In Leviticus 11:20-23, it says that insects have four legs instead of the six that we have always learned in school. Does the Bible have a different way of counting the legs of insects?<\/p>\n\t
“All flying insects that creep on all fours shall be an abomination to you. Yet these you may eat of every flying insect that creeps on all fours: those which have jointed legs above their feet with which to leap on the earth. These you may eat: the locust after its kind, the destroying locust after its kind, the cricket after its kind, and the grasshopper after its kind. But all other flying insects which have four feet shall be an abomination to you” (Leviticus 11:20-23).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Taking the class of all creatures which fly, but which walk on four legs — we understand that God isn’t talking about birds (they fly, but have two legs), so He is discussing what we call “insects” today. Yes, insects have six legs, but flying insects have four legs for walking and two other legs which are specialized. A fly, when it walks, uses its back four legs and the front legs are used to bring things up to its head. A grasshopper walks on its front four legs and the back legs are specialized for leaping — they aren’t generally used for walking. The Israelites were allowed to eat leaping, flying insects which were identified by their rear legs being much larger than the four walking legs.<\/p>\n
We make no distinction as to what legs are used for. The passage in Leviticus does.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: In Leviticus 11:20-23, it says that insects have four legs instead of the six that we have always learned in school. Does the Bible have a different way of counting the legs of insects? Answer: “All flying insects that creep on all fours shall be an abomination to you. Yet these you may eat…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[568,294,202],"class_list":["post-28465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-accuracy-of-the-bible","tag-leviticus","tag-uncleanness"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":19355,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/since-lobsters-and-crabs-are-cooked-whole-does-that-violate-the-law-not-to-eat-blood\/","url_meta":{"origin":28465,"position":0},"title":"Since lobsters and crabs are cooked whole, does that violate the law not to eat blood?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 5, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Some foods like lobster and crab are cooked \"as-is\" without having the blood removed from the animal.\u00a0 Does this violate Acts 15:20 which instructs Christians not to eat blood? Thank you for your devotion to the scriptures and teaching others. Answer: This is a question I never considered before\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39832,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-feed-my-reptiles-live-insects\/","url_meta":{"origin":28465,"position":1},"title":"Is it wrong to feed my reptiles live insects?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 3, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was happy to find your answer: \"God used bugs to annoy the Egyptians.\" This eased my conscience a bit but, my question is this: I am feeding my reptiles and frogs live crickets and meal worms specifically bred as reptile food. Recently when I watch the crickets run\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7751,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-were-the-israels-not-to-mix-two-different-kinds-of-seed\/","url_meta":{"origin":28465,"position":2},"title":"Why were the Israels not to mix two different kinds of seed?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 19, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is meant by the command not to mix two different kinds of seed in Leviticus 19 and Deuteronomy 22? Would this mean that humans should not selectively breed new hybrids? Answer: \"You shall keep My statutes. You shall not let your livestock breed with another kind. You shall\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36515,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/against-all-the-gods-of-egypt\/","url_meta":{"origin":28465,"position":3},"title":"Against All the Gods of Egypt","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 11, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Exodus 12:1-13 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The descendants of Jacob moved to Egypt because of a severe famine and within a short time became slaves in that land - Genesis 15:13 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Yet, God promised to rescue them and returned them to land promised to Abraham. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When the time\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8045,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-are-you-cherry-picking-laws-from-leviticus-to-condemn-homosexuality\/","url_meta":{"origin":28465,"position":4},"title":"Why are you cherry-picking laws from Leviticus to condemn homosexuality?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 19, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I just read the article on homosexuality and was concerned it excludes all the other 613 commandments of God dealing with slavery, leprosy, woman's issues, dietary codes, etc. Instead of cherry-picking laws from Leviticus, the guidance of Jesus is far more valuable and would have been of more useful.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":35406,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-god-condemned-something-in-the-past-does-that-mean-the-law-remains\/","url_meta":{"origin":28465,"position":5},"title":"If God condemned something in the past does that mean the law remains?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 21, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello! I came across a website today about Leviticus and homosexuality. At the bottom it said the following: \"Now, if God never changes and never goes back on His word, what He says in Leviticus stands for all time. Thus, what He condemns in the Old Testament remains condemned\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28465\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}