[Sca-cooks] The prohibition of the metal fork to convey organicsubstances to the mouth

[Terry Decker]

Was there a prohibition on forks?  I've found several Medieval and 
Renaissance references showing some disdain, but no specific prohibition on 
the use of the fork.

The only biblical reference to a fork which I have located is  First Samuel 
2:13, "The custom of the priests with the people was that when any man 
offered sacrifice, the priest’s servant came, while the fresh flesh was 
boiling, with a fork of three teeth in his hand...".

As for the references by Peter Damian, he was writing as much as 100 years 
after the fact (he was not contemporary with either Theophano Sklereina or 
Maria Argyropoulina) and was focusing on vanity rather than forks.

Bear

-----Original Message----- 
From: Susan Lord Williams

We are going off the subject.

The prohibition of the metal fork has nothing to do with kosher foods, with 
spoons or with knives.

If you want to talk about kosher foods then title your topic as such.

My intention is that we try to locate a passage in the Bible that could mean 
that the metal fork was prohibited because if used to convey organic food to 
the mouth it could poison the user and he could, therefore, die of “the 
plague" incurred by this.