Verse 2 There was a difficulty in the minds of many Jews, in respect to eating animal food, lest they might sometimes eat the flesh of animals which had been offered in sacrifice to idols, and thus, as they supposed, be sharers in the sin of idolatry, or in other respects violate the Mosaic requirements in regard to ceremonial uncleanness. (See Romans 14:14.) This subject is treated fully in 1 Corinthians 8:1-13. There was also a disposition, manifested quite early in the history of the church, to imagine that voluntary penances and privations, and especially a rigid self-denial in the use of food, was either the mark that indicated, or the means to acquire, peculiar sanctity. Which of these two ideas is the one referred to by the apostle here has been considered uncertain. It would seem altogether probable that it was the former, for it is treated as the harmless prejudice of a weak-minded man, which the former was; while the latter is the seed and germ of the most dangerous fanaticism.--Herbs; vegetables.