Clean and unclean animals
1 Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron and said to them,
2 ¡°Speak to the people of Israel and say: ¡®Of all the animals on the earth
these are the animals you may eat.
3 You may eat any animal that has divided hoofs, divided into two parts, and
that also chews the cud.
4 You may not eat: the camel, because though it chews the cud, it does not
have divided hoofs;
5 the rabbit, because though it chews the cud, it does not have divided
hoofs;
6 the hare, as well;
7 the pig, because though it has divided hoofs, it does not chew the cud.
8 You must not eat the meat of such animals nor their dead bodies; they are
unclean for you.
9 Of all that lives in water you may eat anything that has fins and scales,
and lives in sea or river.
10 But anything living in sea or river that does not have both fins and
scales must not be eaten.
11 They are unclean for you; you shall not eat their flesh nor even touch
their dead bodies.
12 Any thing that lives in water, but does not have fins and scales, is
unclean for you.
13 Among the birds, here are those you must consider unclean and not eat:
14 the vulture, the eagle, the osprey, the hawk, the several kinds of
buzzards,
15 all kinds of ravens,
16 the ostrich, the screech owl, the seagull,
17 the horned owl, the night owl, the seabird, the barn owl,
18 the ibis, the pelican, the white vulture,
19 the stork, the several kinds of heron, and the bat.
20 All winged insects that move on four feet shall be unclean for you.
21 Of all the winged insects you may eat only the following: those that have
legs above their feet so that they can leap over the ground.
22 These are the ones you may eat: the several kinds of locusts, crickets
and grasshoppers.
23 But all other winged insects that have four legs you are to consider
unclean.
24 Anyone who touches
25 or picks up the dead bodies of one of these animals will be unclean until
evening.
26 The same with animals that have hoofs, unless their hoofs are divided and
they chew the cud;
27 and also four-footed animals which walk on the flat of their feet.
28 Anyone who picks up their dead bodies must wash his clothing and will be
unclean until evening.
29 These are the small animals crawling on the ground that shall be unclean
for you: rats, mice and several kinds of lizards:
30 the gecko, the chameleon, the agama, the skink and the mole.
31 Anyone who touches them when they are dead will be unclean until evening.
32 Anything on which the dead body of any of these creatures falls becomes
unclean: wooden utensil, clothing, skin, sackcloth¡ªany utensil at all. It
must be dipped in water and will remain unclean until evening: then it will
be clean.
33 If the creature falls into a clay pot, the pot must be broken; whatever
the pot contains is unclean.
34 Any food on which water from such a pot has poured will be unclean.
35 Anything on which the dead body of such a creature may fall will be
unclean: if it is a clay stove or oven, this must be broken; for they are
unclean and you must treat them as unclean.
36 A spring or cistern for collecting water remains clean; but whoever
touches the dead body becomes unclean.
37 If one of their dead bodies falls on any seed what ever, the seed will
remain clean;
38 but if the seed has been wet, and such a dead body falls on it, then you
must consider it unclean.
39 If one of the animals that you use as food dies, then anyone who touches
the dead body will be unclean until evening;
40 anyone who eats the meat of the dead animal must wash his clothing and
will be unclean until the evening. And anyone who picks up the dead body
will also be unclean until the evening and has to wash his clothing.
41 All the creatures that swarm on the ground are unclean and may not be
eaten.
42 Everything that crawls on its belly or goes on four legs, or has many
legs, may not be eaten.
43 Do not defile yourselves with any swarming creature that might defile
you,
44 for I am Yahweh your God. Take the way of holiness and be holy, for I am
holy.
Do not make yourselves unclean with any of the creatures that swarm on the
ground,
45 for I am Yahweh who brought you from the land of Egypt, that I might be
your God. Be holy because I am holy.
46 This is the law for animals and birds and for every living creature that
moves in the water or that crawls on the ground.
47 Let everyone distinguish between the clean and the unclean, between
creatures that may be eaten and creatures that may not.¡±
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Comments Leviticus, Chapter 11
• 11.1 The mission of an Israelite was to participate in public worship of
the only God. Yet, in order to enter into the Temple to take part in a
religious assembly, he had to perform various rituals which made him ¡°pure,¡±
as we remarked in commenting on chapter 8. Being pure or im pure did not
mean being guilty or not: it only signified readiness to approach the altar,
or a lack of readiness.
These regulations helped Israel discover the road to genuine sanctity:
¨C Some animals honored by the pagans were declared unclean. They were to be
avoided.
¨C Several laws or ¡°taboos¡± (prohibitions of sacred origin) concerning
sexuality helped engender respect for the sacred character of life.
Spontaneously, among any primitive people, there are various rules about sex
and birth, and so it was among the Jews (see 12:1-8 and chapter 15).
¨C Some regulations concerned standards of hygiene, though other reasons are
given. For example, the prohibition against eating pork (11:7) was wise
considering that pigs are carriers of disease where cleanliness is lacking.
It is the same with leprosy (chap. 13).
All religious or Christian life is impossible without human formation and
without the stability of the family. Love does not suffice for the making of
a home if strength of character is absent or if a person marries without
having learned to fulfill obligations: hence the importance of education or
formation in the family. The Law with its manifold precepts, many of which
do no more than call for a basic dignity and humanity, prepares people to
serve God in truth even if its instructions and its ¡°exterior¡± rites (Rom
2:28) remain on the level of ¡°the flesh¡± (Phil 3:3).
Many of the laws, whose purpose escapes us, served mainly to make God¡¯s
people different from others in terms of their meals, feasts and customs.
Israelites, who often settled in the midst of other people, were not to mix
with their pagan neighbors: the Law, by regulating their lives in every
detail, prevented them from adopting the customs of others and prevented
them from adopting their thinking, as well. Although it is the interior
attitude which must differentiate the believer from others, external
discipline helps one become aware of one¡¯s own spirit. Old Testament laws
addressed a people who had not yet come to religious maturity and for that
reason, imposed on them a different way of life.
These laws began to be strictly observed from the time of Ezra and were
followed by the Jewish community of the last centuries before Christ. Nehe
miah 13 illustrates the danger they were ex posed to in being separated from
other people.
In Jesus¡¯ time, the Jews clung excessively to these prescriptions which were
originally only certain external requirements for those wishing to take part
in religious acts. Jesus criticized this confusion of legal purity with
purity of conscience (Mk 7:15).
11:5-6. The Bible is not a book that teaches science.