YHWH’s Dietary Instructions

This is the law about beast and bird and every living creature that moves through the waters and every creature that swarms on the ground, to make a distinction between the unclean and the clean and between the living creature that may be eaten and the living creature that may not be eaten.

Leviticus 11:46-47

Our bodies are YHWH’s temple; therefore, we must follow His instructions on how He wants us to take care of His temple. Most of YHWH’s dietary instructions, outlined in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14, are designed for our health and well-being; some are also related to avoiding participation in the worship of false gods.

In this study, we won’t delve into the reasons why YHWH’s dietary insructions apply to us today. Information on this topic can be found in our studies on The Torah, and more specifically, in The First Great Commandment.

There are times within the Torah that YHWH mentions not touching unclean objects because they will make you ritually unclean for worship in the tabernacle. We do not need to concern ourselves at this point in time with being ritually clean, as we do not have a tabernacle or temple.

Leviticus 11:31-38 provides instructions on cleaning cooking tools that have been in contact with the carcass of unclean things. In our era of running water and disinfectants, the modern equivalent is to wash them thoroughly with soap, water, and disinfectant and rinse under running water.

Throughout scripture, YHWH uses repetition as a literary tool to stress what is especially important to Him. Keep this in mind while we study His Word.

Of the Land

Leviticus 11:1-7 And YHWH spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying to them, “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, These are the living things that you may eat among all the animals that are on the earth. Whatever parts the hoof and is cloven-footed and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat. Nevertheless, among those that chew the cud or part the hoof, you shall not eat these: The camel, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you. And the rock badger, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you. And the hare, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you. And the pig, because it parts the hoof and is cloven-footed but does not chew the cud, is unclean to you. 

Leviticus 11:26a Every animal that parts the hoof but is not cloven-footed or does not chew the cud is unclean to you.

Leviticus 11:27a And all that walk on their paws, among the animals that go on all fours, are unclean to you.

Leviticus 11:29-30 “And these are unclean to you among the swarming things that swarm on the ground: the mole rat, the mouse, the great lizard of any kind, the gecko, the monitor lizard, the lizard, the sand lizard, and the chameleon.

Deuteronomy 14:4-8 These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. Every animal that parts the hoof and has the hoof cloven in two and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat. Yet of those that chew the cud or have the hoof cloven you shall not eat these: the camel, the hare, and the rock badger, because they chew the cud but do not part the hoof, are unclean for you. And the pig, because it parts the hoof but does not chew the cud, is unclean for you. Their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch.

Leviticus 11:41-45 “Every swarming thing that swarms on the ground is detestable; it shall not be eaten. Whatever goes on its belly, and whatever goes on all fours, or whatever has many feet, any swarming thing that swarms on the ground, you shall not eat, for they are detestable. You shall not make yourselves detestable with any swarming thing that swarms, and you shall not defile yourselves with them, and become unclean through them. For I am YHWH your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground. For I am YHWH who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”

For more information on eating swine, please watch this teaching by 119 Ministries: Pig Science

In summary, when it comes to mammals, only those that both chew their cud and have a split hoof are considered clean for us to eat. Examples of clean mammals include cattle, sheep, goats, deer, moose, elk, gazelles, wild goats, ante­lopes, and mountain sheep. On the other hand, examples of unclean animals encompass pigs, rabbits, horses, dogs, cats, and members of the camelid family.

Of the Sea

Leviticus 11:9-10 “These you may eat, of all that are in the waters. Everything in the waters that has fins and scales, whether in the seas or in the rivers, you may eat. But anything in the seas or the rivers that does not have fins and scales, of the swarming creatures in the waters and of the living creatures that are in the waters, is detestable to you.

Deuteronomy 14:9-10 “Of all that are in the waters you may eat these: whatever has fins and scales you may eat. And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.

