The Simple Answers… To Life’s Most Important Questions.
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In Biblical days, it was fairly easy to avoid unclean meats; most people butchered their own meat, so all you had to do was avoid killing and eating a pig and you were in the clear. What’s more, the entire nation of Israel kept this law, and so you had the support of an entire nation of people who understood the rules you lived by and were there to help you keep unclean foods out of your mouth. Today, however, we’re largely on our own. When you buy food in the store or eat in a restaurant, you have to be on guard because the world uses whatever substance is cheapest, easiest, and tastes best; regardless of whether it comes from an unclean animal. So here are a few of the things you need to know if you’re starting to keep the Biblical laws of clean/unclean animals.
HOW TO TELL
As you know, Deuteronomy 14 and Leviticus 11 contain lists of clean and unclean animals. But how can you tell, based on those lists, about things not mentioned in the Bible – say, turkeys? You must look at all the animals listed as clean and see what they have in common; from that, you can extrapolate what the rules are. God gave us a clear set of rules for mammals in Deuteronomy 14:6 (BBE);God says “Any beast which has a division in the horn of its foot and whose food comes back into its mouth to be crushed again, may be used for food.” The KJV puts it “every beast that parteth the hoof… and cheweth the cud”.
So God has simple rules that determine whether a beast is clean or unclean; an observation, not mentioned in the Bible but which all clean animals have in common, is horns; every clean animal has horns, they may be vestigial but they are there. No unclean animal has a true horn (rhino horn is made of dense hair, elephant tusks are actually teeth, etc). So from that, we can say that clean mammals…
1. Have a hoof that is parted down the middle,
2. Chew the cud – regurgitate food to rechew it, and
3. Have horns.
Every other mammal is unclean. Fish likewise are easily categorized in Deuteronomy 14:9 “all that have fins and scales shall ye eat”, and everything else in the ocean is unclean (verse 10). This means that to tell whether a fish is clean, all you have to do is look at one before it is skinned/scaled/filleted and see if it has fins and scales. Catfish has no scales, so it is unclean. Trout has scales, so it is. Lobster has no fins, so it is unclean.
Tuna has scales, but they are very tiny. There has been some debate over the years whether it is clean or not, as in some species the scales are nearly microscopic; nevertheless, God says if it has scales, it’s clean – He made no qualification about size, so neither do we. Tuna therefore fits the qualifications for a clean fish, which are:
1. It must have scales.
2. It must have fins.
Everything else that swims is unclean. Again, very simple rules. With birds however, the Bible gives us no explicit rules, only examples. But from those examples, we can see what they have in common and extrapolate rules.
In Deuteronomy 14:11-20 and Leviticus 11:13-19, God gives us many examples of unclean birds, but not a single clean bird is mentioned! The implication is that these were all the unclean types of birds Israel was familiar with, and clean birds were “everything else”. We do however know that doves and pigeons are clean, because they were used as sacrifices (Leviticus 1:14), and no unclean animal could be sacrificed. We also know that eggs of these birds are clean, based on Deuteronomy 22:6-7. So sifting through this information, we can arrive at the following conclusions:
Generally speaking, birds of prey and carrion scavengers are unclean; along with wading birds. The birds that are not mentioned (and thus, that are clean) generally have craws where they grind food, scratch the ground for their food, and have a diet of primarily insects, seeds, and plants. Songbirds are also clean. Another general distinction is that when a bird sits on a branch, unclean birds generally have two toes forward, and two toes behind the branch. Clean birds generally have three forward, and one back. Also note that “swan” in most Bibles is incorrectly translated; it more likely means “owl”. Swans are in fact clean.
The list of poultry is not as simple as the other lists, but the good news is that no western countries eat unclean poultry on a regular basis. All poultry usually consumed – chicken, turkey, goose, duck, etc. – are clean. You’ll find a full list of all the clean/unclean animals at the end of this article. This information was to explain how those animals were determined to be clean, when many of them were not mentioned in the Bible.
ANIMAL PRODUCTS
Obviously, it is not just the animals themselves, but any portion of their carcass that is used that is unclean (Leviticus 11:31-47). To this end, we have to be aware of where unclean foods are used in our society because whether we know we’re eating unclean food or not, we’re still guilty… Leviticus 5:2 Or if a soul touch any unclean thing, whether it be a carcase of an unclean beast, or a carcase of unclean cattle, or the carcase of unclean creeping things, and if it be hidden from him; he also shall be unclean, and guilty.
So this will be a discussion of some of the most common ways unclean food is hidden in the average diet. Obviously, you are responsible for doing your own research and checking into foods you eat for yourself; this is just to give you ideas and point you in the right direction.
