Leviticus 19 19?

Question

can any Christians explain this one ? im too lazy right now i only got 9 1/2 hours sleep,

levi 19:19... neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee.

i havent studied leviticus in so long but i remember something along the lines of its talking about patches. if you put a woollen patch on a linen loin cloth the once the woollen part shrinks everything would tear. God would just watching out for his peeps. i could be totally wrong. ill formulate a real answer when im good and rested and full of cherry slurpee

Answer 1

Bear in mind that this is also discussed in Deuteronomy 22:11 but there's an underlying reason, doncha think? These are practical laws, helpful for establishing good habits for everyday living. Essentially, I think the common thread here (no pun intended) is that two types of fabric wear, as well as wash, differently. Combining them reduces the life of the garment. Don't think of God's reasoning as being arbitrary restrictions since they weren't made just to teach or restrict, but also to protect peoples in a very backward (as opposed to US nowadays) time. I'm sure if you took proper precautions in todays world, He wouldn't automatically condemn you, even if it was an intentional fashion faux pas!

Answer 2

Only 9 1/2 hours of sleep?? You need AT LEAST 12 hours to be optimally awake and healthy. I just hate it when people expect me to be up at the crack of noon.

Anyway, it seems really odd that the Israelites' deity was so concerned about the minutaea of their everyday lives that they could not even decide for themselves what kind of clothes to wear or how to make the fabric. Free will? It didn't exist! God's people were NEVER permitted to do anything of their own free will, and this is one of hundreds of laws that prove it. Those laws were given BY GOD, if one takes the Bible literally--and God said not to mix wool and linen threads together. Wow, talk about over-managing.

Now, there might be some practical value in this, as the two fabrics may need to be washed differently. However, since all clothes were hand-washed, anyway (no Maytag appliances yet), it probably wouldn't have mattered much. And if it did--if one type of thread shrank more than the other, weakening the fabric as a whole--then this is a matter of common sense, not something that is worthy of being included in the laws of the land. Imagine President Bush passing a law banning cotton/polyester blend fabrics!

Also, the part about not patching an old garment with a new patch of fabric (because the old fabric will simply tear), comes from the New Testament:

Matt. 9:16 (NIV) "No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse."

How was the cherry slurpee? :o)

Answer 3

There's an apocryphal story about Solomon. It is said that he once sat down to figure out the logical reason behind all 613 mitzvot in the Torah. He figured out 612 (including, I presume, the injunction against cotton/poly blends; sadly that never became part of the story). However, there was one, something about sacrificing a RED heifer. And he just couldn't figure out any logical reason for that commandment. Therefore, he concluded, the ONLY reason to follow any of the commandments is that God commanded it. If you believe in God and that God himself gave the law to Moses, then the only reason to follow any of it is because God said so. Me? I don't follow the laws other than the Ethic of Reciprocity, which does make sense, even without a divine source.

Answer 4

Do not mate different kinds of animals means do not breed Chihuahuas with Great Danes. It does not mean that you should not cross breed different kinds of cattle to create hybrids that can live more productively in Florida.
Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed means that you should not plant soy beans with wheat because it doesn’t sell as easily. It doesn’t mean that you should not take the genetic material from several different kinds of plants and create hybrids that produce much more food per acre.
Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material means that cotton and wool don’t go well together very well because cotton is soft and wool is itchy. It does not mean that you should not make cotton and Lycra ultra mini dresses for party wear.
There are other ways to interpret these admonitions as well since they are quite poetic and have nothing to do with current problems.

Answer 5

I actually take it as a law to the Jews of the time. As a Gentile, I don't see any reason why I would need to follow that law. The laws in chapter 19 seem to be directed toward the Jewish people in Israel.

Answer 6

Ceremony of purification. They were to take for the unclean person some of the dust of the burning of the cow, i.e., some of the ashes obtained by burning the cow, and put living, i.e., fresh water (see Lev_14:5), upon it in a vessel. A clean man was then to take a bunch of hyssop (see Exo_12:22), on account of its inherent purifying power, and dip it in the water, on the third and seventh day after the defilement had taken place, and to sprinkle the tent, with the vessels and persons in it, as well as every one who had touched a corpse, whether a person slain, or one who had died a natural death, or a grave; after which the persons were to wash their clothes and bathe, that they might be clean in the evening. As the uncleanness in question is held up as the highest grade of uncleanness, by its duration being fixed at seven days, i.e., an entire week, so the appointment of a double purification with the sprinkling water shows the force of the uncleanness to be removed; whilst the selection of the third and seventh days was simply determined by the significance of the numbers themselves. In Num_19:20, the threat of punishment for the neglect of purification is repeated from Num_19:13, for the purpose of making it most emphatic.

Answer 7

Leviticus 19:19

19Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee.

Essentially this law was to permit mankind from monkeying with the purity of Gods creation which we've totally blown in this day and age. We eat beef and animals which have been fed each others dead parts, bred to other species (beefalo) and mutated beyond recognition of the origional species. We blend fabrics out of natural fibers and pollute our waters, cause allergies and all sorts of stuff, and we have such lovely issuse with poor nutritional quality foods because we've designed generations of hybrids to make them resistant to pests, grow faster and be more sturdy and bigger..thereby almost rendering them useless as food. Linen is made of cotten..plant...wool, sheeps hair...to make the two bind...you have to mess with them...leaving them unpure by combining the fibers. So...in effect..making a poor quality material that will not last or do its job..wasteful. Wool is for warmth..linen is for lightness. So...when speaking of the term Statute...we are talking about the things that God establishes in their perfect state..we have not business to go against that "law"..and if we do there are to a degree some level of consequence. The textile industry is one of the leading pollution contributers of the world, third only down from garbage and petroleum by products. Love in Christ, ~J~ <><

Answer 8

There are three types of Commandments. Those we see an obvious reason for, those we can glean a reason for and those which seem to have no reason.

One is no more or less important then the other. Nor do we need a reason to follow G-d's word. He knows the reason that is all that matters.

Answer 9

It is just saying to to keep animals breeding with their own species, and to not mix plant fibers with animal fibers because the stronger ones would wear away the weaker ones.
I highly recommend checking out the site I put as the source here.

Answer 10

It's a figure of speech. You gotta see the context in which it's written