Unclean Of The Fish And Fowl

The first picture that God gave in food for distinguishing between the holy and the unholy was beasts of the fields, to be clean you must chew the cud and have a cloven hoof. Next He talks about the creatures in the sea. If it does not have fins or scales, it is an abomination to eat. God used a stronger word than He did related to the beasts of the field. I belive that the picture is that you must not be controlled by the world, i.e. tossed to and fro by the waves, and you must be protected from the things of the world, i.e. have on the armor of God. After dealing with land and the sea, He then described what birds are not edible. The list of birds are largely unknown. There is speculation as to what is what, but we really don't know so translations vary as to what they correspond to. It seems that, since we don't know which specific bird it is, the names themselves must be significant and they are. Most of the various birds are named after characteristics, such as violent, which are works of the flesh that should be evident to all. We are to see in the birds, pictures of those that walk in the flesh and not in the spirit.