Clean and Unclean

Today's readings are from Lev. 11, 12, 13

I hope you're hanging in there as we go through some of the toughest to read sections having to do with regulations on specific topics that relate to health. Reading these can see to be a task in "what is this all about". Well, let's keep it simple.
Simply put these things - for the most part - relate to issues of health, healthiness in relation to the nation traveling together in the desert.

The issues of clean and unclean are fascinating. Greg Boyd, a pastor and writer who I greatly respect, writing in his own blog recently, happen to write on this topic:

"I’ve always been a bit mystified over the distinction between “clean” and “unclean” animals in the OT. I have read several attempts to justify this distinction on the grounds that the former were healthier — or at least less dangerous — to eat, but these defenses never struck me as all that convincing. In his recent book Is God a Moral Monster? (Baker, 2011), Paul Copan offers a much more compelling defense of this distinction (pages 79-84). One aspect of his argument I found particularly interesting was his contention that animals were considered “clean” because they reflect the original order of creation more perfectly than the “unclean” animals and “unclean” because they reflect the effects of the fall more than the “clean” animals.

The connection between the “clean” and “unclean” distinction, on the one hand, and the creation and fall, on the other, is reflected in the book of Leviticus by the repeated phrases “you may eat” and “you shall not eat” (Lev. 11:3, 9, 11, 21, 22) which, Copan argues, echo the provision and prohibition to Adam and Eve in the garden (Gen. 2:16; 3:2). This connection arguably explains why predators and animals that had been preyed on were prohibited (Ex 22:31; Lev. 17:14) for, according to the Genesis narrative, the original creation was non-carnivorous (Gen. 1:31). Even when humans were permitted to eat meat after the flood they had to first drain the blood out, for the blood was (and is?) considered sacred (Gen. 9:4). Hence, animals that prey on others and consume their blood are, to this degree, out of sync with God’s creational design.

What I find most significant is that this explanation of the “clean” and “unclean” distinction presupposes that nature has been significantly affected by the fall, as the Genesis narrative itself suggests (Gen. 3: 14-19) and other passages of Scripture confirm (e.g. Rom. 8: 19-22)..."
- Greg Boyd

I find the argument and analysis of clean and unclean interesting. It's important in the end to note that God gave these regulations to protect the health of the nation, and keep disease in check...a fight against the effects of the Fall.

Peace
Elliott


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