What Does The Bible Say About Shrimp? A Complete Guide to Biblical Teaching

The Old And New Covenants

All of the questions concerning eating shrimp today stem from the law in Leviticus that forbids eating any sea creatures that do not have fins and scales. However, this law doesn’t apply to Christians under the New Covenant. To understand why, we need to understand some basic elements and differences between the Old and New covenants.

One of the themes we see, throughout the Scriptures, is the idea that certain things are inherently right and some other things are inherently wrong. There is a category of things that are intrinsically good, righteous, and beautiful. And there’s a category of things that are intrinsically wicked.

These right and wrong things transcend cultures and time periods; the things that are inherently right are always right, no matter the context. And the things that are wrong are always wrong. Theologians sometimes refer to this as God’s moral law. God’s moral law is shaped by his inclinations, desires, and preferences.

Medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas wrote extensively about the ideas that are inherently righteous, and he argued that those ideas are woven into the fabric and structures of our universe; he called those ideas natural law.

Aquinas argued that, because God’s moral law is intrinsically woven into the design of creation, we can discover elements of God’s moral law by studying the natural order of the universe; we can figure out what’s actually right and wrong by observing the world around us and how it works.

As the Israelites were headed into the Promised Land, God wanted his transcendent moral law to shape how they lived. There was a clear right way for them to apply his moral law to their context, and God didn’t want them to miss it. So, God gave them the Old Covenant (also known as the Mosaic Covenant or sometimes just called the law). This Old Covenant system was very specific, filled with 600+ precise instructions on how they should apply God’s moral law to their new society. Those instructions are found in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

Well, God determined that one of the ways that the Israelites could live out and display God’s moral law was by following certain dietary restrictions. The passage about shrimp is found in Leviticus 11:9-12:

Under the Mosaic Covenant, God commanded the Israelites not to eat anything that didn’t have fins and scales, including shellfish and shrimp. God graciously established this covenant relationship with the Israelites, promising to protect them and bless them if they followed all of the laws that God had given them.

As the Israelites obeyed the instructions of the Old Covenant, they would live out and display God’s moral law. But it appears that idea was not necessarily universal. Based on what we can understand, from the New Testament, it seems that modern Christians avoiding shellfish does not necessarily display God’s moral law in the same way as it did back then, therefore the New Covenant does not include those sorts of food restrictions.

When Christ came, he fulfilled the law—meaning, Jesus met all of the expectations of that old Mosaic Covenant. Jesus is the only person to ever fulfill all of those expectations. He obeyed the law perfectly, something that no one else had ever done. By perfectly keeping the law he earned the right to declare the Mosaic Covenant as now having been perfectly fulfilled. In addition, and more importantly, by taking the penalty for our sins on the cross, Christ created the New Covenant.

The New Covenant does reinstitute some of the ideas and laws from the Mosaic Covenant, but the New Covenant declared that the old Mosaic Covenant was now obsolete (Hebrews 8:13). The New Covenant is a covenant of grace. Through Christ and his cross, God promises to forgive all who have faith in Jesus of their sins, reckon Jesus’s perfect law-keeping to their account, and restore their fellowship with him.

Before the New Covenant was ushered in by Jesus, humanity was “held in custody under the law” (Galatians 3:23). However, “when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son… born under the law to redeem those under the law” (Galatians 4:4–5). When Jesus died on the cross, God “canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:14). Christ has set us free from the precise demands of the Old Covenant, including the food restrictions.

It seems during that old particular season, in that particular Old Testament era, for those Israelites, that the dietary restrictions were one way for them to live out and display the moral law. But that seemingly is not the case for all people everywhere; that just does not apply to all non-Jews elsewhere in the world, therefore, God lifted the restriction. For us, there are other ways for us to live out the moral law.

Christ himself has said that we are now free to enjoy all foods, even those the foods that the Old Testament law had previously prohibited. It’s not that God all-of-sudden changed his mind, but it’s that the reasons for why originally commanded them to not eat shrimp were reasons that would no longer be relevant or pertinent to the Christians who would be living under the New Covenant (we’ll explain this a little bit more later in this article).

Christ confirms this in Mark 7:18–19 when he says, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?’ (Thus he declared all foods clean).”

Can Christians Eat Shrimp? What the Bible Says

Shrimp is a widely accepted food among Christian communities today. I haven’t met any Christians who have argued that eating shrimp is sinful. However, some may point out that shrimp is considered unclean in Leviticus 11:9-12. How should we think biblically about eating shrimp and other sea creatures?

First off, can Christians eat shrimp? Yes, Christians can eat shrimp because the prohibition against shrimp only applies to those under the Mosaic Covenant. Christians are under the New Covenant in Christ. Moreover, Jesus proclaims all foods clean in Mark 7:19.

With that groundwork laid, let’s explore the history of eating shrimp in more detail.

Is Eating Shrimp a SIN? || What does the Bible say?