Deuteronomy 14:1 ¶ Ye are
the children of the LORD your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any
baldness between your eyes for the dead. 2
For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD
hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations
that are upon the earth. 3 Thou
shalt not eat any abominable thing. 4
These are the beasts which ye shall eat: the ox, the sheep, and
the goat, 5 The hart, and the roebuck,
and the fallow deer, and the wild goat, and the pygarg, and the wild ox, and
the chamois. 6 And every beast that
parteth the hoof, and cleaveth the cleft into two claws, and cheweth the
cud among the beasts, that ye shall eat. 7
Nevertheless these ye shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of
them that divide the cloven hoof; as the camel, and the hare, and the
coney: for they chew the cud, but divide not the hoof; therefore they are
unclean unto you. 8 And the swine,
because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud, it is unclean
unto you: ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcase. 9 These ye shall eat of all that are in
the waters: all that have fins and scales shall ye eat: 10 And whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye
may not eat; it is unclean unto you. 11
Of all clean birds ye shall eat. 12 But these are they of which ye shall
not eat: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray, 13 And the glede, and the kite, and the vulture
after his kind, 14 And every raven after
his kind, 15 And the owl, and the night
hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind, 16 The little owl, and the great owl, and the
swan, 17 And the pelican, and the gier
eagle, and the cormorant, 18 And the
stork, and the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat. 19 And every creeping thing that flieth is
unclean unto you: they shall not be eaten. 20
But of all clean fowls ye may eat. 21 Ye shall not eat of any thing that
dieth of itself: thou shalt give it unto the stranger that is in thy
gates, that he may eat it; or thou mayest sell it unto an alien: for thou art
an holy people unto the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his
mother’s milk.
The very first verse of this passage gives us a hint of the
heathen religious practices in Canaan. Cutting one’s self as a sign of devotion
and appeal to a god or gods is also noted elsewhere. It is also included in the
veneration of the dead as forbidden here.
Leviticus 19:28 Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh
for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.
The verses in
Leviticus and here reveal another pagan custom, getting body modifications,
marking the body, or tattoos for the dead. Remember what I told you previously
about veneration of ancestors in the ancient world. The individual family would have its own singular worship and gods
which represented their lars familiaris or familiar spirits (see Leviticus
20:27), the guiding divinities of ancestors dead.[1] By the Tower of Babel time
there was the beginning of all of the earth’s mythologies as,
after the dispersion of mankind at Babel, as men and women grew more distant
from the worship of the God who created them and they began to elevate
ancestors and mighty men to the level of gods. Respecting the dead and mourning
the dead easily devolved into worshipping the dead. I think it must be said
that without the religious impulse the modern fashion of body modification and
tattooing is nothing more than a trivial fad, so far. When your nephew in the
Navy got drunk on shore leave and had an anchor tattooed on his arm he was not
worshipping any pagan god. When your cousin got a butterfly tattooed on her
ankle Baal was not even in her mind. Don’t pollute Bible interpretation by
dumbing the commandments down from a condemnation of idolatry to a condemnation
of a hairstyle or a tattoo of a bald eagle on a soldier’s chest. Having a
conviction that tattoos are not a smart thing to put on your body should not
become another one of those Biblical doctrines we make up as we go along.
