Do not eat any detestable thing.

• Deuteronomy 14:3

You may eat any clean bird.

• Deuteronomy 14:11

All flying insects are unclean to you; do not eat them.

• Deuteronomy 14:19

Do not eat anything you find already dead. You may give it to the foreigner residing in any of your towns, and they may eat it, or you may sell it to any other foreigner. But you are a people holy to the Lord your God.
Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.

• Deuteronomy 14:21

“‘Of the animals that move along the ground, these are unclean for you: the weasel, the rat, any kind of great lizard, the gecko, the monitor lizard, the wall lizard, the skink and the chameleon.

• Leviticus 11:29-30

The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”

• Acts 10:15

I was thinking of unclean animals on the day that I wrote this.  Maybe I should not have written this quiz.  I might actually be ceremonially unclean at the moment.  And no, I drove right past the Roadkill Bistro without slowing down.  And when offering hyrax stew last night, I turned it down.

The questions come from one chapter in the Old Testament, but not in order.

The Questions:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	Of the animals that live on the land, what two distinguishing features apply to clean and unclean?
2	Are pigs clean, and if unclean, why?
3	Are rabbits clean, and if unclean, why?
4	Are camels clean, and if unclean, why?
5	What two things distinguish an animal that lives in the water to be clean or unclean?
6	Are birds of prey clean or unclean?
7	Are owls clean or unclean?
8	What animal is included in the list of unclean flying animals that does not seem to belong?
9	Are there exceptions to the rule of all flying insects being unclean?
10	What happens to you if you touch the carcass of an unclean animal?

The animals that live on land and those that live in the sea are clearly defined by certain traits.  But the animals of the air are listed.

But if you look carefully at many animals on land, in the sea, and flying animals, the large majority of the unclean animals are animals that eat unclean animals.  They might eat from the carcass of dead animals.

I find Deuteronomy 14:21 to be a bit bizarre.  Roadkill is unclean to eat, but you can give it to a foreigner living among you.

My mother would use the excuse of “You don’t know where that has been.”  The “that” in her statement could be an animal, dead or alive, a stick, a brick, or a rock.  Anything that might have germs on it, I was told to drop it because I had no idea where it had been.  And a tiger might have just eaten a lamb, a clean animal, but it might have eaten a bear, an unclean animal.

Of course, since we are cautioned to not eat roadkill, the animals that do eat roadkill are listed.

Bible References:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	Of the animals that live on the land, what two distinguishing features apply to clean and unclean?	Leviticus 11:3
2	Are pigs clean, and if unclean, why?	Leviticus 11:7
3	Are rabbits clean, and if unclean, why?	Leviticus 11:6
4	Are camels clean, and if unclean, why?	Leviticus 11:4
5	What two things distinguish an animal that lives in the water to be clean or unclean?	Leviticus 11:9
6	Are birds of prey clean or unclean?	Leviticus 11:13-15
7	Are owls clean or unclean?	Leviticus 11:16-18
8	What animal is included in the list of unclean flying animals that does not seem to belong?	Leviticus 11:19
9	Are there exceptions to the rule of all flying insects being unclean?	Leviticus 11:22
10	What happens to you if you touch the carcass of an unclean animal?	Leviticus 11:24-25

I was in Shanghai, PR China, with a fellow employee who was Jewish.  We went to a rooftop restaurant that had a rotating dining area.  We had a great view of the Bund on one side and the Maglev tracks (tracks?) to the airport on the other side as it spun around.  Odd, we were above a thin layer of smog, so we could look down through the haze, but we were below the thick layer of smog, unable to see the sun or moon.

We ate from the buffet, and I got a large prawn, complete with legs and head.  When I got back to the table, I apologized.  He said to think nothing of it.  Just because he had dietary restrictions due to his faith, I did not have to follow suit.  I ate the one prawn and did not go back for more.

Odd, he assisted me at another steel mill, this time in Iowa.  The restaurant had no main entrees except for pork meals, their specialty.  I think he had the chicken soup and a salad.

But in the definition of sea creatures that are unclean, you have the sea mammals, sharks, catfish, eels, sea turtles, and marine iguanas.  They either have one or the other distinguishing marks, but not both.

My most unfond gastronomic memory was the sea cucumber.  They do not have either marker.  I wonder if the Chinese who gave me the sea cucumber as a test would have understood my refusal on religious reasons?

Oh, well, I ate the horrid thing and then smiled.  Once they applauded, they dug into theirs like it was a special treat.  I shoved the rest of mine aside when they weren’t looking.

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The Answers:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	Of the animals that live on the land, what two distinguishing features apply to clean and unclean?	Leviticus 11:3	To be clean, they must have a divided hoof and they must chew the cud.
2	Are pigs clean, and if unclean, why?	Leviticus 11:7	Unclean, divided hooves but does not chew the cud.
3	Are rabbits clean, and if unclean, why?	Leviticus 11:6	Unclean, chews the cud, but does not have divided hooves.
4	Are camels clean, and if unclean, why?	Leviticus 11:4	Unclean, chews the cud, but does not have divided hooves.
5	What two things distinguish an animal that lives in the water to be clean or unclean?	Leviticus 11:9	Animals with scales and fins are clean.
6	Are birds of prey clean or unclean?	Leviticus 11:13-15	Unclean
7	Are owls clean or unclean?	Leviticus 11:16-18	Unclean
8	What animal is included in the list of unclean flying animals that does not seem to belong?	Leviticus 11:19	The bat.  Maybe a “trick” question, the bat is a mammal and not a bird, but the list is of flying animals, not specifically birds.
9	Are there exceptions to the rule of all flying insects being unclean?	Leviticus 11:22	Yes.  You may eat locusts, katydids, crickets, and grasshoppers.  Oddly, the repeating of this rule in Deuteronomy 14 does not list the exceptions.
10	What happens to you if you touch the carcass of an unclean animal?	Leviticus 11:24-25	You are unclean until evening

Whether you did well on this quiz or, ummm, not so well, for the first video, here is Hold Tight from Fats Waller.  Although the son of a preacher, Fats took a different route, as the clown prince of Swing.  After I wrote the quiz, I stopped writing this to go to a doctor’s appointment, on the way, this song was playing.  He wanted fish, which is clean, as long as it has scales and fins.  But then he says that shrimpers and rice would be very nice, but shrimp is on the unclean list.  Sorry, I tried to make sense out of a Fats Waller silly song.  I should know better.

Here is Natalie Grant with Clean.

Here is Brandon Lake singing That’s Who I Praise.

God told Peter to not call anything unclean that He (God) has made clean.  Has He made you clean?

You may think you are too far gone, but we are talking about the Heaven seated, undefeated, Highest of Names.  Drop the pretenses and allow Him to clean you whiter than snow.

If you like these Saturday morning Bible quizzes, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Saturday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.