When is a bat a bird? (Leviticus 11:13-19)
Question
When is a bat a bird? (Leviticus 11:13-19)
Leviticus 11:13-19 states that bats are birds. How can this be?
Leviticus 11:13-19 states that bats are birds. How can this be?
Answer
The Bible did not look forward and use modern biological categories, just like we in this century do not look 8000 years into the future and use names they will use then. In 8000 more years a bird may be called a ‘flycat,' or some other unusual name, but for the time being we still call them birds. The Bible is using a rather generic category in which to group bats, as modern science uses a different classification system than the Ancient Near East. To the ancients, creatures such as a bat were considered birds since they categorized all flying animals as birds (and bats were a similar size, etc.).
We must to read the Bible from the view of its original audience (exegesis) and not bring modern categories, etc and read them upon it (isogesis). This is a common error made by many. Once, at a funeral, a person told me that baptism had to be done by dunking someone all the way under the water — as Jesus was buried 6' under the ground. While this question is not meant to answer this specific question, what the person was doing was reading an American custom upon something that happened 2000 years ago — besides Jesus was not buried 6' under — but sideays in a tomb! I then asked him if he baptized people sideways in a tomb, etc. … which laid his argument to rest.
The Ancient Near East categorized bats as birds in that time.
Answer by: Joseph R. Nally, Theological Editor, on behalf of the staff at IIIM. The opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily the "official position" of Third Millennium Ministries.
We must to read the Bible from the view of its original audience (exegesis) and not bring modern categories, etc and read them upon it (isogesis). This is a common error made by many. Once, at a funeral, a person told me that baptism had to be done by dunking someone all the way under the water — as Jesus was buried 6' under the ground. While this question is not meant to answer this specific question, what the person was doing was reading an American custom upon something that happened 2000 years ago — besides Jesus was not buried 6' under — but sideays in a tomb! I then asked him if he baptized people sideways in a tomb, etc. … which laid his argument to rest.
The Ancient Near East categorized bats as birds in that time.
Answer by: Joseph R. Nally, Theological Editor, on behalf of the staff at IIIM. The opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily the "official position" of Third Millennium Ministries.