John Gill wrote in his
commentary quoting earlier rabbis (this is freely available online so I am not
including a formal citation):
Ye shall not make any
cuttings in your flesh for the dead,
&c.] Either with their nails, tearing their cheeks and other parts, or with
any instrument, knife, razor Jarchi says, it was the custom of the Amorites,
when anyone died, to cut their flesh, as it was of the Scythians, as
Herodotus relates, even those of the royal family; for a king they cut off
a part of the ear, shaved the hair round about, cut the arms about, wounded the
forehead and nose, and transfixed the left hand with arrows; and so the
Carthaginians, who might receive it from the Phoenicians, being a colony of
theirs, used to tear their hair and mouths in mourning, and beat their breasts;
and with the Romans the women used to tear their cheeks in such a manner that
it was forbid by the law of the twelve tables, which some have thought was
taken from hence: and all this was done to appease the infernal deities, and to
give them satisfaction for the deceased, and to make them propitious to them,
as Varro affirms; and here it is said to be made "for the soul",
for the soul of the departed, to the honour of it, and for its good, though the
word is often used for a dead body: now, according to the Jewish canons,
whosoever made but one cutting for a dead person was guilty, and to be
scourged; and he that made one for five dead men, or five cuttings for one dead
man, was obliged to scourging for everyone of them: nor print any marks
upon you; Aben Ezra observes, there are some that say this is in connection
with the preceding clause, for there were who marked their bodies with a known
figure, by burning, for the dead; and he adds, and there are to this day such,
who are marked in their youth in their faces, that they may be known; these
prints or marks were made with ink or black lead, or, however, the incisions in
the flesh were filled up therewith; but this was usually done as an idolatrous
practice; so says Ben Gersom, this was the custom of the Gentiles in ancient
times, to imprint upon themselves the mark of an idol, to show that they were
his servants; and the law cautions from doing this, as he adds, to the exalted
name (the name of God): in the Misnah it is said, a man is not guilty unless he
writes the name, as it is said, ( Leviticus 19:28 ) ; which the
Talmudists and the commentators interpret of the name of an idol, and
not of God: I [am] the Lord; who only is to be acknowledged as
such, obeyed and served, and not any strange god, whose mark should be
imprinted on them.
This all ties together with veneration of ancestors.
“Leviticus
21:1 ¶ And the LORD said unto Moses,
Speak unto the priests the sons of Aaron, and say unto them, There shall none
be defiled for the dead among his people: 2
But for his kin, that is near unto him, that is, for his mother,
and for his father, and for his son, and for his daughter, and for his brother,
3 And for his sister a virgin, that is
nigh unto him, which hath had no husband; for her may he be defiled. 4 But he shall not defile himself, being
a chief man among his people, to profane himself. 5 They shall not make baldness upon their head,
neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings
in their flesh.
In the first
part of this passage it is made clear that priests were not to handle the body
of any relative other than a very close next of kin. They also could not do
things which were heathen practices which I discussed in the comments on
Leviticus 19:28.”
Notice this
act of heathen devotion as I mentioned earlier.
1Kings 18:28 And they cried aloud, and cut themselves
after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon
them.
Mutilating yourself is not of God. Notice the demonic in secular history
as well with Medieval monks cutting themselves and people in the world today
nailing themselves to crosses and gashing their bodies until the blood runs to
honor Christ or a non-Christian personage. Several religions have such things
and it is wicked.
But,
here in the text in the context is veneration of the dead.
In verse 2 we see an affirmation that
God had chosen the children of Israel above all the nations or ethnic groups or
tribes, as this is not a reference to modern nation-states which came about in
the last 500 years, to be a special people to Him. The nation of Israel are His
Elect.
Isaiah 45:4 For Jacob my
servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I
have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.
Calvinist, be careful how you abuse that
word, elect. Israel as a nation was elect because Abraham believed God
and the nation came through Him. The Christian, the individual Christian, is
elect because He believes God and receives Christ as His Saviour.
Romans 3:22 Even the
righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all
them that believe: for there is no difference:
Galatians 3:22 But the
scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus
Christ might be given to them that believe.
But to say that God created many people
for the sole purpose of the pleasure of seeing them burn in agony for eternity
is a great blasphemy against God. When the supralapsarian Calvinist says they
were damned from before time began or the infralapsarian says they were damned
after Adam sinned they are still wrong as we have already determined that your
name was written in the Book of Life and not taken out until you rejected
Christ or left if you received Him. It is that you have the capacity and the
responsibility to believe in and trust Christ as your Saviour. When you do, God
gives you faith and saves you and He knew who would before the foundation of
the world.
We’ve gone over the dietary restrictions
and discussed the sometimes-confusing issue about animals that chew the cud. I
will restate what was said previously.
“Leviticus 11:1 ¶ And the
LORD spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying unto them, 2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying,
These are the beasts which ye shall eat among all the beasts that are
on the earth. 3 Whatsoever parteth the
hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that
shall ye eat. 4 Nevertheless these shall
ye not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the hoof: as
the camel, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is
unclean unto you. 5 And the coney,
because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean
unto you. 6 And the hare, because he
cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you.
