Leviticus 11 Footnotes

11:1-23 The main purpose of dietary laws was to separate Israel from the other nations. These laws had practical benefits. In all four sources where the prohibited foods are enumerated (vv. 44-45; 20:25-26; Dt 14:21) the reason for such restrictions is the holiness of the Lord and his people. The handful of species fit for God’s altar table was definitive for cleanness throughout the rest of the animal world. Interpreting this theologically, one might say that since God had limited his “diet” to these animals, his people must do so in imitation of their Creator (Lv 11:44-45). Applying this standard, only those animals that specifically resembled the sacrificial model were allowed. These have in common cloven hoofs and rumination (“chewing the cud”). However, Israel alone is required to observe such special ceremonial cleanness because they are the holy people; Dt 14:21 explicitly allows Israelites to sell carcasses to aliens and foreigners.

11:47 The separation of the animal kingdom into the pure and the impure illustrates Israel’s separation from the nations. The latter had defiled themselves by their idolatry and immorality. Israel must refrain from partaking in these practices to live a holy life founded on the way and nature of God. In the NT these laws were set aside as barriers between Jew and non-Jew.