SOME SAFE FOODS
First, a few things you need to know. Anything Kosher is Biblically clean. That doesn’t mean Kosher is necessary, since Kosher requires many things beyond what the Bible requires, including being blessed by a rabbi. But if you see a Kosher symbol, like the ones on the right, then you can eat freely. If you see the word “Parve” or “Pareve”, that also means it’s clean. Muslims are generally safe, because their diet is mostly lamb, goat, beef, and poulty. The Muslim word or clean is “Halal”, so if you see that word on any bird or mammal, you’re usually safe. The exceptions are that Muslims also eat camel, rabbit, shellfish and some fish. As with any large religion, there is considerable disagreement over the fine points of which animals are permitted.
But as a general rule, you are unlikely to run into the unclean foods in a typical Muslim restaurant or Halal grocery. Seventh-Day Adventists encourage vegetarianism, but for those who do eat meat, they only eat clean animals. So any SDA grocery, health food store, or home is usually safe. But as I said before, any large religion has a wide number of beliefs within it, much less actual practices among members. So always be on your guard until you’re sure. Obviously, any vegan/vegetarian restaurant is safe; with a lot more of those opening up these days, they can be handy when you don’t feel like researching a place to eat.
PORK
Most sausages contain pork meat; and even turkey/chicken/beef sausage – even if they contain no pork – are almost always in a pork casing. Most sausage casings are made of intestinal lining, and pork is cheap and effective. Uncased or bulk sausage obviously doesn’t have that problem. Bacon, ham, and bologna are usually made from pork. There are clean alternatives however, such as turkey – but just because it says “turkey bacon” doesn’t mean it’s 100% turkey – often they have some pork in there, too. Read the label.
The majority of gelatin used commercially is made from pork. Pork gelatin is used in almost all Jello and marshmallows; it also hides in some yogurts, cheap sour cream, and many other things. It is almost always unclean, unless it has on it, which means it is kosher and that beef gelatin was used. This doesn’t mean that all sour cream and yogurt is unclean; actually, the majority of brands do not use gelatin. But it means you always have to read the label. And if it says “gelatin”, but doesn’t say “beef” or “kosher” or “parve”, you can be confident it is unclean. Gelatin is a cheap stabilizer/thickener, so cheaper, generic brands are more likely to use it.
Carmine is a food coloring, sometimes labeled as Cochineal, is made from a type of beetle, which when crushed makes a brilliant red dye commonly used in red-colored yogurts, ice creams, candies, drinks, and even red velvet cakes – even in popular brands. Just make sure you check anything unnaturally red.
RESTAURANTS
Lard is rendered pork fat, used very heavily in some parts of Latin America. It is a common additive to beans in Mexican restaurants to thicken them, or to fry the chips in the fat. Roughly 50% of Mexican restaurants use it, depending on what part of the country you’re in, so before you sit down just ask them if they use lard. If they don’t understand, the spanish word for lard is “manteca” (man-TEH-cuh). They’ll usually understand that. You’ll only have to do it once per restaurant. The alternative is vegetable oil, and many use that. You can either eat there and avoid any items cooked in lard, or move on to another restaurant.
Italian restaurants often have pork or seafood in the sauce or soup; when you sit down, just tell them you don’t eat pork or seafood (often simpler than explaining which kinds of seafood you don’t eat), and to please tell you if <insert menu item here> has it.
Thai restaurants usually add fish and/or shrimp paste or oyster sauce to the food for seasoning. Fish sauce is usually made from anchovies, which are clean; but cheaper brands sometimes mix in shrimp or oysters. If you feel like it, ask to see the bottle of fish sauce they use; they’ll think it’s strange, but they’ll usually go back in the kitchen and bring it to you. Read the label, it will usually say “anchovies, water, salt”.
Or if you can’t communicate with them well enough for that (some Thai employees speak very littleEnglish), just ask them not to use the fish/oyster/shrimp sauces. Vegans/vegetarians request that all the time. I generally just avoid seafood restaurants because at least half of the food on the menu is unclean. And that brings me to my final point…
WHEN IT’S TOO MUCH
Some restaurants serve so much unclean food that it is impossible to believe that your food arrived at your plate without being fried in the same oil the shrimp was; kept in the same bowl in the freezer as the pork chop; chopped by the same knife as the squid. This is just a reality we live in, and where to draw that line is a choice you have to make for yourself. Paul ate things served in the street markets of ancient Greece (1 Corinthians 10:25), and having traveled in Latin America I have a good idea of what those markets were like. God cannot possibly have expected us to know that our fish never laid next to an octopus on the fishing boat; if the knife the butcher used was cleaned between meats; that the skillet was washed before our food was cooked.
