Unclean Meats

The Mosaic law distinguished between clean and unclean foods, specifying which animals could and could not be consumed by Israelites (Lev. 11; Deut. 14:3-21). For land animals, the criteria were dual: chewing the cud and having a completely split hoof. Animals meeting both criteria (cattle, sheep, goats, deer) were clean; those meeting only one were unclean — most notably the pig (split hoof but no cud-chewing) and the camel (cud-chewing but no split hoof). For water creatures, fins and scales were both required, excluding all shellfish and most seafood. Birds of prey, carrion-eaters, and most insects were unclean, with exceptions for certain locusts (Lev. 11:22).

The dietary distinctions served multiple purposes: marking Israel as a distinct covenant people set apart from the nations (Lev. 20:25-26), cultivating habits of discernment and self-discipline, and possibly encoding practical wisdom. Peter's vision of the great sheet containing all kinds of animals with the command 'kill and eat' (Acts 10:10-16) and the divine declaration 'What God has made clean, do not call common' was interpreted as signaling that Gentiles were no longer unclean and was confirmed by the Spirit's falling on Cornelius's household. Jesus's teaching that 'there is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him' (Mark 7:15) is interpreted by Mark as declaring all foods clean (Mark 7:19). Paul addresses residual concerns about food in Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8-10.