What does the Bible say concerning the consumption of animal fat and kidneys?

In Leviticus 3:17, God specifically commanded the Israelites not to eat the fat of any animal. Notice: “It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that you eat neither fat nor blood.” Also, “You shall eat no manner of fat, of ox, or of sheep, or of goat” (Lev 7:23). When performing a sacrifice, the Levitical priests removed the fat, kidneys, and “caul above the liver” and burned them on the altar (Lev. 9:10).

What is the “caul above the liver”? In the New King James Version of the Bible, this phrase is translated, “the fatty lobe attached to the liver above the kidneys” (Lev. 3:4). Unger’s Bible Dictionary defines caul as “liver-net, or stomach-net, which commences at the division between the right and left lobes of the liver, and stretches on the one side across the stomach, and on the other to the regions of the kidney.”

All of these organs and tissue are for the purpose of either storing, holding or filtering poisons from the body. God created them for this purpose and, therefore, knew they were not good for food.

This fatty membrane that surrounds the kidneys and liver was never eaten by the Levitical priests. Nor did they eat the kidneys. Therefore, it is safe to say that God does not want us to eat these animal parts either.

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