Leviticus 11:33, commentary and pictures

Leviticus 11:33 belongs to the Mosaic laws of uncleanness given through Moses, which distinguished clean animals from unclean animals and vessels, specified which creatures Israel could eat, and forbade eating anything unclean. These dietary restrictions were part of Israel's sanitary laws that taught health and were enforced as part of the people's training before they entered Canaan. The verse means that swine's flesh and the flesh of certain other animals, birds, and fish declared unclean were prohibited as food because they were hurtful and not the best articles of food. Such meats do not keep the mind or the physical structure in the very best condition of health to do God's service.

The prohibitions were given for health to preserve life by keeping the blood pure through simple, healthful food and to keep mind and body in the best condition for God's service, since such food fills the blood with impurities and shortens life. Swine's flesh in particular would fill the system with humors and in that warm climate often produced leprosy, with an influence far more injurious there than in a colder climate, and swine were never designed to be eaten under any circumstances. Swine were useful as scavengers permitted to run free in a fruitful country to devour decaying substances upon the ground which would poison the atmosphere, which was a means of preserving health. If Israel had submitted to these prohibitions God would have removed from them everything injurious to health and allowed no sickness among them, but because they would not submit He gave them what they lusted for.

The Pharisees did not leave these restrictions as God gave them but went beyond what God required to unwarranted extremes, imposing extra rules and minute customs and ceremonies. They required the straining of all water used lest it contain the smallest unseen insect that might be classed with the unclean animals. This made the rules an unreasonable burden that occupied the mind with external distinctions and distracted from true religion. Jesus condemned this fixation on trivial external cleanliness while they neglected serious sins.

Refusing such meats is obedience to the will of God as the supreme law of life, practicing temperance in eating and drinking to keep mental powers clear and undimmed, to perfect Christian character, and to stand as representatives of true religion. Eating them with wine enfeebles brain and muscle, clouds clear intellect, and imperils physical and moral powers.