7 And the swine, though he divide the
hoof, and be clovenfooted, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to
you. 8 Of their flesh shall ye not eat,
and their carcase shall ye not touch; they are unclean to you.
First, what
does chewing the cud mean in the
Bible and at the time this Bible was translated? Simply put, without reading
back modern distinctions into the 1611 Bible, animals that chew the cud eat
their food, or at least some of it, twice. Ruminants, like cows, regurgitate
food and re-chew it. Pseudo-ruminants, like rabbits, may re-ingest their soft
poop with additional microbial processes going on in digestive parts we don’t
have. The modern English word cud comes
from the Old English cudu or cwidu meaning, “what has already been
chewed.” It is related to an old Norse word for chewing.
A clovenfooted animal, called an even-toed
ungulate, has a foot that is separated into two toes. If the animal has this
clovenfoot and redigests its food it is okay to eat. If it redigests its food
but has toes like a camel or rabbit it is not okay to eat. Of note here is the
mention of a camel, saying that it does not divide the hoof. This is pretty
advanced stuff as a camel is considered an even-toed ungulate. But, a camel’s
feet are not actually hooves although each toe has a hard nail that seems like
a hoof.
Remember that
Christ’s finished work cleansed the ritual uncleanness of animals. See the
episode with Peter in Acts, chapter 10, one of the most theologically
significant chapters of the New Testament showing that no animals are unclean
after Christ, that people who have not heard of Christ but believe in God and
want to do right are saved showing that once Christ is preached to them they
must believe or be damned, and how we Gentiles receive the Holy Ghost and then
are baptized, being saved first as baptism itself does not save us.
Acts
10:1 ¶ There was a certain man in
Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, 2 A
devout man, and one that feared
God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God
alway. 3 He saw in a vision evidently
about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying
unto him, Cornelius. 4 And when he
looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him,
Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. 5 And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter:
6 He lodgeth with one Simon a tanner,
whose house is by the sea side: he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do.
7 And when the angel which spake unto
Cornelius was departed, he called two of his household servants, and a devout
soldier of them that waited on him continually; 8 And when he had declared all these things unto them, he sent them
to Joppa.
9 ¶
On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the
city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour: 10 And he became very hungry, and would have
eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance, 11 And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel
descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and
let down to the earth: 12 Wherein were
all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping
things, and fowls of the air. 13 And
there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. 14 But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have
never eaten any thing that is common or
unclean.
15 And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. 16 This was done thrice: and the vessel was
received up again into heaven. 17 Now
while Peter doubted in himself what this vision which he had seen should mean,
behold, the men which were sent from Cornelius had made enquiry for Simon’s
house, and stood before the gate, 18 And
called, and asked whether Simon, which was surnamed Peter, were lodged there.
It is
interesting in that Christ cleansed ritually unclean animals so that the Jews
could eat them as God told Noah it was appropriate after the Flood to eat
animals in general which apparently had not been done before.
Genesis
1:29 And God said, Behold, I have given
you every herb bearing seed, which is
upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed;
to you it shall be for meat.
Genesis
9:2 And the fear of you and the dread of
you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon
all that moveth upon the earth,
and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. 3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat
for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
Speaking of
Noah, apparently this concept of ritually clean and not clean animals was
understood so that although they were not eaten from Abel’s time they were used
as sacrifices to God.
Genesis
4:4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the
fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
Genesis
7:2 Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his
female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.
There are a
number of possibilities for the distinction between unclean and clean animals.
The first reason would be that God’s people must learn to separate the clean
from the unclean and that this distinction was, in type, the same as
distinguishing between sin and doing right. Another possibility, at least in
Noah’s time, is that the animals that were not
clean may have been polluted like mankind by the fallen sons of God. Even
another possibility, for Moses’ time, is that the animals marked as not clean
were being used for dietary and ceremonial purposes by the heathen and God
wanted to reinforce the separation of Israel from those people. Whatever the
case, there were animals that were not to be eaten by the Jews even if you use
the modernistic argument that the restrictions were of a sanitary nature for
the health and well-being of the children of Israel.
