Abstaining from food for the right reason
Nor do the Jews take pride in abstaining from swine as if it were some great thing. Their pride is rather that, having learned the nature of clean and unclean animals, they know the reason for the distinction and that the swine is ranked among the unclean (Leviticus 11:7). These things, too, were symbols of certain realities until the coming of Jesus. After Him it was said to His disciple, who did not yet understand the meaning of these things and said, “Nothing common or unclean has entered my mouth” (Acts 11:8), “What God has cleansed, you must not call common” (Acts 10:15).
So it is nothing to the Jews or to us that the priests of the Egyptians abstain not only from swine but also from goats, sheep, oxen and fish. But since “it is not what enters the mouth that defiles a man” (Matthew 15:11), and “food will not commend us to God” (1 Corinthians 8:8), we do not think highly of ourselves for not eating, nor do we come to eating out of gluttony. Therefore, so far as we are concerned, let the followers of Pythagoras, who abstain from living things, go their way.
But notice the difference between the reason why the followers of Pythagoras abstain from living things and the reason why the ascetics among us do so. They abstain from living things because of the myth about the soul passing from one body into another: “And who will lift up his dear son and slay him with a prayer, the great fool?” (Empedocles, fragment 137 Diels–Kranz). But if we do such a thing, we do it because we discipline “the body” and bring it into subjection (1 Corinthians 9:27), and wish to put to death “the members that are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness, passion, evil desire” (Colossians 3:5); and we do everything so that we may put to death “the deeds of the body” (Romans 8:13).
Greek
Ἀλλ᾿ οὐδὲ ἐπὶ τῷ συῶν ἀπέχεσθαι ὡς μεγάλῳ τινὶ Ἰουδαῖοι σεμνύνονται, ἐπὶ δὲ τῷ τὴν καθαρῶν καὶ ἀκαθάρτων ζῴων φύσιν μεμαθηκότες καὶ τὴν τούτου αἰτίαν ἐγνωκέναι καὶ τὸν σῦν ἐν ἀκαθάρτοις τετάχθαι. καὶ ταῦτα δὲ σύμβολά τινων ἦν μέχρι τῆς Ἰησοῦ ἐπιδημίας, μεθ᾿ ὃν τῷ μαθητῇ αὐτοῦ λέλεκται, μηδέπω νοοῦντι τὸν περὶ τούτων λόγον καὶ φάσκοντι· „οὐδὲν κοινὸν ἢ ἀκάθαρτον εἰσῆλθεν εἰς τὸ στόμα μου,“ τό· „ἃ ὁ θεὸς ἐκαθάρισε σὺ μὴ κοίνου.“ οὔτ᾿ οὖν πρὸς Ἰουδαίους οὔτε πρὸς ἡμᾶς ἐστι τὸ οὐ μόνον συῶν ἀλλὰ προσέτι αἰγῶν καὶ οἰῶν καὶ βοῶν καὶ ἰχθύων ἀπέχεσθαι τοὺς Αἰγυπτίων ἱερεῖς. ἀλλ᾿ ἐπεὶ „οὐ τὰ εἰσερχόμενα εἰς τὸ στόμα κοινοῖ τὸν ἄνθρωπον.“ καὶ „βρῶμα ἡμᾶς οὐ παραστήσει τῷ θεῷ,“ οὐ μέγα φρονοῦμεν μὴ ἐσθίοντες οὐδ᾿ ἀπὸ γαστριμαργίας ἥκομεν ἐπὶ τὸ ἐσθίειν. διόπερ τὸ ὅσον ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν οἱ ἀπὸ Πυθαγόρου ἐμψύχων ἀπεχόμενοι χαιρόντων. ὅρα δὲ καὶ τὴν διαφορὰν τοῦ αἰτίου τῆς τῶν ἐμψύχων ἀποχῆς τῶν ἀπὸ τοῦ Πυθαγόρου καὶ τῶν ἐν ἡμῖν ἀσκητῶν. ἐκεῖνοι μὲν γὰρ διὰ τὸν περὶ ψυχῆς μετενσωματουμένης μῦθον ἐμψύχων ἀπέχονται· καὶ τίς φίλον υἱὸν ἀείρας σφάξει ἐπευχόμενος μέγα νήπιος; ἡμεῖς δὲ κἂν τὸ τοιοῦτο πράττωμεν, ποιοῦμεν αὐτὸ, ἐπεὶ ὑπωπιάζομεν „τὸ σῶμα“ καὶ δουλαγωγοῦμεν καὶ βουλόμεθα νεκροῦν „τὰ μέλη τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς. πορνείαν, ἀκαθαρσίαν, ἀσέλγειαν, πάθος, ἐπιθυμίαν κακήν“· καὶ πάντα γε πράττομεν, ἵνα „τὰς πράξεις τοῦ σώματος“ θανατώσωμεν.