Why is the animal put to death in the OT when someone commits beastiality?

  • Thread starter Thread starter WannabeSaint
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
W

WannabeSaint

Guest
Leviticus 20:15 says any man who lays with an animal should be put to death, along with the animal.

I don’t understand why the animal should be punished. They had no choice in the matter and it comes off as very cruel.

That would be like a woman getting raped, and being ordered to be put to death with the rapist.

Context?
 
Last edited:
Probably because it had been defiled, and was therefore considered unclean for consumption or further utilization.
 
The animal would be tainted and run the risk of spreading disease if kept alive and eaten. You have to remember in the Canaanite religion ( specifically Molech worship) the men would be sticking their peckers in anything with a hole and legs. Including animals. Said animals would end up diseased and needed to be put to death for the sake of the society. This is the main reason why God commanded King Saul to genocide not only the men, women, and children of the Amalekites but the animals aswell.
see 1 Samuel 15
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
In addition to the above, it is only quite recently that people have understood the differences between human and non-human minds. Animals were subjected to criminal trials during the Middle Ages and, less commonly, until the Enlightenment.
 
Animals didn’t have any value aside from their use as food or for sacrifice. Since such an animal as this had no value after being defiled in this way, it would be killed and taken outside of the city to avoid the physical and spiritual defilement of the people.
 
Last edited:
The animal was going to end up getting killed at some point anyway. Animals were for providing food, clothing, shelter, and doing useful tasks for man. When necessary for them to be killed, they were killed in that culture.
 
Man! Lotsa questions!
  1. The animal has been defiled. It is not made in the image and likeness of God.
  2. Reveals that sin affects more than just the sinner.
 
WannabeSaint said:
I don’t understand why the animal should be punished.
Click to expand...
The animal isn’t being “punished”. The issue at hand is the concept of “bloodguilt,” in which the animal shares by virtue of the sin of the man.

As we saw in the first murder recorded in the Bible, the effects of sin aren’t localized to the sinner, but affect all of creation! So, this animal has been affected by the sin of the man. Not “punished”, but “unjustly affected”. The man, on the other hand, is punished for his sin.
 
Also to prevent someone else from using that animal in the same way, because of the habits it was manipulated or trained into. It is not guilty because it is not a person capable of moral choices; but if it is not a person, then it is a thing, and things do not have an absolute right to life.
 
WannabeSaint said:
Leviticus 20:15 says any man who lays with an animal should be put to death, along with the animal.

I don’t understand why the animal should be punished. They had no choice in the matter and it comes off as very cruel.
Click to expand...
Fortunately, we’re not bound to the Mosaic laws anymore.

_
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top