Summary: The recent discovery of pig and fish remains indicate that people in ancient Israel were not consistently following Torah dietary regulations. Do these finds challenge the validity of the Bible as some media outlets claim, or are they remarkable confirmation of the biblical account?
“And the pig, because it parts the hoof but does not chew the cud, is unclean for you. Their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch. Of all that are in the waters you may eat these: whatever has fins and scales you may eat. And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.” – Deuteronomy 14:8-10 (ESV)
Ancient Remains Found of Unclean Animals Prohibited in the Bible
This past summer, two finds concerning the eating habits of ancient Israelites were reported and made the rounds on many news sites. One discovery was of a piglet skeleton found in Jerusalem, the other was the release of a study researching fish remains found discarded among the remains of other animals prepared for Israelite tables. Both findings show that unclean or forbidden animals were being consumed in the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah.
The restrictions on eating unclean animals goes back to the stipulations of the covenant God made with the people of Israel, which the Bible claims was recorded by Moses in Leviticus 19 and Deuteronomy 14 (see passage above). However the conclusions derived from these finds are causing many to doubt the Bible’s claims.
However, should these finds be troublesome for believers in the Bible? As we shall see, far from calling into question the biblical account, these finds actually line up very well with biblical history.
A Piglet Discovered in Jerusalem
The bones of a young pig less than seven months old were excavated from a large house in the City of David, Jerusalem. The articulated skeleton (meaning all or most of the bones were found intact and in the proper order) was dated to the 8th century BC based on pottery remains found in the same layer. The fact that nearly all the bones were present shows that it never made it as the main course to a dinner table.
The discovery was released in the journal Near East Archaeology, and announced in an Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) press release. Dr. Sapir-Hen, of Tel Aviv University identified the skeleton and said it was found together with the bones of other animals prepared as food, such as sheep, goats, cattle, poultry and fish. Most of these other remains were charred or showed signs of the cut marks of butchery, suggesting the room was a kitchen.
The remains also indicate an upper class home occupied by Judahites (not foreigners). Bullae (clay document seals) were found inscribed with Judahite names such as ‘Hahanyahu’ and ‘Ashiyahu’ in paleo-Hebrew script, indicating a possible administrative function of the building.
The IAA said the pig was discovered standing and trapped among an assortment of pottery. It had been crushed when the stone walls of the building collapsed on it. The archaeologists don’t know the cause of the collapse, since they say there is no known major destruction event in Jerusalem in the eighth century BC.
The find is rare and significant because while evidence shows that pork consumption fluctuated in the northern kingdom of Israel, it remained consistently low in Judah throughout the biblical time of the kings. Jerusalem itself shows pigs as 0-2 percent of livestock remains in this period at all sites excavated.
“Although pork consumption was clearly not preferred in the region of Judah, the presence of an articulated skeleton of a small pig seems to indicate that not only was pork consumed in small amounts… but that pigs were raised for this purpose in the capital of Judah. This has far-reaching implications for understanding the pork-taboo often attributed to ancient Israel and Judah,” wrote authors Lidar Sapir-Hen, Joe Uziel and Ortal Chalaf.
Nonkosher Fish Eaten in Jerusalem?
Nearly coinciding with the pig discovery this past summer was the release of a study in the Tel Aviv Journal of Archaeology with the prodigious title, “The Pentateuchal Dietary Proscription against Finless and Scaleless Aquatic Species in Light of Ancient Fish Remains,” by Dr. Yonatan Adler of Ariel University and Professor Omri Lernau of the University of Haifa. The study brought together years of research and finds of fish bones from 30 different sites in the region of Judah that date to a huge period of about 2,000 years from the Late Bronze Age (beginning at a conventional date of c. 1550 BC) through the end of the Byzantine period (c. AD 640).
Finless and scaleless fish is another category of unclean animals that the Israelites are banned from eating in the Torah (the first five books of the Bible, also known as the books of Moses). However, the study cites numerous cases where unclean fish varieties were being consumed by ancient Israelites.
Adler and Lernau wrote in their study that “A central conclusion of the study is that consumption of scaleless fish— especially catfish—was not uncommon at Judean sites throughout the Iron Age and Persian periods. Unlike the pentateuchal prohibitions against eating pork, the ban against finless and scaleless aquatic species apparently deviated from longstanding Judean dietary habits. The pentateuchal writers appear to have legislated this dietary restriction despite the lack of an old and widespread dietary tradition at its root. This conclusion should encourage us to rethink commonly held assumptions that other pentateuchal dietary proscriptions emerged out of earlier dietary ‘taboos’.”
The 21,646 individual bones analyzed showed that despite ethnic and religious affiliation, most sites had unclean fish remains mixed with kosher varieties. The banned fish were mostly catfish, but also included shark, eel, and rays from the Red Sea. Afterward, during the Roman era and later, unclean fish remains were almost absent. According to the study, during the Iron Age II (the latter “kings” era of Judah) most sites showed about 13% of the fish being consumed were scaleless.
