Impurity is the realm of death, and only life can be its antidote. Life purges the sanctuary by nullifying, overpowering, and absorbing the Israelites' impurities that adhere to it, allowing the divine presence to remain and Israel to survive.
[ Milgrom, J. (2004). A Continental Commentary: Leviticus: a book of ritual and ethics (p. 101). Fortress Press.]
Leviticus 11:1-8
In the beginning man ate only of the fish, trees and vegetables of the earth. After the flood, God said to Noah:
I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man's brother I will require the life of man. (Gen 9:3-5)
Of all the animals on the earth, very few were deemed clean and available to eat. Yet, there are no restrictions given on vegetables.
Animals on the Earth
The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in regards to their food. The animals that were approved to eat and remain ritually clean are those with a split hoof and that chew the cud. There is no real indication as to why the Lord set the boundaries here. Many have sought to find the reason through what is included verses excluded, commonality among the animals and so forth. Speculations tend to land here:
- These animals provided a healthy diet for the Israelites. This means the reasons were purely physical, which doesn't seem likely in the surrounding narrative.
- Other gods required sacrifices of other animals and therefore God designated them unclean. However, the sacrifices of the surrounding gods looked very much like the clean animals, not the unclean.
Before the Flood there was a distinction between clean and unclean animals (Genesis 7:2). Through Moses this distinction acquired the force of divine law. It was based partly on the wholesomeness of a particular kind of animal as food, and partly on religious considerations, designed to serve as one of the marks of separation of Israel from other nations. Jesus abrogated the distinction (Mark 7:19), making all meats clean (see also Acts 10:9–16). [Halley, H. H. (2000). Halley's Bible handbook with the New International Version. (Completely rev. and expanded., p. 159). Zondervan Publishing House.]
Bottom line is that we simply don't know why a split hoofed animal is ritually clean, but only if it chews the cud.
The flesh of these unclean was not to be eaten, nor the carcass of a dead animal touched. Doing so rendered them unclean. Touching these animals was okay and didn't affect their ritual purity. An example of this is riding a camel.
Moreover the person who touches any unclean thing, such as human uncleanness, an unclean animal, or any abominable unclean thing, and who eats the flesh of the sacrifice of the peace offering that belongs to the Lord, that person shall be cut off from his people. (Lev 7:21)
Note: this is the first use of the word translated 'abominable'.
Leviticus 11:9-12
Animals in the Water
The qualification for the fish to be designated clean was to have fins and scales. There was no distinction for freshwater versus saltwater. All that didn't meet these 2 qualifications were designated as an abomination. They were not only ritually unclean but they were considered detestable.
After the first use of 'abominable' in Leviticus 7, we don't see it again until here. Then we see it three times in as many versus to make sure it was understood these unclean fish were to be detestable to the people.
Leviticus 11:13-19
Birds
We see the same word to describe these birds. The carrion are easy to see why they would be on the list, they eat from dead carcasses. But in the list, we see some that don't eat this, they eat plants or fish. Again, we don't see clear rules of how God determined clean and unclean. The list of birds here is nearly the same as listed in Deuteronomy 14. The clean birds include doves, pigeons, quail, chickens, geese, ducks and sparrows.
Leviticus 11:20-23
Bugs
Flying bugs that creep on all fours are an abomination. However, you are free to eat the ones with jointed legs above their feet; crickets, grasshoppers and locusts.
Leviticus 11:24-28
Touching the carcass of any dead animal left a person unclean till evening; if it was carried, this lasted until evening and the person's clothes needed to be washed. The unclean are further defined:
- Animal with divided foot but not cloven-hoofed, not chewing cud.
- Pawed animal on all fours.
Leviticus 11:29-31
Further definition of the creeping things:
- Mole
- Mouse
- Large Lizard
- Gecko
- Monitor Lizard
- Sand Reptile
- Sand Lizard
- Chameleon
Touching any of these dead animals left one unclean until evening.
Leviticus 11:32-35
If the carcass of a dead animal touches anything, it is then unclean. If it falls on something, whatever it is must be washed in water. It would remain unclean till evening. Numbers 31:32 adds to this that metal vessels don't need to be destroyed. They can be purified in the fire.
If the carcass of the dead animal in any way falls into a vessel, it is unclean. The vessel must be broken. Anything contacting the inside of that vessel becomes unclean. Even contact with an oven makes it unclean and it must be broken down.
Things that come into contact with death are rendered unclean.
Leviticus 11:36-40
A Cistern with plenty of water would be clean. Yet, someone removing a carcass from a spring or cistern becomes unclean.
A dead body touching any planting seed does not cause it to become unclean. The seed is effectively dead. Once water is put on the see, it becomes alive that that life is then unclean when contacted by a carcass.
The laws applied in the same way to a carcass of a clean animal if it dies a natural death. To touch it, carry it and eat of it would all render a person unclean.
Leviticus 11:41-43
The word translated to 'creeping' is swarming things. There were three categories; what crawls on its belly, goes on all fours and what has many feet. God considers these an abomination and were not to be eaten. He doesn't have to tell me twice.
What makes these things unclean? No one is really sure. One of the speculations is that the earth is associated with the grave, the under-world and death. The earth itself wasn't unclean, however, the earth above a grave was. It's as though some essence of death was emanating upward.
Leviticus 11:44-4
The Israelites were to set themselves apart for the Lord. They were to distinguish the clean from unclean and they were to be holy as God is. God redeemed them from their slavery and death in Egypt and in this way, he guards them from uncleanness brought by death. Once again, God stresses the importance of knowing the difference between the clean and unclean.
©2022 Calvary Chapel Sweetwater
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