Hebrew Bible: Leviticus and Mary Douglas

Leviticus

09/30/2011

Leviticus 11:  Dietary Laws concerning Animals

These laws are categorized by land, air, and water-dwelling animals, much like Creation categorization.

Land

• Clean animals:  having divided hooves and who chew the cud; e.g. cows
• Unclean animals:  lacking divided hoof and/or chewing the cud; e.g. rock badger

Sea

• Clean animals:  having fins and scales; e.g. fish!
• Unclean animals:  lacking fins and/or scales; e.g. squids, shrimps, lobsters

Sky

• Clean animals:  difficult to categorize; mostly NOT birds of prey; insects with jointed legs
• Unclean animals:  predators, scavengers, odd insects

What's the Purpose of these Laws?

-- Mary Douglas, The Abominations of Leviticus

Some explanations...

Epstein (pg. 45)

     for holiness by training in self-control; measuring holiness by following laws, regardless of their reason

Philo (pg. 45)

     for guarding against gluttony and revelry -- most delicious meats were forbidden

Micklem (pg. 47)

     for no reason!  the laws are irrational and pointless; no single organization rule

Professor Stein (pg. 48)

     for preserving holiness on the basis of the allegorical associations with certain animals.  Animals who represent a negative trait are unclean, and those who represent a positive trait are clean.

• mouse and weasel -- obnoxious -- unclean
• unclean birds -- violent against weak -- unclean
• cows -- contemplative and meditative (on the torah) -- clean

     However, this viewpoint is difficult to maintain due to the the multitude of and variations in interpretation.

Bishop Challoner (pg. 49)

     also for allegorical reasons

• hoof represents a division between good and evil
• no fins represents going along with the current (in contrast to prayer and purposeful movement)

Maimonides (pg. 49-50)

     for a separation from previous heathen practices and separation from Canaanite practices

Problem:  What about the other heathen practices the Israelites adapted, like sacrifice and a tabernacle?

Suggested Solution:  dietary restrictions provdided a way to transition away from heathen practices

Mary Douglas's Explanation (pg. 56)

Basis:  "Be holy for I am holy"

Principle:  an aim to be set apart and whole/complete

• sacrifices had to be "whole" and without blemish or defect
• land animals had to be ideal for farming, representing a "wholeness" in farming technique
• unclean animals were deemed to be "incomplete" in some way -- usually not fitting into a natural category like other animals of the same type
• any animal that was borderline "un-whole/incomplete" was unclean
• for example, some unclean birds ate dead meat, an act unnatural from other birds and thereby "unwhole" to eat

BOTTOM LINE:  these laws classified animals within their categories (land, air, sea) and eliminated those who were borderline cases.

Note:  see Blackboard for paper assignment concerning today's topic