Olde Testament- Why were the pigs evil?

Question

...or why was it frowned upon to eat them in the name of the rockin oldeschool Gawd?

Just curious>?

(No bible passages, just a nutshell answer)

The worm disease in pork is God is called trichinosis--- is this what the groovy chillin OT God wanted to protect us from?

Answer 1

IMHO I think so far everyone has missed a big issue. The concept of germs was unknown to the Hebews of the Torah. Even through kashrut does impart hygenic benefits, that isn't why it was significant to the ancients who practiced this.

Even though at least one respondent, allonyoa, has noticed that the laws of kashrut were not based on hygiene in particular despite them being hygenic,I think he missed explaining why particular laws came about. He did note the overall purpose for much of the ritual, but not the logical reasons that would have made perfect sense to the ancient Hebrews paradigm.
The laws of kashrut made people think about what they ate, and how they honored belief by every aspect of their life. Israel is a covenant nation, a people who take on a role of being a role model, a light unto the nations of how to live holy. The customs and rituals are designed to honor every aspect of the role of being a part of that particular covenant.

Now, look at all the surrounding peoples who worshipped different deities. How did they live? What did they do to honor their deities? What ritual objects, animals, specific customs did they tie to honoring their idols or gods?
The laws in Torah made sure that Israel did different things. The covenant people set themselves apart from the customs of others with those that specifically honored their belief in the God of Torah.

The Phillistines, an Aegean seafaring people who spread throughout the middle east, sacrificed pigs in high places and drank the blood. They brought this custom from their ancient homeland and it horrified the Hebrews. Other groups placed tattoos on their bodies to show affiliation to particular deities. Molech worshippers sacrificed their children to seek atonement. Goddess worshippers sought divination through witches. Some drank the blood of animals or even of humans in rituals to gain the power of their deities.Others decorated trees to honor the spirits found within them. All of those things were forbidden to Jews with specific commandments in Torah and in Tanakh so that they were distinctly different and did not unwittingly honor religious practices or idolatry that were contradictory to the worship of the one God of Israel.

Human sacrifice, pig sacrifice, drinking blood that was believed to be the source of the soul/spirit/life force, all forbidden in Torah with serious consequences, and all primarily because those things were done by the surrounding idolatrous peoples. The Philistines, in particular were seen as barbaric because of their eating of pigs and blood and because of their worship of Beelzebub ( lord of the flies..flies brought pestilince) While technologically more advanced than the Israelites, the Philistines had customs that the Hebrews viewed as disgusting and immoral.

The laws of kashrut and other customs set them apart as a people who live every aspect of their life in dedication to service of God and fellow man.

I don't believe that pigs are evil in the Tanakh, they were demonized perhaps because they were aspects of ritual worship by people who were enemies of Israel.

Also note please that the term Old Testament is the name Christianity gave to their adapted version of the complete Jewish Bible. The name of the Hebrew Bible is the Tanakh, an acronym in Hebrew for the 3 parts ( some of the parts are in different areas in the Christian Bible alteration) The Torah,(law/teaching,pentateuch, books of Moses and core essence of all Judaism) Neviim, (Prophets ) and Ketuviim ( Writings). It is an eternal covenant or testament for the Jewish people. Alterations or additions to it are expressly forbidden by direct commandment within the Tanakh. So, using texts that are expressly stated to be a replacement for what they believe is "old" or done away with to explain the meaning of the laws in Torah is meaningless at best and intended to mislead at worst.

Shalom :)

Answer 2

D.U.M.B. It used to be the Greeks, no longer the Jews.... Sheesh. And heeeeeere's why: Although apostate Israelites ate red meat (Isa sixty five:four; sixty six:17), the Apocryphal books of First Maccabees (a million:sixty five, Dy) and Second Maccabees (6:18, 19; 7:a million, two, Dy) exhibit that in the course of the international domination of Palestine by means of the Syrian king Antiochus IV Epiphanes and his vicious crusade to stamp out the worship of Jehovah, there have been many Jews who refused to devour the flesh of swine, who prefer to die for violating the decree of the king alternatively than to violate the regulation of God. Whereas another international locations didn't devour red meat, to the Greeks it used to be a delicacy. Hence, most probably for that reason of Hellenistic impact, by the point of Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry, there have been it appears really a quantity of pigs in Palestine, notably within the Decapolis neighborhood. In the nation of the Gadarenes there used to be a minimum of one herd of approximately two,000 pigs. When Jesus authorized the demons that he had expelled to go into this big herd, each final one of the vital animals rushed over a precipice and drowned within the sea.—Mt eight:28-32; Mr five:eleven-thirteen.

Answer 3

For land animals the rule is that the animal has to have a cloven hoof AND chew the cud. With birds specific familes are mentioned (they are all fown and not raptors or carrion eaters), fish have to have scales and fins (thus no sea food is kosher).

With land animals- a few are specifically mentioned since otherwise their may have been confusion over whether they were kosher or not. Example: the hare which has a split foot (rather than hoof)- by it being mentioned we know the kind of hoof that is kosher. The camel which chews the cud but does not have a cloven hoof- specifically excludes animals which only have that trait (another animal in this category is the horse). Then you get the pig- the ONLY animal that has a cloven hoof but does NOT chew the cud. Not only does this teach us that the animal must chew the cud AND have the cloven hoof- it also is seen as especially repugnant for another reason- it is seen as being deictful, clean on the outside, with its impurities hidden within, thus the particlar disgust aimed at the pig by the Torah.