For Adler the relative rarity of pork consumption compared to the more frequent nonkosher fish means that the two biblical prohibitions come from very different backgrounds despite being listed together in both places they appear in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. He thinks this shows that the prohibition against scaleless fish was a relatively late development within the ideas about Judaism. His conclusions are based on the assumption that the Torah was not written until the Persian Period (after 539 BC and after the fall of Jerusalem and the Babylonian captivity) and various Torah laws were added in at that time.
When Did Judaism Emerge?
In an audio interview for the Times of Israel, Dr. Adler said that the fish study is part of the larger project called the Origins of Judaism Archaeological Project. Set to be published in a book from Yale University Press on the Origins of Judaism in 2022, its stated goal is to discover, “from which point in time do we have evidence that ancient Judeans were aware of the Torah and saw the Torah as something authoritative, which they should be keeping.”
To answer this question, the larger study looks for evidence of things like ritual baths and stone vessels (indicating that ritual purity laws were being followed), the presence of figural art (something avoided by Jewish adherents in deference to the 2nd commandment) ancient mezuzot (which were commands placed on the doorposts of homes like a plaque), phylacteries (also known as tefillin), and evidence for adherence to the dietary laws.
There is ample evidence in both archaeological and written sources for all these things in the first century, but how far back in time does such evidence extend?
“We don’t have evidence for any of these [Torah] practices or prohibitions prior to the second century before the common era, that is to say from the period of the Hasmonean Dynasty,” said Adler. “We do not have any evidence that the Judean masses, that your regular everyday Judean that you would have met on the street of Jerusalem prior to the middle of the second century BCE had any knowledge of the Torah and or that he observed the rules of the Torah.”
Adler is quick to recall the archaeology maxim that the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.
“Judaism could have begun before the mid-2nd century,” he said, but the lack of evidence currently makes that conjecture. “From the conquests of Alexander the Great in 332 BCE for about another two hundred years until we reach the time of the Hasmoneans [beginning c. 140 BC], sometime during this time I would say is the best time to be seeking the emergence of Judaism.”
Questioning the Conclusions from the Studies
It is revealing that Adler does not consider the Bible itself to be evidence for the fact that at least some Israelites were following the commands of the Torah prior to the Persian Period. He automatically presumes that the Torah is not a historically reliable document produced at the time of Moses.
It is also interesting to note that although Adler claims that there is no evidence for any of these Torah practices or prohibitions before the 2nd century BC, his own study cites the rarity of pork consumption at Judean sites earlier than this. He chalks this up to the fact that we can’t prove that the rarity of pork consumption is because of the Torah prohibition. Nonetheless, this reality is consistent with the Torah’s prohibition.
A significant site (ignored by Adler) is Shilo where the biblical tabernacle stood for hundreds of years during the Judges Period. Headed by Dr. Scott Stripling, Associates for Biblical Research has been doing major excavations at Shiloh and have found evidence of the biblical sacrificial system using only biblically prescribed clean animals butchered in the way stipulated in the Bible. This pig-free evidence goes back to the Late Bronze and Iron I ages.
The Late Bronze Age is a time before the writing of the Bible or the formation of ancient Israel according to the standard view, so they call these finds “Canaanite,” and use it as evidence that the lack of pig remains is not unique to Israelites and does not necessarily indicate that it was because of a biblical taboo. However, according to the Bible, Israel would have already been living in the land at that point.
While the studies are careful not to directly connect the lack of evidence for these religious practices with the existence of the Torah at that time, the implications seem clear. If Jewish people were not following Torah rules, was that because they were not aware of the Torah regulations? Presumably this was because the Torah did not yet exist at the time or was only in its infancy and not yet disseminated widely to the people.
Many media outlets reporting the findings keyed in on this idea. They amplified the assertion that the presence of unclean pigs and fish in Israelite diets calls into question the veracity of the Bible itself, which claims Moses communicated these prohibitions in the Torah at the time of the Exodus.
Adler himself expressed the view that the Torah was not put together and edited until the Persian Period, or 539-332 BC – about a thousand years after the time of Moses. Could this paradigm for the late writing of the Torah be driving his interpretation of evidence for the emergence of Judaism?
The Bible As a Guide
It is likely that Adler is finding evidence for the emergence of a phase of Judaism as it was practiced during the first century, but rather than concluding that these prohibitions did not exist in earlier periods, why not consider alternative ideas that the Bible itself presents?
According to the Bible, there was a long period when the people may have been largely unaware of the details found in the Torah, because it had been lost – hidden in the recesses of the Temple for generations. This would naturally lead to an inconsistent following of its rules.
And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the LORD.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. – 2 Kings 22:8 (ESV)
This happened during the reign of Josiah, one of the last kings of Israel. When the commands were read it began a series of reforms against all the pagan ways the people had adopted and to keep the commands of the Lord.