In summary, according to scripture, only fish with fins and scales are considered clean for consumption. While Jewish tradition specifies that the scales must be removable, not embedded in the skin, this distinction is not mentioned in scripture. This is why we include fish like burbot on our list of clean fish, but the decision to consume them is left to personal discernment. Examples of unclean fish, not intended for food, include eels, sturgeon, shark, catfish, dogfish, mussels, lobster, crab, and shrimp. Below is an alphabetical list of commonly consumed fish that are recognized as clean and suitable for consumption:

  1. Albacore
  2. Anchovies
  3. Arctic Grayling
  4. Atlantic Whitefish
  5. Bass
  6. Burbot
  7. Carp
  8. Charr
  9. Cod
  10. Haddock
  1. Halibut
  2. Herring
  3. Lake Whitefish
  4. Mackerels
  5. Marlin
  6. Muskies
  7. Perch
  8. Pickerel
  9. Pike
  10. Pollock
  1. Salmon
  2. Sardine
  3. Sauger
  4. Snapper
  5. Sole
  6. Suckerfish (Family: Castostomidae)
  7. Tilapia
  8. Trout
  9. Tuna
  10. Walleye

Of the Sky

Leviticus 11:13-19 “And these you shall detest among the birds; they shall not be eaten; they are detestable: the eagle, the bearded vulture, the black vulture, the kite, the falcon of any kind, every raven of any kind, the ostrich, the nighthawk, the sea gull, the hawk of any kind, the little owl, the cormorant, the short-eared owl, the barn owl, the tawny owl, the carrion vulture, the stork, the heron of any kind, the hoopoe, and the bat.

Leviticus 11:20-23 “All winged insects that go on all fours are detestable to you. Yet among the winged insects that go on all fours you may eat those that have jointed legs above their feet, with which to hop on the ground. Of them you may eat: the locust of any kind, the bald locust of any kind, the cricket of any kind, and the grasshopper of any kind. But all other winged insects that have four feet are detestable to you.

Deuteronomy 14:11-20 “You may eat all clean birds. But these are the ones that you shall not eat: the eagle, the bearded vulture, the black vulture, the kite, the falcon of any kind; every raven of any kind; the ostrich, the nighthawk, the sea gull, the hawk of any kind; the little owl and the short-eared owl, the barn owl and the tawny owl, the carrion vulture and the cormorant, the stork, the heron of any kind; the hoopoe and the bat. And all winged insects are unclean for you; they shall not be eaten. All clean winged things you may eat.

The Torah does not provide a list of clean birds in its dietary instructions; instead, it offers a detailed list of birds that are considered unclean. Notably, Scripture specifies that pigeons and doves are clean for sacrifices, and birds considered clean for offerings and sacrifices would also be suitable for eating. Additionally, instances of YHWH feeding the Israelites quail indicate that quail is deemed clean for consumption.

It’s important to understand that the translation of the original Hebrew names for birds is subject to the understanding of the translator. Consequently, when Moses occasionally uses the term ‘of any kind,’ it suggests that the Hebrew word may refer to a category higher up on our modern classification scheme than what the translator assumed. For example, the word quail likely meant a fowl, but not necessarily the bird we call a quail today, as there have been many generations of variations since Moses’ day.

According to Wikipedia:

Quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds generally placed in the order Galliformes.

Galliformes is an order of heavy-bodied ground-feeding birds that includes turkeys, chickens, quail, and other landfowl.

In order to determine which birds are clean to eat, we need to determine what was intended by the Hebrew words used by Moses. It is unlikely that there are only three specific birds that we are allowed to eat, and more likely that they represent a “kind” of bird. Understanding what ‘kind’ means in the Bible requires careful consideration. To delve deeper into this, let’s explore the insights provided by the creation science ministry Answers in Genesis:

Creation scientists use the word baramin to refer to created kinds (Hebrew: bara = created, min = kind). Because none of the original ancestors survive today, creationists have been trying to figure out what descendants belong to each baramin in their varied forms. Baramin is commonly believed to be at the level of family and possibly order for some plants/animals (according to the common classification scheme of kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species). On rare occasions, a kind may be equivalent to the genus or species levels.

When Noah gathered animals on the ark, he did so by ‘kind,’ and it was these ‘kinds’ that repopulated the earth. All the birds we have today are descendants of those original ‘kinds.’ It is plausible that the birds mentioned in the Torah refer to specific ‘kinds’ that left the ark, encompassing all the varieties that have since descended and evolved from these original groups.

The common classification scheme, ranging from kingdom to species, undergoes frequent changes as scientists struggle to reach a consensus on the categorization of birds. They often rearrange species and even establish new orders, sometimes containing only one family. A more sensible approach might involve creating a family tree of animals, tracing them back to the ‘kinds’ that disembarked from the ark with Noah. This concept finds expression in the field of biology through the study of phylogenetics, which provides a somewhat accurate representation. With advancements in technology, scientists can now utilize genetics to trace the evolutionary history of animals within their clade.

