4284-PORK EATING by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Mar 31, 1914

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 41, No. 12.

4284—PORK EATING

By Editor

Will you please give the references in the Bible on the subject of pork eating? S. H.

Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 contain lists of the unclean animals, of which the Lord forbids His people to partake. Verses 7 and 8 of Leviticus 11 and verse 8 of Deuteronomy 14 mention the swine particularly. This prohibition is not made simply as an arbitrary law, but because, on account of the inherent filthy nature of the animal, it is unfit for food. "The Holy Bible with Commentary," by various clergymen, edited by F. C. Cook, M.A., canon of Exeter, has the following comment on this passage:

"Of all the quadrupeds of which the law forbids the flesh to be eaten, the pig seems to have been regarded as the most unclean. Isa. 65:4; 66:3, 17. Several other nations have agreed with the Hebrews in this respect. Though pigs were sacrificed by the ancient Egyptians at the yearly festival of the moon and Bacchus, and their flesh on that occasion was eaten by the people, they were regarded at all other times with the utmost aversion, and swineherds were banished from society; the priests appear never to have eaten of their flesh, nor even to have taken part in sacrificing it. The Brahman is degraded immediately who intentionally tastes swine's flesh. . . . The dirty habits and uncouth form of the creature may have, no doubt, tended to bring it into disrepute. But a very general notion has prevailed that its flesh is unwholesome, especially in warm climates. . . . Lord Clyde forbade the use of swine's flesh in the Indian army on sanitary grounds. Sir Gardner Wilkinson says, 'The reason of the meat not being eaten [by the Egyptians] was its unwholesomeness, on which account it was forbidden to the Jews and Moslems; and the prejudice naturally extended from the animal to those who kept it, as at present in India and other parts of the East, where a Hindu (that is, one of high caste) or a Moslem is, like an ancient Egyptian, defiled by the touch of a pig, and looks with horror on those who tend it and eat its flesh.'"

In hot climates, indulgence in swine's flesh is particularly likely to produce leprosy, scurvy, and various skin diseases. It is unwholesome for food in any climate; and the fact that there are so many better foods, and the Lord's restrictions regarding it, seem to us sufficient reasons for Christians' discarding it entirely.