Nevertheless,
Matthew Henry pointed out in his commentary that animals were sacred in heathen
religion. In his commentary, which is free online, for this passage he notes “The swine, with the later Gentiles, was sacred to
Venus, the owl to Minerva, the eagle to Jupiter, the dog to Hecate, etc.,” The strict dietary regulations given here
distinguished the children of Israel from the heathen world around them. Also,
predators eat the flesh of animals, scavengers eat carrion, and some shellfish
are poisonous. We really cannot say why something was clean or unclean to them
but we can surmise based on common sense.
I have read that the
camel was considered sacred in the worship of AL-lat, the Meccan mother
goddess, and chief deity of one of the Arab tribes. She was also supposedly one
of the daughters of Allah. Although this particular worship may not be three
thousand years old it does give us evidence of the camel’s spiritual importance
to heathen tribes long before this particular goddess was worshipped.
At the time the King
James Bible was translated, using the University of Toronto’s Lexicons of Early
Modern English online, the coney was a rabbit or a hare. It is noted that
George Gascoigne’s 1575 The Noble Art of
Venery or Hunting that a young hare was called a leueret and a young conie
(coney) was called a rabet (rabbit). This is also confirmed by
cross-referencing in the Bible. Read Deuteronomy 14:7. The difference between a
hare and a rabbit might be of interest to a hunter who wants to know their
habits or a zoologist who wants to catalog them but are virtually meaningless
to our study. The Bible could also be talking about a rock badger or rock
hyrax, a mouse-like creature, which is also called a ‘rock rabbit’, remembering
that modern classifications of animals should not be read back into the Bible.
The hyrax notion is buttressed by Proverbs 30:26 although actual rabbits exist
in a number of habitats including mountainous terrain. The likely understanding
of the translators would be the coney or rabbit as a cousin to the hare with
differences like where they live and how they react to danger. Hares live in
burrows, rabbits in nests, and hares run while rabbits hide and on and on if
what I read is correct. You hunters or rabbit-keepers would know better, I am
sure.
The hare was worshipped
in ancient earth religions as a symbol of fertility in the goddess Ishtar’s veneration.
Perhaps we get the word Easter and Easter bunnies and eggs ultimately from
Ishtar. Ishtar was also the goddess of freedom, exiles, immigrants, and
prostitutes in ancient Babylon I have read. She has many names around the world
from Amaterasu in Japan to Astarte in the ancient Near East to Aphrodite in
Greece and Venus in Rome. The goddess also, in one of her many forms, was
personified in the Roman goddess Libertas who stands in the harbor at New York
as Lady Liberty. Anthropologists have noted that gods and goddesses can be
traced back to a small number of individuals so we can see Ishtar’s many forms
around the world.
Swine were sacred in
Egyptian, Greek, Chinese, and even Celtic religion among others. The Greeks
sacrificed pigs to the goddess, Demeter, goddess of agriculture. Some authors
say that in Egypt the god, Min, was born of a white sow, one of the
manifestations of Isis, the Egyptian version of Ishtar. The evil god of Egypt,
Set, is sometimes depicted as a swine.
There is a principal given
here. We learn in Job that God says bad things will happen to good people and
they may never know the reason why in this life but we are to trust Him as He
is in control of it all, no matter how painful or grievous our suffering is.
Here, we learn that God gave commands to Israel and did not bother to explain
Himself except to say that the unclean must be separated from the clean. Trust
me, I have it under control and do what I say without expecting an explanation
are two things that are bitter pills for a twenty-first century American to
swallow.
There is also a lesson
here for us and many potential sermons on rightly dividing the word and what
constitutes bad doctrine and wrong interpretation which although derived from
the Bible misrepresents God by an impious and imperfect agenda.
Leviticus
11:9 ¶ These shall ye eat of all that are
in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and
in the rivers, them shall ye eat. 10 And
all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that
move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they
shall be an abomination unto you: 11
They shall be even an abomination unto you; ye shall not eat of their
flesh, but ye shall have their carcases in
abomination. 12 Whatsoever hath no fins
nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination unto you. 13 And these are they which ye shall have
in abomination among the fowls; they shall not be eaten, they are an
abomination: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray, 14 And the vulture, and the kite after his kind;
15 Every raven after his kind; 16 And the owl, and the night hawk, and the
cuckow, and the hawk after his kind, 17
And the little owl, and the cormorant, and the great owl, 18 And the swan, and the pelican, and the gier
eagle, 19 And the stork, the heron after
her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat.