Wikipedia defines “clade” for us:

In biological phylogenetics, a clade (from Ancient Greek κλάδος (kládos) ‘branch’), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a grouping of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. In the taxonomical literature, sometimes the Latin form cladus (plural cladi) is used rather than the English form. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach to taxonomy adopted by most biological fields.

The common ancestor may be an individual, a population, or a species (extinct or extant). Clades are nested, one in another, as each branch in turn splits into smaller branches. These splits reflect evolutionary history as populations diverged and evolved independently. Clades are termed monophyletic (Greek: “one clan”) groups.

These clades are not universally agreed upon among scientists and are not perfectly accurate, but they may be closer to the truth than the common classification of Kingdom, phylum, class, etc. The scientific community often interprets evidence through the lens of millions of years, in contrast to the thousands of years proposed by the young earth model. This difference in perspective is why the time frames for the evolution of each clade, according to mainstream science, are nonsensical. However, akin to the study of human haplogroups, we can explore placing the family tree of modern birds into the young earth model. This approach might provide a more accurate tracing of modern birds back to their flood-surviving ancestors.

There are two extant clades of birds according to phylogenetics. Palaeognathae (Old Jaw) and Neognathae (New Jaw).

According to Wikipedia:

The word Paleognathae is derived from the ancient Greek for ‘old jaws’ in reference to the skeletal anatomy of the palate, which is described as more primitive and reptilian than that in other birds. Paleognathous birds retain some basal morphological characters but are by no means living fossils as their genomes continued to evolve at the DNA level under selective pressure at rates comparable to the Neognathae branch of living birds, though there is some controversy about the precise relationship between them and the other birds. There are also several other scientific controversies about their evolution.

According to Wikipedia:

The Neognathae have fused metacarpals, an elongated third finger, and 13 or fewer vertebrae. They differ from the Palaeognathae in features like the structure of their jawbones. Neognathae means “new jaws”, but it seems that the supposedly “more ancient” paleognath jaws are among the few apomorphic (more derived) features of the palaeognaths, meaning that the respective jaw structure of these groups is not informative in terms of comparative evolution. A neognath-like palate is however seen in modern basal birds like Ichthyornis.

In other words, they named the two main types of birds ‘Old Jaw’ and ‘New Jaw,’ despite no evidence supporting one being older than the other. The existing evidence, in fact, suggests they evolved together and continue to do so.

There is no consensus among scientists on how these family trees are to be laid out, and multiple options exist for each clade because the interpretation of data remains arbitrary. For transparency, we’ve taken the information from the various family trees and made a representation as best we could to show you where the scientific community, for the most part, places different bird kinds. The second illustration is our interpretation of the family tree, using mostly common names.

In our version of the bird family tree, we removed what we saw as extraneous group headings, as we’re only tracing back to the flood. Additionally, we placed flamingoes and grebes back to where scientists had them about a decade or less ago. It’s important to note that this adjustment doesn’t change their classification as unclean; rather, it serves to tidy up the overall structure of the tree.

To enhance clarity, we color-coded the unclean bird groups in red and the clean bird groups in green. Furthermore, we underlined and highlighted in bold print the names given to us in scripture.

What we found is that there are two clades of birds that are clean for us to eat: Galloanserae (fowl) and Columbimorphae. Galloanserae includes domestic poultry such as chickens, ducks, and turkeys. In Columbimorphae, there are pigeons and doves, along with mesites and sandgrouse. It’s important to note that mesites, found in Madagascar, are threatened, making them unsuitable for consumption. Sandgrouse, belonging to the family Pteroclidae, encompass sixteen species distributed across Africa, Madagascar, the Middle East, India, and central Asia.

All of this research and information just to say that you can eat turkeys, chickens, quail, partridge, grouse, ducks, geese, swans, sandgrouse, pigeons and doves. Also, as far as insects go, you can eat locusts, crickets, and grasshoppers.

Additional Restrictions

Died Naturally

Deuteronomy 14:21 “You shall not eat anything that has died naturally. You may give it to the sojourner who is within your towns, that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a people holy to YHWH your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

See our study No Cheeseburgers for an explanation of what boiling a young goat in its mother’s milk means (which has nothing to do with cooking or dietary restrictions).

Do not Eat Blood

As a quick reminder: YHWH uses repetition as a literary tool to stress the things that are important to Him. The more often something is mentioned in scripture, the more important it is to YHWH.

