Bats aren't birds?
"And these are they which ye shall have in abomination among the fowls; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray, and the vulture, and the kite after his kind; Every raven after his kind; and the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind, and the little owl, and the cormorant, and the great owl, and the swan, and the pelican, and the gier eagle, and the stork, the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat."
Leviticus 11:13-19
2007-06-20 04:28:55 · 3 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I'm not sure when it was figured out, but it would only take a quick examination of the bat's anatomy to see that it is very different from that of a bird.
2007-06-20 04:34:29 · answer #1 · answered by Contemplative Monkey 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
First of all, the footnote in the NIV admits freely that the Hebrew in this section is "uncertain" (in other words, this is the translators admitting that they are not sure of the exact translation).
So if you are trying to prove that the Bible is NOT the world of God by nit picking at the wording of an ENGLISH translation, then you sound a little bit ignorant.
Besides, the designation of something as a "bird", or a "mammal" is a somewhat artificial classification invented by modern people to group together animals with common features; what goes into what group depends on what physical features that you consider to important, and which ones you decide to ignore. Moses was trying to explain to desert dwellers and herdsmen what kind of food that they could not eat. If he spoke to them in modern language, then they would not have been able to have understood what he meant. Moses had to speak to them on their level, in simple terms, in order to be understood.
Once again, if you are trying to prove that the Bible is NOT the world of God by nit picking at the wording that Moses chose, then you sound a little bit ignorant.
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Interesting observation by "Contemplative Monkey" above. Don't you think that the ancient Hebrews who wrote the Bible knew the difference between a "bat" and a animal with feathers? They had the same eyes that you do. This should be a clue that you are reading a bad translation. Duh!
2007-06-20 04:40:48 · answer #2 · answered by Randy G 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Obviously not as long as it's taking the Bible to cop on.
2007-06-20 04:32:49 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