For fish, as
long as it has fins and scales it was okay to eat. There is no point in saying,
“what about crabs, oysters, eels, and clams?” It says what it says. In Greek
mythology Carcinus was giant crab that gave rise to the constellation Cancer.
But, this might render the idea that animals forbidden previously were
forbidden because of their worship among the heathen as wrong because fish with
scales and fins were also worshipped and they were okay for the Hebrews to eat.
The Philistine Dagon (daw gohn) may have been a fish-god as the name means
fish.
1Samuel
5:1 ¶ And the Philistines took the ark
of God, and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod. 2 When the Philistines took the ark of God,
they brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon. 3 And when they of Ashdod arose early on the
morrow, behold, Dagon was
fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the LORD. And they took
Dagon, and set him in his place again. 4
And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the
ground before the ark of the LORD; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of
his hands were cut off upon the
threshold; only the stump of
Dagon was left to him. 5 Therefore
neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon’s house, tread on
the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day.
Of interest
to us in the list of fowls that are forbidden are bats. Since today we call a
bat a mammal and not a bird we need to use our brains and look further to
understand this association in Leviticus. Bats were not classified as mammals
until 1758 when Carl Linnaeus, a Swedish zoologist and the father of modern
taxonomy, listed them as primates. They got their own Order later given to them
by a German naturalist named Blumenbach. The word mammal then is not coined
until well after this Bible was translated. In addition, ancient and medieval
writers like Aristotle in his History of
Animals, Pliny the Elder, and Isidore of Seville referred to them as a
peculiar type of bird which were also known as fowls. It was a bird, a flying
creature, that gives birth to living young. And, as early as 1499 to batfowle was to go after birds at night.
A bird or fowl as a strictly feathered creature developed later with modern
taxonomic classifications.
Bats were
linked with the Devil in the Middle Ages as he is depicted sometimes with a
bat’s wings. It is curious also to note that the word birds
was used up until the 1400s for the offspring of not only fowl but of
fish, snakes, bees, and even humans. And so, the word fowl, according to some authorities, may have had its roots in an
ancient word simply meaning to fly through the air with wings and could even include
insects at one time although we mostly now only use it for barnyard birds like
chickens and perhaps geese.
The other birds or fowls listed include carrion and scavengers.
Eagles will eat dead animals in addition to the fish and rodents they hunt. The
ossifrage is a very interesting name
as the Latin ossifraga was a large vulture, literally a bone-breaker. The word
in 1600 referred to a sea-eagle, osprey, a fishing-hawk. So there were a number of definitions of this
word for a bird-of-prey and a scavenger and both ossifrage and ospray and vulture are all linked here with
predators and scavengers of the air which were forbidden to be eaten. Except
for the most obvious names like eagle and swan and owl there are differences of
opinion as to what exactly these names referred to but it is safe to say that
birds-of-prey and scavengers were forbidden to be eaten. Even if the birds
ingest animals only incidently and are mainly herbivores like the swan they are
forbidden for their tendency to eat meat.
Leviticus
11:20 ¶ All fowls that creep, going upon
all four, shall be an abomination unto you. 21 Yet these may ye eat of every flying creeping
thing that goeth upon all four, which have legs above their feet, to
leap withal upon the earth; 22 Even
these of them ye may eat; the locust after his kind, and the bald locust after
his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind.