Genesis 9:4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.

Leviticus 3:17 It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations, in all your dwelling places, that you eat neither fat nor blood.

Leviticus 7:26 Moreover, you shall eat no blood whatever, whether of fowl or of animal, in any of your dwelling places.

Leviticus 17:10-11 If any one of the house of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn among them eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from among his people. For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.

Leviticus 17:13-14 Any one also of the people of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn among them, who takes in hunting any beast or bird that may be eaten shall pour out its blood and cover it with earth. For the life of every creature is its blood: its blood is its life. Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, You shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off.

Deuteronomy 12:16 Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out on the earth like water.

Deuteronomy 12:23-24 Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh. You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the earth like water.

Deuteronomy 15:23 Only you shall not eat its blood; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.

Acts 15:20 But should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood.

Acts 15:29 That you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.

Acts 21:25 But as for the Gentiles who have believed, we have sent a letter with our judgment that they should abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality.

Just a quick note that the red in meat is not blood. Blood travels through veins and arteries and is not part of the muscle itself.

From Steak Revolution:

That red stuff in steak isn’t blood, even though it might look like it. It’s a mix of water and a protein called myoglobin. Myoglobin helps transport oxygen to an animal’s muscles. And when it’s exposed to oxygen, it gives the meat that familiar red hue.

Slaughtering Animals

Leviticus 17:13-14 If any of you, whether Israelite or foreigner living among you, goes hunting and kills a wild animal or bird that you are allowed to eat, you must pour the blood of that animal on the ground and cover it with dirt. This is because the life of every kind of animal is in its blood. So I give this command to the Israelites: Don’t eat meat that still has blood in it! Whoever eats blood must be separated from their people.

When slaughtering an animal, you must allow the blood to drain fully. If you buy all of your meat in the store, you likely do not need to concern yourself with this requirement as commercial slaughter houses drain the blood and hang the meat before butchering it.

Hidden Pork

Sausage

Even if you are eating sausage that does not contain pork it may still contain pig. Natural sausage casings are usually pig intestine and even artificial (collagen) casings may be made from boiling down the bones of pigs.

From Wikipedia:

Natural sausage casings are made from the sub-mucosa of the small intestine of meat animals, a layer of the intestine that consists mainly of naturally occurring collagen. In Western European cuisine and Chinese cuisine, most casings come from pigs, but elsewhere the intestines of sheep, goats, cattle and sometimes horses are also used.

Collagen casings are mainly produced from the collagen in beef or pig hides, and the bones and tendons.

Gelatin

Many candies, desserts, and even vitamins contain gelatin that is produced from collagen.

From Wikipedia:

Gelatin or gelatine (from Latin: gelatus ‘stiff’ or ‘frozen’) is a translucent, colorless, flavorless food ingredient, commonly derived from collagen taken from animal body parts. It is brittle when dry and rubbery when moist. It may also be referred to as hydrolyzed collagen, collagen hydrolysate, gelatine hydrolysate, hydrolyzed gelatine, and collagen peptides after it has undergone hydrolysis. It is commonly used as a gelling agent in food, beverages, medications, drug or vitamin capsules, photographic films, papers, and cosmetics.

Substances containing gelatin or functioning in a similar way are called gelatinous substances. Gelatin is an irreversibly hydrolyzed form of collagen, wherein the hydrolysis reduces protein fibrils into smaller peptides; depending on the physical and chemical methods of denaturation, the molecular weight of the peptides falls within a broad range. Gelatin is present in gelatin desserts, most gummy candy and marshmallows, ice creams, dips, and yogurts.

As frustrating as it is, pig is often hidden in processed foods. Check your labels carefully and contact manufacturers to confirm if the collagen used in your products is derived from swine. Look for vegetarian or kosher labels on products as these can help identify pig-free options.

Conclusion

Our bodies serve as the temple of the Holy Spirit within us, and we are called to maintain them in a state of holiness, purity, and health. YHWH has provided guidance on achieving this by instructing us to consume only the foods He has deemed permissible.

Acts 10:14 But Peter said, Not at all, Lord, because I never did eat anything common or unclean.

1 Corinthians 3:16-17 Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in You? If anyone corrupts the temple of God, God will bring that one to corruption; for the temple of God is holy which you are.

1 Corinthians 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit in you, which you have from God; and you are not of yourselves? For you were bought with a price; to glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are of God.

May you be blessed by this study. Shalom.

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