Food, wine, and special days in a Roman setting

Says Romans 14 states that one person has faith to eat all things while the weak person eats only vegetables, that one person regards a certain day above the others while another considers every day alike, that nothing is unclean in itself but is unclean for the one who so regards it, and that it is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything that causes a brother to stumble. The chapter does not name Jews, Gentiles, the Sabbath, festivals, or food offered to idols.

See the Hebrew note on clean and unclean.

Tacitus includes among Jewish customs abstinence from swine’s flesh, rest on the seventh day, and sitting apart at meals (Hist. 5.4–5, Church and Brodribb, 1894, pp. 194–195). The report does not identify the vegetable-eaters in Romans 14 or settle what the “days” are.

Sanday and Headlam review Judaizing scruples (idol-food, improperly killed meat, or swine’s flesh, as at Corinth), pagan abstinence from meat and wine, and Essene influence. They judge that Paul selects typical instances of scrupulousness, not one vegetarian or sabbatarian party at Rome (Romans, 1922 Scribner printing, pp. 385, 399–402).

Uncertain Whether the foods and days are kosher practice, scruples about idol-food or marketplace meat (compared with 1 Cor 8–10), a broader abstinence from meat and wine, Sabbath or festival days, or more than one kind of scruple. No lean is taken here. These facts do not decide the commands to accept the weak, not to belittle, and not to judge.