23 But all other flying creeping
things, which have four feet, shall be an abomination unto you. 24 And for these ye shall be unclean: whosoever
toucheth the carcase of them shall be unclean until the even. 25 And whosoever beareth ought of the
carcase of them shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even. 26 The carcases of every beast which divideth
the hoof, and is not clovenfooted, nor cheweth the cud, are
unclean unto you: every one that toucheth them shall be unclean. 27 And
whatsoever
goeth upon his paws, among all manner of beasts that go on all four,
those are unclean unto you: whoso toucheth their carcase shall be
unclean until the even. 28 And he that
beareth the carcase of them shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the
even: they are unclean unto you. 29
These also shall be unclean unto you among the creeping things
that creep upon the earth; the weasel, and the mouse, and the tortoise after
his kind, 30 And the ferret, and the
chameleon, and the lizard, and the snail, and the mole. 31 These are unclean to you among all
that creep: whosoever doth touch them, when they be dead, shall be unclean
until the even. 32 And upon whatsoever any
of them, when they are dead, doth fall, it shall be unclean; whether it be
any vessel of wood, or raiment, or skin, or sack, whatsoever vessel it be,
wherein any work is done, it must be put into water, and it shall be
unclean until the even; so it shall be cleansed. 33 And every earthen vessel, whereinto any
of them falleth, whatsoever is in it shall be unclean; and ye shall
break it. 34 Of all meat which may be
eaten, that on which such water cometh shall be unclean: and all
drink that may be drunk in every such vessel shall be unclean. 35 And every thing whereupon any part
of their carcase falleth shall be unclean; whether it be oven, or ranges
for pots, they shall be broken down: for they are unclean, and
shall be unclean unto you. 36
Nevertheless a fountain or pit, wherein there is plenty of water,
shall be clean: but that which toucheth their carcase shall be unclean. 37 And if any part of their carcase fall
upon any sowing seed which is to be sown, it shall be clean. 38 But if any water be put upon the seed,
and any part of their carcase fall thereon, it shall be unclean
unto you. 39 And if any beast, of which
ye may eat, die; he that toucheth the carcase thereof shall be unclean until
the even. 40 And he that eateth of the
carcase of it shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even: he
also
that beareth the carcase of it shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the
even. 41 And every creeping thing that
creepeth upon the earth shall be an abomination; it shall not be eaten.
42 Whatsoever goeth upon the belly, and
whatsoever goeth upon all four, or whatsoever hath more feet among all
creeping things that creep upon the earth, them ye shall not eat; for they are
an abomination.
How we read
this passage is important. Flying things, or fowls, that creep, a reference to
insects, that move along the ground as if they were walking on all fours like a
horse or a cow, were forbidden. This is clear because insects have six legs and
both God and Moses would have known that so then we are compelled to understand
the reference to four legs as the way they move.
Entomologists
report that there are five types of insect legs. One type are cursorial or running
legs. Saltatorial legs are for jumping. Raptorial legs are for hunting.
Natatorial legs are for swimming. Fossorial legs are for digging burrows. With
regard to flying insects, the context, if they have four legs to run on the
ground with they cannot be eaten. But, if those insects have distinct legs for
jumping, Saltatorial legs, as well, they can be eaten. Other insects cannot be
eaten.
Looking at
verse 26 I need to review some things and add to my understanding. A hoof is
the tip of the toe of an ungulate mammal by today’s classification. Even-toed
ungulates like sheep, deer, goats, bison, and pigs are said to be
cloven-footed. Odd-toed ungulates would include horses, asses, zebras, and
rhinoceroses, called unicorns in the Bible. A unicorn has three toes so it is
not called cloven-footed as that is for even-toed ungulates but it does divide
the hoof. The divided hoof of an odd-toed ungulate is not clovenfooted.
Verse 29 and
onward tends to clear things up for us about the purpose of things being clean
or unclean as it appears there is a strong concern for reasons of disease and
health. It does then appear that God’s commandments regarding clean and unclean
things has to do in part with matters of public health.
Here may be
rudimentary rules of sanitation in a world without antibiotics or an
understanding of the germ theory of disease. With such a large group of people
wandering about such a consideration must have been paramount. While God did
promise;
Exodus
15:26 And said, If thou wilt diligently
hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in
his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I
will put none of these diseases
upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.
Deuteronomy
7:15 And the LORD will take away from
thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay
them upon all them that hate
thee.
And gave a warning;
Deuteronomy
28:60 Moreover he will bring upon thee
all the diseases of Egypt, which
thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee.
With His
withholding diseases from them and also providing prudent restrictions on their
diet and the handling of dead animals there appears to be a pattern here. Yes,
it can be argued that He did not want them handling or associating with animals
that were worshipped by the heathen but virtually every animal was worshipped
by someone as man’s religion degraded after the Flood.
