Pilgrim, thank you for pointing out my improper wording by having stated "Contradiction" in my post. The mandatory addition would have been "Can appear like" prior to having written that word. I agree with you fully that there exist no contradictions in the Bible-any such assumption lies in the human failure at properly comprehending such, I've learned that myself during this process.

In the matter of the OT food laws whereby clean/unclean distinction had been explicity given, I've found no passage in the OT whereby one would have been deemed as "Defiled" for having consumned any of these creatures, though it would purely be a guess on my part that such could have been possible. Again, however, there is no explicit passage to prove that.

While I can't speak for Him personally, there's not a doubt in my own mind that the animals listed in the overall context would allow for the presumption that there was a spiritual intent behind such having been given.

Comparing Daniel 1:8 to Paul's teachings concerning such may again appear like a valid contradiction from the standpoint of legalism, but that isn't the case when the true message and the intent is taken into consideration.

In the end, coincidentally, so much of it seems to collide in a certain sense, doesn't it, affording one the ability to conclude as Robin did that the overall intent was spiritual and could have been designed to teach us about putting God first in our lives, as well as idol worship, with a definitive need to take into account Christ's own Word to give us the intended meaning/spiritual application, not to mention the example itself found in His own life and His full and complete dedication to the Father.

I think that's the safest way I could ever word this. All considered, I couldn't agree more with what Robin had to say-as well as the peculiar way all of it comes together in Christ in terms of the ultimate example only He Himself could have lived out.