Thou Shalt Not .....

[ktn4eg]

..... seethe [boil] a kid in his mother's milk --- Exodus 23:19b and Deuteronomy 14:21b

Most all of the instructions that God gave to Moses regarding the practices concerning the sacrifices that the children of Israel were to perform had some very definite purpose to them.

However, God's prohibition against boiling a young goat in his mother's milk has me somewhat baffled. I've tried to figure out just exactly why God prohibited this particular practice, but, so far, haven't arrived at any logical reason for this prohibition.

Why do you suppose God prohibited this practice?

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

I've read a variety of explanations over the years, but the one I think likely comes closest to correctly interpreting the command is that the heathens around Israel would, during their own "first fruits" ceremonies, kill the young goat and it's mother together, boil the kid's meat in the mother's milk, and then scatter the concoction on their fruit trees, fields, gardens and orchards, thinking to make them more fertile, as being blessed by their gods who would see the ceremony and be pleased. It was a lesser celebration, but similar in nature and heresy, to the pagans' practice of keeping temple prostitutes and fornicating with them, believing their gods were pleased by such sin, and would reward it by blessing the productivity of their farms.

God didn't want His chosen people to be influenced by the pagan rituals, in other words.

There is also speculation that, hand in hand with that interpretation, the law spoke against the cruelty of killing both the kid and its mother for the purpose of excess. The practice among Jews was to show off their opulence by supposedly being able to afford the loss of a milk- and livestock-producing blood line in that fashion.

 

[OldRegular]

Halley's Bible Handbook {page31} has a comment that I believe explains a lot about both the moral and the ceremonial laws.

The Old Testament is an account of God's age-long effort to establish, in a world of Idol-Worshiping nations, the IDEA that there is ONE GOD by building a NATION around the IDEA.

 

[just-want-peace]

I've read a variety of explanations over the years, but the one I think likely comes closest to correctly interpreting the command is that the heathens around Israel would, during their own "first fruits" ceremonies, kill the young goat and it's mother together, boil the kid's meat in the mother's milk, and then scatter the concoction on their fruit trees, fields, gardens and orchards, thinking to make them more fertile, as being blessed by their gods who would see the ceremony and be pleased. It was a lesser celebration, but similar in nature and heresy, to the pagans' practice of keeping temple prostitutes and fornicating with them, believing their gods were pleased by such sin, and would reward it by blessing the productivity of their farms.

God didn't want His chosen people to be influenced by the pagan rituals, in other words.

There is also speculation that, hand in hand with that interpretation, the law spoke against the cruelty of killing both the kid and its mother for the purpose of excess. The practice among Jews was to show off their opulence by supposedly being able to afford the loss of a milk- and livestock-producing blood line in that fashion.

Very interesting. Never heard that before, but it sounds rational as God wanted the Jews to be a totally different breed of folk.

As to the last sentence, it's amazing how "man" can find so many ways to flaunt his superiority in so many areas over others -- PRIDE, PRIDE, PRIDE!!! :BangHead:

 

[The Biblicist]

..... seethe [boil] a kid in his mother's milk --- Exodus 23:19b and Deuteronomy 14:21b

Most all of the instructions that God gave to Moses regarding the practices concerning the sacrifices that the children of Israel were to perform had some very definite purpose to them.

However, God's prohibition against boiling a young goat in his mother's milk has me somewhat baffled. I've tried to figure out just exactly why God prohibited this particular practice, but, so far, haven't arrived at any logical reason for this prohibition.

Why do you suppose God prohibited this practice?

The mother as well as the milk of the mother was designed to sustain the life of the kid until the kid could sustain itself. To take what was designed to sustain life for the helpless and use it in the utter destruction of the helpless is not only cruelty in the worst degree imaginable, but ceremonially it violates
the moral principle of protecting the helpless.