Commentaria in Leviticum
Chapter 11
God lays down a law concerning clean animals, which it is lawful to eat, and unclean ones, which He forbids to be eaten. First, then, He decrees that of land animals those only are clean which have the hoof divided and at the same time chew the cud. Secondly, verse 9, of fishes He wills those only to be held clean which have fins and scales. Thirdly, verse 13, He designates twenty unclean birds; but locusts, because they leap, He ordains to be clean. Fourthly, verse 29, He decrees that all reptiles are unclean, and that their carcasses defile him who touches them.
1. And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: 2. Say to the children of Israel: These are the animals which you are to eat of all the living things of the earth. 3. Whatsoever hath the hoof divided, and cheweth the cud among the beasts, you shall eat. 4. But whatsoever cheweth indeed the cud, and hath a hoof, but divideth it not, as the camel and others, that you shall not eat, but shall reckon it among the unclean. 5. The cherogrillus which cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof, is unclean. 6. The hare also: for it cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof. 7. And the swine, which, though it divideth the hoof, cheweth not the cud. 8. Of the flesh of these you shall not eat, nor shall you touch their carcasses, because they are unclean to you. 9. These are the things that breed in the waters, and which it is lawful to eat. Whatsoever hath fins and scales, as well in the sea as in the rivers and the pools, you shall eat. 10. But all that hath not fins and scales, of those that move and live in the waters, shall be an abomination to you, 11. And detestable. Their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall avoid. 12. All that have not fins and scales in the waters shall be unclean. 13. These are the birds which you must not eat, and which are to be avoided by you: The eagle, and the griffon, and the osprey, 14. And the kite, and the vulture according to their kind: 15. And all that is of the raven’s kind according to their likeness, 16. The ostrich, and the owl, and the larus, and the hawk according to its kind: 17. The screech owl, and the cormorant, and the ibis, 18. And the swan, and the bittern, and the porphyrio, 19. The heron, and the charadrion according to its kind, the hoopoe also, and the bat. 20. Every thing that fleeth, and goeth upon four feet, shall be an abomination to you. 21. But whatsoever walketh upon four feet, but hath the hinder legs longer, that it hoppeth upon the earth, 22. You shall eat, as the bruchus in its kind, and the attacus, and the ophiomachus, and the locust, every one according to their kind. 23. But whatsoever of flying things hath only four feet, shall be an abomination to you: 24. And every one that shall touch their carcasses, shall be defiled, and shall be unclean until the evening: 25. And if it be necessary that he carry any such thing when it is dead, he shall wash his garments, and shall be unclean until the sun set. 26. Every beast that hath a hoof, but divideth it not, nor cheweth the cud, shall be unclean; and he that toucheth it shall be defiled. 27. That which walketh upon its paws, of all living creatures that go on all four, shall be unclean: he that toucheth their carcasses shall be defiled until the evening. 28. And he that shall carry such carcasses shall wash his garments, and shall be unclean until the evening: because all these things are unclean to you. 29. These things also shall be reckoned among the unclean, of those that move upon the earth: the weasel, and the mouse, and the crocodile, every one according to their kind: 30. The shrew, and the chameleon, and the stellio, and the lizard, and the mole. 31. All these are unclean. He that toucheth their carcasses shall be unclean until the evening. 32. And upon whatsoever any of their carcasses shall fall, it shall be defiled, whether it be a vessel of wood, or a garment, or skins, or haircloths, or any thing in which work is done: they shall be dipped in water, and shall be unclean until the evening, and so afterwards shall be clean. 33. But an earthen vessel, into which any of these shall fall, shall be defiled, and therefore is to be broken. 34. Any meat which you eat, if water from such a vessel be poured upon it, shall be unclean: and every liquor that is drunk out of any such vessel, shall be unclean. 35. And upon whatsoever thing any of such carcasses shall fall, it shall be unclean: whether ovens, or pots with feet, they shall be destroyed, and shall be unclean. 36. But fountains and cisterns, and all gathering together of waters shall be clean. He that toucheth their carcass shall be defiled. 37. If it fall upon seed corn, it shall not defile it. 38. But if any one pour water upon the seed, and afterwards it be touched by the carcasses, it shall be presently defiled. 39. If any beast die, which it is lawful for you to eat, he that toucheth its carcass shall be unclean until the evening: 40. And he that eateth anything thereof, or carrieth it, shall wash his garments, and shall be unclean until the evening. 41. Every thing that creepeth upon the ground shall be an abomination, and shall not be taken for meat. 42. Whatsoever goeth upon the breast on four feet, or hath many feet, or traileth upon the earth, you shall not eat, because it is abominable. 43. Do not defile your souls, nor touch aught thereof, lest you be unclean. 44. For I am the Lord your God: be holy, because I am holy. Defile not your souls by any creeping thing that moveth upon the earth. 45. For I am the Lord that brought you out of the land of Egypt, that I might be your God: you shall be holy, because I am holy. 46. This is the law of beasts and fowls, and of every living soul that moveth in the water, and creepeth on the ground, 47. That you may know the differences of the clean and unclean, and know what you may eat, and what you ought to refuse.
