Is it true that the bible got the number of legs on a spider wrong?

Question

I have heard this. Does anyone know if this is true and where can it be found in the bible?

Schneb - please explain this part of the bible then. With the explanation of the hebrew and why this is a misinterpretation.
Thanks

Answer 1

probably, its not like they had science when they wrote it

Answer 2

Leviticus 11:21 Yet these may ye eat of every flying creeping thing that goeth upon all four, which have legs above their feet, to leap withal upon the earth;

That one right there says that there are flying creatures that walk on four legs. I have no idea what kind of creature that would be.

However, the quote I think you are referring to is
Leviticus 11:23 But all other flying creeping things, which have four feet, shall be an abomination unto you.

It would of course not count spiders because they do not fly (unless you count ballooning spiders). However, it would include insects. All insects have 6 feet. I do not know of any flying creeping thing that has only 4 feet (unless you rip some legs off of a fly or something).

If all of this is due to errors in translation, then how do you know that the bible was translated correctly to begin with. Errors in translation just point to the bible being a book written by humans and not having any divine qualities to it at all.

Answer 3

There are passages in the Old Testament that refer to insects and spiders creeping along on all fours, but this is merely a Hebraism, a figure of speech employed by the language. It is rather silly to imagine that the Jews were not able to count beyond four.
We talk about the rising and setting of the sun. People who use this language aren't ignorant of the fact that the sun doesn't actually rise, but that it only appears that way to us because the earth revolves on its axis. The intention is not to make a scientific statement, but to communicate a common every day occurrence.

Answer 4

Not spiders, but some misread the descriptions of things like locusts and grasshoppers. They are described as having 4 legs, but the Torah does considers the two rear jumping legs as being different than the 4 forward legs. Thus, when it describes jumping insects with 4 legs, it means for legs normally associated with insects plus the 2 jumping legs.

Answer 5

The Bible is not the Encyclopedia Brittanica. The Bibles sole concern is about God and Israel, and the people who come into contact with Israel. I don't know where people get the idea that the bible must explain everything on every subject, for us retard earthlings. Maybe that is why all that grey matter in our heads is undeveloped, we have to be lead like sheep, and told what to think.

Answer 6

I don't know any verses in the Bible that refer to the number of legs on a spider. I do know that the Bible refers to the earth as a sphere, though.

Answer 7

i ran a search on the word "Spider" in my Bible program. these are the only verses that were retuned:

Job 8:14 Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider's web. {web: Heb. house}

Proverbs 30:28 The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces.

Isaiah 59:5 They hatch cockatrice' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.

Answer 8

No. However, they say that about grasshoppers. The original language description is correct. The Bible does not get it wrong, but they say it does. Same with bats and birds. You need to get into the Hebrew.

There is a list of 101 contradiction that people are glad to post without thinking or even bothering to check the context. I have studied the Bible for 35 years and I have found not a one. Most who come up with these contradictions have just passed them on via a simple cut and paste and have zero concept that they were even originally written in another language. How much Hebrew have they studied? Do they even know the Dead Sea Scrolls exist? Or the Septuagint? Have they cross referenced? Do they know what meticulous copying a scribe used to transfer the text from scroll to scroll? Or the idea that they could be killed for purposely altering it?

Don't hang your faith on man and his puny attempts to discredit God's Word. They do not know what they are doing. Now, consider it from their point-of-view. If the Bible is true, then there is a God who will judge on their last day. They assume, "destroy the message, you destroy God and etermal consequences. This is wishful thinking toward their own destruction.

Isaiah 34:16
"Search from the book of the LORD, and read: Not one of these shall fail; Not one shall lack her mate. For My mouth has commanded it, and His Spirit has gathered them."

1 Corinthians 1:21
For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

1 Corinthians 2:14
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

1 Corinthians 1:18
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Answer 9

I just searched the word "spider" on biblegateway and I don't see anything that talks about a spider's legs.

Answer 10

Where does it say that about spider.

And where does it say the Earth is a sphere happygirl? I'm not doubting you just curious.

Answer 11

I don't think so - it doesn't seem to be on the master list:

http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/science/long.html

Bats, however, are a type of bird in the bible.