Shuan,
I think that it is a mistake to assume that the ancients used the same
taxonomy as 21st century biologists. Thus we can't expect to
find exact equivalents for translations of general categories. It appears
to me that the first division the Old Testament makes is to distinguish
land animals, marine animals, and animals that fly in the air. See Genesis
1 and Leviticus 11.
Gordon Brown
Department of Mathematics
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0395
On Mon, 1 Jul 2002, Shuan Rose wrote:
> I would say that the author in this case was not a biologist and was
> unconcerned about such things as how many legs an insect had, or whether a
> bat was a bird or flying mammal. His concern was telling the ordinary person
> of his time which animals were clean, and which unclean. Even today, many
> laymen in modern society would not know if a bat was a bird, or the true
> number of legs on insects. You don't need to be stupid not to know things
> outside your experience, or area of expertise.
>
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