I was thinking on the food laws this weekend and wondered on Lev 11 which talks of insects:

"All winged insects that walk on all fours are detestable to you; yet of all winged insects that walk on all fours you may eat those which have legs above their feet with which to leap on the ground. Of these you may eat: the whole species of migratory #locust, of bald locust, of cricket, and of #grasshopper. But all other winged insects which are four footed are detestable to you."

All true insects have six legs which is the defining trait of the class Insecta, also known as Hexapoda which literally means “six feet”.

Some bugs however look like they have four legs and I would personally choose not to eat these insects:

- Praying mantises are a classic example. They walk on four legs, while their front pair look more like arms.
- Beetles and ladybugs sometimes tuck their front legs in, making them appear four-legged at a glance.
- Camouflage and posture can also trick the eye. Some insects modify leg use for jumping, burrowing, or sensing, which can make a couple of legs less visible.

But they are all still insects with 6 legs and even the list of insects that are included in the edible list (migratory locust, of bald locust, of cricket, and of grasshopper) walk on 6 feet and not 4.

Why is it said that they walk on 4 feet in this passage if observation tells us that they walk on 6 feet?

Is this because of human intervention in the passage and they wrote down what they believed to be true? If this was given directly by YHWH would it then still have this error in the text?

I have a similar question on the hare and rock badger. Hares practice coprophagy which means that they eat soft fecal pellets to reabsorb nutrients. Rock badgers on the other hand exhibit jaw movements that resemble cud-chewing, but neither of these animals have the necessary multi-chambered stomachs that make chewing the cud possible.

Ancients might have misconstrued that these animals chew the cud, but would YHWH have made such a mistake in saying that they chew the cud knowing He created them not to?

#insects #chewingthecud