Continuing on from A Touch of the Unclean I want to get into another aspect, unclean animal products that don't go into our bodies. Please start by reading Dietary Laws, as it contains the primary scripture for this this post. This is a build up off of those two prior pieces.
From that we can already see that eating unclean animals is forbidden, and touching the dead makes us unclean. By this we then see that touches which put those animals into our bodies is as taboo as eating them outright. But this time I want to address the use of these animals that is biblically okay! A touch of the unclean that is actually, well, considered clean! At this point a few of you are tipping your head and looking at the screen like I've lost my mind. Maybe I have.
If you where to come into my rustic home and look around you might panic a little. There are furs all over the place, a few skulls, and even a fully mounted coyote head. Unclean! Unclean! Not so fast.
See, we all agree that touching a decomposing carcass is unclean, but even an animal that is typically clean is considered an unclean carcass if it dies of natural causes and to be treated just as an unclean animal. Leviticus 22:8 says, But he is not to eat anything that dies naturally or is torn to death by wild animals and thereby make himself unclean; I am Adonai. Yet farmers still need to tend to these animals to dispose of the body; being unclean for a time is not the sin in and of itself. Likewise we can not claim that it is a sin then to handle the dead body of an animal that is unclean to ingest. It simply makes the one doing so unclean for a time.
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In highlighting the primary difference, a carcass carries many issues and impurities, As do an animals bone marrow and fats, parts of the body that are used in things like gelatin and other ingredients in products we use on our skin, which absorb into our bodies, or in our food, which we directly ingest. But the outer part of the bone itself and the hides do not carry these same impurities. To find this biblically supported we can look to a few examples.
Firstly, Sampson uses a donkey's jawbone to defeat his enemies. Judges 15:15-16 says, He found a fresh donkey jawbone, took it in his hand, and with it he struck down a thousand men. 16 Shimshon said, “With the jawbone of a donkey I left heaps piled on heaps! With the jawbone of a donkey I killed a thousand men!” A man committed to being clean, having taken the Nazarite Vow. Now, yes, he did violate it a few times in his life but this passage is typically not seen as one of those violations. The bone itself was not the issue, long dried out in the hot Judah sun the marrow would have been hollowed out. The bone itself bleached, cleaned, by natural causes. This shows us that if even a Nazarite is not made unclean by the touch of a cleaned bone, neither are we.
We also know that Biblically there is nothing wrong with the wearing of leather and skins, God himself made clothing made of skins for Adam and Hevah, showing that the use of leathers was entirely permissible, and almost all cases of such uses of animals are shown to be clean animals. Yochanan the Immerser wore camel hair clothing, as stated in Matthew 3:4, Yochanan wore clothes of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. But this can be said that it was entirely acceptable to use an unclean animal product for clothing, but it could be argued that the animal needed to remain alive.Yet Exodus 26:14, You are to make a covering for the tent of tanned ram skins and an outer covering of fine leather, is a hot topic verse for this as some bible versions simply say "fine leather" but the NKJV says "Badger skin" a very much unclean animal. As is the "manatee" that HCSB claims the leather was made of and "sealskins" the the TLV claims is the word for this passage. The Interlinear Bible uses "dugong" which is also an unclean animal from the sea, like HCSB and TLV state. The truth is that the hebrew word used here is Tachash, a word without any firmly known meaning, which is why many versions resort to 'fine leather' rather than make a claim to a specific animal that may be incorrect. The underlying theme we o see however is that whatever the exact animal used was, all the animals that are suspect have two things in common. They have a skin that repels water better than any clean animal, and they are all unclean animals. That's right, Yahweh himself commanded the use of the skin of an unclean animal!
This shows us definitely, from scripture, that we are permitted the use of unclean animal hides and bones; provided they are properly treated and cleaned. The process of preparing them is sure to make the handler unclean for the time, but that itself is not a sin.
Should anyone venture such a mission, to clean these pieces for use, I would warn extreme caution. Use protection like gloves and the like to be free from the impurities in such meats, fats, inards, and marrows. Be thorough in your treatment of the bones and hides.
In all, it is what we put in our bodies to be aware of, but even Yeshua himself said that the ultimate defilement is what comes out of us in our words and actions. Always be alert that your love for Yahweh and his creation comes first in your life, as it is more important than the small aspects of the Law, without neglecting the smaller aspects of the Law.
