This is one I think a lot of people miss because of how whoever came up with the chapter/verses system (remember, the original text does not have these) split up these two sets of animals. Because of other books we read when we see a chapter end, we think the end of the thought happened. Much like in the As The Torah Scrolls series where I included the first part of chapter 2 of Genesis with chapter 1. The creation week is still happening, but someone thought the chapter designation needed to be added after day 6 – concluding our thoughts on that chapter. So when we get to chapter 2, the Sabbath day is read but then quickly discarded because now we are reading about Adam and Eve.

The same here. Everyone knows about the animals being gathered two by two, but very few realize that there was a command to gather 7 pairs, or just 7 of each depending on your translation, of CLEAN animals. That begs the question, what are clean animals?

Our family went to the Ark Museum that is in Kentucky and they had a plaque setup about this topic. They gave a lengthy explanation about how there is no indication anywhere what these clean animals are. They could be this or that they could have been anything. But for the sake of their museum they used the definition that is given later in Leviticus. While I disagree with their first part of their reasoning, I agree with the latter. It would be the definition that is given in Leviticus. That is the only place in the Bible we have a distinction of a clean animal versus an unclean animal.

We know that uncleanness is still an important issue in our lives today. Paul tells us in Galatians 5:19 that uncleanness is a work of the flesh. We also do not have anywhere else in the Bible that changes what animals are clean and what animals are unclean. Some people use Peter’s vision, but as previously looked at in the Church vs. Bible series, Peter even tells us twice that his vision was about the Gentiles coming to his door, not about animals. Some others may use Jesus’ words about it isn’t what goes into ones body but what comes out that makes them unclean. This we have also covered in the same series as Jesus mentions specifically in that account he is referencing the washing of hands making your food unclean, not changing what is and isn’t clean.