But God surely expected us to do reasonable diligence to make sure we avoid eating animals He designated unclean. So if you know something happened to make this food unclean, then you can’t eat it. Picking pepperoni off the pizza doesn’t cut it. So that’s a decision you’ll have to make for yourself. And if you draw the line in the wrong spot, your brother may point it out to you; and then maybe you should reconsider. Which leads me to my next topic…
IS IT BETTER NOT TO ASK?
1 Corinthians 10:25 Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for conscience sake: Some use this to say it’s better not to ask if something is unclean; but if you remember Lesson 1 – 7: The Golden Rule of Grace, choosing to be ignorant in order to have grace is missing the point of why we have grace to begin with. We have grace so that we can have a chance to learn the truth; not so that we can avoid learning the truth in order to live in blissful ignorance, “sinning more so that grace may abound”.
As usual, the context makes sense of the question. As in Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8, the context is eating meats offered to idols (1 Corinthians 10:18-20). In verse 23, he makes another abused statement, that “all things are lawful for me”. Is murder lawful, then? Adultery? Sabbath-breaking, idolatry, cursing parents – are these lawful? Most of the world would tell you they are, “but they are not expedient”.
But again – read the context. Eating meats offered to idols is lawful for Paul, and us, because we know the idol is nothing. But if eating those meats makes a weak brother nervous or wounds his conscience then “I will eat not meat while the world stands” (1 Corinthians 8:13). So while it is LAWFUL for us to eat those meats offered to idols it may not always be good for everyone around us if we do – it may not be expedient. That’s really all this verse is saying, as it concludes “let no man seek his own, but every man another’s wealth” (1 Corinthians 10:24).
THEN – with that as the context – Paul instructs us not to ask questions about the food we eat in the markets, or when invited to someone’s house (1 Corinthians 10:25,26). He didn’t mean that you shouldn’t ask what the mystery meat in the brown sauce is… it means you shouldn’t ask if it was blessed by an idol. Yes, this is a little thing in some respects; but on the other hand, which of God’s commands are unimportant? And as Jesus said… Luke 16:10 He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If you’ll whine and complain and fudge about this law, you’ll fudge about adultery, too, when the temptation arises. But if you’re faithful in this, odds are you’ll be faithful with the Sabbath as well.
WILL YOU LOOK STRANGE?
If you can’t deal with some strange waitress looking at you funny when you ask her not to feed you unclean foods… how are you going to stand up for God when a gun is to your head? This is inconvenient, awkward, and sometimes embarrassing. But if you want a wide, easy road that promises you salvation, there are thousands of churches glad to help you down it. The road God expects us to walk is rocky at times. But if you aren’t going to obey Christ, don’t call yourself a Christian. Yes, you’ll look a little strange if you’re dining out with unbelieving friends; but with all the fad diets going around these days, unusual eating habits are common. And if you feel uncomfortable, just remember – they’re the ones who are eating abominable animals, not you. You’re the one doing what God commanded you. If anyone should be ashamed, it’s them.
You don’t need to rub that in their face, but if they ask you why you don’t eat pork – don’t be shy about telling them. It’s a great opportunity to spread the gospel. Speak your mind – something simple like “because the Bible says not to eat them”, might spark a great discussion; or it might end the conversation. Or it might lose you a friend. But if you lose a friend over a statement like that… it was a friendship you’re better off without.
This is just one more way you can be a light to the world; we all wish we could just walk into any supermarket or restaurant and eat whatever first comes to hand without thinking of whether it’s clean, whether it’s good for us, whether we should eat it; but that’s why Jesus needs to come back. If the world was good and fair and easy to live in for the righteous today, why would He need to return?
