Question:
Will you please provide the references in the Bible on the subject of pork eating?
Answer:
Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 contain lists of unclean animals that the Lord forbids His people to eat. Verses 7 and 8 of Leviticus 11 and verse 8 of Deuteronomy 14 mention the swine particularly:
“And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you. Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcase shall ye not touch; they are unclean to you.” (Leviticus 11:7–8)
“And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud, it is unclean unto you: ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcase.” (Deuteronomy 14:8)
This prohibition is not made simply as an arbitrary law but because, on account of the inherent filthy nature of the animal, it is unfit for food. “The Holy Bible with Commentary,” by various clergymen, edited by F. C. Cook, M. A., canon of Exeter, has the following comment on this passage:
Of all the quadrupeds of which the law forbids the flesh to be eaten, the pig seems to have been regarded as the most unclean. Isa. 65:4; 66:3, 17. Several other nations have agreed with the Hebrews in this respect. Though pigs were sacrificed by the ancient Egyptians at the yearly festival of the moon and Bacchus, and their flesh on that occasion was eaten by the people, they were regarded at all times with the utmost aversion, and swineherds were banished from society; the priests appear never to have eaten of their flesh, nor even to have taken part in sacrificing it. The Brahman is degraded immediately who intentionally tastes swine’s flesh. . . The dirty habits and uncouth form of the creature may have, no doubt, tended to bring it into disrepute. But a very general notion has prevailed that its flesh is unwholesome, especially in warm climates. . . . Lord Clyde forbade the use of swine’s flesh in the Indian army on sanitary grounds. Sir Gardner Wilkinson says, ‘The reason of the meat not being eaten [by the Egyptians] was its unwholesomeness, on which account it was forbidden to the Jews and Moslems; and the prejudice naturally extended from the animal to those who kept it, as at present in India and other parts of the East, where a Hindu (that is, one of high caste) or a Moslem is, like an ancient Egyptian, defiled by the touch of a pig, and looks with horror on those who tend it and eat its flesh.
The Holy Bible with Commentary
In hot climates, indulgence in swine’s flesh is particularly likely to produce leprosy, scurvy, and various skin diseases. It is unwholesome for food in any environment, and the fact that there are so many better foods and the Lord’s restrictions regarding it seem to us sufficient reasons for Christians’ discarding it entirely.
