Why does the Bible say that rabbits chew the cud?

Response

In the Mosaic Law, animals were categorized as clean or unclean. Rabbits were classified as “unclean,” meaning they were not suitable for sacrifices or consumption by the Jews. The rabbit’s “unclean” status was determined by the fact that “The rabbit, though it chews the cud, does not have a divided hoof; it is unclean for you” «And the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you. », (Leviticus 11:6). This verse is often cited as an apparent error in the Bible, as rabbits and hares do not actually chew cud.

Rabbits indeed do not engage in “chewing the cud” in the modern scientific sense of the English phrase. However, this distinction is irrelevant because the Bible was not composed in modern English. What holds significance is the interpretation of the translated phrase in Hebrew during the time of writing. Rabbits and hares engage in a process known as “refection” or “coprophagy,” which involves re-digesting food after excretion (in essence, rabbits consume their own feces). Additionally, rabbits are observed to continually move their mouths in a manner resembling the chewing motion of cows and other ruminants. The description in Leviticus 11:6 serves the purpose of simple identification rather than detailed scientific scrutiny.

The crucial phrase in Hebrew is alah gerahh. Alah is extensively used in the Old Testament and conveys meanings such as “to restore, take up, collect, recover, or regurgitate.” It is employed to describe various actions like handling money, swords, and even the Ark of the Covenant, indicating that it does not necessarily denote a specific biological process. Despite the broad usage of the word, skeptics insist that it must exclusively mean “regurgitate,” leading them to argue that Leviticus 11:6 contains a significant error.

Gerah appears solely in Leviticus 11, making it more challenging to precisely determine what it

What it means is not entirely clear. However, it is evident that rabbits, similar to ruminants, exhibit a continuous chewing motion and, like ruminants, they re-digest their food (although through a different process). It is also understood that the provided description is quite straightforward: rabbits “recover” food and display a constant chewing motion. Nevertheless, due to their lack of a split hoof, they are considered unclean.

Skeptics often tend to overly complicate issues that are actually quite simple, and their misinterpretation of Leviticus 11:6 is a common illustration of this problem. There is no mistake here. There is no need to force a modern scientific explanation into the text. And there is no reason to split hairs, so to speak. In essence, Leviticus 11:6 is merely a basic description used for categorization. God did not have to delve into a lengthy discussion about the intricacies of digestion. Rabbits indeed appear to chew cud. The biblical account conveys precisely what is necessary for the Hebrew reader to comprehend: rabbits chew, but lacking divided hooves, they are deemed unclean, end of story.

In the Old Testament, to Hebrew-speaking individuals, alah gerah described the observable behaviors of both cows and rabbits and hyraxes, as stated in Leviticus 11:5. In English, this expression has been translated as “chewing the cud,” which holds a slightly different meaning for us, but it is the closest approximation available. Any perceived inaccuracies stem from imposing interpretations onto the words used by the original writer that were not intended.