Which Animals Does the Bible Designate as 'Clean' and 'Unclean'? (2024)

FAQs

What animals are clean and unclean in the Bible? ›

6“You may eat any animal that has completely split hooves and chews the cud, 7but if the animal doesn't have both, it may not be eaten. So you may not eat the camel, the hare, or the hyrax. They chew the cud but do not have split hooves, so they are ceremonially unclean for you.

However, of those that chew the cud or that have a split hoof completely divided you may not eat the camel, the rabbit or the coney. Although they chew the cud, they do not have a split hoof; they are ceremonially unclean for you. The pig is also unclean; although it has a split hoof, it does not chew the cud.

In Deuteronomy 14:11-18 we read that all clean birds may be eaten, but those we are not to eat include eagles, vultures, buzzards, falcons, ravens, ostriches, owls, seagulls, hawks, jackdaws (part of the crow family), storks and herons.

Again, the Bible does not suggest that ANY animal missed the ark. Besides, Noah was given a direct order by God take every beast, fowl and any other living thing that creepeth upon the earth, onto the ark.

The passage in Deuteronomy (14: 4–5) gives a list of the animals which chew the cud and have cloven hooves and are thus kosher: oxen, sheep, goats, deer, gazelles, roebuck, wild goats, ibex, antelopes, and mountain sheep.

For example, the Bible does not prescribe ritual slaughter of animals, yet this practice has taken on the same compulsion as the taboo on pigs and camels. A permitted food (e.g., cattle, chicken) that has not been ritually slaughtered is considered to be as defiling as pork.

He also lists such animals as camels, rabbits and pigs as being unclean, or unfit to eat (Leviticus 11:4-8). He later lists such "creeping things" as moles, mice and lizards as unfit to eat (verses 29-31), as well as four-footed animals with paws (cats, dogs, bears, lions, tigers, etc.) as unclean (verse 27).

Sea creatures must have fins and detachable scales to be considered kosher. Fish like salmon, tuna, and carp are allowed, while shellfish and other seafood without full fins and scales are not.

The rabbit, though it chews the cud, does not have a split hoof; it is unclean for you. And the pig, though it has a split hoof completely divided, does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you. You must not eat their meat or touch their carcasses; they are unclean for you.

Sir Walter Raleigh, in his 1614 History of the World, wrote that Noah kept hyenas off the ark.

Could all the animals fit on the ark? ›

Scientists have characterized about 1.7 million species to date, so the students argue that, if the average mass of species represented on the ark was the average mass of sheep, the ark would theoretically have been able to accommodate them all without capsizing.

The pig did not exist before the flood; it was created on the ark in a strange and disgusting metamorphic act.

The pig is considered an unclean animal as food in Judaism and Islam, and parts of Christianity.

First: a dog was an unclean animal. This means that it was not to be eaten, that it was unclean, to be avoided, and unholy. There are over 40 references to dogs in Scripture, but none are positive. In Psalms 22, they are likened to workers of iniquity, or the evil, God-hating demonic realm.

In Leviticus 11:27, God forbids Moses and his followers to eat swine “because it parts the hoof but does not chew the cud.” Furthermore, the prohibition goes, “Of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch; they are unclean to you.” That message is later reinforced in Deuteronomy.

According to Leviticus 11:3, animals like cows, sheep, and deer that have divided hooves and chew their cud may be consumed. Pigs should not be eaten because they do not chew their cud. The ban on the consumption of pork is repeated in Deuteronomy 14:8.