Genesis 7 - clean & unclean animals

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kellie

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Hi all,

I have a question about Genesis 7 where God tells Noah what animals to take on the ark.

God says to take 7 pairs of clean animals, and 1 pair each of unclean animals.

How did Noah know what clean and unclean animals were?

Nothing is mentioned about these animals until Leviticus, and the laws that the Jews still follow today.

Can someone please explain this to me?
 
I never thought I’d see someone think that Noah’s story didn’t include enough detail. 🙂

Presumably God told Noah that, and the storyteller didn’t feel any need to include something his audience would know well. I mean, do you ever see Cinderella’s fairy godmother have to explain to the readers or Cinderella that the glass slippers aren’t bedroom slippers? Same thing. It was engrained in the writer’s culture, so the Genesis writer didn’t see any need to explain.

There may well have been clean and unclean ideas already running around in Noah’s culture; such ideas are very ancient and are found all around the world, especially in Indo-European cultures. If the Hindus and Roma are as concerned with clean and unclean as the Jews, Noah believing in such things isn’t that far out.
 
It just seems strange that God tells Noah without it being written and then in Leviticus God goes into great details about what is clean and unclean, and it is all written down.
If it was common knowledge, why the great detail in Leviticus?
 
kellie said:
It just seems strange that God tells Noah without it being written and then in Leviticus God goes into great details about what is clean and unclean, and it is all written down.
If it was common knowledge, why the great detail in Leviticus?
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This is a great question. I would ask Fr. Mitch Pacwa – you can e-mail him at Open Line: openline@ewtn.com. He’s on every Wednesday. You can listen to the show on line if you don’t have an EWTN radio station near you.
 
kellie said:
It just seems strange that God tells Noah without it being written and then in Leviticus God goes into great details about what is clean and unclean, and it is all written down.
If it was common knowledge, why the great detail in Leviticus?
Click to expand...
Like Mintaka posted, I also presume either Noah - from oral tradition - considered certain animals clean or unclean; or else God informed him.

Regarding Leviticus. Around 1000 years elapsed between the time Noah built the ark and the time Moses received the law. It may well be that the listing given to Moses differed from the one Noah had. Or, perhaps the oral tradition as to which were clean and unclean had not been faithfully and accurately handed down over the years and God was reiterating the original classifications. This time He commanded things to be written down!! (Num. 5:23; Deut 17:18; Deut 27:3,8)

Just some thoughts. Doubt we’ll know for sure till heaven. 🙂

Nita
 
Thank you Mintaka, mercygate, and Nita,
I am in Australia mercygate so find it difficult to watch EWTN online due to time difference.
But I will keep studying the Bible, and all your answers all made sense.
God bless
 
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