that we are not to "boil" a young goat in the milk of its mother.
Messiah Says
Messiah implicitly affirmed this commandment when He spoke about the Law:
"Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:17-19)
Some have asked about Mark 7:19. Messiah was speaking of ritual impurity resulting from eating bread with unwashed hands. We recommend this detailed study of that passage if you have additional questions.
Pictures of Messiah
Work in progress.
How Messiah Fulfilled
We know that Messiah did not sin (Hebrews 4:15) and so we know Messiah fulfilled this commandment by not eating a young goat boiled in its mother's milk.
Traditional Observance
The traditional observance of this commandment is found in the literal sense of the Hebrew wording: לֹא-תְבַשֵּׁל גְּדִי, בַּחֲלֵב אִמּוֹ [Lo tevashel gedi b'chalev imo].
Lo = do not
Tevashel = a generic word for preparation of food: boiling, baking, frying, mixing, etc.
Gedi = a young animal of the herd: cattle, sheep, goats, alpacas, llamas, antelope, etc
b'= a generic preposition: with, in, on, around, on top of, near, under, below, beneath, etc.
Chalav = milk
Imo = mother (positionally, "its mother")
The sentence literally says "do not cook/prepare a young herd animal with/near its mother's milk" and the traditional observance is not to eat such things that are prepared that way. In short: do not eat meat with milk.
Other Notes
We are able to fulfill this commandment today and should not cook/prepare a young herd animal with/near its mother's milk.
Some scholars have considered the apparent random placement of this instruction next to the command "you shall bring the choice first fruits of your soil into the house of the LORD your God" as an indicator that there was some cultural meaning beyond the literal text. Some have hypothesized that there were pagan rituals specifically focusing on boiling young goats in their mother's milk. Absent any definitive proof of such rituals, the literal meaning can stand on its own.
There are three passages where this commandment is found: Exodus 23:19, Exodus 34:26, and Deuteronomy 14:21.
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