that this people, aroused to cleanness of mind, might rise up, and so most purely prepare itself for Christ, about to be born of it.
Verse 2. These are the animals which you are to eat— of which it is lawful to eat, as is plain from the Hebrew, the Chaldee,
You will ask, why did God here ordain and prescribe this observance of foods, and the distinction of clean animals from unclean? I answer: The first cause was that this rude people might have therein a continual exercise, now of temperance, now of obedience, now of religion and worship, by eating the clean and abstaining from the unclean out of honour and reverence of God so commanding, and so might always worship God: for, as Tertullian says, book On Jewish Meats, chapter 4: “Many kinds of foods were taken away from the Jews, not that they should be condemned, but that these men should be restrained, who were to serve one God; because frugality became those so chosen, and temperance of gluttony; which is always found to be neighbour to religion, nay (so to speak) rather akin and kindred; for luxury is the enemy of holiness.”
Second, that this people, accustoming itself to bodily cleanness, might be drawn farther away from the uncleannesses of idolaters, and their unclean sacrifices and feasts.
Third, that by these things
Fourth, because these unclean things were tropologically symbols of the vices which we must beware of.
This cause Eleazar the pontiff gave to the legates of Ptolemy Philadelphus, who asked that seventy-two Interpreters be sent him to turn the sacred Scripture from Hebrew into Greek, as I said in Canon 27. This cause the Fathers also everywhere assign, as Tertullian, or rather Novatian, book On Jewish Meats, which he wrote while still a Catholic, in which at length and minutely he explains the animals here forbidden by the vices signified by them: I shall bring his words at verse 30; Clement of Alexandria, book 2 Paedagogus, chapter 10; Cyril, book 9 Against Julian, near the end; Origen here, homily 7; Eusebius, book 8 On the Preparation for the Gospel, chapter 3, and St. Augustine, book Against Adimantus, chapter 15.
For when Adimantus, as a Manichee, assailed the Old Testament as given by an evil god, and in particular censured this law of abstinence from that saying of Matthew, chapter 15: “That which goeth into the mouth defileth not a man,” St. Augustine answers that these foods were not forbidden to the Jews as though they of themselves defile the mind; but that these precepts concerning them were laid down for a carnal people, to signify human morals, and that they might prophesy the future discipline of the spiritual Christian people. Hence also, as St. Cyril notes, book 14 On Adoration, some things are here forbidden which are not wont to be eaten, and which we all naturally refuse and abhor, as the stellio, the weasel, the mouse, etc.
Moreover, all these things are fitly ordained and distinguished according to nature; for the animals here reckoned unclean and forbidden for food are those which by their nature are either venomous, as are all reptiles, which ever creep upon the ground, and so imbibe from the earth a viscous, foetid and noxious humour, and show it in their nourishment; or which feed on unclean foods, as swine and hoopoes, which live among dung, and storks, which eat serpents: so also bats, owls, horned owls, all which are fed on unclean aliments; or which are of an ill-tempered constitution, as the fishes here forbidden, which are all of bad nourishment; or which are fierce and rapacious, as griffons, kites, vultures. So Pythagoras forbade his followers to eat beans, because that food causes great flatulence, and therefore distends the stomach and head, and disturbs the tranquillity of the mind, says Cicero,