I am told to read the bible and become more sure in my faith. And I am told that the bible is the true inerrant word of God. I have been reading Leviticus and am troubled by how I can relate what I see in the world around me - i.e. that insects I have seen have six legs and use all of them to walk yet the bible say they walk on four.
Leviticus 11:20
'All flying insects that walk on all fours are to be detestable to you.
2007-09-09 05:25:49 · 16 answers · asked by Chris C 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
First of all, whoever told you the bible is "the true inerrant word of God," if they meant you must read everything in it literally, was wrong.
That said, you are reading things into the sentence that aren't there. It doesn't say "All flying insects have 4 legs." It says all of them that DO "walk on all fours" should be avoided.
Are there any 4-legged insects in the world? No. Therefore, you don't have to hate any.
I'm just pointing this out to show that nit-picking on translational details is silly, whether you're an atheist trying to disprove the bible or a fundamentalist trying to prove it.
I think it contains God's truth, no matter what it says about insects, and that to find God's truth in it, you have to read it with your brain and good judgement fully engaged.
2007-09-09 05:33:51 · answer #1 · answered by Acorn 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Good grief, there really are some uneducated people around. If anyone actually studied an insect you would find that two of the six legs are off the surface at any one time. Anyhow I am pretty sure the author was using a metaphor and that he wanted to describe crawling.
2007-09-09 05:48:23 · answer #2 · answered by Vegemite Presley 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think you need to read the whole thing again:
All flying insects that walk on all fours are to be detestable to you. There are, however, some winged creatures that walk on all fours that you may eat: those that have jointed legs for hopping on the ground. Of these you may eat any kind of locust, katydid, cricket or grasshopper. But all other winged creatures that have four legs you are to detest.
Those "winged creatures" that walk on four legs sound a lot like FLIES. They may have six legs, but they don't usually use them for walking.
2007-09-09 05:36:59 · answer #3 · answered by The_Cricket: Thinking Pink! 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Lev. 11:20-3 All fowls that creep, going upon all four, shall be an abomination unto you. 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; even these of them ye may eat; the locust after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind. But all other flying creeping things, which have four feet, shall be an abomination unto you.
http://www.tektonics.org/af/buglegs.html says that the front 2 sets of "legs" were legs...but the back to sets of "legs" were considered their feet...and locusts, and other insects like that, use their back to "legs" to jump....which is exactly what they're saying here....
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About the bat/bird comment here....when Leviticus and Deuteronomy was written, Linnean classification of animals was not around. The word "bird" was commonly used to describe anything with wings. So a bat has wings, therefore it was called a bird.
2007-09-09 05:35:06 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
hey moirais fate it say all flying four legged insects since when do centipedes fly oh and centipedes have only about 54 legs and what the verse says is that flying insects only use four legs to walk the other two are used to jump
and jo where in the bible does it say the earth is flat
2007-09-09 05:49:24 · answer #5 · answered by The Doctor 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The important thing to note is that nothing is inerrant. And yes, the majority of insects have six legs.
2007-09-09 05:38:58 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
All insects have 6 legs. Not all of them use the six to walk however.
2007-09-09 05:47:52 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
the text you cite does not say all insects have 4 legs. It says that those that walk on 4 are not to be eaten. A mantid, for example, walks on 4 and uses 2 to capture prey.
2007-09-09 05:37:29 · answer #8 · answered by a 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
"All flying insects that walk on all fours" is the null set.
This statement seems to be saying that an empty set of creatures should be detestable to you. That's perfectly logical.
Presumably flying insects that walk on six legs may or may not be detestable.
2007-09-09 05:33:11 · answer #9 · answered by cosmo 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
I guess you're supposed to like all flying insects then... None of them (aside from the damaged or mutated ones) have four legs...
Just goes to show, the bible compilers really did their research...
2007-09-09 05:36:38 · answer #10 · answered by {fiyerae}rox.my.world. 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