Deuteronomy 14:8, commentary and pictures

The swine is unclean because though it divides the hoof it does not chew the cud, and its flesh is not to be eaten nor its dead carcass to be touched. The restriction was given for good to preserve life and health and lessen harm, specifying the animals least objectionable for food while forbidding those that were not the best food. Swine were never designed or intended to be eaten under any circumstances, so neither the end of the Jewish dispensation nor the gospel makes their flesh clean or proper food. Their uncleanness lies in their nature and habits as scavengers that live and feed in filth and gather decaying matter, the only use they were intended to serve. Their flesh is unsuitable and unwholesome because its tissues swarm with parasites, and the impurity of what they eat is conveyed through their flesh to those who eat them. Eating it pollutes and corrupts the blood, harms the body and shortens life, while also weakening and clouding the mind so that sacred things are not discerned clearly, and therefore appetite is to be denied and obedience is the safest course.

Meaning and Purpose

The swine is unclean because it divides the hoof yet does not chew the cud, and its flesh shall not be eaten nor its dead carcass touched. That uncleanness belongs to its nature and habits, which make it unfit for food. The distinction between clean and unclean animals existed before the Jewish people and was afterward given legal form through Moses, standing as a positive law against eating or touching swine's flesh, so that avoiding pork is commanded and obedience is the safest course.

The prohibition belongs to careful restrictions given after settlement in Canaan covering swine and other animals. In those restrictions the animals least objectionable for food were specified, while others were forbidden because they were not the best food. The restriction was given for the people's good to preserve life and health and to lessen harmful effects, not merely to display authority or to exercise arbitrary power.

Swine were never designed or intended to be eaten under any circumstances, so the prohibition is not limited to Israel's circumstances. Neither the change from the Jewish dispensation nor the gospel makes swine's flesh clean or proper food, though the question is raised whether the gospel makes it fit to eat. The uncleanness is tied to the animal's nature and habits as a scavenger that lives in filth and feeds on filth and every detestable thing. Gathering decaying matter that could poison the air was the only use it was intended to serve.

Health Effects and Response

Swine's flesh is unsuitable and unwholesome for human food because its tissues swarm with parasites, and filth is its natural element since it lives in filth and feeds upon every detestable thing. The prohibition is not merely a display of authority but a protection of health, for the impurity of what the swine eats is conveyed through its flesh to those who eat it. Eating it pollutes and corrupts the blood and makes it impure, harms the whole body, and shortens life. Its use arouses and strengthens a deadly humor in the body and increases the difficulty caused by disease. Eating such flesh communicates disease, including tuberculosis, cancer, and other fatal diseases.

Especially in a warm climate it fills and burdens the body with humors and often produces leprosy. Its use is also said to promote humors and scrofula and other diseases. It harms the mind by weakening and clouding the brain's sensitive nerves and blunting the finer sensibilities, so that sacred things are confused with common things and are not discerned clearly. By contrast, eating simple, healthful food keeps the blood pure and preserves the faculties of mind and body. Knowledge of the resulting disease was given when it could be borne, and the instruction therefore calls for denying appetite and obeying the light about its harmful effects.

Submission to the wise restrictions would have spared from harmful things and sickness, but when there was refusal to submit what was lusted for was allowed. Obedience to the instruction to avoid pork is the safest course. The directions were perverted when religious leaders extended them beyond what was commanded by imposing extra rules, such as straining all drinking water to remove tiny insects. They carried the prohibition to unreasonable lengths, making life a burden of ceremonies and restrictions over eating and drinking and keeping the mind on a continual strain to discriminate between clean and unclean.