APPENDIX: THE LISTS OF BIBLICALLY CLEAN ANIMALS
Land Animals
Antelope – Bison (Buffalo) – Caribou – Cattle (Beef, Veal) – Deer (Venison) – Elk – Gazelle
Giraffe – Goat – Hart – Ibex – Moose – Ox – Reindeer – Sheep (Lamb, Mutton)
Birds
Chicken – Dove – Duck – Goose – Grouse – Guinea fowl – Partridge – Peafowl – Pheasant
Pigeon – Prairie chicken – Ptarmigan – Quail – Sagehen – Sparrow (and other songbirds)
Swan – Teal – Turkey
Insects
Clean insects include types of locusts that may include crickets and grasshoppers
Fish
Albacore (Crevalle, Horse Mackerel, Jack) – Alewives (Branch, River Herring) – Anchovy – Barracuda
Bass – Black Drum – Black Pomfret (Monchong) – Blue Runner (Hardtail) – Bluebacks (Glut Herrings)
Bluebill Sunfish – Bluefish – Bluegill – Bonitos – Bowfin – Buffalofish – Carp
Chubs (Bloater, Longjaw, Blackfin) – Cod – Common Sucker (Fresh Water Mullet, White Sucker)
Crappie (Black or White Crappies) – Drum
Flounder (Dab, Gray, Lemon Sole, Summer/Winter Flounder, Yellow Tail)
Grouper (Black, Nassau, Red, or Yellowfish Grouper, Gag) – Grunt (White / Yellow Grunts)
Gulf Pike (Robalo, Snook, Sergeant) – Haddock – Hake – Halibut – Hardhead – Hardtail (Blue Runner)
Herring (Alewife, Branch, Glut. Lake, River, Sea Herrings) – Kingfish
Long Nose Sucker (Northern or Red Striped Sucker) – Mackerel (Cobia)
Mahimahi (Dorado, Dolphinfish – NOT the mammal dolphin) – Menhaden – Minnow – Mullet
Muskellunge (Jacks) – Orange Roughy – Perch (Bream) – Pike (Pickerel, Jack) – Pig Fish
Pollack (Pollock, Boston Bluefish) – Pompano – Red Horse Sucker (Redfin) – Red Snapper – Redfish
Robalo (Gulf Pike) – Porgy (Scup) – Red Drum (Redfish) – Rockfish
Salmon (Chum, Coho, King, Pink or Red) – Sardine (Pilchard) – Scup (Porgy) – Sea Bass
Sergeant Fish (Gulf Pike) – Shad – Sheepshead – Silver Hake (Whiting) – Silversides
Smelt (Frost, Ice Fish) – Snapper (Ebu, Jobfish, Lehi, Onaga, Opakapaka, Uku) – Snook (Gulf Pike)
Sole – Spanish Mackerel – Steelhead – Striped Bass – Sucker (Red Horse Sucker, Redfin) – Sunfish
Tarpon – Trout (Gray Sea, Lake, Sand Sea, White Sea, Spotted Sea Trouts, Weakfish)
Tuna (Ahi, Aku, Albacore, Bluefin, Bonito, Shipjack,Tombo, Yellowfin, Yellowtail)
Turbot (except European turbot) – Whitefish – Whiting (Silver Hake) – Yellow Perch
APPENDIX: THE LISTS OF BIBLICALLY UNCLEAN ANIMALS
Land Animals
Boar – Peccary – Pig (hog, bacon, ham, lard, pork)
Coyote – Dog – Fox – Hyena – Jackal – Wolf
Ass – Donkey – Mule – Horse – Onager – Zebra (quagga)
Cat – Cheetah – Leopard – Lion – Panther – Tiger
Armadillo – Badger – Bear – Beaver – Camel – Elephant – Gorilla – Groundhog – Hare – Hippopotamus
Kangaroo – Llama (alpaca, vicuña) – Mole – Monkey – Mouse – Muskrat – Opossum – Porcupine
Rabbit – Raccoon – Rat – Rhinoceros – Skunk – Slug – Snail (escargot) – Squirrel – Wallaby
Weasel – Wolverine – Worm
All insects are unclean except some in the Locust family.
Birds
Albatross – Bat – Bittern – Buzzard – Condor – Coot – Cormorant – Crane – Crow – Cuckoo – Eagle
Flamingo – Grebe – Grosbeak – Gull – Hawk – Heron – Kite – Lapwing – Loon – Magpie – Osprey
Ostrich – Owl – Parrot – Pelican – Penguin – Plover – Rail – Raven – Roadrunner – Sandpiper
Seagull – Stork – Swallow – Swift – Vulture – Water Hen – Woodpecker
Reptiles and Amphibians
Alligator – Caiman – Crocodile – Lizard – Snake – Turtle
Blindworm – Frog – Newt – Salamander – Toad
Fish and Shellfish
Bullhead – Catfish – Eel – European turbot – Marlin – Paddlefish – Shark
Stickleback – Squid – Sturgeon (includes most caviar) – Swordfish
Abalone – Clam – Crab – Crayfish – Lobster – Mussel – Prawn – Oyster – Scallop – Shrimp
Cuttlefish – Jellyfish – Limpet – Octopus – Squid (calamari)
Dolphin – Otter – Porpoise – Seal – Walrus – Whale