Did Adam and Eve eat meat?

Adam and Eve could have eaten meat, however such a diet never once occurred to them. Firstly they would have needed to kill one of the animals, an action for which they had no desire to carry out. The slaughter of any creature that God had made for them was absolutely unthinkable. Secondly, the opportunity to cook an animal, which had naturally died, never presented itself because there was no death in the Garden of Eden. It is made abundantly clear in the Bible that the wages of sin is death, so without sin there was no pending death for Adam, Eve or any living creature. The original text for the word ‘living’ by the way is used in a different manner when describing living plants; again it is made quite clear that plant life could be eaten without involving the death of a creature. Plants are not creatures.

The evolutionary view of the origins of humans accepts that in the very beginning the last ape-human to first human transitions only held to vegetarianism. They never ate meat. The same is true for the first humans revealed in the Bible. Adam and Eve did not eat meat. It has also been established by contemporary biology that human beings are in fact naturally vegetarian. The earliest known diets of humans are suspected to have been fruit, nuts, vegetables and leaves. So not only did Adam and Eve have no need to eat meat, we don’t need to eat it either, how about that then! I really don’t fancy a vegetable barbeque though.

Adam did eventually go on to kill and sacrifice animals in an offering to God but this was after the eviction from the Garden. And even then, he never ate them. Whilst living in the Garden no animals were killed, this can be reasoned from Scriptural revelation that clearly states everything was perfect, so it would have been perfect for the animals too. Finally, Adam and Eve would have had no craving to even eat fish. I must reiterate again that there was no death in the Garden of Eden. No animals ate other animals; no fish ate other fish either. It seems to us, in the modern world, quite amazing that there could have been a land where there were no meat-eating animals around. Nevertheless, these are the facts presented to us as to what life was like within the Garden of Eden. The answer to the question as to whether Adam and Eve ate meat is a resounding no. This situation rippled out to all animal life of the time.

Adam and Eve had plenty of food though, so much in fact that they always had a full menu to choose from. There may even have been plants available in the Garden that produced meaty type fare. Yet we must remember that the appetites of Adam and Eve were unlikely to have been as ravenous as they are for people in today’s world. Nevertheless, as I was not there at the time, I have no idea whether Adam and Eve fancied fish and chips or a hamburger.

Did Adam and Eve really sit down with lions?

Adam and Eve would certainly have been in mortal danger if a lion even saw them at a distance. To try and sit down by a lion and then stroke said lion’s mane, as is portrayed in a lot of pictures, would have meant an easy dinner for the lion and a quick death for Adam and Eve. The problem in the Garden of Eden though, at least for a hungry lion, is that no death could occur. The lion also would have had no appetite for human meat or indeed for any meat. All animals, including lions were herbivores. In fact the Bible says that lions ate straw.

In the absence of death, all living creatures would have lived in harmony with each other. Whether or not Adam and Eve sat down with a lion is not the point. Scripture declares that the lamb could safely lay down beside a lion so for sure, Eve could have brushed the mane of a lion if she wanted.

Evolutionary models within the secular view of our origins do cite changes within the structures of teeth but they do not go as far as to say that predatory cats had teeth more suited to grinding plants, although some ideas are out there. The difference between evolution and biblical accounts is that evolution will detail the improvements made within species, such as a lion being able to kill prey more efficiently over time. Scripture says the direct opposite, which specifies that all animals (along with mankind) be subject to degeneration, so the lion for example deteriorated within the scheme of life. It is worsening of the harmony originally made by God for life on Earth when a creature changes from herbivore to carnivore. The Bible teaches a kind of reverse evolution.

We know Lions did eventually go on to kill and eat meat, however this was at a much later time, far away from the Original Garden.

We should also note that people have been close to lions and tigers in this day and age, either through training but often through a developed closeness arising from nurturing a big cat from its days as a cub. Whilst a lion may not be fussed about making a friendship with a human, it has been known to happen. How much more so then in the Garden, where no meat was eaten and where there was a far higher degree of intellect stemming from lions. Remember that the Bible teaches evolution in reverse, so lions have become dimmer, as has man.

Nevertheless, as I was not there at the time, I have no idea whether Eve cuddled a lion or whether Adam rode one about the perfect fields.