And if any beast, of which ye may eat, die; he that toucheth the carcase thereof shall be unclean until the even.
Leviticus 11:39 belongs to the instructions given through Moses in Leviticus 11 that distinguish clean animals permitted for food from unclean animals forbidden as food, functioning as sanitary laws. The chapter pronounces certain meats unclean and forbids God's people to eat them. Its permission to eat certain animals came with careful restrictions.
The verse provides that if an edible beast dies on its own, its flesh may not be used for food. Anyone who touches its carcass becomes unclean until evening. This concerns contact with the carcass of an otherwise edible, permitted animal.
These restrictions were not arbitrary demands but were given to teach health principles and to preserve life and health. They were intended to lessen the harmful results of eating flesh. Simple, healthful food keeps the blood pure and mind and body sound. Swine and certain other animals were prohibited because their flesh was not the best food, filling and polluting the blood with impurities and shortening life. Beyond this broad connection to health, no specific explanation of the rule about contact with the carcass is given.
The law expressly forbade eating swine's flesh and other unclean meats. The king's food included such meats. Refusal of that food was therefore obedience to God's command. Eating such food clouds the intellect, enfeebles brain and muscle, imperils physical and moral powers, and unfits mind and body for God's service. Refusal through temperance and self-denial keeps the mental powers clear and undimmed, preserves physical health, honors and glorifies God, perfects Christian character, and upholds God's will as the supreme law of life.
Religious leaders perverted these requirements by burdening them with excessive additional rules and traditions about external cleanliness. They went to unwarranted extremes such as requiring all drinking water to be strained to avoid the smallest insect that might be classed as unclean. This turned food distinctions into a continual strain of outward observance. Jesus contrasted such trivial exactions with the magnitude of their actual sins, describing them as blind guides who strain out a tiny gnat yet swallow a camel.
Leviticus 11:39 belongs to the instructions given through Moses in Leviticus 11 that distinguish clean animals permitted for food from unclean animals forbidden as food, functioning as sanitary laws. The chapter pronounces certain meats unclean and forbids God's people to eat them. Its permission to eat certain animals came with careful restrictions.
The verse provides that if an edible beast dies on its own, its flesh may not be used for food. Anyone who touches its carcass becomes unclean until evening. This concerns contact with the carcass of an otherwise edible, permitted animal.
These restrictions were not arbitrary demands but were given to teach health principles and to preserve life and health. They were intended to lessen the harmful results of eating flesh. Simple, healthful food keeps the blood pure and mind and body sound. Swine and certain other animals were prohibited because their flesh was not the best food, filling and polluting the blood with impurities and shortening life. Beyond this broad connection to health, no specific explanation of the rule about contact with the carcass is given.
The law expressly forbade eating swine's flesh and other unclean meats. The king's food included such meats. Refusal of that food was therefore obedience to God's command. Eating such food clouds the intellect, enfeebles brain and muscle, imperils physical and moral powers, and unfits mind and body for God's service. Refusal through temperance and self-denial keeps the mental powers clear and undimmed, preserves physical health, honors and glorifies God, perfects Christian character, and upholds God's will as the supreme law of life.
Religious leaders perverted these requirements by burdening them with excessive additional rules and traditions about external cleanliness. They went to unwarranted extremes such as requiring all drinking water to be strained to avoid the smallest insect that might be classed as unclean. This turned food distinctions into a continual strain of outward observance. Jesus contrasted such trivial exactions with the magnitude of their actual sins, describing them as blind guides who strain out a tiny gnat yet swallow a camel.