Vegetarian Animals?

And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. (Genesis 1:29–30)

The Bible does tell us that by the time of the flood, all flesh had become violent (Genesis 6:12). So animals were no doubt killing and eating each other by then (as we see evidence of that in the fossil record resulting from Noah’s flood). However, God did not give humans permission to eat meat until after the flood.

Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. (Genesis 9:3–4)

This verse makes it obvious that humans were vegetarian at the beginning (Genesis 1:29), but then God changed their diet. Genesis 1:30 is written in the same way as Genesis 1:29, so it’s obvious that animals were vegetarian at the beginning too.

Some people, however, will look at today’s world and say, “But many animals are carnivores and look like they were designed to eat meat.” However, one can’t look at a fallen world and claim this is how things always have been. This world is now groaning because of sin (Romans 8:22). We have to read God’s revelation in Genesis to understand the world wasn’t always like this. Originally, all the animals and humans were vegetarian, but the entrance of sin changed all that.

The present is not the key to understanding the past. Revelation from God in his written Word is the key to understanding the past so one can correctly understand the present.

It’s important to understand we don’t directly observe the world as God made it. We observe a world that has suffered from the effects of sin, the judgment of death, the flood of Noah’s day, and so on.

The present is not the key to understanding the past. Revelation from God in his written Word is the key to understanding the past so one can correctly understand the present.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.