Leviticus: Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven: Clean and Unclean animals.

If you are like me, you have questions about what you can and can’t eat. Can I eat Ostrich? What about Salmon? Which is the appropriate bug to eat – a grasshopper or a locust? Why?

Chapter 11 gives us two sets of information regarding which animals we are allowed to eat and which are deemed unclean and detestable: The General Rules and a some Specific Lists.

The General Rules are helpful because they lay out some basic guidelines we can follow to determine whether our food is acceptable to eat or if to us their carcasses shall be unclean. These guidelines apply to mammals, sea creatures and insects, and are represented by these flowcharts: (Click on a flowchart to magnify)

You will note that you are only forbidden from eating four-legged winged insects, which implies you can eat any insect so long as your little brother hasn’t got to it first and removed two legs to torture the poor thing.

The specific lists cover the birds, reptiles, and amphibians deemed unclean by the LORD:

These are the birds you are to detest and are not to eat because they are detestable: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture, the red kite, any kind of black kite, any kind of raven, the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, the little owl, the cormorant, the great owl, the white owl, the desert owl, the osprey, the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat.

Of the things that crawl upon the ground, these are unclean for you: the weasel, the rat, any kind of great lizard, the gecko, the monitor lizard, the wall lizard, the skink and the chameleon, any insect or bug that does not have wings, and anything that crawls upon its belly.

And now it’s time for…

Clean or Unclean?

Anyone who eats or touches the carcass of an unclean animal is……… unclean! 🙁 Their clothing must be washed and they are not clean again until the evening.

Any object that has touched the carcass of an unclean animal is……. unclean! 🙁

If it is an earthen vessel, stove, or oven, it must be broken immediately. Anything eaten or drunk from it is considered unclean.
Otherwise, it must be dipped in water and not touched until the evening.

If the carcass of an unclean animal falls on a dried seed, the seed is………… clean! 😀

But if the seed has been watered, it is unclean 🙁

If you touch the carcass of a clean animal that has died unslaughtered, you are…………. unclean! 🙁 Your clothes must be washed and you are not clean again until the evening.

This was written by leviticus. Posted on Friday, July 2, 2010, at 8:49 pm. Filed under Chapter Reviews. Bookmark the permalink. Follow comments here with the RSS feed. Post a comment or leave a trackback.

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Leviticus: Chapter 11

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