Cannibalism - Never thought this would be a discussion topic during a Bible study, but here we are.
- Jane Isley
- Mar 28
- 2 min read
Updated: Sep 3
I honestly never thought I’d be in a full-blown conversation about cannibalism, but I’m sure there will be other future conversations where I'll think the same thing.
Anyway, this came up during a Bible study I decided to attend. A gentleman was asking some questions, and it ended up on the subject of cannibalism.
He was led to believe at some point through an Evangelical church that 2 Kings 6:28-29 was proof that God condones us eating people. Yep, you read that right, all of us present had dropped jaws.
Now I’m not dinging this gentleman at all.
He is currently in the process of trying to unlearn and learn new things from the Bible and about God. He’s doing exactly what he’s supposed to be doing, which is studying and asking a lot of questions.
So, we discussed this verse and other verses referring to cannibalism and explained that the Bible is talking about it because it literally happened, and it’s stating a fact, or it’s giving us a description of just how destructive sin is. In the specific case of 2 Kings 6, it was the result of a severe famine and siege.
But that’s not God saying to do this or condoning it. Each time it is brought up in the Bible, it is regarded as a horrible act and an act that is pagan.
We got that sorted out, and then somebody went and said something stupid.
I made a comment that no matter how hungry I got I would never eat another human. Then I got a snarky comment shot back at me, telling me that if I was starving my brain wouldn’t be thinking correctly, so I can't assume that I wouldn't eat somebody else.
You can imagine how well that went over with me.
While I did agree with his point that the brain changes while starving, I pointed out there have been countless people throughout ALL of humanity who starved and never once ate their brother. A person’s heart is not in line with God’s to be able to commit that act.
My heart is in line with God and I know my salvation is in God, I know myself. If your heart is not right with God, cannibalism can occur. That is made clear in the Bible.
I will admit I was very disheartened at the comment, hence why I spoke back, very politely of course but still with some spiciness in my voice. But honestly, sometimes rude just needs to be clapped back on, especially in front of someone who just found out something that they believed was wrong, geez. 🤦♀️
© Jane Isley
First Published in Never Stop Writing.
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I’m open to correction but I can find nothing in the Hebrew or Greek that indicates the respective sons were not alive when this negotiation began. So obviously both children would have to be killed and the carcass dressed for eating. A human is not in the list of clean animals so this was a big deal, as you said, in a multitude of ways. (It is the reason that Jephthah’s daughter could not be slaughtered as a Blood Offering. No Priest would go anywhere near that one.)
But what if they were already dead? Death is separation of the spirit from the body of flesh. Which is now just pile of fungible carbon.
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