The Dietary Laws
“God gives us guidelines to make life simpler and better for us, but we like to complicate everything and then whine about it. If you don’t like the dietary laws, perhaps you don’t like the God who gave them.”
(R.J. Rushdoony, “Institutes of Biblical Law”, Vallecito, CA 1999, p.86)
Since hardly any church teaches that the dietary laws are still valid, many Christians nowadays have no idea what they actually say, or where to find them. Both is easily mended.
You find the dietary laws in Leviticus 11, which starts like this:
“And the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying to them, ‘Speak to the people of Israel, saying, These are the living things that you may eat among all the animals that are on the earth.’ ” (Lev 1:1-2)
So the dietary laws are an ordinance for all the children of Israel.In short, chapter 11 says that every animal that is carnivorous, omnivorous, or a scavenger is unclean, because they eat the blood of other animals or feed on carcasses. This includes pigs, which are specifically mentioned in verse 7, and also horses. Animals that chew the cud and have a cloven hoof, however, are clean animals (Lev 11:3-8), as they are designed to eat greens and grass only.
Of the fish, bottom feeders are forbidden – they, too, are omnivorous, but fishes with fins AND scales are considered clean (Lev 11:9-12). Shrimp and other seafood like muscles, therefore, are forbidden, and so is catfish.
Those birds that prey on other animals are forbidden again, following the same principle we find for mammals (Lev 11:13-20).
Of the insects, only those that have wings AND leap are labeled clean, like the famous locusts John the Baptist lived off, for example (Lev 11:21-23; Mk 1:6).
Every swarming thing is abominable generally speaking (Lev 11:41-44). A few more of the “swarming things” which are not to be eaten are listed later, such as the weasel, the tortoise or the snail (Lev 11:29-30).
Verses 23 to 41 mainly deal with the uncleanness of carcasses and how they defile what comes into contact with them, but they also mention than no animal that goes on its paws is considered food (Lev 11:27), like cats or dogs.
In summary, for most animals mentioned, consuming blood, which is forbidden to the Israelites because in the blood is the life of every living being, makes animals unfit for food, too.
Note that many of the unclean animals are considered food nowadays, however: pigs, horses, tortoise, snail, catfish, shrimp, and in some parts of the word also cats and dogs. But God’s command is still valid today, so stay away from what defiles you in God’s eyes, which is what the last verses of Leviticus 11 say:
“For I am the LORD who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. This is the law about beast and bird and every living creature that moves through the waters and every creature that swarms on the ground, to make a distinction between the unclean and the clean and between the living creature that may be eaten and the living creature that may not be eaten.” (Lev 11:45-47)