And the king commanded all the people, “Keep the Passover to the LORD your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.” For no such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, or during all the days of the kings of Israel or of the kings of Judah. But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this Passover was kept to the LORD in Jerusalem. – 2 Kings 23:21-23
Another reason the Bible gives for Torah law not being followed is because the people were rebellious. In the northern kingdom of Israel, all 19 of its kings are said to have done evil, leading their people in the rebellion of idolatry and disobeying the commands of God. In the southern kingdom of Juduh, only four of the 20 rulers in its history were said to have been good.
Adler actually mentions the presence of idols and polytheistic beliefs among Judeans, and articles in the media also use this as part of the litany of evidence forming a backdrop of doubt about the Bible’s version of history. However, as covered in past Thinkers on idol worship in Israel, the discovery of idol worship in ancient Israel and Judah is completely consistent with the biblical account. It would actually be the lack of evidence for idol worship that would cause problems for the biblical account.
The constant drumbeat of the biblical prophets was that Israel and Judah had failed to follow God’s commands and mixed the worship of the one true God with pagan practices. A passage in 2 Kings sums up this reality.
The people of Israel …built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city. They set up for themselves pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, …and they served idols …Yet the LORD warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers” …But they would not listen …and they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the LORD had commanded them that they should not do like them. And they abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God …Judah also did not keep the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the customs that Israel had introduced. – 2 Kings 17:7-19 (ESV)
What about the consumption of pork and scaleless fish? Eating pork is actually called out by the prophet Isaiah. During the days of Nehemiah foreigners were violating the sabbath to sell fish to the people of Judah that were just as likely to be violating the kosher laws.
I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices; a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens and making offerings on bricks; who sit in tombs, and spend the night in secret places; who eat pig’s flesh, and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels; – Isaiah 65:2-4 (ESV)
Tyrians also, who lived in the city, brought in fish and all kinds of goods and sold them on the Sabbath to the people of Judah, in Jerusalem itself! – Nehemiah 13:16 (ESV)
The cause of the fallen walls of the home where the pig was found may well have been the biblical quake reported in Amos, that occurred in the 8th century BC and has left evidence all across the region. Once again, this lines up very well with the biblical account.
Another Opinion
Important additional evidence is brought into this discussion in an article in Watch Jerusalem titled, Were Kosher Fish Laws Really Nonexistent in Biblical Times? It cites Haaretz journalist Ariel David as writing: “The ancient Israelites apparently feasted on catfish, sharks and other taboo catch during the entire First Temple period, including the days of the mythical kingdom of David and Solomon, and well into the Second Temple era. Only from beginning of the Roman period, in the first century b.c.e., is there clear archaeological evidence that the Jews were eschewing prohibited fish…”
However, the Watch Jerusalem article then goes on to profile the findings by the late Dr. Eilat Mazar who excavated in Jerusalem at a site she proposes was King David’s palace. According to the article, her finds showed that “the relative percentage of catfish consumed dramatically spiked just before the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians. The Bible describes this as a rebellious time in which, among other things, the inhabitants were consuming unclean food—a time that culminated in the destruction of the city. Omri Lernau examined the findings and speculates that this is the result of a specific group of people inhabiting the large building above the Area G dump, which he calls ‘not representational of the general inhabitants of the city.’”
Lernau concludes that at this important site the inhabitants in the earlier time of David and Solomon did refrain from eating catfish.
The large building was apparently a royal administration building where the royal seals of two biblical princes of this period, Jehucal and Gedaliah, were found. These figures are mentioned in the Bible as being part of the group that attempted to have the prophet Jeremiah put to death. Jeremiah writes about how rebellious these individuals were, so it would not be surprising that they partook of unauthorized catfish.
The author of the Watch Jerusalem article also highlights physical evidence in the form of inscribed pottery fragments from around 630 BC that show the Passover was being observed at the time, fitting Josiah’s reforms. He also notes that “more non-kosher fish is eaten now in Israel than at any point in the nation’s history. Does that refute the early nature of the biblical ‘fish laws’?”
Conclusion
The paradigm that the Torah (along with its prohibitions) did not exist during the time of the Judges and Kings in Israel and Judah has become the norm in academia and mainstream media. Evidence confirming the Torah’s validity is routinely ignored while evidence supposedly implying its unreliability is leveraged to extreme lengths.
Next year, Adler’s book will be informing his readers on the emergence of Judaism during the third and second century BC. However, it will also be added to the ever growing set of claims that biblical history is unreliable.
An important observation to make about critics of biblical history is that oftentimes they are not very familiar with what the Bible actually says. Scholars’ conclusions are heavily influenced by their presuppositions. Please don’t believe everything you hear or read. Do your research. Test all things and hold fast to that which is good. Far from being evidence challenging the Bible, the latest discoveries of pig and catfish remains fit the Bible perfectly. This can help us all to be encouraged, and to keep thinking.
TOP PHOTO: Articulated pig skeleton as found in situ (in place) crushed between pottery vessels in the City of David excavation. (credit: Oscar Bejerano, IAA)
