Leviticus 11- Clean and unclean animals
3/9/23
Scripture
Leviticus 11
Introduction
We have seen the laws for the five ritual sacrifices [1-7], the ritual purity required of the priests and their ordination [8-10]. We now move on from the priests, and their functions, to how all the pupil must be ritually pure [11-15]. Chapter 11 is the food laws? All plants may be eaten [Genesis 1:29] but only certain animal are ritually clean.
Leviticus 11 has SIX chunks…
Ritually clean land creatures [vv1-8]
Ritually clean sea creatures [vv9-12]
Ritually clean flying creatures [vv13-19]
Ritually clean creepy crawlies [vv20-25]
All dead animals are ritually unclean [vv31b-40]
The need for ritual purity [vv44-47]
Questions
Ritually clean land creatures [vv1-8]
1 And YHWH spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying to them, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘These are the animals that you may eat from all the animals that are on the land: 3 Any among the animals that has a divided hoof and has a split cleft in the hoof and that chews cud, such you may eat. 4 Only, these you may not eat from those that chew the cud and from those that have the divided hoof…7 and the pig, because it has a divided hoof and has a split cleft in the hoof but it does not chew cud—it is unclean for you. 8 You must not eat from their meat, and you must not touch their dead body—they are unclean for you.
What sorts of land creatures were ritually clean?
Ritually clean sea creatures [vv9-12]
9 “ ‘This you may eat from all that are in the water: any in the water that has a fin and scales, whether in the seas and in the streams—such you may eat. 10 But any that does not have a fin and scales, whether in the seas or in the streams, among all the water’s swarmers among all the living creatures that are in the water—they are a detestable thing to you. 11 And they shall be detestable to you; you must not eat from their meat, and you must detest their dead body. 12 Any that does not have a fin and scales in the water—it is a detestable thing to you.
What sort of sea creatures were ritually clean?
Can we eat pork and seafood [Acts 15:1-35]? What was the issue in Galatia?1
Ritually clean flying creatures [vv13-19]
13 “ ‘And these you must detest from the birds; they must not be eaten—they are detestable: the eagle and the vulture and the short-toed eagle, 14 and the red kite and the black kite according to its kind, 15 every crow according to its kind, 16 and the daughter of the ostrich and the short-eared owl and the seagull and the hawk according to its kind, 17 and the little owl and the cormorant and the great owl, 18 and the barn owl and the desert owl and the carrion vulture, 19 and the stork, the heron according to its kind and the hoopoe and the bat.
The categories are not scientific in the modern sense. Where do the categories [“animals that are on the land” [v2], “in the seas or in the streams” [v10] and “birds” [13]]?2
Ritually clean creepy crawlies [vv20-25]
20 “ ‘Any swarmer of the wing that walks on all fours is detestable to you. 21 Only this may you eat from any of the swarmers of the wing that walk on all fours—that which has jointed legs above its feet for leaping upon the land. 22 These from them you may eat the locust according to its kind and the bald locust according to its kind and the cricket according to its kind and the grasshopper according to its kind. 23 But any other swarmer of wing that has four legs is detestable to you. 24 And by these you shall become unclean—anyone who touches their dead body shall become unclean until the evening, 25 and anyone who carries their dead body must wash his garments, and he shall be unclean until the evening.
How could a dead creepy crawly make an Israelite ritually unclean?
All dead animals are ritually unclean [vv31b-40]
[A]nyone who touches them [living things] at their death shall become unclean until the evening. 32 And anything on which one of them falls at their death shall become unclean: any object of wood or garment or skin or sackcloth—any object that has performed work—must be placed in water, and it shall be unclean until the evening, and then it shall be clean. 33 And any clay vessel into which one of them falls, all that is in it shall become unclean, and you must break it. 34 Any of the food that could be eaten on which water from such a vessel comes shall become unclean, and any liquid that could be drunk in any such vessel shall become unclean. 35 And anything on which one of their dead bodies falls shall become unclean: an oven or a stove must be broken—they are unclean and shall be unclean for you. 36 Surely a spring or a cistern collecting water shall be clean, but that which touches their dead body shall become unclean. 37 And when one of their dead bodies falls on any seed plant that is to be sown it is clean. 38 But when water is put on the seed and one of their dead bodies falls on it, it is unclean for you.
39 “ ‘And when one of the animals dies that is for you to eat, the one who touches its dead body shall become unclean until the evening. 40 And the one who eats some of its dead body must wash his garments, and he shall be unclean until the evening; and the one who carries its dead body must wash his garments, and he shall be unclean until the evening.
Why does death cause ritual uncleanness?
The need for ritual purity [vv44-47]
Why does ritual purity matter? How do we live out ritual purity today?3
HW
1. Work on the good habits, the disciplines, the rituals of the Christian life. A bit of ascetism, self-denial.
2. Do not quench the Spirit/presence of YHWH in you and amongst us…
26 For if we keep on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that is about to consume the adversaries.
Hebrews 1:26-27
Yes, intentional sin cuts us off from God is in the NT too!
3. Give thanks for Jesus that “we have a high priest such as him, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister of the sacred space and of the true tabernacle which the Lord set up, not man” [Hebrew 8:1b-2].
More
Bible Project’s Guide to Leviticus»
Bible Project’s Leviticus Scroll podcasts»
Michael Heiser’s Naked Bible podcast 63: Introducing Leviticus»
The Judaizers and the NT
Now, for the Jews, much later, during the exile and the partial return to the land and into Jesus’ life and with religious Jews to this day, ritual purity is a major concern, an almost all-consuming concern. If you are a Jewish man, you have been circumcised as a baby but what you do almost every day of your life was eat: perhaps alone, certainly with your family and within your community. These “works of the law” as Paul calls them, and he was an expert in this stuff, is what marked the Jews out as the children of Abraham, as God’s chosen people.
Scholars have identified two Judaizing groups in first century Palestine, the Ebionites and the Nazarenes. These groups were Jews who believed in Jesus but kept the “works of the law”, the “boundary markers” that showed that they were Jews and not gentiles. Judaizers arrived in Galatia after Paul much to Paul’s indignation…
I wish that the ones who are disturbing you would also cut themselves off!
Galatians 5:12
Genesis 1 literary structure
The priests ordination was in the tabernacle for seven days. We can also remind ourselves of the Edenic symbolism in the tabernacle from our time in Exodus. There’s another Genesis 1 parallel. The animals are grouped according to whether they are from the sky or sea, or the land. So, this is all laden with creation and Eden symbolism.
We saw first the FIVE ritual sacrifices [1-7] then the ordination of the priests [8-10] to offer the sacrifices on behalf of the people. The ordination lasted SEVEN days, a reference to Genesis 1 and the unspoilt creation. The priests were in the tent the whole time in the presence of YHWH, and the congregation gathered around the tent or tabernacle. So now moving outwards to the crowd, how do the people maintain ritual purity? First through their diet and avoiding contact with dead animals [11]. Next, we will see instructions on ritual purity of a woman who has given birth [12:1-8], instructions on lumps on the body [13:1-14:57] and instructions on bodily emissions [15:1-33]. That’s one chunk. The ritual purity of all the people [11-15]. The centre of the scroll, you may remember, is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and Leviticus is the middle scroll of the Torah. And then the other half of Leviticus is the actual moral purity for the all people [18-20], the stricter standards for the priests [21-22] and the festivals [23-25]. You might say that the festivals are just rituals but they were to be the rhythm of life for the nation, the people of God. Time, how it is used, is also a moral issue.