Romans
1:22 Professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools, 23 And changed the
glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and
to birds, and
fourfooted
beasts, and creeping things.
Weasels were
considered bad luck in several cultures. The Greek god, Apollo, was worshipped,
among other ways, as a mouse demon who could send a plague of mice when
angered. His sacred animals were a wolf, a raven, and a lizard. He was the god
of knowledge, music, and prophecy as well. Apollo can easily be viewed as
another type of Satan, one of many gods who represent attributes of the
adversary. He is the brother of Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, known as
Diana to the Romans.
The following
is a description of Satan in the garden of Eden. A tabret would be a timbrel or
a tambourine. Note Satan’s influence over music.
Ezekiel
28:13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden
of God; every precious stone was
thy covering, the sardius,
topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the
emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy
pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.
And his promise of enlightened
knowledge in Genesis 3.
Genesis
3:5 For God doth know that in the day ye
eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Note also the worship of
Apollo’s sister, known to the Romans as Diana.
Acts
19:35 And when the townclerk had
appeased the people, he said, Ye
men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the
Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image
which fell down from Jupiter?
I bring this
up in the context of Leviticus to underscore the idolatry endemic to the
ancient world with regard to animal worship but also I want to emphasize that
the public health aspects of the naming of clean and unclean seems more
consistent. Still, we will know the whole story behind this in eternity. One
argument against the public health theory is that in the episode in Acts where
Peter sees a sheet descending from heaven with all sorts of unclean animals in
it God tells Peter;
Acts 10:15
And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath
cleansed, that call not thou common.
So, clearly
this is a reference to ceremonial uncleanness as pigs are still pigs and
weasels haven’t changed much in 2,000 years.
One other
note, see how the mouse was hinted at as being part of ancient diets and
perhaps worship?
Isaiah
66:17 They that sanctify themselves, and
purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine’s flesh, and the abomination,
and the mouse, shall be consumed
together, saith the LORD.
Leviticus
11:43 ¶ Ye shall not make yourselves
abominable with any creeping thing that creepeth, neither shall ye make
yourselves unclean with them, that ye should be defiled thereby. 44 For I am the LORD your God: ye shall
therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy:
neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that
creepeth upon the earth. 45 For I am
the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye
shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. 46 This is the law of the beasts, and of
the fowl, and of every living creature that moveth in the waters, and of every
creature that creepeth upon the earth: 47
To make a difference between the unclean and the clean, and between the
beast that may be eaten and the beast that may not be eaten.
Moses, guided
by the Spirit of God, the very mind of God, summarizes here the necessity of
distinguishing between clean and unclean. People have a hard time making these
judgment calls in modern times. We are told that to discern between good and
evil by God’s standard is bigotry and narrow-mindedness. That is foolish and
the way to death. If you do not judge between good and bad you will be the
agent of your own destruction. This is one fundamental purpose of the Law, to
be holy, to distinguish between God’s standard and the world’s, to be separate
and sanctified being holy as God is holy.
The Creator
of all things, all reality, allowed mankind the desire of his heart, to turn
away to worship Self and Satan by proxy through false gods, and then carved a
people for Himself out of one man, one Gentile, and through this point built
them, corrected them, instructed them, chastised them, and formed them into the
people from which He would emerge over a thousand years later in human form to
save mankind from their sins allowing communion with Him for those who would
for eternity through the Lord Jesus Christ, God in the flesh.”
I’ve already discussed what it might
mean to boil a kid in its mother’s milk.
“Exodus 23:19 The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou
shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in
his mother’s milk.
Early
eighteenth century Bible commentator, Matthew Henry, reported, apparently from
older Jewish authorities, that it was common for the Gentiles to boil (see
Ezekiel 24:5 for seethe as to boil) a kid (goat) in its mother’s milk and
sprinkle that over fields to ensure a good harvest in the future. God forbade
such magical nonsense. What is important here is that God has set up three
feasts for the Hebrews to remember events by, to commemorate what has happened.
“
[1] Numa Denis Fustel De Coulanges, The Ancient City: A Study of the Religion,
Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome (1864, repr. Mineola, NY: Dover
Publications, 2006), 134.
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