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Questions & Answers

Biblical Customs

Faith Q&A › Metropolitan Youssef › Holy Scripture › Biblical Customs

The question

I am currently searching for true Church. I have question that bothering me: Do Copts still follow the custom in Leviticus 11? Why or why not?

I think the exact meaning of Acts 10 is not the custom of eating, but of the Gospel which was to be preached to the Gentiles whom Peter consider unclean in Acts 10:28. That is why God gave him a vision of all animals in Acts 10:11-15. Someone just said to me that some Orthodox churches restrain from eating pork.

The answer

The Coptic Orthodox Church does not follow the customs of differentiating between consumption of clean and unclean food described Leviticus 11. The Holy Book of Acts, Chapter 10, mentions St. Peter having a vision in which he was instructed to no longer keep this specific custom. The apostles in the early Church convened in councils to discuss many issues, especially regarding the Gentiles who were converts, and reached a consensus about what customs to keep and which to discontinue for all the congregations of the Church:

"For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well" (Acts 15:28-29)

Answered by His Eminence Metropolitan Youssef (opens in a new tab)

Questions answered by His Eminence Metropolitan Youssef (opens in a new tab) of the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States. Question 2448 on the Diocese’s Q&A site. Questions and answers © Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States. All rights reserved.