Holiness Code: Clean and Unclean Creatures

How should we understand the distinction between clean and unclean creatures in the book of Leviticus? What role did this distinction have for the ancient Israelites? And how did this distinction relate to God’s holiness? Let’s learn more about this part of the Leviticus holiness code with these notes from the ESV Study Bible.

The Laws on Cleanness and Uncleanness

Leviticus 10:10–11 defines the principal duties of the Israelite priesthood. One of these tasks is “to distinguish between the unclean and the clean.” Chapters 11-15 apply this principle to a variety of areas of Israelite life and culture. Chapter 11 deals with the matter of foods that are clean and may be eaten, and foods that are unclean and may not be eaten. Chapter 12 treats the issue of cleanliness and purification after childbirth. The following two chapters (chs. 13–14) provide regulations concerning cleanliness in matters of fungi, skin diseases, and infections. Chapter 15 considers human bodily discharges that may cause a person to be unclean. These five chapters constitute a codified directory for Israel, and in particular for the priests, that defines what is clean and unclean in God’s sight.

Clean and Unclean Creatures

This chapter explains which creatures were considered clean and which were considered unclean.

The rationale of why a creature is placed in one category vs. the other has puzzled commentators throughout the ages, and there is still no consensus of opinion. Typical explanations include a concern for hygiene; a “death” motif (i.e., unclean animals were somehow more associated with death in the Israelite mind); and polemics against Canaanite customs. More recently, it has been argued that a creature is unclean when it does not conform to established norms (e.g., an Israelite’s established norm for a four-legged creature would be a cow or a goat, since these were their herd and flock animals; a pig is thus unclean because, even though it has four legs, it is unlike the norm in that it does not chew the cud).

In evaluating the above approaches, it is probably fair to say that no single one of them can provide a rationale that works for all the animals in this chapter. As a result, there might be a number of different reasons why an animal was considered clean or unclean.

Clean and Unclean People

While the rationale of the classifications is still debated, the purpose of these laws is clear. In brief, they were to help Israel–as the Lord’s holy people–to make distinctions between ritual cleanness and ritual uncleanness (vv. 46–47).

Significantly, making these distinctions in the ritual realm would no doubt serve as a constant reminder to the people of their need for making the parallel distinctions in the moral realm as well.

Further, adherence to these food laws expresses Israel’s devotion to the Lord: just as he separated the Israelites from the other nations, so they must separate clean from unclean foods (20:24–26). This is why the restrictions can be removed in Acts 10:9–28, when the Jew vs. Gentile distinction is no longer relevant in defining the people of God (cf. also Mark 7:19; Col. 2:16–23; Heb. 9:1–14; 10:1–18).

For Israel to obey these dietary restrictions also shows that the people honor the Creator, who has the right to decide how his creatures may be used. A “clean” animal is one “permitted” for food (Lev. 11:2). It is clear that classifying an animal as “unclean” is not the same as declaring that animal “evil”: God cares for all beasts, clean and unclean alike (cf. Ps. 104:17–18; 147:9).

Leviticus employs a simple and practical classification system for edible animals, based on readily observable features. It is geared to the kind of life that Israel will live in the land of Canaan, and it is not always easy to apply it to animals that Israelites did not normally encounter (for instance, the sturgeon, which modern rabbis consider to have the wrong kind of scales, is not included here). This system is good for its purpose, a purpose that is different from that of the modern zoologist’s taxonomy.

Clean and Unclean Land Creatures (11:1–8)

The first paragraph deals with land-dwelling animals. In order for a land animal to be considered “clean,” it must meet two conditions: chewing the cud and being cloven-footed. In practical terms, these criteria permit Israel to eat hoofed mammals with two functional toes, including domestic beasts such as sheep, goats, and cattle, and wild ones such as antelopes (cf. Deut. 14:4–5). A horse, on the other hand, which has only one toe, is not clean.

The diet of these animals is apparently not the basis of their cleanness or uncleanness. The passage itself says nothing about what the animals eat, and the camel, rock badger (hyrax), and hare are exclusively vegetarian but unclean. The pig is the only animal in this list that is not strictly vegetarian. (Many of the clean aquatic creatures of Lev. 11:9–12 are carnivorous.) The expression translated chews the cud can be applied to camels, rock badgers, and hares (vv. 4–6); based on the observable features of the animal, the thorough chewing of these animals looks like the cud-chewing of, say, cattle.

Clean and Unclean Water Creatures (11:9–12)

The presence of fins and scales is the mark for distinguishing between clean and unclean water-dwelling creatures. In practical terms, this limits the clean aquatic animals to what modern zoologists would call true fish; anything aquatic that has not fins and scales (e.g., squid, shellfish) is unclean.

Clean and Unclean Flying Creatures (11:13–19)

Almost all the unclean birds are predators and carrion-eaters (i.e., ones contacting death and consuming blood). The term translated “bird” (Hb. ‘op) covers a variety of creatures that fly (see ESV footnote, things that fly; cf. Gen. 1:20), and thus can include the bat.

Clean and Unclean Insects, Carcasses, Reptiles and Swarming Creatures (11:20–40)

Insofar as the winged insects have an ability to leave the ground, they are clean. For the locust and grasshopper as allowable food, cf. the diet of John the Baptist (Matt. 3:4).

The law gradually introduces the theme of death as a defiling force (see “carcasses” in vv. 8, 11). The carcass of any unclean animal is defiling, i.e., it makes the person who touches it unclean for a period (until the evening).

Not only are these creatures unclean for food, but touching them when they are dead will also make one defiled.

It is uncertain why the water in a spring or a cistern is not contaminated by an unclean creature that falls into it. Perhaps it is because water in them is naturally flowing and is continuously refreshed and renewed. It may also be an exception because water is in such short supply in Palestine.

Even the clean quadrupeds are defiling after they have died.

The Holiness of the Lord and His People (11:44–45)

This self-identification, for I am the Lord, is used here for the first time in the book; it occurs frequently from ch. 18 on. The Lord, who is himself holy (cf. 19:2; 20:26; 21:8), calls his people to consecrate themselves, i.e., dedicate themselves to holiness (Hb. hitqaddesh), and to be holy, i.e., practice a holy lifestyle (cf. 20:7–8). The Lord is the one who brought them up out of the land of Egypt. Personal consecration (in which a person imitates God’s own character) is a response to God’s gracious initiative (cf. Ex. 20:2). First Peter 1:16 applies the same principle to Christian readers, portraying them as the heirs of this special status.

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