Richard Bauckham on whether Vegetarianism will be in effect during the Messianic Age

 In an essay on Jesus' teachings relating to animals, Richard Bauckham wrote the following in an endnote:

 

It is not clear whether, in Jewish and early Christian eschatology, people in the messianic age are expected to be vegetarian, though it is clear that they will drink wine (1 Enoch 10.19; Mark 14.25). But if wild animals are to be once again vegetarian (Isa. 11.6-9; Sib. Or. 3.788-95; cf. Gen. 1.30), it would seem that humans must also be and the abundance of food which is to be provided without human effort (II Bar. 29.5; I Enoch 10.19; Papias, ap. Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 5.33.5-6) is to be vegetarian. On the other hand, Leviathan and Behemoth are to be slaughtered to provide food (IV Ezra 6.52; II Bar. 29.4) (“Jesus and Animals II: What did he Practise?” in Andrew Linzey and Dorothy Yamamoto, eds., Animals on the Agenda [London: SCM Press, 1998], 264 n. 10)

With respect to the various pseudepigraphical texts Bauckham references, I will reproduce them for those who may not have easy access to them (taken from Charlesworth's The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha):

 

Sibylline Oracles 3:788-95:

 

Wolves and lambs will eat grass together in the mountains.

Leopards will feed together with kids.

Roving bears will spend the night with calves.

The flesh-eating lion will eat husks at the manger

like an ox, and mere infant children will lead them

with ropes. For he will make the beasts on earth harmless.

Serpents and asps will sleep with babies

and will not harm them, for the hand of God will be upon them.

 

2 Baruch 29:4-5

 

And Behemoth will reveal itself from its place, and Leviathan will come from the sea, the two great monsters which I created on the fifth day of creation and which I shall have kept until that time. And they will be nourishment for all who are left. The earth will also yield fruits ten thousandfold.

 

1 Enoch 10:19

 

And they shall plant pleasant trees upon her—vines. And he who plants a vine upon her will produce wine for plenitude. And every seed that is sown on her, one measure will yield a thousand (measures) and one measure of olives will yield ten measures of presses of oil.

 

4 Ezra 6:52

 

but to Leviathan you have the seventh part, the watery part; and you have kept them to be eaten by whom you wish, and when you wish.