The Kashrut laws are NOT based on health issues. Kashrut is one of those laws which are referred to as a "chok" (chukot in the plural in hebrew). the defining characterisitic of chukot is that they are not rational and not subject to being completely understood. Never the less, Rabbis across the millenia have tried to at least offer some explanations.

When it comes to Kashrut- the most accepted explanation is that it helps to enhance our overall spirituality. Judaism sees our mission on earth as being one of learning, of spiritual growth. It is the time for our souls to grow and increase in their holiness snce only in this world is there enough free will to make the challenge meaningful. So what has this to do with kashrut? Think of it this way: the bodies our souls are housed within are the same as any other animals bodies with the same physical needs. This means we need to find some way to change fulfilling those sphysical needs from the purely animalistic to the holy in order to uplift our bodies to the level of out soul. So sleeping is made holy through saying specific prayers before going to sleep and as we wake up, sex through marriage- and eating through kashrut.

Answer 4

First of all there was a story in the bible, in the country of Gaderenes wherein when Jesus cast out demons from two possesed men, the demons asked to be sent to a herd of swine from the distance. After they entered the swines (or pigs) the animals went nuts and all jumpd of the cliff. I suppose that's one of the reason they were called (as you have asked) "evil"..

But that's just a part of it. Actually God forbid His people to eat pig because he knows it will not be good for their bodies. The logic there is that since God created everything, surelly God knows each and everyones anatomy or structure, genetic make-up etc...everything that we are composed of. Therefore, He also knows what would be good for us humans to consume and what would be harmful. In the same sense he also knows how He made the pig and therefore He knows that there is something about the pig (among all other animals he forbids to be eaten) that is harmful to the body.

Science proves that the pig unlike the cow have a different digestive system that cannot kill certain visruses and parasites that no matter how much cooking you do with it it will still strive. Why so? Well, pigs are also known for being gluttons, they don't know when to stop eating and they practically eat everything including decaying things, trash, garbage etc., etc... SO, if we eat such animals we also partake of a food chain that include things harmfull to humans...would you eat decaying matters or garbage?

God loves us so much He is not only concern about our spiritual health, he is also concern of our total being which includes our physical body. He created us so He knows whats good for us. He made a list of animals (meat) that he termed "unclean or not fit to eat" not because He wanted to impose a rule to control us, but to keep us safe.

To know more about this, please check out the website below.

Hope I've helped :-)

Answer 5

Pigs are not evil, They are just...animals (just kidding)

It's not their fault for being pigs. Pigs (and other unclean animals) deserve equal animal rights as much as the other animals do.

They were even onboard Noah's ark during the great flood and had done a great service by eating all the animals ****.

Some people associated pigs with diseases (like tapeworm etc.) but the Japanese and Chinese eat them everyday and they don't get stomach ache.

Pigs are very economical animal, easy to breed, eat anything.
All parts from pigs can be eaten/consumed, the hair can be made brushes, the skin can be used as leather for shoes, handbags and her shape as piggyback/cutetoys.

May be because they are just not good looking.

Answer 6

Nobody thought that pigs were 'evil'!

Jews and Muslims are both prohibited from eating pork, and also meat that is not killed humanely. Jews also cannot eat certain types of seafood. Interestingly, the foods that they are not meant to eat are known, now, to carry serious diseases.

Answer 7

The pig was only one of many equally bad animals which had a simple stomach digestive system that the God Yahweh warns us not to eat as a food product in Leviticus chapter 11 in the Bible for disease prevention purposes in the modern human digestive system. Animals such as pigs, horses, bears, dogs, cats, elephants, rhinos, squirrels, armadillos, possums, to name a few of many more are unhealthy for human consumtion as food no matter how you raise them or how you cook them. No human at that time,(3500 years ago), or now knows the classification of every land animal by their internal digestive system to write such a disease free and high nutrition diet for the modern human digestive system. This proves that there was a scientific non-human mind that existed or still exists that wrote this diet out for mankind to follow. And it sure wasn't Charles Darwin.

Answer 8

It was more of a health issue. at the time they were more feral and resembled something you'd think was a giant rat than a farm animal.

They were disgusting animals because of their eating habits, which included feces and decaying garbage. Pigs were as unclean as you can get and harbored numerous diseases. Not only a symbol of filth, it was a wise thing not to eat them.

Answer 9

Because pork when not cooked properly has more bacteria and other illnesses than other meats that can make us sick. back then we didn't have stoves and cooking technology we have today so that was God telling us to be careful.

Plus even today eating too much pork is bad for your diet.

Answer 10

it was a jewish law, and most of them made sence for the time.

back then meat wasn't always cooked, or cooked properly if it was.

pig meet, when not throughly cooked, can give a lot of bad things. there's this one disease that is caused from worms that get to your muscles and make them so they dont work properly. i forgot waht it was called. there are a lot of other things from raw pork as well.