How Could Food and Drink Apparently Be *Inescapably* Defiling?

What verse says the King's food and drink were "inescapably defiling?"

The verse quoted (Daniel 1:8) says Daniel chose not to defile himself with a portion of the king's food and drink.

 

The reason the food was defiling is not addressed in the passage.
We can presume it was in some way connected to the worship of foreign gods.

Rob

 

Perhaps they used vessels dedicated to temple worship in the preparation or serving?

peace to you

 

The scripture doesn't explicitly say, but I strongly suspect that Daniel and his friends, considered the food -- prepared and served in a pagan way (possibly derived from sacrifices to false gods) -- defiling since it would be considered assimilation with the Babylonians and a rejection of the Law of Moses. Remember, much of the point of the Babylonian captivity was to take the elites of the Hebrews and essentially make them Babylonians. That's also why they were given Babylonian names. They couldn't control how people addressed them, but they could control what they would eat.

So I think they were of the conviction that God was still with them and they were not going to abandon His Law, even if the circumstances were bleak. And we see that God honored their faithfulness.

And since we are Christians, it would be remiss of me not to mention (for those who are not already aware), that Jesus declared all foods clean -- food and drink does not defile a person:

Mark 7:14-23

After He called the crowd to Him again, He began saying to them, “Listen to Me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside the person which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which come out of the person are what defile the person.”

And when He later entered a house, away from the crowd, His disciples asked Him about the parable. And He said to them, “Are you so lacking in understanding as well? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the person from outside cannot defile him, because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and goes out into the latrine?” (Thereby He declared all foods clean.) And He was saying, “That which comes out of the person, that is what defiles the person. For from within, out of the hearts of people, come the evil thoughts, acts of sexual immorality, thefts, murders, acts of adultery, deeds of greed, wickedness, deceit, indecent behavior, evil eye (envy), slander, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile the person.”​

 

How would Christians today encounter this prohibition?

Rob