Sunday, November 26, 2023

Seder 7: Genesis 9---A Question on Human Diet

 In Genesis 9:3, God tells Noah and his family, "Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you.  And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything."  

A lot of dietary latitude is given here, but is it as broad as our English translations make it sound?  In his NIVAC commentary on Genesis, John Walton discusses the meaning of remes, the Hebrew word for "moving thing" in verse 3.  Walton says that this word is in no place "a catch-all category for all creatures."

He explains that there is an Akkadian cognate nammasu/nammastu, "which typically refers to wild animals that travel in herds; they are distinct from wild animals that hunt or scavenge, from the domesticated cattle, and from the docile beasts that do not tend to be found in herds"---animals like deer, antelope, gazelle, and ibex.  So Genesis 9:3 may be kind of a deer hunting license.   

There is mention in Genesis of distinctions between clean and unclean animals (Gen 7:2,8; 8:20).  So it may be that we should see Genesis 9:3 within such a framework.  Since the narrative in Gen 1-11 is quite laconic, there is no way to be dogmatic about such things.  

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