(Gen 8:20 KJV) And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
This is the first Biblical reference to cooking or burning and it is not clear why Noah made offerings on the alter to the Lord. But it doesn’t make sense to save two of every kind only to burn every one of them. In fact it doesn’t make any sense for God to create or save life only to have it killed, why not let it live its life’s purpose and die naturally?… In re-reading scripture we see that Noah did not take two of every kind as is commonly understood…
(Gen 7:2-3 KJV) Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.
It is unclear if these sevens are seven pairs male and female or three pairs male and female and an odd one, but somehow these ‘kinds’ of creatures were not made extinct by this burnt offering… There is also a distinction made here between ‘clean’ and ‘unclean’ creatures, but no details are given as to the nature of this distinction.
However it is interesting that only the ‘clean’ animals were offered and I suspect that the distinction is that a ‘clean’ animal is one that is naturally free from living parasites (eg: Worms, flukes, bacteria, virus and molds) or anything that could potentially upset the metabolism of the human body…. The most logical explanation for the offering is that Noah needed food and since he didn’t take two of every green herb with him (seeds, not withstanding), he was forced to compromise and needed Gods blessing.
(Gen 8:21 KJV) And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
One assumes the LORD smelled this sweet savour through a nose, most probably Noah’s and in the absence of other food and every green herb, the rules of life had to change.
(Gen 9:3-4 KJV) Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
A distinction is also made here between ‘flesh’ and ‘blood’… This has similarities with the ‘clean’ and ‘unclean’ concept… We now know that Stem cells created in bone marrow change into and replenish every other cell in the human body and they are transported in the blood along arteries, veins and capillaries, etc…
Living cells or organisms introduced into the human body are potentially disruptive and dangerous… Like introducing any LIVING ‘new species’ into an existing eco-system, it has the potential to endanger the whole.
Cooking (raising the environmental temperature) kills most things, whether clean, unclean, dead or living… The human body often does this with a ‘fever’ to kill invaders.
(John 21:9-10 KJV) As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread. Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught.
COOKING