JEWS AND PORK: SOMEONE THINKS THEY FOUND A LOOPHOLE

A Biblical scholar re-examining the book of Leviticus thinks he has found a loophole that will allow Jews to eat bacon. Sweet, delicious bacon. Professor Robert Gnuse, who teaches at Chicago’s Loyola University’s religious studies department, believes that the dietary rules presented in Leviticus weren’t meant for all followers of Judaism. The verse, found in chapter 11 of Leviticus, states: “And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you.” Gnuse speculates that the rules specific to food and clothing in Leviticus were meant for priests, not followers. He believes that sometime during the Babylonian exile, someone told the Jewish people to follow all of the rules in Leviticus to bring them closer together as a community. Gnuse’s theory obviously differs from many traditional scholars who say the rules found in Leviticus were meant for everyone.
* Guy looks for loopholes in the Bible. Keep your eye on this one.
* Thanks a lot, Babylonian exile!
* They would never have outlawed pork if they’d come up with bacon.
* Pigs are unclean? Well, that part checks out.
* The National Pork Marketers Council must have gotten to him: “Look, we’re not saying change anything. We’re just asking you to throw the word ‘loophole’ out there and see what happens.”
* What’s next? “Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy. Unless you get a tee time.”?
* That means all these lox bagels could have been ham.
* “He cheweth not the cud”…They talked so cool back then.
* Too bad Yoda wasn’t in the Bible.
* “Cheweth not the cud he did.”