Originally posted by JWI:
I am quite sure that the ancient Hebrews were aware that insects had six legs. They did not correct these verses, because they were not wrong to their understanding. They knew exactly what God was describing, no problem at all.
It is modern people that do not understand. [/QB]
Sorry, modern people are able to see that four is not equal to six.
It is perfectly possible to understand how the ancienct Hebrews could have made the mistake, contrary to your arguement from incredulity that they surely would not.
The scribe who penned these words - supplementing the book to include all the laws as Moses had passed them and as they knew God had given them to Moses - could easily have been a fastidious, bug avoiding kind of man to whom it never occurred to count the legs on flies and grasshoppers. That is, after all, a very modern way of thinking that is drilled into us from grade school - "all insects share the characteristics of having six legs" - and, lacking that heritage, the six leg mantra was simply not there like it is for us to protect him from that error, that's all.
Its not as if it affects our knowledge of what the law was, we understand perfectly what to do about choosing kosher bugs. We simply can't depend on the verse for an accurate rendering of the number of legs on grasshoppers or flies.
Its only a big deal to re-interpret the verse to allow for six legs because . . .
we all know that in spite of the use of "four" in the bible, they actually have six legs.
See, the earth's age has been dated, and it turns out to be billions of years. Stars have been discovered that were in existance for longer than the earth; we know this, because it takes longer than the earth's known age for the light from those stars to reach us.
Live shows a history of development over millions and millions of years. The history is laid out before us in the fossils God let remain, and in the genetic relationships God allows us to see.
These evidences are, to some of us, convincing. We are psychologically incapable of denying what they tell us.
You may deplore my acceptance of the fact that the sight of the andromeda Galaxy 3 million light years away proves there were stars in the universe 3 million years ago. I deplore your unwillingness to accept the plain sight in the heavens; but what can we do about that?
Faced with the need to accept these facts about the universe, I interpret the bible accordingly.
As does every reader of the bible, only we vary as to what set of scientific facts we are forced to face and accordingly allow to adjust our literal biblical interpretations.