Board index ‹ Specific Bible verses, texts, and passages ‹ Deuteronomy

[Nagasaki]

Did Jesus/Yahweh change the genetic makeup of swine to make it clean after the crucifixion??

Deuteronomy 14:8: “The pig is also unclean”

Did Yahweh/Jesus (not sure if they are the same/separate) change the genetic makeup of pigs, after the crucifixion (or whenever the new laws came into place,) to make it clean?

I can see two responses:

1. Yahweh did change the genetic makeup, he tells us somewhere in the new testament, and we can prove this somehow by analyzing the genes of the pig
2. Yahweh did not change the genetic makeup of pigs, but hes allowing his creation to eat what is dirty now because he stopped caring about their wellbeing. I don’t think it can be this one because it would assume that we shouldnt trust Yahweh

I think another part of point 2) is if Yahweh indeed didnt change the makeup of the pig and it is still dirty, but is allowing you to eat what is dirty, you have got to wonder why Christians today dont seem to care that they are eating something thats dirty.

If anyone can tell me another option Im willing to listen but it seems like it can be broken down to these two cases only

[jimwalton]

No, God didn't change the genetic structure of pigs. But neither did God allow people to eat pigs because he didn't care about their wellbeing. There's an obvious 3rd choice: God changed the rules about food because now righteousness came because of the death and resurrection of Jesus and no longer because of cultic rituals.

We don't really understand (no one does) the reasons behind which animals are designated as "clean" and which as "unclean," but we do know it has nothing to do with their being "dirty." "Cleanness is a ritual category, not a physical one. The category in Deuteronomy 14.3 is what is "detestable," meaning that which is contrary to the inherent sense of order. (The ancient worldview saw everything in terms of order, disorder, and nonorder, categories very foreign to us today.) It's not that pigs were dirty and it's OK with God if we are eating something dirty, but rather than pigs used to be considered ceremonially unclean, but after Jesus, the law was fulfilled and now there is no such thing as ceremonial uncleanness. The food laws were symbolic of the distinctions between Jews and Gentiles, and that separation has been abolished in Christ.