Author:
Wade A. Tisthammer
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Date Posted: 08/ 1/02 4:58pm
In reply to:
Tim
's message, "Most challenging scriptures?" on 07/ 8/02 11:29pm
>Leviticus 11:6 (Rabbits do not chew their cud as this
>scripture says, but
>they do chew their feces...)
To understand the objection, one must first consider what it means to “chew the cud.” Cud chewers are generally classified as belonging to the order of ruminants- (a sub order of artiodactyls) - and are defined as an “even-toed animal that regurgitates and masticates its food after swallowing.” Rabbits and hares do not do this. Instead, they engage in a similar process called cecotropy. Cecotropy is the process by which such animals reingest part of their feces directly from the rectum. This, by the way, is different from coprophagy (eating fecal material), since only the soft “night” feces are used. The only difference between cud chewing and coprophagy is the point in the digestive tract at which nutrients are expelled and then placed back into the mouth.
One has to keep in mind that artiodactyls were first defined as a separate order in 1847 by Richard Owen and the behavior of cecotropy was first recognized in 1882. Deuteronomy, however, was written several thousand years before all that in ancient Hebrew. It would be at least somewhat irrational for someone to claim that a several millennia old writing is contradictory because it doesn't match with a scientific classification invented only about a hundred and fifty years ago. When translating, scholars often try to use familiar parallels, but the process isn’t perfect (IIRC, the “chew the cud” translation was done before the official, scientific definition). More notably, if “cud chewing” is defined as a process where partially digested vegetation was re-chewed by an animal for easier re-digestion, then the hare fits fine here. Methinks this is probably meaning of the Hebrew text as it was written back then.
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